The Presidents Who Most Enjoyed the Sporting Life

By Dave “Large” Larzelere
Kevin Johnson is throwing his hat into the ring for mayor of Sacramento at the same time that Obama (known for being a bit loose with his ‘bows in pickup basketball games) is locked into a marathon game of one-on-one with the scrappy Hillary Clinton. This brings to mind the fact that there is perhaps no better training for politics, Presidential politics especially, than a decorated sporting past, where one learns to win at all costs and play dirty when the ref isn’t looking.
[img=http://i.tsn.com/i/photos/20080306/87371.jpg]
Right now I’m thinking “K.J. in 2016 – America’s Point Guardâ€, but even if that happens, would he be the greatest athlete to hold the Oval Office? Probably, but not without some competition:
-Abraham Lincoln – As crucial as the apocryphal cherry tree story was to the legend of George Washington, so was the story that Abe Lincoln out-wrestled the great Jack Armstrong as a youth. Only in Lincoln’s case, the story was true. Lincoln was a ferocious wrassler and strong as an ox.
-Teddy Roosevelt – Maybe the greatest Presidential sportsman of them all – a rider, hunter, rower, wrestler, and a lifelong pugilist who was a runner-up in Harvard’s boxing championship, back when the sweet science was a more accepted pursuit of swarthy Ivy League types.
-William Taft – Fat though he was, Taft began a important sporting trend for Presidential athletes ever afterwards – a preoccupation with golf. Taft was obsessed with the game, so much so that he was routinely criticized for frequent golf outings during his tenure in the Oval Office. But Taft’s most famous sporting legacy may be a joke at the expense of his corpulence. In response to a telegram from the President that he was feeling great after a morning of horse riding, Secretary of War Elihu Root famously cabled back, “How’s the horse?â€
-Dwight Eisenhower – By all accounts, Eisenhower was an avid although not distinguished golfer (he had a putting green installed on the White House lawn), but he has to be mentioned on this list simply because there is a tree named after him at Augusta National, a tree that the former President hit so many times that he unsuccessfully campaigned for its removal.
-John Kennedy – With his appearance of youth and vigor and propensity for big family touch football games on the lawn, JFK did more for the idea of the President as athlete that perhaps any other man to hold the office, but ironically he wasn’t an accomplished athlete himself due to his lifelong struggle with Addison’s disease. He was forced to give up football at Harvard due to his brittle spine, but he did win an inter-collegiate sailing title there with his brother Joe.
-Gerald Ford – Ford is one man who could have said with confidence that he was a much better athlete than President. A star linebacker at Michigan in the 30’s, Ford played on two undefeated national championship teams. In a game in 1934, he tackled Jay Berwanger of Chicago, the only time in history that a future President has tackled a future Heisman-winner. Ford’s jersey was retired in Ann Arbor in 1994.↵