Sporting Life

THE PRESIDENCY

Americans are one of the world's most sports-conscious people, yet for years they have not had a President who shared that enthusiasm. President Eisenhower's interest was largely con fined to golf and John Kennedy's to swimming and sailing. In the Johnson years, the principal sport was hunting ranch deer from a Lincoln Continental.

Richard Nixon, by contrast, is an all-round sports enthusiast who not only fol lows the sports pages with the attention of a Monday morning quarterback, but has learned to relax by attending sports events and by participating in sports as well.

Nixon has already watched the Washington Senators lose three times this year, which sets some kind of attendance record for modern Presidents.

He enjoys chatting with the players, which has led a few wags to the conclusion that the White House has bet ter relations with Senators on the field than with Senators on the Hill. Bob Short, owner of the Senators, marvels that Nixon "knows more about baseball than I do. I was amazed to hear him say he'd been following the Senators on his trip to Midway." Nixon and David Eisenhower attend games together and frequently talk baseball. One re cent evening, the duo sped out to the stadium, Nixon rushing away from a press conference, David forsaking his bride.

The Senators lost, but Nixon was still op timistic about their future.

No Dumb Questions. As Vice President, Nixon once said: "Baseball is a di version that both stimulates and clears the mind." Yet his interest in the arena does not fade when the World Series ends. He likes hockey, and is the kind of fan who practically joins in from his seat. "When he watches a hockey game, he participates as an extrovert would," says Irving Felt, chairman of Madison Square Garden. "Some of the wildest reactions come from people who are not outgoing by nature. Nixon is spontaneous."

Football is another favorite. At a stadium or in front of a television set, the President follows gridiron action closely, often memorizing key plays. Says White House Aide Bud Wilkinson, former University of Oklahoma football coach: "He can recall what happened in the third quarter of a game he saw twelve years ago--and even remember the name of the guy who made the play." When the Redskins kick off in the fall, Nixon is sure to be at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium rooting them on from the owners' box.

As in baseball, Nixon likes to mingle with the players. Frank Gifford, the sports broadcaster who once played halfback for the Giants, recalls Nixon's days as a New York lawyer: "He is a football nut. He used to come to the dressing room and ask everybody probing questions about the game. When I lived near Yankee Stadium, I used to have people over after the game, maybe a dozen players, and Nixon would come. He didn't ask dumb questions." Sports stars are frequent guests at the White House; Arnold Palmer, Bart Starr and Billy Casper dropped by recently.

In the Blood. Nixon's playing field performance has never quite matched his gusto as a spectator. In college he was a plucky but splinterful tackle. He later proved to be an indifferent golfer. In the '50s he began to do some fishing, and on his first cruise fell overboard twice in a single day. Now Nixon has become an enthusiastic bowler. He bowls frequently while at Camp David, and has blisters to prove it. Recently he rolled a highly respectable line of 204 (his usual score of 150 is not bad for an amateur, either), and he has been bragging about his new high: "That was really great for me. I had five strikes and two spares." He is planning to install a new bowling lane in the White House. The President also swims in the White House pool (unlike L.B.J. and Kennedy, he does not skinny dip) but he prefers the ocean.

In contrast to L.B.J., who preferred speedboating around Lake Lyndon B. Johnson, Nixon cruises aboard the Julie practically every day that he is at Key Biscayne. Two weeks ago he brought the second presidential yacht, the Tricia, out of dry dock to augment the Navy yacht Sequoia on the Potomac. Despite Nixon's love of salt water, he vowed that he would "never ride that" when his daughters gave him a surfboard for Father's Day. But when sport is in a man's blood, who knows? Some day, when the tide is up at San Clemente and the perfect waves start rolling in...

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