Most Athletic Presidents
Ol' Jerry takes the top spot =)
October 24th, 2012 at 12:26 PM ^
Ironic that he became known as a klutz, as he was probably the greatest athlete to ever hold the office. Damn that SNL.
October 24th, 2012 at 12:32 PM ^
at least there are some who still know the difference between irony and coincidence.
October 24th, 2012 at 12:40 PM ^
I blame it on Alanis Morisette.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:13 PM ^
On the good advice that I just didn't take.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:16 PM ^
He was also of course referenced in some of the classic Pink Panther movies - being upset when Dreyfus took over the TV screen when the Michigan game was on, as well as in Dazed and Confused with the question "Which one of you had the theory about how president Ford's old football head injuries is affecting the economy?"
October 24th, 2012 at 3:18 PM ^
concussions in football, there may have been a reason for his klutzyness in later years.
October 24th, 2012 at 12:39 PM ^
Too busy to click through, so I'll just assume Taft was a close second.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:11 PM ^
Taft verus his bathtub results in resounding victory for bathtub. Tough thing to be remembered for, certainly.
October 24th, 2012 at 12:47 PM ^
Bill Clinton, all those girls, all those positions.
October 24th, 2012 at 12:54 PM ^
Killin' vampires can't be easy.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:19 PM ^
- Ford - The Michigan Difference
- Eisenhower - West Point bad-ass, WWII General bad-ass, and a golfing fiend
- George HW Bush - Baseball player who got some pro attention before WWII
- Teddy Roosevelt - He kills all your animal
- Washington - Regarded as one of the great equestrians of the colonies.
- Kennedy - He played lots of sports until he developed crippling back disease
- Reagan - Played some football in college and he was pumping iron when he was President
- George W. Bush - Played ball like his daddy and owned a baseball team so I guess he gets on the list.
- Wilson - Ran track and played baseball in college
- Obama - Nobody on Capital Hill can take him on the ball court.
No mention of Taft, so he must've slipped to 11.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:25 PM ^
as a former Illinois state wrestling champion and general outdoorsman.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:34 PM ^
Yeah, I was surprised to see the likes of Obama and Dubya on the list. Lincoln was a pretty tough hombre. Andrew Jackson once subdued an armed assassin with his bare hands. He may have had some help from his cane, but still, damn.
October 24th, 2012 at 10:19 PM ^
land on this list? He led the US Olympics, probably doesnt count.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:59 PM ^
I've read this anecdote before:
Historians figure Abraham Lincoln was showing off on April 8, 1865, when, at the end of a long day, he spotted an ax at a Union Army field hospital in Virginia. He’d spent hours shaking hands with thousands of wounded soldiers. A doctor told him his arm was surely tired.
Holding his arm straight out, Lincoln picked up the ax by the butt, with the handle parallel to the ground, and held the 7-pound tool motionless. He was 56 years old and one week away from assassination.
“Strong men who looked on, men accustomed to manual labor, could not hold the same ax in that position for a moment,” wrote Francis Fisher Browne, a Union soldier who authored a biography called “The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln.”
October 24th, 2012 at 2:20 PM ^
Everything I've read about Lincoln makes me think he was an absolutely amazing person, warts and all. Major reason I'm excited about the new biopic with Daniel Day-Lewis. Even if it takes some creative license, Lincoln's story remains one of the most unbelievable in US history.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:42 PM ^
I read a book fairly recently about the Secret Service, and it mentioned that GW Bush was pretty darn athletic. I guess he used to be really competitive and the Secret Service used to send their best runner/cyclist with him because Bush liked the challenge.
It also mentioned that Ford was a good athlete, AND that he was one of the nicer guys to be in office. He was supposedly very self deprecating and complimentary of others when he lost at golf or something like that.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:49 PM ^
that Mr.G.R. Ford was a nice and classy guy, nice to hear it from legit sources, you know, guys that were there.
So proud that ole' #48 was a U-M Grad.
October 24th, 2012 at 2:00 PM ^
When Dubya zinged in a strike while wearing about 45lbs of bullet proof vest in NY... that was awesome.
October 24th, 2012 at 10:20 PM ^
ball player
October 24th, 2012 at 2:21 PM ^
Ford always seemed like a good guy who fell once getting off an airplane and never lived it down. But I guess Chevy Chase is stuck screwing up a good show like Community, so karma is still in effect.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:53 PM ^
October 24th, 2012 at 2:29 PM ^
I will say, reading the Michael Lewis article about Obama in Vanity Fair last month I liked this quote about his pick-up basketball games.
"If you take it easy on him, you’re not invited back," he explained.
Definitely not trying to get a political argument going, but nice to see that he plays ball like a normal player, not as "The President."
Also, don't forget Clinton:
EDIT: Damn embedding - here's the link
October 24th, 2012 at 2:29 PM ^
October 24th, 2012 at 3:08 PM ^
Anybody happen to read about George Washington at #5? It claims he acceled at horse riding, javelin, and feats of strength. I love a good Seinfeld reference.
October 24th, 2012 at 3:36 PM ^
So George Washington was a contributor to the tradition that becaome Fesitivus? Tremendous.
October 24th, 2012 at 4:13 PM ^
As I recall, Richard Nixon was a basketball player in his time at Whittier and a substitute on the football team (the story goes that size prevented him from being a starter). Jimmy Carter played some baseball at Navy as well, I believe, and in his time at Oxford, Bill Clinton dabbled in rugby.
October 24th, 2012 at 4:38 PM ^
I didn't see this mentioned, but W was a decent mountain biker. I know he did a 3-day race on some fairly tech single track.
October 24th, 2012 at 6:39 PM ^
Jimmy Carter would have to be fairly high on the list. He was a distance runner at Annapolis and even in his early fifties as President was running 6:00 per mile 10Ks.
October 24th, 2012 at 7:50 PM ^
6:00 miles, my ass.
As the following article from 1979 states, Carter only resumed running at the age of 54, and the Carter White House was claiming Carter was doing "7:30 per mile." Even if they weren't shining the shit Paul Ryan-style, that's a huge difference from six-minute miles.
The article focuses on Carter's collapse from heat exhaustion while trying foolishly to keep up with better runners during a 10K in Maryland. It was one of the events late in his term that contributed to the popular image of him as a bumbling loser.
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20074710,00.html
October 24th, 2012 at 7:54 PM ^
He used to drive his Lincoln Continental convertible at breakneck speed on his ranch with the top down, throwing empty beer cans over the side as he drove. He liked to pack a bunch of reporters in the back seat and watch them piss their pants as he drove like a maniac.
October 25th, 2012 at 9:16 AM ^
Biden is a car enthusiast and isn't allowed to drive while in office. He's got a Corvette and he can't drive it.
October 24th, 2012 at 10:16 PM ^
I wouldn't bet against him in a fight against any of the Presidents.
October 24th, 2012 at 10:22 PM ^
Teddy any day. He used a .375 H&H Mag while remaining on his horse. That is bad assed.
October 24th, 2012 at 11:21 PM ^
"Until Tom Brady becomes president, Ford's spot as the top athletic dog in the Oval Office is probably safe."
And then the top spot would still belong to a Michigan Man. ^_^ Go Blue!