YOUNGSTOWN — A group planning a statue in Youngstown to celebrate the historic 1946 handshake of Jackie Robinson and George Shuba marked that event’s 74th anniversary over the weekend by showing major progress on the project.

Its sculptor is developing a clay model, standing nearly 7 feet tall, that will be used to cast the figure of Robinson, the first African American in mainstream professional baseball. Still under construction is the model for Shuba, the Youngstown native who was Robinson’s white teammate with the Montreal Royals, a Brooklyn Dodgers Minor League affiliate.

“While we’re still in the early stages of developing the statue, our progress on these models is very exciting,” said Marc Mellon, the Connecticut-based sculptor crafting the statue. “In the upcoming months I’ll be working on the George Shuba figure. When both figures are completed later this summer, we will first cast them in plaster, refine the surfaces, and then cast them in bronze.”

The 1946 handshake at home plate after Robinson hit a home run in his debut professional game has been hailed as the “handshake of the century,” as it marked the racial integration of pro ball, which helped accelerate the breakdown of racial barriers in other areas of American life.

Mellon is working with a group of Youngstown-area community leaders to build and dedicate the statue near the Youngstown Amphitheatre downtown on April 18, 2021, the 75th anniversary of the historic handshake.

The most prominent supporters of the statue so far are the Youngstown Foundation, McDonald Restaurants in the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys and the J. Ford Crandall Foundation. The committee has raised about $130,000 of its $400,000 goal.

“We’ve made such great progress because the Youngstown community has stepped up big-time to support this statue,” said Ernie Brown, a retired Vindicator news manager and co-chair of the statue project committee. “The development of the two large models for the statue and the bronze casting all represent our donors’ dollars hard at work.”

The statue itself will be cast by the Bedi-Makky Art Foundry in Brooklyn, N.Y., known worldwide for casting the Iwo Jima Memorial near Washington, D.C., and the Charging Bull in the New York financial district.

Mellon’s works in bronze have honored Pope John Paul II, President George H. W. Bush, President Barack Obama and many award-winning athletes.

More information about the Robinson-Shuba statue is available at www.robinsonshuba.org.

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