President
Gerald Ford’s good friend Peter Secchia jovially referred to the president as
“Bubba.” Secchia explained: “I used to joke around with the president because
he was a football player at the University of Michigan, and I went to Michigan
State.”
Ford
would ask: “Peter, why do you call me Bubba?’ Secchia replied: “Football
players are all Bubba.”
Secchia
had to back-pedal on that statement, however, and was more than glad to do it,
once Charles Aaron “Bubba” Smith of Orange, Texas, walked into Spartan Stadium on
the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing in the mid-1960s.
As
a 6-foot-8, 285-pound defensive end, Smith was a menacing giant during that era,
and he instantly became college football’s one and only “Bubba.”
As
Jerry Ford led the Michigan Wolverines to national titles in 1932 and 1933,
Bubba did the same for the MSU Spartans in 1965 and 1966.
The
very first former U.S. president to suit up and play college football in 1911 was
Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was a demon on the gridiron, playing for the Army Black
Knights while attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
Eisenhower
was a two-way star, the premier running back on offense as well as a linebacker
on the defensive side. He was known as the “Kansas Cyclone” for his speed.
Near
the end of his sophomore season in 1912, Eisenhower severely injured his knee
in a game against Tufts College of Medford, Mass., and his playing days came to
an end.
Fortunately,
West Point chose not to discharge Eisenhower on grounds that he would be
physically incapable of military leadership. He graduated in 1915 and became a
highly decorated U.S. Army general.
President
Eisenhower said: “I believe that football, perhaps more than any other sport,
tends to instill in men the feeling that victory comes through hard work, team
play, self-confidence and an enthusiasm that amounts to dedication.”
In
the early 1930s, former president Richard Nixon was a backup lineman at
Whittier (Calif.) College, a small college named after poet John Greenleaf
Whittier. The team was aptly nicknamed the Poets.
Nixon
“was undersized for a tackle, but he was too uncoordinated and slow-footed to
play in the backfield,” wrote his biographer Evan Thomas. Dagnabbit.
Former
president Ronald Reagan played three years on the varsity at Eureka (Ill.)
College. He was known as “Dutch,” and helped anchor the Dukes’ line as right
tackle in the early 1930s. Reagan went on to star in motion pictures. “Just win
one for the Gipper” was one of Reagan’s most famous lines from his film career.
While
president in 1982, Reagan returned to the Eureka campus for an alumni event. A
reporter asked him about the miracle touchdown he scored to “save the game”
against Normal (now Illinois State University).
“We
were one point ahead, as I remember,” Reagan said. “And there were just seconds
to go. I’d been in the entire game, and Normal was passing, throwing bombs all
over. So, I decided to charge against my man, and then when I felt it was going
to be a pass, duck back into the secondary and see if I could help cover for
passes.”
Reagan
amped up the dramatics: “I saw everyone sucked over to one side of the field,
and this Normal fellow was going down the other side of the field all by
himself. I took out after him, and pretty soon, as he was looking back, I knew
the ball must be coming. I turned around, went up in the air and got it.”
“But
by this time, as I say, having been in the entire game, I knew that there wasn’t
anything left in me.” It was a lineman’s dream…intercepting the pass…about
75 yards from the goal line with a clear field down that sideline. But Reagan’s
legs gave out; he couldn’t run and was easily tackled to the turf.
“I
told the reporter: ‘That was my touchdown that was never made, my lineman’s
dream.’”
You
might say, the four college football playing U.S. presidents arranged by their
“presidential numbered jerseys” – Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford and Reagan – all
lined up on the right side of the ball (as opposed to the left)…as all were
Republicans.
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