- Born
- DiedMarch 12, 2000 · Pasadena, California, USA (complications from diabetes, kidney failure and pneumonia)
- Birth nameMatthew Robinson
- Nickname
- Mack
- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- Matthew MacKenzie "Mack" Robinson was born to a family of sharecroppers on July 18, 1912 in Cairo, Georgia. The older brother of legendary Hall of Fame baseball player Jackie Robinson, Mack and his siblings were raised by their mother Mallie Robinson after they were left fatherless at an early age. The Robinson family eventually moved to Pasadena, California. Mack first established himself as a promising athlete by setting national junior college records in the men's 100 meters, men's 200 meters, and men's long jump while a student at Pasadena Junior College. Robinson earned a spot on the Olympic team for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany after placing second in the 200 meters at the United States Olympic trials and went on to win the silver medal at the 1936 Olympics by finishing second in the same event right behind Jesse Owens.
In the wake of his Olympic triumph Mack set a national junior college record in the men's long jump in 1937 as well as won both the national and Amateur Athletic Union track titles at the University of Oregon in 1938. However, Robinson dropped out of college in his senior year so he could return home and support his family back in Pasadena, where he was reduced to sweeping downtown streets with a broom while wearing his Olympic sweatshirt with USA written on the front. Alas, Mack lost this particular job after the city of Pasadena fired all of its black workers in retaliation over an order made by a judge to desegregate public pools that were discriminating against blacks.
Fortunately, Robinson was able to still graduate from the University of Oregon in 1941 and went on to work as both an usher at Dodger Stadium and as a truant officer for John Muir High School in Pasadena. In 1984 Mack was one of several athletes chosen to carry a giant Olympic flag into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during the opening ceremony for the 1984 Olympics. In 1997 both Robinson and his brother Jackie were honored with nine foot tall bronze sculptures of their heads in Centennial Plaza located right across the street from city hall in Pasadena. In addition, Mack was inducted into both the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Oregon Hall of Fame. Robinson died at age 85 at a hospital in Pasadena on March 12, 2000. He was survived by his wife Delano, their three sons and three daughters, a son and daughter from previous marriages, twenty-five grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren.- IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders - Mack Robinson is an American track and field athlete. He is best known for winning a silver medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics, where he broke the Olympic record in the 200 meter but still finished behind Jesse Owens. He was the older brother of Baseball Hall of Fame member Jackie Robinson.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Bazza the Beast
- SpouseDelano(? - March 12, 2000) (his death, 6 children)
- Older brother of Jackie Robinson.
- Was only able to attend the United States trials for the 1936 Olympics in New York after a group of local businessmen in Pasadena, California raised the $150 dollars needed to pay for his train fare.
- [on winning a silver medal at the 1936 Olympics] It's not too bad to be the second best in the world at what you're doing, no matter what it is. It means that only one other person in the world was better than you. That makes you better than an awful lot of people.
- [on his brother Jackie Robinson] There was no one more competitive than Jackie. No one could ever tell him he couldn't do something he wanted to do. No one was more appropriate for the tough assignment he received.
- I am getting awfully tired of being referred to as just Jackie Robinson's brother.
- If anybody in Pasadena was proud for me, other than my family and close friends, they never showed it. I was totally ignored. The only time I was ever noticed was when somebody asked me during at an assembly at school if I'd race against a horse.
- Jesse [Jesse Owens] got the coaching, I didn't. I saw his television program about his return to Berlin. He said that he and the coaches had studied the styles of every runner. That was true. They studied me, too.
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