Robinson did not complete his senior year at UCLA. Instead, at age 21, he joined the National Youth Administration. There he played baseball to entertain campers and worked with "disadvantaged" children, much like he was years earlier. He also earned extra money by playing for a semi-professional football team, later known as the Honolulu Bears.

Years later he would explain that it was clear to him then, "that no amount of education would help a black man get a job. I felt I was living in an academic and athletic dream world." He further elaborated, "It seemed very necessary for me to relieve some of mother's financial burdens even though I knew it had always been her dream to have me finish college."