Oberlin College Athletics

Moses Fleetwood Walker enrolled at Oberlin in 1877 at the age of 20, and in 1881, his last year at the college, he joined the first varsity baseball team as a bare-handed catcher. In 1884 he joined the Toledo club of the Northwestern League and became the first African-American to play major league, preceding Jackie Robinson by more than 60 years. "Walker combined athletic talent with a fine intellect, and by exercising his diverse skills he became a businessman, inventor, newspaper editor, and author," said Cochrane. In 1922, in answer to a questionnaire from Oberlin regarding the influence of the college on his life, Walker simply wrote one word, "excellent," and underlined it.