WHITE HOUSE SPORT

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 85, 11 April 1933, Page 11

WHITE HOUSE SPORT

PRESIDENT AT PLAY.

WASHINGTON AS ATHLETE.

SUCCESSORS' RECREATION'S.

(By a Special Correspondent.)'

WASHINGTON, March 4.

When President Roosevelt takes to the water for recreation, it will be in keeping with a. well established precedent for occupants of the White House, who often have been men knowing the lure of the outdoors: In the early days, it was natural that a President of vigorous mould, seeking to lay down for a while the burdens of office, should find solace on trail or stream. Such were the pastimes, they had always followed.

In the last few months, the public has become accustomed to seeing Franklin Roosevelt cast as fisherman, swimmer or boatman. Those are not acquired tastes, but the things, he has done since 'boyhood. At Groton, the young Roosevelt played baseball and football, but when he went to Harvard it was a place on the crew to which he aspired. Fortune was not with him there, however.

George Washington set the mode for the Presidents of active bent, spending hours in the saddle. In his earlier days, lie was an athlete of no mean ability, being skilled in foot racing and jumping.

John Quincy Adams also had a decided liking for athletics, particularly swimming. and when- he first, caine to the White House was accustomed to arise at , r > o'clock, walk to the Potomac in company with his Swiss steward, and plunge in. Sometime® he would pass an hour or so in the water, making the round trip from the mouth of the Tiber to Long Bridge.

Andrew Jackson, who followed the second Adams to the White House, was a noted marksman.

Abraham Lincoln's great recreation was bowling, and in this he often indulged when he came to the capital as a member of the Thirtieth Congress. In liis boyhood, he had won a reputation as a wrestler.

Ulysses. Grant's skill as a soldier was equalled by that with which he could handle horses. From boyhood Grant took an interest in horses, and when he went to West Point he was only an ordinary student, but his equestrian feats stirred wonderment.

In the Mexican War, according to one account, Grant "was called the best horseman in. the Army, when he raced through bullet-swept streets in Monterey, riding Indian fashion, body close to the horse's side, and keeping a grip with one foot liunjr over tlie saxlcllcj and one liand clutching the mane. Cleveland Ardent Fisherman. Grover Cleveland, a great lover of the outdoors, was never happier than witl rod or gun in hand. In particular Cleveland was an ardent fisherman, and or his expeditions in pursuit of this pas lime his companion often was Josepl Jefferson, the actor, who gained fame with his portrayal of Rip Van Winkle. There have been several President? ,khb did. a.; great, deal of walking arounc Washington, among them Andrew John son, but Benjamin Harrison, who split Cleveland's two terms, probably had the unique distinction of being the greatest walker of them all. . It was nothing for Harrison to gc from the Executive Mansion to the Capitol and return, plodding along witt hands behind his back- —and alone, The President was always recognised or these trips, but "he was not mterferec with in the least, not even by the most importunate office-seeker; it was gene rally understood lie wab out for a constitutioiial, and did not desire company, said oae writer at the time of his death The accession to the Presidency oi Theodore Roosevelt marked a new era bringing in a man who _ indulged ir some outdoor game —tennis along witr the other diversions. Theodore Roosevelt doubtlessly came to the White House with a'wider varietj of recreational tastes and more native ability to follow them than any of the other chief executives. As a youngster, it is related, he Aac gone in for athletics to build up a con stitution that was not the strongest and from that time on he lived witt vim. He boxed, rode, mm, walked hunted, wrestled, sailed boats —in ' faet ran through the whole category of those sports where stamina is an importan clement. He was particularly fond o those activities where personal, contact enters' strongest, among them boxing and this eventually proved disastrous. As the former President related in an autobiography, he was wont to put or the cloves with his aides while m the Wlute House, and in one bout a young captain of artillery landed a swing thai permanently impaired the* sight Roosevelt's left. eye. Glad it was not the other eye, which, as Mr. Roosevelt explained, would have interfered witr his shooting, he nevertheless decided tc acknowledge that I had become an elderly man, and would have to stoj boxing." Then he took up the Japanese art of jiu-jitsu. "Tennis Cabinet." Theodore Roosevelt also played tennis a great deal here, and his companions oil the courts came to be dubbed the "Tennis Cabinet." This included such figures as Major-General Leonard Wood, his old "buddy" of rough rider days; Ambassador Jusserand, of France, Gif Ford Pinchot, now Governor of Pennsylvania; James Garfield, Secretary of Interior; Robert Bacon, and others. One chronicler has said that there is no picture on record of Roosevelt on the courts, as the then President felt the public would consider the game too frivolous for a high official. It was this spirit, presumably, that prompted him to send word to William Howard Taft, an' ardent golfer, that this game would - hurt him in the public mind, when newspapers told of Taft playing golf, after liis nomination for the Presidency. Mr. Taft was the first President to golf and was followed by Presidents Wilson and Harding. President Taft also set another historic sports precedent, when, oil April H, 1910, he threw out the first ball at the • opening American League game between Washington and Philadelphia, this being the first time a President had officiated in this capacity. In the intervening 23 years, this "first-ball-first-game" has actually attained the status of a recognised Presidential function, for now, the opening of the American League season is always fixed here, that this ceremony*may launch the schedule. Franklin Roosevelt is no stranger to this, as he officiated at the flag-raising ■which ushered in the 1917 season—the war year—when he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. '

The election of Woodrow Wilson put the second golfer in the White House, the President being often on the course of the Washington Golf and Country Club, where, invariably, his partner was his personal physician, Admiral Cary T. Grayson, who, this year, heads the Inaugural Committee. President Wilson was also a baseball fan with a good working knowledge of the game, and like his predecessor, was on hand to throw out the first ball when Washington opened the season of 1913 here against New York.

Coolidge's "Electric Horse." Warren Harding, like President Taft, golfed at the Chevy Chase Club. President Harding generally was a member of a foursome, whose other participants were associates of his days in the Senate—Senator Kellogg of Minnesota* who, afterward was Ambassador to England and Secretary of State, Senator Freylinghuvsen, of New Jersey, and ■Senator Hale, of Maine. The late Senator Wesley L. Jones, of Washington, was occasionally a companion on the course. President Harding also went in for fishing.

Harding was the last of the golfing Presidents. When Calvin Coolidge succeeded him, he came to the White House without any sports hobbies, confining his exercise up to that time to walking. When the Vermonter returned to civil life, however, he took with him a newlydeveloped taste for fishing. Colonel'E. W. Starling, assistant chief of the White House secret service force, was the first to lure President Coolidge into the. ranks of the Waltonites, and in the summer of 1926, which he passed in the Adirondacks, Mr. Coolidge acquired more water lore from a native guide.

During all of Ms time here, Mr. Coolidge made walking a recreation, and lie also gave the nation a chuckle when it developed that he had taken up another form of exercise—the celebrated "electric horse."

Like Grover Cleveland, Herbert Hoover was a dyed-in-the-wool fisherman, and this sport he pursued whenever the occasion presented itself. Mr. Hoover had become skilled in this art years before he shouldered the cares of the "Presidency, ar.d it was to this he turned when he sought rest.

The retiring President - also was a believer in physical exercise, adopting the medicine ball for this purpose. As a result, his "medicine ball cabinet" composed of friends takes rank along with the "tennis cabinet" of Theodore Roosevelt. —(N.A.N". A.)