Please note that the following is a digitized version of a selected article from White House History Quarterly, Issue 55, originally released in print form in 2019. Single print copies of the full issue can be purchased online at Shop.WhiteHouseHistory.org No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All photographs contained in this journal unless otherwise noted are copyrighted by the White House Historical Association and may not be reproduced without permission. Requests for reprint permissions should be directed to rights@whha.org. Contact books@whha.org for more information. Š 2019 White House Historical Association. All rights reserved under international copyright conventions.
The First Fan IN THE White House Iconic Moments with America’s Champions S T E WA R T D . M CL A U R I N
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“gentlemen start your engines,” a familiar command but one that made history on July 4, 1984, when it was broadcast by President Ronald Reagan from aboard Air Force One to start the Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway.1 Not only would it be the day that Richard Petty would capture his historic two hundredth victory at Daytona, but it would also be the first time Air Force One would land behind the speedway in full view of the fans. Reagan began his career as a radio sports announcer, and the sports included car racing. So he felt at home behind the microphone that day at Daytona, where used his broadcasting talent to call some play-by-play. He was the first sitting president to attend a NASCAR race.
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Like Reagan, many presidents bring a lifelong love of sport with them to the White House. And like Reagan, every sitting president is in a sense the nation’s “first fan,” adding to the spectators’ excitement—and often making history—with a show of support. Whether it is throwing out the first pitch of the season or shaking the hands of the victors in the East Room after the final game, every moment of presidential enthusiasm for a matchup is newsworthy and reflects the passion the commander-in-chief shares with the nation for sports of every kind.
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The Alabama Crimson Tide poses on the South Portico with President Donald Trump while celebrating its NCAA championship, 2018. above and opposite bottom left
Ronald Reagan as a sportscaster with radio station WHO in the 1930s and behind the microphone at Daytona on July 4, 1984. He received a signed flag from Richard Petty who captured his two-hundredth victory during the race. opposite top and bottom right
Air Force One takes off from behind the Daytona International Speedway with President George W. Bush aboard, 2004. The president had attended the NASCAR Nextel Cup Daytona 500. The previous year Bush had welcomed the best drivers of the 2003 NASCAR season and their colorful cars to the White House.
PREVIOUSE SPREAD: WHITE HOUSE PHOTO / LEFT TO RIGHT: ALAMY / GETTY IMAGES
Gentlemen start your Engines!— Ronald Reagan
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T O P : A P I M A G E S / B O T T O M L E F T : G E T T Y I M A G E S / B O T T O M R I G H T : S T E P H E N JA F F E , A F P, G E T T Y I M A G E S
Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.— John F. Kennedy
L E F T : R I C H A R D N I X O N F O U N D AT I O N / R I G H T : G E T T Y I M A G E S
by saving the once-brutal game of football from eradication, President Theodore Roosevelt paved the way for his successors to make the most of it. High school and college yearbooks reveal that presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Trump participated in the sport. All remained lifelong fans and during their presidencies, like more than a century of their counterparts, welcomed countless numbers of national champions to the White House. The Kennedy family were famous for playing touch football at their home in Hyannis Port.2
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CL OCKWISE FROM TOP LEF T: DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM/ GERALD FORD PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM / N E W Y O R K M I L I TA R Y A C A D E M Y
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Future presidents play football: Richard M. Nixon, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald R. Ford, and Donald Trump (wearing number 8 in the second row) .
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Hey, there’s a Bears fan living in the White House!— Barack Obama in 1986 the tragic loss of the space shuttle Challenger forced the cancellation of President Reagan’s plans to welcome the Chicago Bears to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl victory. Twenty-five years later the invitation was finally issued again by President Obama, who explained, “Shortly after I took office, someone at the NFL realized, ‘hey, there’s a Bears fan living in the White House!’”3 Like many Super Bowl champions before and since, the Bears presented the president with a team jersey and posed for a team photo (right).
