Long before Jackie Robinson and Rachel Isum became the “first family” of baseball, they were two students at UCLA on an awkward first date, unsure of what the future held. The year was 1940. Jackie was finishing up his last collegiate season as a four-letter athlete, and Rachel was beginning her nursing degree. Their relationship started as many couples’ do, with friends nudging the pair towards each other at the start of the school year. At first, Rachel had more than a few misgivings because of Robinson’s stardom. “The word that was out…was that he was ‘big man on campus,’” she later recounted with a laugh. “I thought, ‘Oh, that’s terrible. They’re going to bring this egotistical creature to me.’” Jackie had his own concerns: he had mostly avoided dating, worried that partners would only appreciate him as an athlete and not understand him as a full human being.

Jackie and Rachel at their first date, UCLA’s homecoming dance, at Los Angeles’ famed Biltmore Hotel. Jackie Robinson Museum

Their fears were assuaged on their first date: UCLA’s homecoming dance at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles in November. For months, Rachel would meet Jackie in the UCLA parking lots and in the corridors of Kerckhoff Hall as they grew closer. Their relationship didn’t end when Jackie left UCLA in 1941. Soon, he was drafted into the Army in 1942 and stationed in Kansas and Texas, miles away from his California home. The distance didn’t stop the pair from exchanging letters and gifts for the next two years as Rachel completed her nursing education in San Francisco. In early 1943, while on leave, Jackie visited and presented her with an engagement ring. She accepted, though her studies and Jackie’s Army service would delay their wedding for another three years.

In early 1944, Rachel decided to join the Cadet Nurse Corps, a World War II-era organization that helped train thousands of new nurses and supported their education. Jackie, believing the Corps would give her access to other potential suitors, was deeply jealous. He offered an ultimatum: either quit the Corps or break of the engagement. To his surprise, Rachel mailed back the engagement ring and continued with the Corps. Her pride and confidence in her own career would not be so easily bent.

Rachel, third from left in the front row, stands with other nurses in the Cadet Nurse Corps. Jackie Robinson Museum

Returning home on leave to Pasadena, Jackie’s mother Mallie begged him to repair his relationship with Rachel. He gave her a call, and soon he was on his way to San Francisco to return the engagement ring and rekindle their partnership. They would endure even more time apart, however. In 1945, Jackie bounced around the country for some five months with the Kansas City Monarchs while Rachel finished her degree.

On February 10, 1946, Jackie and Rachel were married at the People’s Independent Church of Christ in Los Angeles. Rev. Karl Downs, the Baptist minister who had served as a mentor to Jackie through most of his adolescence, performed the ceremony. For the newlyweds, the ceremony was a beautiful moment almost five years in the making as they both navigated the uncertainties of life during the war. But it also was preparation for even more difficult times ahead as Jackie navigated the challenges of desegregation with only Rachel at his side.

 

Soon, the couple would leave for spring training in Florida as Jackie prepared for his season with the Montreal Royals. Their “honeymoon” was spent dodging racist threats and living through the uncertainty about whether or not Jackie would make the grade as a big-league ballplayer. They persevered. Jackie often used the word “we” to describe even his baseball accomplishments. Throughout their partnership, Jackie and Rachel relied on each other as they lived through history and together forged a new vision for America.