As we reflect on the legacy of John F. Kennedy, now 50 years later, one of the last memories of the 35th President of the United States, was his athletic ability.
An avid golfer and a letter-winning swimmer at Harvard, Kennedy was one of the most athletic presidents in U.S. history. Kennedy wasn’t the only head of state with athletic prowess. Here are the 10 most athletic commanders-in-chief …
10. Richard Nixon
(Library of Congress)
The future president wasn’t much of a football player at Whittier College, but he tried his hand at coaching while in the Oval Office, once sending a play to Washington Redskins coach George Allen. Nixon also installed bowling lanes at the White House, leading to his later immortalization above the bar at The Dude’s apartment.
9. Woodrow Wilson
(Library of Congress)
Wilson was good enough to play center field at Davidson College, but couldn’t make the baseball team after transferring to Harvard. His library website says the president was “an avid, yet, unconfident golfer.” The electorate can relate.
8. Barack Obama
(AFP)
Stories of the president’s pick-up basketball games have taken on mythic proportions, but POTUS favors the golf course more than the court. His jumpshot looks pure. His swing is another story.
7. Teddy Roosevelt
(AP)
The avid outdoorsman once tried to ban football, but had a practical view of participation in other sports. “It is of far more importance that a man should play something himself, even if he plays it badly, than that he should go with hundreds of companions to see someone else play well,” he once said. Like Obama, he seemed to love sports more than he excelled in them.
6. George W. Bush
(AP)
W completed a marathon at age 43 and was running sub-seven-minute miles years later. But it was his first pitch at Yankee Stadium before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series that stands out as the greatest sports moment by a president. Less than two months after 9/11 and with the government warning of new terror strikes, the president strode to the mound with a bulky bulletproof vest hidden beneath his jacket and threw a perfect strike as America collectively cheered for the first time in weeks.
5. John F. Kennedy
(Library of Congress)
The images of a sprightly JFK playing touch football in Hyannis Port were long gone by the time the 43-year-old took office in 1961. Various medical ailments had slowed the young president. But in his youth, Kennedy was a letter-winning swimmer at Harvard and a good enough golfer to make people forget about his balky back.
4. Ronald Reagan
(AP)
The legend is that a young Dutch saved 77 people during his seven years as a lifeguard. Whether these were actual rescues, times gotten wet or the number of occasions he told people not to swim 30 minutes after eating is unknown. Reagan was also an avid horseback rider.
3. George H.W. Bush
(AP)
Played first base for Yale in the 1940s and appeared in the first two College World Series. As vice president, Bush was temporarily in power when Reagan had surgery. He spent a few of those eight hours playing tennis. On his 85th birthday, the elder Bush celebrated by skydiving.
2. Dwight Eisenhower
(AP)
The West Point linebacker famously battled Jim Thorpe in the 1912 Army-Carlisle game, trying to knock the college great out of the game and bring victory to the Cadets. When Thorpe was hardly fazed after a brutal hit, Eisenhower was crestfallen. In the book “Carlisle vs. Army,” Lars Anderson wrote that the failure to tackle Thorpe marked a turning point in a young Eisenhower’s life.
1. Gerald Ford
(Gerald R. Ford Library)
A clumsy Ford, as portrayed by Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live, has created an enduring image of a bumbling, old president. Ford was anything but that. He played on two national championship football teams at Michigan, was a team MVP in 1934 and was a frequent swimmer, runner and tennis player. However, his golf game was a constant source of amusement and prompted jokes from a regular golfing buddy. “It’s not hard to find Jerry Ford on a golf course — you just follow the wounded,” Bob Hope once said.
