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Stress Relief: Exercise and Relaxation at the White House by Geri Zabela Eddins
• Sports Facilities Provide Exercise and Therapy
• Basketball, Mr. President?
• For Kids Only
• When the Weather Outside is Frightful . . .
• Discussion Questions for Young People at Home and in the Classroom
• Reference Sources
Although the well-known proverb “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” is often touted to justify a guilty pleasure, the Pulitzer-prize winning historian and presidential scholar Doris Kearns Goodwin insists that the capacity to relax is one of ten essential qualities that distinguish our country’s most effective presidents. To ensure our nation’s chief executives get all the rest, relaxation, and exercise they need, the White House provides an impressive range of onsite recreational facilities that foster not only high-energy sporting activities, but also quiet evenings with family and friends.
In the midst of the Great Depression school children across the nation were so inspired by Franklin Roosevelt that they collected millions of dimes to help fund the construction of a heated indoor swimming pool that the new president could use to ease the polio that crippled his legs. The pool provided necessary therapy and respite for Roosevelt, but the Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy families also enjoyed it for their own personal exercise and family recreation. Richard Nixon, however, was no swimmer; he preferred bowling. So, upon entering the White House, Nixon demanded that the pool be removed to make additional room for the press. Nixon then had a bowling alley installed in an underground area below the driveway that leads to the North Portico. When Nixon resigned and Gerald Ford unexpectedly rose to the presidency, Ford regretted the loss of the pool. Happily, private donors funded the construction of a new pool—but the new pool was built outside near the Oval Office.
Because the athletic pursuits of our presidents have varied as greatly as their economic policies, the White House has been improved with more facilities beyond the swimming pool and bowling alley. When golfer Dwight Eisenhower entered the White House, a putting green was added to the lawn outside the Oval Office, complete with its own sand trap. George H. W. Bush required nothing new to be built—he enjoyed playing tennis on the existing tennis courts. But two additions were made during Bill Clinton’s administration: a new practice green and a jogging track were installed on the south lawn. Much to the dismay of the Secret Service, Clinton preferred jogging around the streets of D.C.—often disrupting traffic—rather than running the secure White House path.
Presidential candidates suffer all types of indignities along the campaign trail—from screaming hecklers to being asked to play an unfamiliar sport as if they were show dogs. During the 2008 campaign President Obama amused many at a stop in Pennsylvania where he aptly demonstrated that his athletic abilities do not include bowling. He did prove himself to be a good sport, however, as he grinned through his endless series of gutter balls! It is now a matter of public record that President Obama is no bowler, but an avid basketball player. During his teenage years Obama embraced basketball with a furious passion and played on his high school team for three seasons. His prowess on the court—particularly his finesse at making jump shorts—in fact earned him the nickname “Barry O’Bomber.” Regarding his years playing high school basketball, Obama noted to a Sports Illustrated journalist that he learned about “being part of something and finishing it up. And I learned a lot about discipline, about handling disappointments, about being more team-oriented and realizing that not everything is about you.” Obama has continued to indulge his passion for basketball in the years following high school, even shooting hoops with American troops in Kuwait and playing with his campaign aides on Election Day.
Unfortunately for President Obama, the White House provides only a small half basketball court. Though he quipped to comedian Jimmy Kimmel during the campaign that “we're getting rid of the bowling alley and replacing it with a basketball court,” no such plans have been made public at this time, although National Basketball Association officials have offered their assistance in constructing a regulation court indoors at the White House. And even if a new court is not built at the White House, the president does have access to a full court at Camp David, where he can play with friends, family, and members of his cabinet, who Obama has proudly proclaimed make up “the best basketball-playing cabinet in American history.”
Living in the public eye can be terribly stressful for a child, and presidential parents often go to great lengths to make their children as comfortable as possible. Jacqueline Kennedy had a trampoline built into the ground so that Caroline and John Jr. were not visible to pedestrians as they bounced into the air. Jimmy Carter designed a tree house for daughter Amy, and most recently the Obama’s installed a wooden swing set complete with treehouse, tire swing, and climbing wall on the south lawn of the White House.
Indoor recreation is not limited to the bowling alley. Presidential families can play pool and ping-pong in the game room located on the third floor of the White House. In fact, billiards has served as standard White House recreation since the early nineteenth century when John Quincy Adams installed the first pool table. Adams initially billed the government for the $61 it cost for the table, cues, and billiard balls, but the public was outraged that he sought tax dollars for such a personal purchase. Adams eventually caved to the public dissent and reimbursed the government.
In 1942 during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration a family theater was constructed on the ground floor of the East Wing, complete with forty upholstered seats for larger gatherings. Over the years presidents have had the pleasure of choosing any movie of their choice to watch whenever they desired—even pre-released blockbusters. Bill Clinton has remarked about the theater, “The best perk out in the White House is not Air Force One or Camp David or anything else. It’s the wonderful movie theater I get here, because people send me these movies all the time.” Though George W. Bush enjoyed watching films such as Hotel Rwanda and Austin Powers, he and other presidents have also put the theater to a more practical purpose—practicing their delivery of the State of the Union address.
Read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “The Secrets of the Great Presidents” at:
www.parade.com/hot-topics/2008/09/secrets-of-great-presidents.
Read a list of facts and trivia regarding sports and recreation at the White House at:
www.whitehousehistory.org/06/subs/06_b02.html.
Read more about how basketball influenced President Obama’s life in the Sports Illustrated article “The Audacity of Hoops: How Basketball Helped Shape Obama” at:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/alexander_wolff/01/13/obama/index.html
See a picture of Amy Carter playing in her White House treehouse at:
http://tinyurl.com/cj4g7h
See the Obama’s new swing set at:
http://tinyurl.com/ckrzp5
Discussion Questions for Young People at Home and in the ClassroomPresident Obama has stated that he would like to add a basketball court to the White House. If you were president, would you be content with the existing facilities? Or would you like to add something new? What would you choose to add?
Private donors often pick up the tab for renovations to the White House, and the National Basketball Association has offered to front the cost of a basketball court. Do you think tax dollars should be used to construct new facilities desired by a new president? Why or why not?
West, J.B. Upstairs at the White House: My Life With the First Ladies. New York:
Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc., 1973.
“Barack Obama picks ‘best cabinet basketball team in history.’” 13 February 2009. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/3796397/
Barack-Obama-picks-best-cabinet-basketball-team-in-history.html
“Obama's swing set: Surprise, girls!” 14 March 2009. www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/03/obamas_swing_set_surprise_girl.html
“Sports and Recreation Facts and Trivia.” 29 January 2009. www.whitehousehistory.org/06/subs/06_b02.html
“The Audacity of Hoops: How basketball helped shape Obama.” 9 February 2009. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/alexander_wolff/01/13/obama/index.html
“The best perk in the White House.” 9 February 2009.
www.guardian.co.uk/film/2004/jun/04/1
“The Presidential Pickup Game.” 29 January 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122964718901120311.html
“The White House Museum: Family Theatre.” 29 January 2009.
www.whitehousemuseum.org/east-wing/theater.htm
“White House Letter; Even Bush, No Movie Buff, Enjoys Getting Big Picture.” 9 February 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/c8ay66
©2009 Geri Zabela Eddins; The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance
