History of Branch Rickey

"Ohio Wesleyan has been very largely responsible for whatever good is in me, and is to be credited with whatever good I may have done," Branch Rickey wrote in a 1952 letter to Ohio Wesleyan Vice President Herman Shipps, himself a 1913 OWU graduate.

"Whatever good I may have done" led Mr. Rickey to be named ESPN's most influential sports figure of the 20th century for revolutionizing the game of baseball and race relations in the United States. Branch Rickey not only changed baseball from a sociological perspective, but from a business standpoint as well.

As president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Mr. Rickey decided that in order for baseball to be truly "the national pastime," a long tradition of whites-only would have to be broken. With some help and cooperation from baseball commissioner A.B. "Happy" Chandler and, eventually, the other Brooklyn players, Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson made history by integrating the long-segregated game.

Mr. Rickey also was credited with developing the farm system of minor league teams while with the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1920s and 1930s and pioneering the use of batting helmets while with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1950s. After retiring from the Pirates, his plans to begin a third major league helped prompt the first expansion of Major League Baseball.