Soccer Dad

Assorted insanities

Thanks to Dr. Sanity for including a link to my Kofi Annan farewell in the latest Carnival of the Insanities.

Also of note she linked to Chevy Chase's fond memories of ex-President and Mrs. Ford.

The requests were understandable, I guess. You see, I made a reputation for myself 30 years ago on “Saturday Night Live” in part because of a number of sketches and “Weekend Updates” that I wrote or appeared in ridiculing Mr. Ford for his apparent “stumble-bumbling” (though he was perhaps the best athlete to have been president) and making fun of his presidency.

Luckily for me, Mr. Ford had a sense of humor.

As if to emphasize Chase's point about Ford there's an article at SI that tells us

In fact, Ford was one of the nation's fittest and most athletic presidents.

Ford, who has died at age 93, played center on the University of Michigan football team, where he was a three-year letter winner. His teams enjoyed consecutive undefeated, national championship seasons in 1932 and 1933. He was the Wolverines' most valuable player in 1934 and, on Jan. 1, 1935, he played in a college all-star game known today as the East West Shrine Game.

Michigan later retired Ford's No. 48 jersey.

During a 1934 game against the University of Chicago, Ford became the only future U.S. president to tackle a future Heisman Trophy winner when he brought down halfback Jay Berwanger, who won the first Heisman the following year.

And some nice memories from Michael Bamburger

I went to see Jerry Ford two years ago, at his home office in Rancho Mirage, in the California desert where he played so much poor golf. Other sports came more easily to him: tennis, running, skiing, small-boat sailing, swimming and, of course, football.

Douglas Brinkley, the presidential historian, calls Ford "our great athlete-president." No president was a more accomplished athlete, even though Chevy Chase did so much to dispel that idea. He was a sportsman through and through. Ford's secret service man watched him swim daily and talked Michigan football with him all season long. He tried to prepare me for a physically diminished man, a consequence of a minor stroke. "Before that, he could've arm-wrestled anybody," the security man said.

Blogdigger tags: Gerald Ford, Chevy Chase.