THE ANNUAL BRANCH RICKEY AWARD AND DINNER
Rotary Club of Denver
The Branch Rickey Award is a nationally prestigious and coveted honor that recognizes professionals in Major League Baseball for exceptional community service.
The Branch Rickey Award is presented annually during a dinner by the Rotary Club of Denver. Proceeds from the event benefit Denver Kids, Inc., a preventative counseling
and mentoring program for at-risk students in Denver Public Schools.
As did Mr. Rickey, Rotarians believe that community service is everyone's responsibility. Through the annual Branch Rickey Award and dinner, Rotarians, honorees, and guests celebrate the many humanitarians in baseball who, through their countless acts of unselfish involvement, personify Rotary International's motto, "Service Above Self."
BRANCH RICKEY
“Baseball is the proving grounds for civil rights.” Branch Rickey.
“I have the greatest respect for Branch Rickey. He was not only the
greatest sports and baseball executive of the 20th century, but his
bringing Jackie Robinson to the big leagues will forever stand as
baseball's proudest moment.” Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig.
“The rigid voluntary rules of right and wrong, as applied in American sports,
are second only to religion in strengthening the morals of the American
people, and baseball is the greatest of all team sports.” Herbert Hoover.
“It is not the honor that you take with you, but the heritage you
leave behind.” Branch Rickey
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on
other lives.” Jackie Robinson
“Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly
world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the
world can't get you off.” Bill Veeck
“[Baseball is a game] which, as George Will has noted, gives
us the gift of ‘virtues made vivid.' Baseball is a microcosm of
American society, and its history is interwoven throughout
our nation's history and law. We are a nation built by immigrants
and characterized by diversity, held together at least in part
by our national pastime.” Professor J. Clark Kelso, Director,
Capital Center for Government Law & Policy, and Professor Emeritus
Donald H. Wollett, both with McGeorge School of Law.
“I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game;
it has the snap, go, fling, of the American atmosphere; it belongs
as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our
constitution and laws; it is just as important in the sum total
of our historic life.” Walt Whitman.
Branch Rickey got tuberculosis after he graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) IN 1904. It almost killed him. There was then no silver bullet treatment. He convalesced, and prayed, at an upper New York sanitarium, for months. As soon as he was released, despite his doctor's insistence that he take it easy for a year or more, he entered the University of Michigan Law School. He promptly petitioned the dean to permit him to take 20 units each semester and to coach Michigan 's varsity baseball team. He got his a law degree in but two years, instead of three. (He had graduated early from OWU too.) He was, virtually, an A student. He was on law review. He coached the University of Michigan 's varsity baseball team to a record of 69-34 over four seasons. He practiced law less than two years before returning, permanently, to baseball. His baseball career saw him play the game, manage, and then operate several teams, including the St. Louis Browns (later Baltimore Orioles), Cincinnati Reds, New York Highlanders (later Yankees), St. Louis Cardinals, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Pittsburgh Pirates. He brought World Series victories to the Cardinals, Dodgers, and Pirates.
Mr. Rickey also had a football career, playing at OWU, coaching at Allegheny College , and playing professional football. His impact would be felt in future decades in both football and basketball.
Everyone in baseball is, or should be, familiar with the story of Branch Rickey, then president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, signing Jackie Robinson to play for the Dodgers in 1947 and, thereby, to break for all time, Major League Baseball's color barrier. It was a transitional moment of major import, to baseball, and to the nation. Later, while with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Mr. Rickey signed Roberto Clemente to play for the Pirates.
All three men are now in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) and the University of Michigan and its Law School have recognized the enduring impact the visionary, path-finding Mr. Rickey had on baseball and the nation.
OWU is conducting the “Remembering Mr. Rickey” program, “Branch Rickey Digitization Project,” and the “Branch Rickey Initiative,” by which OWU and the nine other collegiate members of the North Coast Athletic Conference are collaborating to identify and enhance their recruitment of minority coaches.
