Home » History » American Presidents » PRESIDENTIAL PASTIMES, PART I

PRESIDENTIAL PASTIMES, PART I

© John S. Cooper

Like all people, Presidents need relaxation. Over the years, our Presidents have participated in a great variety of sports and hobbies while in the White House. Some were famous for their hobbies, such as Dwight Eisenhower for his golf, Ronald Reagan for horseback riding and John Kennedy for sailing and touch football. Others have been less well known, such as Calvin Coolidge and his Indian clubs.

Although we are going to look at the sports and hobbies of the Presidents during their terms of office, it is worth mentioning that a few of our Presidents, in their younger days, participated and excelled in college sports. The greatest of these would probably be Gerald Ford who played football for the University of Michigan in the early 1930s. He was selected as Most Valuable Player in 1934 and was named an All-American, the only President to win this distinction. After college, he was offered contracts by several professional teams.

Dwight Eisenhower played football for the United States Military Academy at West Point where he was known as “The Kansas Cyclone” and ran seventy yards in a game against Yale in 1912. A knee injury in his second year ended his football career (but not his military career).

Teddy Roosevelt was a member of the Harvard boxing team during his undergraduate days, and John Kennedy was a member of the Harvard swim team during his college days there. Jimmy Carter was a member of the cross-country team at the Naval Academy.

Surprisingly, few of our Presidents have had much musical ability or experience. Thomas Jefferson and John Tyler played the violin, and Harry Truman and Richard Nixon played the piano. In fact, Harry Truman once joked that if he had not gone into politics, he would have probably become the “piano player at a bawdy house.” Calvin Coolidge played the harmonica, Warren Harding played the alto horn and cornet, and Bill Clinton played the saxophone.

It is during their terms as President that the relaxation of sports and hobbies becomes so important and so difficult to enjoy. In this article, we will look at the hobbies and sports of the men in the White House during their term.

George Washington, true to the times and his class, enjoyed fishing and horseback riding. He found great relaxation in the out-of-doors, and enjoyed getting away from the pressures of office.

Washington’s successor, John Adams, apparently had no specific hobbies during his term as President, and engaged in no sports. That may have had something to do with the portly Adams’ nickname of “His Rotundity.”