Roy Campanella was born in 1921. His fans also knew him as Campy. Prior to entering the Major leagues, He was a star in the Negro leagues where he began playing since the age of fifteen. From 1937 to 1942, he played on the Baltimore Elite Giants where he prospered as a player and teammate. After a dispute with the owner of the Giants, he left the United States to play in the Mexican leagues in 1942 and 1943. He was one the first black players to play in Major League Baseball and was the first black catcher on the Brooklyn Dodgers. While in the Major leagues this 5”9 catcher had a brilliant 10-year career where he was voted Most Valuable Player 3 times, an all-star 8 times, led the league in RBI’s in 1953, and helped Brooklyn to five pennants and a World Series championship in 1955. Towards the end of his playing career, he was often injured and still managed to put strong numbers. The tragedy of this dazzling player’s life came during a tragic car accident in New York. Campy was coming home from the liquor store he owned, when the icy street led him to lose control of his automobile and slam his car into a telephone poll. The car flipped over and left Campy with an injured vertebra that led him to be paralyzed from the neck down. Remarkably, he lived for 35 years after the accident considering most quadriplegics did not live very long in those days. He was also a devoted community worker, and Dodgers enthusiast. He was accepted to the hall of fame in 1969, and died in 1993