The University of Michigan has established a “Branch Rickey Collegiate Professorship.” The University's Law School dean, Evan Caminker, is the first “Branch Rickey Collegiate Professor.” Collegiate professorships are rarely established and then only for the must distinguished former faculty of the university.
Working together, OWU and the University of Michigan Law School, in 2007, helped plan and conduct the first opening night, “Baseball and Freedom,” educational program for the annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture conducted at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. It was “Baseball and Freedom: Remembering Mr. Rickey.” Inspired by Mr. Rickey, the “Baseball and Freedom Series” is now a permanent opening night fixture at each annual Cooperstown Symposium. It has four sponsors, OWU, Chapman University School of Law, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum , and the Pacific Coast League.
Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson have been memorialized widely, including, articles, books, radio, television, and movie productions. “The Branch Rickey Papers” and “The Jackie Robinson Papers” are preserved and accessible to scholars and the public in the Library of Congress. Mr. Robinson has been depicted on a United States postage stamp and received the Congressional Gold Medal.
In 2007, HBO telecast nationally a documentary, “The Ghosts of Flatbush, The Brooklyn Dodgers.” It told Mr. Rickey's and Mr. Robinson's timeless story. Now, ESPN and major Hollywood producer, Howard Baldwin, have teamed up with Robert Redford, to make a movie, tentatively entitled, “Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson.” Mr. Redford will star as Mr. Rickey. The movie is in production.
When Mr. Rickey signed Mr. Robinson to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and, thereby, to break for all time, Major League Baseball's color barrier, it was a transitional moment of major import, to baseball, and to the nation.
However, unless he has read at least one of the books referenced below, virtually no one, in baseball, or in the nation, knows how Dr. Charles Thomas helped lay the foundation for Mr. Rickey's courageous, groundbreaking actions in 1947.
Here's the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey might say. Mr. Rickey did not come to the idea of taking his highly risky, 1947 actions, lightly, or quickly.
Indeed, Mr. Rickey's actions were rooted in the jarring incident endured by him and Mr. Thomas, in 1904. Mr. Rickey was then the 22-year-old head coach of OWU's varsity baseball team, while a young Mr. Thomas was his starting and starring catcher.
The grief shared by Mr. Rickey and Mr. Thomas was inflicted by the desk clerk who refused to register Mr. Thomas at the old Oliver Hotel in South Bend , Indiana , when OWU's team arrived the night before a game with the University of Notre Dame. (The site on which the Oliver Hotel sat is now occupied by a high rise Holiday Inn. Remember, Holiday Inns are “Major League Baseball's Hotel.”)
Mr. Rickey's refusal to acquiesce in the desk clerk's bigotry solved the immediate, practical problem, but the indignity was caustic and indelibly marked him and Mr. Thomas. The Reverend Bob Olmstead, a Methodist minister in Palo Alto , memorialized the tense, but pivotal moment in a sermon. (Both Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson were Methodists.)
“‘I have rooms for all of you - except for him' — and he pointed to the team's catcher, Charley Thomas, who was black.
“‘Why don't you have a room for him,' Mr. Rickey asked.
“‘Because our policy is whites only.'
“Mr. Rickey responded, ‘I'd like to have Charley stay in my room. Can you bring in a cot?' After long deliberations, the innkeeper relented. Mr. Rickey sent the ball players to their rooms. But when he got to his room, Charley Thomas was sitting on a chair sobbing. Mr. Rickey recounted later, ‘Charley was pulling frantically at his hands, pulling at his hands. He looked at me and said, “It's my skin. If I could just tear it off, I'd be like everybody else. It's my skin, it's my skin, Mr. Rickey!”' Years later those hands were the healing hands of a highly successful dentist, Dr. Charles Thomas. He never forgot his coach and Branch Rickey never forgot that experience.” (Mr. Thomas later attended what is now the Ohio State University College of Dentistry and became a dental surgeon. He practiced more than 40 years in Albuquerque , New Mexico . Mr. Thomas may have played Negro Leagues Baseball in Philadelphia . Although without rancor, he believed, if things had been different, he might have been the first to make the Major Leagues. He visited Mr. Rickey occasionally through the years. He endured racial indignities, much as did Mr. Robinson. Most notably, he, like Mr. Robinson, fought throughout his life for equality, he just happened to do it by becoming a dental surgeon going about his daily practice in anonymity, instead of a professional baseball player always in the public eye. Although he did not become a major public figure, as did Mr. Robinson, he endured many of the same prejudices and pain. But, as did Mr. Robinson, he never gave in to them.)
