Who was Jim Becker? AP Journalist who covered Jackie Robinson's Major League debut dies at 98

Jim Becker, a long-time journalist who had spent more than 40 years in journalism including a role as a national reporter for the Associated Press (AP), died at age 98 in Honolulu due to natural causes.

Over his long career, Becker witnessed some of history’s biggest moments, from Jackie Robinson’s debut in Major League Baseball to the U.S. Army’s fight in the Korean War.

Becker joined AP News in 1946 when he had just returned from his military service. He supposedly walked into the wire service’s New York headquarters without an appointment and got a job on the spot.

Less than a year later, he was assigned to cover Jackie Robinson in his first game as a Brooklyn Dodger, a groundbreaking event that broke the color and race barrier in Major League Baseball.

Jim Becker had experienced Jackie Robinson’s challenges firsthand at the age of 20 when he covered his story in 1947, he even noted Robinson facing opposition from some of his own teammates. Later reflecting on the moment, Becker said:

"I looked him and I thought this magnificent athlete, this courageous man, is carrying the banner of decency and dignity and fair play ... he's carrying it for all of us."

Jim Becker was an AP bureau chief for a good part of his career, serving in Manila, New Delhi, and Honolulu. Later he worked as a columnist for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Becker’s wife, Betty Hanson Becker, died in 2008. Although they had no children, he became a godparent to Carla Escoda Brooks, Cristina Escoda, and Maria Teresa Roxas. He is survived by Brooks and her husband Peter Brooks.

From the Battlefield to the Newsroom: Jim Becker’s War Reporting

Outside of sports, Becker’s career led him to frontline action in the Korean War in 1950. Under the U.S. Marines, he covered the recapture of Seoul and devised a clever means for getting his story to the AP office despite poor phone lines.

According to AP news themselves, He’d slip his typed reports into the pockets of wounded soldiers who were being evacuated, with notes attached asking medical personnel to deliver them to the nearest AP office.

Becker also reported the 1959 story of the Dalai Lama’s exile into India, a tale that became controversial after a rival news agency published fake photos of the Tibetan leader.

Although he traveled the globe covering worldwide events, Becker said the most meaningful story he ever reported was a 1965 high school football championship in Hawaii. It was about an underdog team from Farrington High School who overcame the odds and defeated a private school to win the league championship.