DELAWARE — Future Brooklyn Dodgers baseball general manager Branch Rickey was a student-coach at Ohio Wesleyan University in 1903.
When traveling for a game, Rickey’s sole black player, Charles Thomas, was denied a room at a hotel. Rickey told the story on numerous occasions of Thomas describing wanting to rip his skin off so he could be like everyone else.
The story plays into the history of Jackie Robinson, who broke MLB’s color barrier in 1947. How the two threads cross, intertwine and weave their way into the future is depicted in the movie 42, Ohio Goes to the Movie’s final film of choice.
Ohio Goes to the Movies spent 245 days, in celebration of America 250, traveling to theaters in each of Ohio’s 88 counties, displaying films relevant to the communities.
The Strand Theatre in Delaware was the site of the grand finale, and sitting practically on top of Ohio Wesleyan’s campus, the program saw 42 as the perfect film to show.
“Ohio Wesleyan University has rolled out the red carpet,” said Mollie Kreuzman, program director for Ohio Goes to the Movies. “I can’t say enough about what an extraordinary experience this has been. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s coming to an end.”
The screening was followed by a panel discussion, featuring baseball royalty: Branch Rickey III, grandson of the Hall of Fame general manager; Marty Brennaman, the long-time voice of the Cincinnati Reds; Larry Doby Jr., son of Larry Doby, the second black player in the MLB; and Sidney Carlson White, the assistant curator at the Jackie Robinson Museum.
“Jackie Robinson’s courage and perseverance, along with Branch Rickey’s leadership and conviction, helped change baseball and our nation’s history,” Mayor Carolyn Kay Riggle said.
Audience members couldn’t help but break into applause and cheers at some of the film’s most victorious moments, booing and gasping at its most villainous.
“The whole story is timeless,” Brennaman said. “In the great history of our great game, the most impactful decision ever rendered was when (former MLB Commissioner) Happy Chandler and Branch Rickey made the determination that the color line was going to be broken.”
“As we sit here and see some of the examples of what went on the field … everybody here shares that,” Rickey said. “The United States has come so far, and we still have far to go.”
The panel not only discussed the great life’s work of Robinson, but also humanized him. Through his work, in and out of baseball, Robinson has become a larger-than-life figure, said White.
“Jackie Robinson ultimately was a regular human being, just like all of us, who was moving through one of the strangest and most complicated times in United States history, doing so under immense scrutiny and in public,” White said.
“You can’t beat that story. You just can’t.”
Kreuzman doesn’t know what’s next for Ohio Goes to the Movie, but she likes it that way. Ending the massive, near-year-long tour at Ohio Wesleyan University with 42 was as good as she could have planned.
Jackie Robinson never played baseball for an Ohio team. He never lived in Ohio. His legacy, however, through his connection to Rickey and his conviction, would look much different without Ohio Wesleyan University.
