Campy was born November 19, 1921 in Philadelphia, PA. He would grow up in Germantown and Nicetown neighborhoods. He quit school at 16 years old to play simi-pro baseball with the Baltimore Elite.

The son of an Italian immigrant father and an Negro mother, Roy Campanella rose up from the Negro Leagues to become a star catcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The first Negro catcher in Major League Baseball history and the first negro superstar. Campy won the National League's Most Valuable Player award three times.

A car crash cut his career short and left him a quadriplegic; but he went on to coach catchers for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Campanella played only nine years, yet, he was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969, he was the second negro to receive that honor.