Mr. Rickey would labor for decades, not to make law, although he was a lawyer, but to change his beloved game and, in doing so, to lift minds and to soften hearts throughout our nation's entire culture. Mr. Rickey's goal was etched in his soul. He was determined to bring dignity and integrity to his game. Mr. Rickey was determined to integrate Major League Baseball.
In 1944, after becoming president of the Dodgers, Mr. Rickey told Red Barber, the Dodgers' radio announcer, “For 41 years, I have heard that young man [Charles Thomas] crying. Now, I am going to do something about it. . . . I am going to bring a Negro to the Brooklyn Dodgers.” (After leaving Ohio Weslayan University , Mr. Thomas enrolled in what is now The Ohio State University College of Dentistry and became a dental surgeon. He practiced, largely in Albuquerque , New Mexico , for 40 years. Thus, those hands at which he tore in South Bend later became healing hands.)
Mr. Rickey meticulously planned his move. He left nothing to chance as he sought just the right time and the best place.
He planned and prepared cautiously and conscientiously. He organized a committee of 32, comprised of black clergy and other leaders “conscripted” by Mr. Rickey from each of the eight National League cities. The Committee was chaired by Brooklyn appellate justice, Edward Lazansky. Mr. Rickey, Justice Lazansky, and the Committee worked together enthusiastically and effectively to inform and aid the black communities in each city to join in welcoming Mr. Robinson and the integration of Major League Baseball.
A mere three years after joining the Brooklyn Dodgers — 44 years after South Bend — Mr. Rickey ignored the unanimous opposition of the other 15 Major League team owners when he signed Mr. Robinson to play the 1947 season at Ebbets Field.
Mr. Rickey always displayed a Mathew Brady photograph of Abraham Lincoln in his office. At this historic moment, Mr. Lincoln, in that photograph, seemed to be peering over Mr. Rickey's left shoulder, watching Mr. Robinson sign his first Dodger contract.
Looking back, it is now apparent that Mr. Rickey, solitarily, incrementally, and inexorably, conceived and crafted a series of events as complex as a symphony, and harmoniously conducted a vast orchestra of people, stationed strategically in more than a dozen quite different cities, to make his mark. He filled the previously blank notes in the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address, “All men are created equal,” and gave them resilience and resonance. Mr. Rickey's was the first major concert in a series of concerts that would conclude, ultimately, in a funeral dirge for “Jim Crow” laws.
Rickey's baseball symphony was intricate and simple, all at once. While difficult to conduct, it was music to the ears of Jim Crow's millions of black conscripts. (For the best book on Mr. Rickey's life, generally, see, Lee Lowenfish, Branch Rickey, Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman, 2007, and, for a detailed analysis of Mr. Rickey's well-conceived, although intricate, 1947 symphony, see, specifically, Robert D. Behn, “Branch Rickey as Public Manager: Fulfilling the Eight Responsibilities of Public Management,” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, vol. 7, no. 1, p. 1, Jan. 1999; for the best book on Mr. Robinson's life, generally, see Jules Tygiel, Baseball's Great Experiment, Jackie Robinson and His Legacy, first published in 1983, 25th anniversary edition published in 1998; the late Prof. Tygiel has much to say positively about Mr. Rickey, too; also see Mr. Rickey's only book, published in 1965, the year he died, The American Diamond, A Documentary of the Game of Baseball; the book is filled with wonderful sketches and photographs by Robert Riger; and see, George Nicholson, “Kindred Spirits, Humble Heroes: Branch Rickey and William Wilberforce,” April/May 2007, The Abolitionist Examiner, http://multiracial.com/site/content/view/1251/37 .)