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O B A M A : P H O T O B Y M A R K W I L S O N, G E T T Y I M A G E S / T R U M P : A P P H O T O , S U S A N WA L S H / B R O A D C A S T B O O T H : F R A N K M I C E L O T TA , G E T T Y I M A G E S C L I N T O N : A P P H O T O , W I L F R E D O L E E / B U S H : P H O T O B Y M A R K W I L S O N, G E T T Y I M A G E S / R E A G A N : R O N A L D R E A G A N P R E S I D E N T I A L M U S E U M A N D L I B R A R Y
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Lifelong football fans, former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton join sports broadcasters James Brown, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, and Jimmy Johnson in the Fox broadcast booth ahead of Super Bowl XXXIX, in which the Patriots defeated the Eagles, 2005. counterclockwise from opposite top
Super Bowl champions visit the White House: Barack Obama with the Chicago Bears, 2011; George W. Bush with the Indianapolis Colts, 2007; William J. Clinton with the Dallas Cowboys, 1993; and Donald J. Trump with the New England Patriots, 2017.
It is tails. . . . May the best team win.— Ronald Reagan on january 20, 1985, Ronald Reagan became the first president to perform the Super Bowl coin toss. 4 With the game scheduled the same Sunday that he privately took the Oath of Office for his second term, Reagan did not travel to the match between the Miami Dolphins and the San Francisco 49ers but was shown on live TV at the White House as he flipped the coin that landed tails up. Reagan’s public Inauguration was held the next day in the Capitol Rotunda.
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It’s an incredible honor for us.— Damien Harris In 2018, ahead of the Crimson Tide’s seventh visit to the White House, Damien Harris, the team’s senior running back, explained that the team was honored by the invitation.5 For most college teams, the opportunity to meet the president comes much less frequently than it has for the Crimson Tide, but such invitations have become as much of a tradition as those made to professional teams. Among the earliest NCAA football champions to visit the White House was the University of Southern California, which called on President Herbert Hoover in 1931 (above).
right top and second rows
On November 17, 2017, President Donald Trump welcomed seventeen NCAA champion teams to the White House. Among the many sports and colleges represented were: Row 1: University of Oklahoma softball team; University of Virginia men’s tennis; West Virginia University rifle team; and McKendree University women’s bowling team. Row 2: University of Washington women’s rowing team; Ohio State University men’s volleyball team; Texas A&M University women’s equestrian team; and University of Utah ski team.
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Row 3: Alabama’s CrimsonTide has claimed seventeen national championships between 1932 and 2018. Pictured are visits made to celebrate with President Clinton in 1993; with President Obama in 2012, 2013, and 2016; and with President Trump in 2018. Row 4: The University of Connecticut Women’s basketball team won eleven national champion ships between 1995 and 2016. Pictured are visits to celebrate with President George W. Bush in 2002, and with President Obama in 2009, 2010, 2015, and 2016.
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A L L T R U M P P H O T O S : W H I T E H O U S E P H O T O B Y A N D R E A H A N K S / R O W 3 : FA R L E F T C L I N T O N P R E S I D E N T I A L L I B R A R Y A N D M U S E U M ; A L L O T H E R S A P P H O T O S ROW 4: CENTER: GETTY IMAGES; ALL OTHERS AP PHOTOS / OPPOSITE TOP LEFT: AP PHOTO
One of the great things about living here is that you don’t have to sign up for a baseball fantasy camp to meet your heroes. It turns out, they come here.— George W. Bush
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C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T : A L A M Y / L I B R A R Y O F C O N G R E S S / A P P H O T O , S U S A N WA L S H / A P P H O T O / N A T I O N A L A R C H I V E S A N D R E C O R D S A D M I N I S T R A T I O N / G E O R G E W. B U S H P R E S I D E N T I A L L I B R A R Y A N D M U S E U M
president george w. bush loves sports and held forty-eight events to honor teams and individual athletes during his eight years in office.6 A onetime owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, Bush introduced children’s T-ball games on the White House lawn (below right). On October 30, 2001, in one of the most iconic moments in sports history, President Bush threw the ceremonial opening pitch at Yankee Stadium to open game 3 of the World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees. Major League Baseball had been entirely suspended for six days following the attacks of 9/11, and it was Bush’s decision to wait to throw the traditional presidential ceremonial pitch of the World Series in New York rather than at game 1 in Arizona. After visiting with firefighters and first responders at Ground Zero, he wore an FDNY sweater to deliver the pitch (above right). The historic event is considered a moment of healing for the nation and was seen as a demonstration that life would go on.
