Does anyone embody the qualities of resilience, tenacity and drive like Jackie Robinson?
Born to a family of sharecroppers in Georgia in 1919, Robinson and his family moved to California at an early age. UCLA is where Robinson first started making history, setting a rushing record on college football’s most integrated team, winning the NCAA championship in long jump, even playing a little baseball.
Baseball is where Robinson left his lasting sporting legacy, as the first to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, going on to be named Rookie of the Year, National League Most Valuable Player and winning a World Series in his decade-long career. Today, his legendary no. 42 is honored annually by all teams, but his impact off the field was even more significant.
Robinson is the kind of athlete that captures the world’s imagination and represents the best of America — a boundary-breaking role model as well as a star in his sport. UC athletes are at the center of America’s story, bringing people together in celebration, setting records, and creating opportunities for the next generation.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The way basketball is played today owes a lot to one UCLA Bruin: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Jabbar was so dominant on the court — he broke the university’s record for points scored in a single game in his first appearance — that the NCAA banned dunking for nearly a decade. Over the course of 20 incredibly dominant seasons in the NBA, he became one of sport’s most exciting figures, holding the NBA scoring record for nearly 40 years. He’s also the author of over a dozen books, with his 2017 memoir about his relationship with UCLA’s head basketball coach John Wooden, “Coach Wooden and Me,” becoming a New York Times bestseller.
Alex Morgan
If everyone watches women’s sports, as the saying goes, then we have trailblazers like UC Berkeley alumna Alex Morgan to thank. An Olympic gold medalist and two-time World Cup winner, Morgan was called up to the U.S. women’s national soccer team while still at UC Berkeley and became one of its all-time greatest strikers and longest tenured players. Her star power helped launch women’s leagues around the world, inspiring millions and showing that women’s sports could be a box-office draw, while also scoring pay parity for U.S. women.
Ann Meyers Drysdale
The first woman to ever receive a full athletic scholarship? That would be Ann Meyers Drysdale, a UCLA Bruin. Meyers Drysdale was the first player selected to the U.S. national basketball team while still in high school, the first woman Bruin basketball player to be a four-time All-American, and the first woman inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame. She was also the first woman to be drafted to the Women’s Professional Basketball League and the first to sign a free agent contract with an NBA team. She was in attendance when the UCLA women’s basketball team made its own history this spring, earning its first NCAA March Madness championship.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
UC athletes inspire the nation, and they also inspire each other. That’s true of Jackie Joyner-Kersee, one of the most storied female athletes in UCLA and American sports history. Seeing UCLA award Drysdale the first female athletic scholarship in NCAA history gave Joyner-Kersee the belief that she could go somewhere, too. And come to UCLA she did, starring in both track and field and women’s basketball. She competed in four Olympic games, one while attending UCLA, taking home three gold, one silver and two bronze medals. Joyner-Kersee still ranks among the all-time greatest female athletes in the heptathlon and long jump, and she was named “The Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century” by Sports Illustrated. She returned to campus to inspire the next generation this spring, speaking at UCLA’s commencement.
Greg Louganis
Perhaps the greatest diver in American history, Greg Louganis competed in four Olympics, winning a silver in his first Games as a 16-year-old. He later enrolled at UC Irvine, where he dove competitively, then returned to the Olympics, where he became the only male diver ever to sweep diving events across two consecutive Games. His 1988 performance was particularly nervy, as he hit his head on the springboard, eliciting gasps from viewers around the world. But he came back to win gold, sealing his reputation as a sports hero. He later became one of the few openly gay athletes of the early 1990s and a vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights.
Joe Kapp
Dubbed “The Toughest Chicano” by Sports Illustrated, Kapp was a legendary Cal quarterback who led the team to the Rose Bowl. Playing first in the Canadian Football League, then in the NFL, Kapp led the Minnesota Vikings to their first Super Bowl appearance, was selected for the Pro Bowl, and served as a role model for countless youth across the United States. After his playing career, he returned to UC Berkeley, coaching the team to a stunning victory during the 1982 Big Game against Stanford, when Cal executed The Play, the five-lateral kickoff return that is a football lore classic.
Arthur Ashe
Arthur Ashe remains one of UCLA’s most influential and inspiring alumni. A groundbreaking tennis champion and a pioneering force for social change, Ashe broke barriers both on and off the court. In 1965 he became the first African American to win the NCAA men’s singles championship, and he remains the only Black man to become singles champion of the US Open, Australian Open (1970) and Wimbledon (1975). Throughout his life, Ashe used his platform to advocate for education, public health and human rights. His courage, intellect and sense of responsibility helped shape conversations that still resonate today.