Literally, Mr. Rickey's temerity and tenacity presaged use in America of the theories of non-violence advocated by Mahatma Gandhi and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Not surprisingly, some contemporary sportswriters called Mr. Rickey the “Second Great Emancipator” (after Mr. Lincoln). Grantland Rice, perhaps America 's most respected sportswriter of his day, declared without a blush, “Next to Abraham Lincoln, the biggest white benefactor of the Negro has been Branch Rickey.”
Somewhat echoing Mr. Rice, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig often says, “I have the greatest respect for Branch Rickey. He was not only the greatest sports and baseball executive of the 20th century, but his bringing Jackie Robinson to the big leagues will forever stand as baseball's proudest moment.”
There is now tangible evidence that Mr. Rickey was recognized by some of the civil rights leaders who built on what he, Dr. Thomas, and Mr. Robinson did, together.
A residential fire took much of the extensive library Mr. Rickey left his family. Fortunately, the flames did not reach two, recently-found books. Whether by earthly fortuity, or by heavenly intervention, the two books establish facts that were unknown for decades.
In the first of the two books, Stride Toward Freedom, The Montgomery Story, by own hand, Rev. Martin Luther King wrote to Mr. Rickey in 1958, “In appreciation for your genuine goodwill, your unswerving devotion to the ideals of freedom and justice, and your courageous willingness to make American sports truly American.”
In the second of the two books, The Long Shadow of Little Rock, by her own hand, Daisy Bates, a mentor of the Little Rock Nine, wrote to Mr. Rickey in 1963, “We need more men like you who are dedicated to the task of building a world in which no man will be hungry or friendless, no life wasted or lost.” (Eleanor Roosevelt penned a preface to Mrs. Bates's book.)
Judge Earl Warren, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall, Jr., are direct links to some of the most important civil rights landmarks of the 20th century. United States Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion that became the unanimous voice of the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, which rejected the idea of “separate but equal” schools. Thurgood Marshall, Sr., argued the case before the high court. Both men were fans of Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson as are their sons.
Like the full story of Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson, the role played by Charles Thomas is hardly known by most of baseball and the nation. Jay Sokol decided to do something about that. He is President of the Delaware Cows Summer College Baseball Club in Ohio . The Cows play their games not far from OWU. Early during the 2008 baseball season, Mr. Sokol organized a “Turn Back the Clock” vintage baseball game between the Delaware Lenape and the Ohio Village Muffins. For distribution to fans who attended, Mr. Sokol created an evocative baseball card for Charles Thomas with a photo of young Mr. Thomas in the foreground and a young Mr. Rickey in the background. Mr. Sokol also produced a very appealing and informative, eight-page flyer, more of a handbook, about Dr. Thomas that was also distributed to those who attended. Inside the front cover is a proclamation by Delaware 's Mayor Windell Wheeler, dated, June 29, 2008. (Michael Arace, “Catcher played role in baseball's integration," Columbus Dispatch, June 30, 2008.)
It is important for America to remember when and why Mr. Rickey acted more than 60 years ago. Haunted and inspired, all at once, by the indelible memory of the grief he and Mr. Thomas endured together at the old Oliver Hotel in South Bend , Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson constructed a citadel of courage to inspire others, years before the nation got its civil rights revolution underway.
Working tirelessly, without government incentive or intervention, Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson were an odd couple, a white lawyer and a black athlete. Yet, they changed the face of baseball, and the face of America, a year before President Harry Truman desegregated the military in 1948; seven years before the United States Supreme Court rendered its Brown v. Board of Education decision, in 1954; eight years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her Montgomery, Alabama, bus seat in 1955; 10 years before President Dwight Eisenhower utilized the 101st Airborne to enable the Little Rock Nine to attend Central High School in Little Rock, in 1957, as required by the Brown decision; 16 years before Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his, “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial during his 1963 “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom;” 17 years before Congress and the President adopted the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and 18 years before Congress and the President adopted the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Ira Glasser, long head of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, wrote, “But before all that happened . . . a quiet drama was beginning in a small office in Brooklyn, New York, a drama that one observer later would call ‘perhaps the most visible single desegregation action ever taken.' According to one veteran of the civil rights movement, it ‘helped lay the predicate for the Supreme Court's [1954] decision.'"