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Professional baseball champions have been welcomed to the White House since at least September 5, 1924, when the Washington Senators called on President Calvin Coolidge after winning the American League pennant. Left: more recently, Ronald Reagan was given a jersey and baseball bat by the 1988 World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers in a Rose Garden ceremony. President Clinton was presented with a team cap and shirt by the 1998 World Series champions, the New York Yankees, during a ceremony on the South Lawn.
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O n Feb r ua r y 2 2 , 1 9 8 0 , President Jimmy Carter held an unusual dual White House reception for two champion teams from one city—Pittsburgh. The Pirates, were winners of the 1979 World Series and the Steelers were 1980 Super Bowl champions.
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I always root for the home team. And my home now is in Washington.— Richard Nixon
K E N N E D Y A N D N I X O N : A P P H O T O S / F O R D : F R E D R O S S , T O R O N T O S TA R V I A G E T T Y I M A G E S / C L I N T O N : A P P H O T O , N I C K WA S S / O B A M A : A P P H O T O / E VA N V U C C I
richard nixon, who has been ranked first on a list of presidential spectators,7 followed Washington sports enthusiastically as congressman, vice president, and eventually president. He often appeared in the stands and developed friendships with local coaches. He is seen entering his box, which bears a misspelled Presidential Seal, at RFK Stadium (right) for a game between the Senators and the Yankees in 1969. Like Nixon, most presidents have attended local matches—often seated behind the presidential seal as was John F. Kennedy in 1961 as he watched the Senators in the American League opening game (below).
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below
While President Nixon roots for his hometown Washington Redskins at RFK Stadium in a matchup with the Dallas Cowboys in 1969, it is possible that future president George H. W. Bush, a few seats to the right, is cheering for the Texas team.
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Rather than miss a Washington Redskins game, Gerald Ford tunes in to the televised coverage while traveling in Canada, 1977.
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President Clinton and New York Senator Patrick Moynihan watch a local hockey game as the Washington Capitals play the Buffalo Sabres during game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals at the MCI Center, 1998.
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President Obama watches the Chicago Bulls play the Washington Wizards in a match between his two “hometown� basketball teams, 2009.
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As you come here to the Capital of your country, and to the first house of this land which belongs to all of you . . . the eyes of the entire Nation are upon you.— Lyndon B. Johnson
TOP: GET TY IMAGES / LBJ LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
in welcoming the U.S. Olympic team to the White House in 1968, Lyndon Johnson expressed gratitude for the team’s pursuit of excellence at the games.8 He shook hands with the athletes from the summer games in a receiving line (below). Earlier that year he congratulated Gold Medal figure skater Peggy Fleming, pinning a blossom from the Jackson Magnolia on her coat himself (right). Athletes representing the United States at the Olympics and in other international competitions have been welcomed at the White House individually and as teams for many decades.
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top and center left
The 1996 U.S. Olympic team fills the South Portico and its double stairs in a colorful photograph taken during a visit to the Clinton White House. Olympic medalists have often met individually with the president as well. In 1961, President Kennedy met in the Oval Office with Wilma Rudolph, winner of three Gold Medals in the 1960 games.
ALL IMAGES: GETTY IMAGES
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In addition to the Olympians, competitors in a wide range of international sports are also often welcomed to the White House. President Hoover poses with members of the U.S. and Japanese Davis Cup teams during a May 26, 1929, visit, and Dennis Conner, skipper of the Stars & Stripes, presents America’s Cup to President Reagan following his team’s historic recapture of the prize from Australia, 1987.
