His legacy is thriving

Jackie Robinson would have been 88 years old today.

Wonder what he would have thought. No doubt he'd be honored that Major League Baseball permanently retired his No. 42 (Yankee Hall of Famer closer Mariano Rivera will be the last one to wear it). He'd probably be happy and surprised to see the Red Sox hosting their fifth annual celebration of his life today at Fenway Park. And I bet he'd be proud to see Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith as head coaches in Sunday's Super Bowl.

"He would have great fun with that, and he would be so proud of the two men and what they've accomplished," said Sharon Robinson, Jackie's daughter, who is in Boston for today's event at Fenway. "He'd also say that this is more evidence that, given opportunity and inclusion, achievement will follow."

Sharon is vice chair of the Jackie Robinson Foundation and director of educational programming for Major League Baseball. She created and manages MLB's national character education initiative, Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life.

"It's a character education program that teaches kids that barriers are a part of life," she explained. "We give them strategies to overcome them. We use baseball themes and my father's values as strategies to overcome the barriers."

In addition to working for the foundation and MLB, Robinson has been a nurse/midwife, a teacher, and has written six books. She lives in Florida and visits schools across the country. Today at Fenway, she'll join former Sox stars Oil Can Boyd and Tommy Harper, plus Peter Roby (director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern). Speaking to 125 middle school children from the Boston Public School system, they'll talk about what Jackie Robinson meant to America. And what he means today.

The presence of Ms. Robinson at Fenway with Messrs. Boyd and Harper reminds us how far the Red Sox have come in the area of race relations. The Can's dad, Willie James Boyd, pitched to Hank Aaron and Willie Mays during his days with the semi-pro Meridian Braves. Harper is the former coach who was terminated by the Red Sox after blowing the whistle on the ball club's affiliation with the "whites only" Elks Club in Winter Haven, Fla. And, of course, Sharon Robinson's dad went through the charade of a tryout at Fenway one day after the burial of FDR in 1945.

In his 1972 autobiography, Robinson wrote, "Not for one minute did we believe the tryout was sincere."

"All I know is what I've read," said Sharon. "I never talked to my father about it. It wasn't a discussion I heard around the house. I think what's happening now is the Red Sox' way of saying, 'We've moved beyond and we appreciate his accomplishments. Sorry for our snub in the past.' But that's history. What's really important is what they are doing today."

The Jackie Robinson Foundation, which was established in 1973, today funds 266 young scholars in 33 states. Red Sox vice president and club counsel Elaine W. Steward is a former foundation scholarship recipient. At present, the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, and White Sox support Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholars, and the foundation is attempting to get every big league team involved.

"I hope the Red Sox will embrace the Jackie Robinson Foundation fully and at some point take a scholar," said Sharon.

Maybe the Sox could make such an announcement when they play host to the Angels April 15. That will be the 60th anniversary of Robinson's first major league game.

"I think it's the most powerful moment in baseball history," said commissioner Bud Selig. "It's one of the most powerful moments in the 20th century. Jackie Robinson took on pressure that no one could conceive. What if he had failed?

"I wish I had the courage of Branch Rickey. When he signed Jackie in 1945, that was before Truman integrated the Army. It was before Brown vs. the Board of Education. It was before the Civil Rights legislation was enacted."

Hyperbole? No way. Here's what Martin Luther King Jr. said on the day Jackie Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: "Back in the days when integration wasn't fashionable, he underwent the trauma and the humiliation of loneliness which comes from being a pilgrim walking the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides."

So what is it like to go through life as the only daughter of Jackie Robinson?

"He taught me early on that it's all right to be public, but we have our private time, too," said Sharon. "I am so proud and feel so good that I had a good relationship with my father. I'm so proud of the things he passed on to me.

"He taught us to have a caring, involved relationship with community and the world. He taught us that we should struggle. My parents wanted us to be part of a struggle and they knew it was going to be an ongoing struggle. My father didn't eliminate racism or prejudice. It's probably a battle we'll be fighting forever. It's an ongoing battle."

"Sharon does wonderful work," said Selig. "Her programs in school have touched millions of kids and her work has been extraordinary. She's just a wonderful, talented lady."

Jackie Robinson died of a heart attack at the age of 53 in 1972, just nine days after his last public appearance. Standing on the field at a Reds-A's World Series game in Cincinnati, he accepted a plaque acknowledging the 25th anniversary of his first year in the majors, then said, "I'm going to be tremendously more pleased and more proud when I look at the third base coaching box one day and see a black face managing in baseball."

"That appearance at the World Series was emotional," Sharon remembered. "I was standing on the field, right behind him. He was not well then and it ended up being our last family outing. My dad wanted us all there.

"I remember talking with him in the middle of the game, asking him, 'If this was a segregated ballpark, where would the black folks be sitting?' It was a time we really wanted to pick his brain and hear from him what it was like. I had shied away from those questions with him because I didn't want to bring back that period that was painful to him.

"But that day we did talk. And then when he spoke, I was very proud of him. It was his time to talk about how now we had players on the field, but it was time to move up."

Take a look at the men wearing the headsets on Super Bowl Sunday. Jackie Robinson lives.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is dshaughnessy@globe.com.