"I am here thanks to the sacrifices made by Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe and others of their era that overcame similar hardships and turned challenges into opportunities, creating a Dodger legacy that endures today," Johnson said when he and Guggenheim Baseball Partners purchased the Dodgers in 2012. "Our debt to Jackie for his impact on society, and athletes like me, can never be repaid."
Robinson arrived in Brooklyn in 1947, Campanella in '48 and Newcombe in '49.