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I believe with all my heart in athletics, in sport— Theodore Roosevelt
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Theodore Roosevelt (above in 1905) loved vigorous outdoor sports including canoeing. Like Roosevelt, President Reagan embraced many sports as a participant as well as a spectator. Following the first NCAA basketball championship in Georgetown University’s history, Reagan posed with Hoya star player Patrick Ewing for the cover of the November 1984 Sports Illustrated, in the Map Room of the White House.
above
In 1921, legendary baseball hero Babe Ruth visited Warren G. Harding in the White House, but he would also meet a future president on the baseball field. In 1948, Yale Baseball Captain George H. W. Bush accepted Ruth’s autobiography.
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B A B E R U T H : A L A M Y / R E A G A N M A R K R E I N S T E I N, G E T T Y I M A G E S / R O O S E V E LT : L I B R A R Y O F C O N G R E S S
with his unqualified enthusiasm for sports of every kind Theodore Roosevelt (right, canoing) set the stage for many White House traditions to follow. While favorite sports vary from one president to the next, all have embraced and shared in the nation’s love of competition and pride in victory. Before, during, and after their White House years the presidents have served as the nation’s “first fan” whether as spectator, participant, or the first to congratulate a champion.
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C A R T E R : E R I K L E S S E R , Z U M A P R E S S . C O M / E I S E N H O W E R : G E T T Y I M A G E S / F O R D : J O E M C N A L LY, G E T T Y I M A G E S / H O O V E R : O L E N C O L L E C T I O N , D I A M O N D I M A G E S , G E T T Y I M A G E S
A lifelong baseball fan, former President Carter, with his wife, Rosalynn, in 2010, can often be found in the stands during Atlanta Braves games. below
President Eisenhower’s passion for golf continued well into his retirement. In 1968, he played a round with President Johnson in Palm Springs, California.
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Former New York Yankees outfielder Joe DiMaggio greets former President Hoover at Yankee Stadium, 1959.
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In 2004, former President Ford posed with a 1930s-era football, the kind he used at the University of Michigan when he played center and linebacker for the Wolverines.
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For an account of the event, see “Start Your Engines: American Race Cars at the Reagan Library,” press release, May 16, 2011, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, www.reaganlibrary.com.
2. John F. Kennedy reportedly conveyed this aphorism to Pierre Salinger. William Safire, Safire’s Political Dictionary, new and expanded ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 695. 3. Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President in Welcoming the 1985 Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears,” October 7, 2011, online at https:// obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. 4. See the account and quotations in Dave Anderson, “Super Bowl XIX: Ceremony for the President and the King,” New York Times, January 21, 1985, C4. 5. Damien Harris, quoted in David Nakamura and Cindy Boren, “‘Roll Tide’: Alabama Football Team Visits Trump at the White House,” Washington Post, April 10, 2018.
7. Richard Nixon, quoted in Dave Anderson, “Nixon Pledges Allegiance to Redskins,” New York Times, January 2, 1973, 47. For Nixon as “first” on a list of presidential baseball spectators, see “President Richard Nixon Baseball Related Quotations,” Baseball Almanac, online at https://www.baseball-almanac.com. See also “President Nixon: ‘Baseball’s Number One Fan,’” posted June 11, 2014, Richard Nixon Foundation, online at https://www.nixonfoundation.org. 8. Lyndon B. Johnson, “Remarks to Members of the Davis Cup Team,” January 15, 1964, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, November 22, 1963–June 30, 1964 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1965), 1:107. 9. Theodore Roosevelt, “Address at the Prize Day Exercises at Groton School, Groton, Mass.,” May 24, 1904, Presidential Addresses and State Papers, April 17 1904, to May 9, 1905, by Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Review of Reviews Company, 1910), 3:12.
6. George W. Bush, “Remarks by the President in Photo Opportunity with Members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, The East Room,” White House press release, March 30, 2001, online at https://georgewbushwhitehouse.archives.gov.
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While flying by helicopter over the South Lawn of the White House and the Ellipse, President Kennedy likely got a glimpse of his staff playing baseball against members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff. Second from left to right are Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, congressional relations aide Richard Donahue, and special counsel to the president Ted Sorensen. The White House team lost 10 to 7. BETTMANN / CONTRIBUTOR
notes 1.