CAIRO — The Cairo High School Syrupmakers baseball team celebrated the centennial of hometown baseball hero Jackie Robinson with a public intra-squad scrimmage Thursday.

The Syrupmakers unveiled throwback uniforms inspired by Robinson’s former major league team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, at Jackie Robinson Field at CHS.

“I thought the day was great,” said Syrupmakers coach Chad Parkerson. “We got to pay tribute to Jackie Robinson and a have a bunch of people come out in the community.”

Parkerson said he helped create the old-fashioned uniforms with Robinson’s number 42 on the sleeves with a New Balance designer.

Members of the Jackie Robinson Boys & Girls Club arrived at 4 p.m. wearing baseball attire of the Dodgers and other major league teams.

Boys & Girls Club members participated in the national anthem with the Syrupmakers and run the bases of the field prior to the scrimmage beginning.

“You always like to see a kid running around the bases with a genuine smile on his face,” Parkerson said. “It always warms the heart a little bit.”

Parkerson said he did not keep score of the seven-inning scrimmage but believes the red team was defeated by the black team.

“We didn’t want to stretch our pitchers too much when the pitch count started getting up in a specific inning,” Parkerson said. “We tried to be real conscious of arm care, especially early in the season.”

Other activities included a bounce house for Boys & Girls Club members and team photographs.

United National Bank, which helped sponsor the event, handed out 100 free T-shirts for Robinson’s 100th birthday.

The event to honor Robinson was coordinated between Parkerson and Boys & Girls Club director Stephen Francis.

“(Francis) and I had been in pretty much constant contact trying to plan and coordinate all this to get the kids out there and making it truly a community event about celebrating Jackie Robinson and promoting the sport and giving our players and the kids from the Boys & Girls Club a good memory,” Parkerson said. “I think the turnout with the kids and the community was (very impressive).”

Robinson, who died in 1972 and is best known for breaking major league baseball’s color barrier, was born in Cairo and would have turned 100 years old Thursday.

The Syrupmakers’ season begins Feb. 7 at home with a scrimmage against Lowndes High School.

“It was a great day,” Parkerson said of the event. “It was a good day for the community, a good day for the school and a good day for baseball.”