We don't even think about race anymore when watching the teams battle for berths in the World Series.

Asian players are not uncommon, and what team does not have a Latino player on its roster? Take the Texas Rangers, who rely on Yu Darvish (Osaka, Japan) and Martin Perez (Guanare, Venezuela) for pitching wins and Rougned Odor (Maracaibo, Venezuela) and Shin-Shoo Choo (Busan, Korea) for game-winning hits and flawless defense.

African-American players ... a given.

But, as all baseball fans know, that wasn't always the case. Not until Jack Roosevelt Robinson took the field on opening day, April 15, 1947, for the Brooklyn Dodgers was an African-American given the opportunity — allowed, actually — to play in the major leagues.

This was before Nike and before its sports mantra 'Just Do It.' There was a lot that went into putting Robinson at first base that day. He didn't just do it one sunny afternoon at Ebbets Field.

Baseball fans know that Dodgers owner Branch Rickey had a lot to do with Robinson breaking the color barrier.

But so did Dan Dodson. Perhaps more so.

Never heard of him? He was a Texas boy who graduated from McMurry University and taught there before going to New York City. Eventually, his expertise was sought by Rickey, who saw the advantages of Negro players in the majors — of the crowd of 26,000 who watched Robinson play for the first time, more than 14,000 were African-Americans — and the eventuality. The Dodgers could get a jump on the other teams by bringing in Negro Leagues talent.

Perhaps the time also had come to simply do the right thing.

Yet, as former Reporter-News editor Ed Wishcamper noted in a November 1977 story after visiting Dodson in Austin, it was Dodson who suggested integrating baseball. Larry McPhail, the manager of the New York Yankees, said no and called Dodson a 'do-gooder,' but not in a kind way.

'You and they just want to make trouble,' McPhail wrote to Dodson.

Rickey was open to the idea.

'I think the time has come we can do something about it,' he wrote back.

Dodson's background and lanky, bespectacled appearance suggest nothing of trendsetting. But then, some underestimated Atticus Finch.

The son of a Northeast Texas farmer, Dodson had grown up with every opportunity to travel the road of prejudice. Yet, in a calm and academic way, he would analyze the integration issue — the opportunity — to make a fundamental change in America. Robinson still would play at a time when black players were barred from eating and sleeping at many of the same places as white players. When drinking fountains were separate. When backwoods injustice was served.

Dodson, an English major, graduated from McMurry College in 1931. He was able to get a college education thanks to being able to live with his brother, a railroad engineer, and his family here. Dodson then taught sociology and managed the campus bookstore before heading back east — to Dallas — to get his master's degree at SMU.

A $1,000 fellowship allowed him to continue farther east, this time to the East Coast. He earned his doctorate from NYU in 1941.

There, he assisted Dr. James Weldon Johnson, a noted black faculty member. In this role, Dodson saw African-Americans in a new light — he had first come across black authors at SMU. Students were smart, creative and eager for opportunity.

Dodson took over for Johnson upon his mentor's death and deepened his connections among the black community. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, for whom an airport would be named, sought Dodson's guidance when there was rioting in Harlem in 1944. He named Dodson the director of an effort called the Committee on Unity ... after Dodson was nominated by an African-American committee member.

Dodson held his role for 4½ years, teaching a course while technically on leave from NYU.

Integrating baseball was a bit more of a challenge. It had to be done right.

It had to be done slowly. It had to be done knowing there would be resistance, and some of it nasty. And it had to be done with the right player, one who unquestionably was talented but just as importantly, had a winning personality yet tough black skin. Because that's all opponents would see at first.

Robinson, a military veteran, likable and smart, was their guy. He was signed and began in the minors in Canada. He showed great skill and worked his way up, winning over teammates and fans.

Dodson surely was pleased the day Robinson first played ball. More pleased when there was a next game and a next game. And other black players came along.

He told Wishcamper that the greatest achievement during his days in the trenches of academia and civil rights was the growing empowerment of African-Americans. Given an open door, they could work together for their benefit rather than rely on whites, as they had done with baseball, to prompt change.

In 1977, he didn't see a perfect world, nor do we see one almost 40 years later.

'There is much dialogue, but most of the issues can be settled politically from here on out, as they should be,' he said.

Dodson was named a Distinguished Alumni of McMurry in May 1982. He had received an honorary degree in 1957, as well as the Alpha Kappa Delta Mankind Award for his work in civil rights.

Dr. Robert Wallace, who teaches sociology, chairs the department at McMurry and is the faculty athletics rep, greatly admires Dodson. Like Dodson, he is from a rural area (Borger, in the Panhandle) and got his Ph.D. from Columbia.

He noted how each of their 'small world views kept getting bigger.'

From an academic viewpoint, Wallace appreciates how Dodson used research and validated theories to develop a solid argument for integration. Basically, Dodson took the emotion out of an emotional issue and replaced it with reason. He saw the big picture rather than small minds.

Wallace enjoys introducing his students to Dan Dodson, both because he is noteworthy to study and he once sat in a McMurry classroom and later lectured there. His story may be improbable but it's not impossible.

The outstanding senior sociology student is awarded the Dan W. Dodson Award.

Long after Jackie Robinson retired in 1956, though he would become the first African-American TV sports analyst, the civil rights movement struggled toward more milestones. He'd see that struggle continue today.

Wouldn't a few reasoned minds such as that of Dan Dodson, and people in power such as Branch Rickey be of value now?

By the way, with Robinson on the team, the Dodgers won the pennant in 1947 and five more times, as well as the 1955 World Series, before No. 42 retired.

Twitter: @GregJaklewicz