Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
60 free Jackie Robinson trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color line on April 15, 1947, and this trivia quiz covers the whole story behind that day and everything after it. It starts in Cairo, Georgia and Pasadena, with the brother who won an Olympic silver medal behind Jesse Owens, the four varsity letters at UCLA, the Army court-martial over a segregated bus and the season with the Kansas City Monarchs. Then comes Branch Rickey's famous three-hour interview, the Montreal Royals, Ebbets Field and the ten Dodgers seasons that followed. The baseball questions dig into the details: the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award, the 1949 MVP season, the 19 steals of home, the 1955 World Series, the trade to the Giants that never happened and the retirement announced through Look magazine. The legacy questions cover the retirement of number 42 across baseball, Jackie Robinson Day, the Chock full o'Nuts vice-presidency, the Hall of Fame election, the film 42 and the museum that finally opened in 2022. Every answer was verified against Wikipedia's articles on Robinson, Branch Rickey and related topics, and each question links to its source. Try our Baseball History and Brooklyn Dodgers quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On what date did Jackie Robinson make his major league debut, breaking the color line?
April 15, 1947
He started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers before 26,623 fans at Ebbets Field, more than 14,000 of them black.
Q 02In which state was Jackie Robinson born?
Georgia
He was the youngest of five children of sharecroppers in Cairo; the family moved to Pasadena after his father left in 1920.
Q 03Robinson's middle name honoured which president, who died 25 days before Jackie was born?
Theodore Roosevelt
His full name was Jack Roosevelt Robinson.
Q 04Robinson's brother Mack won an Olympic silver medal in 1936 behind which sprinter?
Jesse Owens
Mack finished second in the 200 metres in Berlin; a Pasadena memorial shows nine-foot busts of both brothers.
Q 05Robinson was the first UCLA athlete to win varsity letters in how many sports?
Four
Baseball, basketball, football and track; baseball was actually his worst sport there.
Q 06In which event did Robinson win the 1940 NCAA championship?
The long jump
He jumped 24 ft 10 1/4 in; two years earlier he had broken his brother Mack's junior college broad-jump record.
Q 07What was Robinson's batting average in his only baseball season at UCLA?
.097
He still went 4-for-4 in his first game and twice stole home.
Q 08Which heavyweight champion, stationed at Fort Riley with Jackie Robinson, protested to get Black soldiers into OCS?
Joe Louis
The two became personal friends, and Robinson was commissioned a second lieutenant in January 1943.
Q 09Robinson was court-martialled in 1944 after refusing to do what?
Move to the back of an Army bus
An all-white panel of nine officers acquitted him of the two remaining insubordination charges.
Q 10Robinson's Army unit, the 761st Tank Battalion, was nicknamed what?
The Black Panthers
It became the first black tank unit to see combat, but Robinson's court-martial kept him from deploying overseas.
Q 11Which Negro league team did Robinson sign with in 1945, for $400 a month?
The Kansas City Monarchs
He hit .387 in 47 games at shortstop but hated the disorganisation and gambling around the league.
Q 12Which team held a sham tryout for Robinson at Fenway Park in 1945, then became the last to integrate in 1959?
The Boston Red Sox
The tryout was staged to placate a Boston city councilman, and Robinson was subjected to slurs even in the empty stands.
Q 13Who was the last black player in the majors before Robinson, in 1884?
Moses Fleetwood Walker
Q 21Which Dodgers manager squashed a mutiny by saying he didn't care if a player 'has stripes like a zebra'?
Leo Durocher
He added that Robinson could make them all rich, and anyone who could not use the money would be traded.
Q 22Which team was reported to be planning a strike rather than play against Robinson in 1947?
The St. Louis Cardinals
NL president Ford Frick reportedly warned that strikers would be suspended "if it wrecks the National League for five years".
Q 23Which Phillies manager's dugout abuse of rookie Robinson was said by Rickey to have "united the Dodgers"?
Ben Chapman
That gap of over 60 years is what came to be called the baseball color line.
Q 14Robinson asked if Rickey wanted 'a Negro afraid to fight back'. What did Rickey say he wanted?
A player with guts enough not to retaliate
The famous exchange on August 28, 1945 lasted three hours.
Q 15How much a month did Rickey agree to pay Robinson under his first contract with the Dodgers organisation?
$600
Rickey paid the Monarchs nothing, arguing Negro league contracts had no reserve clause.
Q 16Which Pittsburgh Courier sportswriter did Bill Veeck credit with influencing Rickey to sign Robinson?
Wendell Smith
Smith later wrote the 1948 book Jackie Robinson: My Own Story.
Q 17Rickey said the mistreatment of which black catcher he coached at Ohio Wesleyan in 1903-04 inspired him to sign Jackie?
Charles Thomas
Rickey also invented the farm system, the batting helmet and the 20-80 scouting scale.
Q 18With which minor league club, the Dodgers' International League affiliate, did Robinson spend 1946?
The Montreal Royals
He led the league with a .349 average and was named its MVP; Montreal fans adored him.
Q 19Where did Robinson make his professional debut for Montreal on April 18, 1946?
Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City
He went 4-for-5 with 4 runs, 3 RBIs and 2 steals.
Q 20Why did Robinson play first base rather than his natural infield spot as a 1947 rookie?
Eddie Stanky was entrenched at second
He moved to second in 1948 after Stanky was traded to the Boston Braves.
Rickey said the abuse "solidified and united thirty men".
Q 24Which Dodger is said to have put his arm around Robinson as fans jeered, a moment now cast in bronze in Coney Island?
Pee Wee Reese
His line was "You can hate a man for many reasons. Color is not one of them."
Q 25Which Jewish slugger whispered encouragement to Robinson after a collision at first base?
Hank Greenberg
He advised Robinson to beat his critics by beating them in games.
Q 26Who broke the American League colour line with Cleveland just 11 weeks after Robinson?
Larry Doby
The two spoke by telephone throughout the 1947 season to support each other.
Q 27How many stolen bases did Robinson record in 1947, leading the National League?
29
He also led the league in sacrifice hits with 28 and batted .297.
Q 28Robinson won the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award in 1947. What was unusual about it?
It covered both leagues
Separate NL and AL awards began two years later; both were renamed the Jackie Robinson Award in 1987.
Q 29Which Hall of Famer and Dodgers advisor worked with Robinson at a batting tee, lifting his average from .296 to .342?
George Sisler
He taught Robinson to anticipate the fastball and hit to right field.
Q 30In what year did Robinson win the National League MVP award, the first black player to do so?
1949
He hit .342 with 37 steals and 124 RBIs that season and started at second base in the first All-Star Game to include black players.