Robinson Brothers Make NCAA T&F History

Can you name the first set of siblings to win NCAA track & field titles?

We’ll give you a hint: Their last name is Robinson.

Jackie Robinson and older brother Mack went to different colleges in different years: Jackie to UCLA in 1939; Mack several years earlier to Oregon. Both topped the podium at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, coincidentally at the same location (University of Minnesota’s campus in Minneapolis).

Mack – a nickname for Matthew – gave the Robinson family its first NCAA title in 1938 when he won the 220-yard dash in a meet-record 21.3, breaking the mark of 21.5 formerly held by Jesse Owens from 1936. While Mack wasn’t in that 1936 NCAA final, he did compete later that year at the Berlin Olympics, earning the silver medal behind Owens in the 200 meters.

Jackie, four-and-a-half years younger than Mack, added another NCAA crown to the Robinson family trophy case two years later in 1940 when he won the long jump in 24-10¼ (7.57m). He was in second place entering the final round of the event before uncorking his winning attempt. Just a few weeks earlier, Jackie opened his season at the Pacific Coast Conference Championships with a world-leading 25-0 (7.62m).

Many know Jackie for famously breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Baseball was one of four sports in which Jackie excelled while at UCLA, alongside basketball (led the conference in scoring), football (led the nation in punt return average) and, of course, track & field. He remains the only athlete in UCLA history to letter in four sports.

Jackie and Mack were honored by the city of Pasadena in 1997 with nine-foot-tall bronze sculptures of their heads outside of City Hall.