A Tennis Player?
Jackie was a star tennis player in his youth. Due to his athleticism in school, he was picked up by an intramural team even though he never played tennis before. As soon as he learned the rules, Jackie excelled. Only one year into playing tennis, Jackie won the 1936 Pacific Coast Negro Tennis Tournament at only 17 years old.
Multifaceted Athlete
Jackie took his early career in athletics very seriously. His family was all athletic, but he and his brother Mack both had an extremely high aptitude for sports. Mack went to the Olympics for track and field right when he graduated high school. Jackie finished high school and immediately got drafted onto the UCLA track team. He walked onto the basketball, football, and baseball teams as well. Jackie never finished college, because of an offer he got from a professional football team, but unfortunately, that offer was short-lived…
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