Judge Earl Warren, Jr., during “Baseball and Freedom: Remembering Mr. Rickey,” conducted during the 19th annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in 2007, inspired the gathered college and university history professors, and others, by sharing with them for the first time anywhere, that his father, Earl Warren, then Chief Justice of the United States, told him that the shared work and legacy of Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson fostered a positive public opinion, receptive civic climate, and welcoming cultural milieu that enabled and empowered the Chief Justice and his eight colleagues on the United States Supreme Court to render their unanimous, 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, and other controversial decisions.
Along with Judge Warren, Jr., several distinguished educators, and Branch B. Rickey, Thurgood Marshall, Jr., was a member of the 2007 “Baseball and Freedom: Remembering Mr. Rickey” panel.
Another Chief Justice of the United States , Warren Burger, later asserted: “The process of educating our youth for citizenship in public schools is not confined to books, the curriculum, and the civics class; schools must teach by example the shared values of a civilized social order. Consciously or otherwise, teachers -- and indeed the older students -- demonstrate the appropriate form of civil discourse and political expression by their conduct and deportment in and out of class. Inescapably, like parents, they are role models.” (Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986) 478 U.S. 675, 683; and see United States v. Lopez (1995) 514 U.S. 549, 584.)
Lawyers and judges everywhere have begun to take note of the grand American story of Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson. They have begun to help renew the nation's acquaintance with that story. That is only right. After all, Mr. Rickey was one of them. Thus, judges, lawyers, and law professors, like teachers, parents, and older students mentioned by Chief Justice Burger, are role models. They and their professional organizations and associations now actively seek to satisfy the demands of that burden. Indeed, judges carry an even heavier burden. “[J]udges must accept primary responsibility for reaching out to the public and [they must recognize] they are effective communicators and educators when they apply themselves to the task.” (Editorial, Judicature, 204 (Mar.-Apr. 1997); and see California Judicial Administration Standards, Standard 10.5, “The Role of the Judiciary in the Community.” To help them do that more and more judicial organizations are taking steps to inform themselves of the details of the story. As but one example, Mr. Rickey's grandson, Branch B. Rickey, was keynote speaker to the annual national gathering of all the nation's appellate presiding justices in New Orleans in 2007.)
This new interest by the legal profession, Mr. Rickey's first, formal profession, provides a link with another, indispensable element of the game of baseball, its umpires. As a lawyer, Mr. Rickey well knew that both life and baseball require the utmost integrity and baseball is akin to society at large in that it is governed by a body of “laws,” that is, by the rules of the game. He also knew, as does life in general, the game has judges, its umpires. ( Mr. Rickey provided young people with an inspiring description of what it takes to be an umpire in his only book, The American Diamond, A Documentary of the Game of Baseball, 1965, at pp. 35-36, 151-157. )
Mr. Rickey's impact did not end when he signed Mr. Robinson to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Interestingly, this thread of his story involves an umpire. Emmett Ashford heard the good news and was inspired by it while listening to the radio at a segregated Army base in the south. He resolved to be the first black umpire in Major League Baseball. Two decades later, in 1966, the year after Mr. Rickey died, Mr. Ashford finally umpired his first Major League game. It was in the nation's capitol. Vice President Hubert Humphrey was there. Until they became convinced he really was an umpire, Secret Service agents denied Mr. Ashford admittance to the stadium. He was able to make his way to the field just moments before the game's first pitch.
Over family resistance, Mr. Ashford had discarded security for an umpire's dream. Even so, the entire Ashford family rejoiced when that dream came true. Mr. Rickey surely would have joined in had he lived.
