July 23, 1962 - In a 38-minute ceremony, four men were formally inducted today into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Inscribed bronze plaques honoring Jackie Robinson, Bob Feller, Ed Roush, and Bill McKechnie were hung in the baseball museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., beside 86 others. Each of the inductees spoke briefly. None received greater tribute from crowd than the 43-year-old Robinson, major league baseball’s first Negro player. “I feel quite inadequate to this honor,” Robinson said. “It is something that could never have happened without three people — Branch Rickey, who was as a father to me, my wife, and my mother. They are all here today, making the honor complete. And I don’t think I will ever come down from Cloud Nine.”
