a professional, highly respected and emulated organization, operated with consistent methods and values, encompassing a style known as "The Dodger Way." Among his unique business practices were treating his staff to ice cream at 2 p.m. every day the Dodgers were in first place, freshly baked cookies on sell-out games and overseas trips in the offseason after particularly successful years. In 1997, Fortune magazine named the Dodgers as the only sports franchise selected as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work for in America." It was the third time the team had received the recognition after being named in books of that title in 1984 and 1993. On November 2, 2011, one day after the announcement that Frank McCourt would be selling the Dodgers, O'Malley expressed interest in repurchasing his former team. He withdrew his bid on February 21, 2012. The inclusion of Historic Dodgertown – Vero Beach, Florida on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail is significant since it’s the only sports institution to receive this recognition. The U.S. Civil Rights Trail is a collection of churches, courthouses, schools, museums and other landmarks primarily in the Southern states where activists challenged segregation in the 1950s and 1960s to advance social justice. Historic Dodgertown was added and announced on January 31, 2019. In the 1940s, Dodger management, led by Branch Rickey and O'Malley’s father and partner, Walter, took the bold step to break baseball’s color barrier. In 1947, the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, the first Black since 1884 to sign a Major League Baseball contract. Robinson made his Dodgertown debut on March 31, 1948 and hit a home run in his first at-bat. The Dodgers signed five of the first six African-American players of the 20th century to professional baseball contracts. Dodgertown was unique because in addition to being teammates and training on the playing fields, all the players dined together, shared living quarters in barracks and had recreational opportunities on site, a former U.S. Naval Air Station base, which closed after World War II. In 1962, Dodgertown Director O’Malley removed the concept of segregated seating, water fountains and bathrooms in Holman Stadium at Dodgertown, despite the prohibitions in the South. Local schools were not integrated until 1969. “Dodgertown, Vero Beach played a pioneering role in advancing rights for African-Americans starting in 1948 and continuing throughout the 1950s and 1960s,” said O'Malley. “All of us connected to Dodgertown and its