[Mick]

Not really a trivia question, I'm just curious as to your opinions. 

Which U. S. President was the best athlete and why?

Washington - he had a great arm (threw a silver dollar across the Rappahannock River).  Based on that, he could have been a great MLB pitcher.   ;)

maybe jerry Ford, he did play football for UM

Those are two of the four I would think of. Ford and UMich were undefeated in 1932 and 1933 and Ford was the star. Both the Packers and the Bears wanted Gerald Ford in 1935, but he made it clear he wasn't going to be a pro. He was probably the best pure athlete.

Three interesting points on Washington: 1) What occasioned this question is that I read that Washington and his aide-de-camp used to play catch regularly during the Revolutionary War. Washington had 32 aides de camps, so I don't know which one.  2) Washington and his army played rounders, the forerunner of baseball. 3) At one point, Washington orders two of his men to throw a rock up onto a high plateau. The two men argued about which were going to do it, Washington gets frustrated and says "fine, I'll do it", gets off his horse, and throws a rock very high on a plateau.

The other three I had in mind are Dwight Eisenhower (played football at West Point, started at LB, tackled Jim Thorpe, didn't make the baseball team, played a lot of golf), George H. W. Bush (played baseball at Yale) and Lincoln, who was apparently a champion wrestler, losing only one out of 200+ matches. Also a great handball player and also a very good baseball player.

Roosevelt (Teddy) was a superb horseman. He participated in crew and boxing at Hahvahd and FDR rowed crew at Harvard and was a serious swimmer and sailor. Taft wrestled at Yale. Woodrow Wilson was a centerfielder at Davidson, but didn't play when he transferred to Princeton. Reagan played football and was captain of the swim team at Eureka College and called Cubs games on the radio when he graduated.

[Mick]

Not really a trivia question, I'm just curious as to your opinions. 

Which U. S. President was the best athlete and why?

Washington - he had a great arm (threw a silver dollar across the Rappahannock River).  Based on that, he could have been a great MLB pitcher.   ;)

maybe jerry Ford, he did play football for UM

Those are two of the four I would think of. Ford and UMich were undefeated in 1932 and 1933 and Ford was the star. Both the Packers and the Bears wanted Gerald Ford in 1935, but he made it clear he wasn't going to be a pro. He was probably the best pure athlete.

Three interesting points on Washington: 1) What occasioned this question is that I read that Washington and his aide-de-camp used to play catch regularly during the Revolutionary War. Washington had 32 aides de camps, so I don't know which one.  2) Washington and his army played rounders, the forerunner of baseball. 3) At one point, Washington orders two of his men to throw a rock up onto a high plateau. The two men argued about which were going to do it, Washington gets frustrated and says "fine, I'll do it", gets off his horse, and throws a rock very high on a plateau.

The other three I had in mind are Dwight Eisenhower (played football at West Point, started at LB, tackled Jim Thorpe, didn't make the baseball team, played a lot of golf), George H. W. Bush (played baseball at Yale) and Lincoln, who was apparently a champion wrestler, losing only one out of 200+ matches. Also a great handball player and also a very good baseball player.

Roosevelt (Teddy) was a superb horseman. He participated in crew and boxing at Hahvahd and FDR rowed crew at Harvard and was a serious swimmer and sailor. Taft wrestled at Yale. Woodrow Wilson was a centerfielder at Davidson, but didn't play when he transferred to Princeton. Reagan played football and was captain of the swim team at Eureka College and called Cubs games on the radio when he graduated.