TOP 10: Sports presidents

10. George W. Bush
He may be dumber than a sack of hammers, but Dubya had some reasonable athletic chops in his day.
He was a cheerleader at Andover (does that count?), and of course, made one of the best ceremonial first pitches in baseball history.
Yankee Stadium, slurve on the black. Strike one. Hey, and he co-owned the Texas Rangers for a while, too.
On the downside, he was almost taken out by a pretzel.

9. Herbert Hoover

He may have been one of the worst presidents ever, but he was an accomplished and avid fisherman.
"All men are equal before fish," Hoover once said.

8. Ronald Reagan

Here's another one that may be a bit of a stretch. Anyway, Reagan served as a lifeguard when he was young and did play the
Gipper in the classic movie Knute Rockne All American. And he also played hard-drinking pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander
and worked as a baseball play-by-play man in the 1930s. So, at the very least, he looked athletic and could swim.

7. William Howard Taft

In 1910, President Taft became the first oval office denizen to throw out a ceremonial first pitch at a major league game.
That tradition has been with us ever since. It's also worth noting that, at 320 pounds, Taft could've made a passable NFL lineman.















Gerald Ford was a standout gridder at Michigan.

6. Richard Nixon

"Tricky Dick" was a famous football enthusiast, but did you know he once drew up plays for late
Washington Redskins coach George Allen? Too bad they weren't passed along to Richie Petitbon.
Then again, the one play the Redskins did allegedly run at the behest of Nixon resulted in a 13-yard loss.
Coach Allen would neither confirm nor deny that the play in question was concocted by Nixon.

5. John F. Kennedy

Touch football on the lawn of the Kennedy compound? Not really. Clinging to the wreckage of a sunken
PT boat until you make it to the safety of a not-all-that-nearby island? Counts as a sport in our book.

4. George H.W. Bush

A standout first baseman on the Yale baseball team, Bush 41 went on to become prez and puke on the Japanese.

3. Teddy Roosevelt

America's first self-styled "cowboy president" was also a dedicated big-game hunter.
He killed his first buffalo in 1883 and went on to shoot many buffalos and Spaniards over the years.

2. George Washington

Yep, the founding father himself once spent time as a commercial fisherman. He also liked to drink a lot of whiskey.

1. Gerald Ford

Okay, so he wasn't much of a chief exec. However, when it comes to athletic chops, President Ford is unmatched.
Ford was a star center for the University of Michigan football team and also served as an
assistant football coach while earning his law degree at Yale.



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