Mr. Rickey would have liked Mr. Ashford. Like Mr. Robinson, he was a mature, determined, and well educated Southern Californian. Mr. Ashford was elected president of his high school class and worked as a cashier at the local supermarket. He shined shoes to pay for his college education. As did Mr. Rickey, Mr. Ashford gave up security for baseball. Mr. Ashford gave up a United States Post Office job, just as Mr. Rickey had given up his law practice decades earlier. (Yale Kamisar, “The A Student Who Gave Up the Law for Baseball,” Law Quadrangle Notes, 48, University of Michigan Law School (Summer 1997); “A Message from Dean Evan Caminker,” at p. 2, and and article by Law Prof. Richard Friedman, “Special Feature, Branch Rickey, '11, Much more than a pioneering baseball leader,” at p. 8, both in Law Quadrangle Notes, University of Michigan Law School (Fall 2007).)
Mr. Ashford's story is an exciting one. He was an energetic and entertaining umpire, one of but a handful who brought fans to the ballpark. He made it to the pinnacle of his game when he umpired an All-Star Game and a World Series not long before retiring. It had not been easy.
Reminiscent of the indignities endured by Mr. Rickey and Mr. Thomas at the old Oliver Hotel , decades earlier, there came a bump in Mr. Ashford's road while he was still in the Pacific Coast League. (He was in the Pacific Coast League more than a decade.) One team's manager became angry over a call Mr. Ashford made. His anger boiled over the next day, during the pre-game exchange of line-up cards. The irate manager told Mr. Ashford, one of the game's three umpires, “‘It's not you I'm mad at, Emmett, it is the other two guys.'
“The crew chief, Cesar Carlucci, who worked nearly 1,000 games with Ashford, interrupted, ‘What are you talking about?' he said.
“‘Not you, the other two,' the manager said.
“‘Who the hell are the other two?'
“‘Abe Lincoln, for freeing them, and Branch Rickey for bringing them into baseball.'” (Steve Jacobson, Carrying Jackie's Torch: The Players Who Integrated Baseball — and America, chapter 12, “Forever Is Not Too Long To Wait,” 2007; and see Larry Gerlach, The Men in Blue: Conversations with Umpires, final chapter, “Emmett Ashford,” 1994; as earlier noted, in the only book he wrote, Mr. Rickey described what it takes to be an umpire, in The American Diamond, A Documentary of the Game of Baseball, pp. 35-36, 151-157. The book was published in 1965, the year he died.)
It is important for America to remember when and why Mr. Rickey acted more than 60 years ago. Haunted and inspired, all at once, by indelible memory of the grief he and Dr. Thomas endured together at the old Oliver Hotel in South Bend , Mr. Rickey and Mr. Robinson constructed a citadel of courage to inspire others, years before the nation got its civil rights revolution underway.
More than 15 years ago, the Denver Rotarians, recognizing the important role Mr. Rickey made in breathing life into one of the nation's most cherished values, “All men are created equal,” established the annual Branch Rickey Award, to recognize professionals in Major League Baseball for exceptional community service and, thus, to help reacquaint baseball and the nation with the fact, as Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig says, Mr. Rickey was not only the greatest sports and baseball executive of the 20th century, but “his bringing Jackie Robinson to the big leagues will forever stand as baseball's proudest moment.” (Mr. Rickey was also ESPN's top baseball executive of the 20 th century.)
The Branch Rickey Award is presented at a related dinner held each year by the Rotary Club of Denver to introduce new generations of young people to Mr. Rickey's story. Proceeds from the event benefit Denver Kids, Inc., a preventative counseling and mentoring program for at-risk students in Denver Public Schools.
As did Mr. Rickey, Rotarians believe that community service is everyone's responsibility. Through the annual Branch Rickey Award and dinner, Rotarians, honorees, and guests celebrate the many humanitarians in baseball who, through their countless acts of unselfish involvement, personify Rotary International's motto, "Service Above Self."
