Long before Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier in 1947, he was a standout multi-sport athlete at Pasadena Junior College and UCLA. In fact, he played four different sports in college (baseball, basketball, football and track) and received varsity letters in each. Featured here is a 1939 original press photo of Jackie in his UCLA Bruins No. 28 uniform, leaping through the air during a football practice in his first year on the Westwood campus. That season, Robinson earned All-America honors, setting a UCLA record (which still stands today) with 12.2 yards per carry on 42 attempts. In 1939 and 1940, he led the nation in punt return average. Jackie was one of four Black players on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team along with Kenny Washington (the first African American to ever sign an NFL contract), Woody Strode and Ray Bartlett. The Bruins'  all-Black triumvirate backfield of Robinson, Washington and Strode led the team to an undefeated season (6-0-4), just missing out on a Rose Bowl berth and a chance to become National Champions.

The timely black-and-white shot of Robinson perfectly centered in the frame measures 7” by 9” and presents in terrific condition with a clean surface, creamy-white borders and just some minor spider creases on the corners. The reverse is stamped by Wide World Photos of New York with "Jackie Robinson - Baseball" notated in pencil. Easily one of, if not, the finest UCLA football photograph ever taken of Jackie, it represents a unique piece of American sports history nearly a decade before he would heroically put on the Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. Encapsulated as Type 1 by PSA/DNA. (According to PSA photo authenticator Henry Yee, this photo has a pop of 2. Who know is the other one will ever surface at auction.)