UCLA unveils Robinson uniforms

UCLA’s baseball team unveiled Jackie Robinson Day uniforms on Monday, two days before Major League Baseball’s annual April 15 tribute to Robinson. (nbclosangeles.com) The unveiling was scheduled for 2 p.m. on April 13 at UCLA’s Acosta Athletic Complex, with Sonya Pankey, Robinson’s eldest granddaughter and the Jackie Robinson Estate’s executive vice president of brand development, presenting the jerseys. (nbclosangeles.com) UCLA is set to wear the uniforms on Tuesday, April 14 against University of California, Santa Barbara, and again in its April 17-19 home series against the University of Minnesota. (blackstarnews.com) The timing tracks with Jackie Robinson Day, which Major League Baseball has observed every April 15 since 2004 to mark Robinson’s 1947 debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Since 2009, all players and on-field personnel have worn No. 42 during those games. (mlb.com) Robinson’s UCLA ties run deeper than the stadium name. He enrolled in 1939 and became the first Bruin to letter in four sports — football, basketball, track and baseball — and the Jackie Robinson Foundation says he remains the only UCLA athlete to do it. (jackierobinson.org) That history gives the uniform reveal a campus audience as well as a baseball one. UCLA’s home field, Jackie Robinson Stadium on the Veterans Affairs West Los Angeles campus, is named for him, and the school has used Robinson-themed throwback uniforms before. (nbclosangeles.com) (uclabruins.com) The new reveal also lands in the middle of a strong season for the Bruins. CBS Los Angeles reported UCLA entered the week at 33-2, on a 27-game winning streak and 18-0 in Big Ten Conference play. (cbsnews.com) By April 15, Major League Baseball parks will all be wearing 42 again. At UCLA, the tribute starts a day earlier, on the campus where Robinson’s national story began. (mlb.com) (jackierobinson.org)