On Friday, April 8, Klein College of Media and Communication’s Claire Smith Center for Sports Media hosted its first-ever Jackie Robinson Symposium in honor of the 75th anniversary of the integration of Major League Baseball. Speakers included many descendants of key figures in the history of baseball’s integration, such as Branch Rickey III, the grandson of the man who signed Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers; and Sean Gibson, the great-grandson of legendary Negro Leagues slugger Josh Gibson. The event was covered in the Inquirer as well as on MLB.com.
“Our Center is all about turning out the best-equipped graduates we can. So I truly believe that one of the greatest assets we can help our students develop is the ability to listen and absorb from those who lived through, or helped create an important moment in history,” said Smith, the center’s namesake and co-director.
“Storytellers helped show our students the power of words during our symposium,” she continued. “Their very presence underscored the value of oral history. Branch Rickey III, Larry Doby Jr., Sean Gibson, Dusty Baker and others gave us insights into generations’ past, creating an invaluable time continuum. They not only put human faces on the people we read about and report on; our guests brought 1947 and the integration of baseball to life 75 years after it occurred.”
The event was attended by more than 100 participants in a hybrid of in-person and online formats. Additional speakers included Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City; and Larry Doby Jr., son of Hall of Famer Larry Doby, who was the first Black player in the American League.
Sam Cohn (he/him), a senior graduating in May 2022, attended the event as well as reported on it for the Inquirer. “The Jackie Robinson Symposium set the foundation for what the Claire Smith Center can do,” Cohn said. “It brought in a number of great guests who shared such cool stories both in person and over Zoom, while facilitating conversations about a really important part of American history.”
MLB.com reporter Joe Bloss said the core of the keynote speech, delivered by Astros manager Dusty Baker, “sought to turn reflection into action,” as many of the day’s stories and reflections have relevant application in the world today.
“This was a perfect inaugural event for the Claire Smith Center, as Claire herself broke down barriers of race and gender in sports media,” said Klein College Dean David Boardman. “And it was poetic justice that it took place 1.7 miles from where Jackie Robinson endured what he considered to be the ugliest reception of his career, at the old Connie Mack Stadium.”