Sports

President Roosevelt gives Anna Cabot Mills Davis Lodge an update on his life and family. He laments the end of summer and tells Lodge how each member of the family has spent it, remarking upon how his children are growing up. Roosevelt has been vacationing during the summer months and now looks to his work ahead. He wants to ensure that his plans for the Navy and Panama Canal cannot be undone by his successor.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-20

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

A.G. Spalding thanks Theodore Roosevelt for creating national interest in athletic sports.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-10

Creator(s)

Spalding, A. G. (Albert Goodwill)

Charles Henry Brent, Episcopalian Bishop of the Philippine Islands, writes to Reverend Lyman Abbott due to Abbott’s interest in helping him ensure “clean, manly sport” for the young American men living in Manila, Philippines, who are members of Brent’s “Columbia Club.” Brent explains that in his “tilt against betting in high places,” he prefers to give the winners a trophy rather than prizes. Brent hopes that The Outlook, of which Abbott is the editor, might willing to provide the trophy for tennis.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-12

Creator(s)

Brent, Charles Henry, 1862-1929

Mike Donovan informs N. Goddard that he received a letter from President Roosevelt postponing Donovan’s visit to the White House because Roosevelt had an accident.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-12-19

Creator(s)

Donovan (Professor), 1847-1918

President Roosevelt pulls one football player off from another player. A group of “decent athletes” cheers. In the background is the “White House,” a dove carrying the “peace of Portsmouth,” a “hunting trophy,” “San Juan Hill,” “settling the coal strike,” “Panama,” and a “past performances” big stick. Caption: How the doctrine of the strenuous life goes hand in hand with the gospel of clean sport.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-10-11

Creator(s)

Thorndike, Willis H. (Willis Hale), 1872-1940

President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit to share his views on David Copperfield. He talks about Ted’s visit and encourages Kermit to get involved in some type of sport. Roosevelt says he has been going out for rides and many dinner engagements that will stop shortly after Alice Roosevelt’s wedding.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-02-03

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

As part of his series on South America for The Outlook, Theodore Roosevelt inspects the military and discusses sports in Argentina.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1914-04-04

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Program lists various games and sports held on board the SS Vandyck. Also lists “officers”: Reverend J. A. Zahm as vice president and Theodore Roosevelt as chairman.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1913-10-13

Creator(s)

Unknown

Black and white photograph of Frank Harper in a sack race while aboard the SS Vandyck on October 12, 1913.

Collection

Sagamore Hill National Historic Site

Creation Date

1913-10-12

Creator(s)

Unknown

At top, a man is being carried in a sedan chair, with many porters carrying furniture from a train on the right to his cabin in the wilderness on the left. At bottom, on the left, is a buck holding up a young hunter, exclaiming “To think of anybody mistaking a thing like this for me!” At bottom, on the right, is “The Guide’s Farewell” where a hunter stands outside the door as his guide takes leave of his family. The guide’s wife is weeping into a handkerchief, an infant sitting on the floor is crying, and his son hands him a rifle. The expectation is that he will be shot by accident by the hunter. At center, a man gestures toward his trophy wall and boasts about having “shot every one of them myself.” On the wall are portraits of many men mistaken for one animal or another, and one deer, which was shot “By Accident.”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905-10-04

Theodore Roosevelt appreciates the James E. Sullivan memorial.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-01-19

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt tells Samuel A. Leech a sports team with which Leech is associated did well in a recent game, and that Roosevelt hopes the team will play on the White House grounds again sometime.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-03-27

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt would be glad to have John White Hallowell come down on Wednesday, April 8, and spend the night. Depending on the schedule, they will either play the game on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. Roosevelt wishes he was in better shape so he could do more than only participate in one of Charles William Eliot’s games.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-03-23

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt has received the letter and clippings from Colonel Scott and congratulates him. He believes that sport is important, and that it must be kept in its proper place and done cleanly and honorably.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-14

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt is unable to write an editorial for Charles Burgess Fry but encloses a speech he made at the Harvard Union which Mr. Fry may be able to quote from.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-12-06

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt apologizes that the book that Hughes Le Roux sent previously was not acknowledged. He believed he had sent a note of thanks, but it must have gotten waylaid in the mail. Roosevelt also gladly accepts honorary membership in the “Academie Francaise des Sports,” as Roosevelt believes in the purpose of the society.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-18

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt is not sure if he will be able to attend the game that Charles Allen Munn invited him to, but would like to do so, and to see Princeton University as well. He would also like to accept the invitation to visit the Ivy Club, but asks Munn to check with Princeton University President Woodrow Wilson beforehand to make sure it would meet with his approval. Roosevelt hopes to avoid giving any speeches, and hopes that any luncheon would be small and informal.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-07-24

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt thanks Baron Coubertin for the book and the book dedication. The president discusses various sports in which he has participated and believes his life is too sedentary and that he likes to eat and drink too much. Roosevelt hopes that Coubertin will visit him while he is president and wants to ride and walk with him, suggesting they could include German Ambassador Hermann Speck von Sternburg as well.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-21

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt agrees with Pierre de Coubertin about muscle memory in growing males and adds his own points to Coubertin’s theory. As examples, Roosevelt describes his sons’ (Archibald, Kermit, and Theodore) and his own athletic interests and abilities. He comments on Coubertin’s opposing viewpoint to most English men – that physical development should be the “be-all and the end-all…business of life” – and agrees that young males should experiment with all forms of exercise and sports in order to keep up “a reasonable acquaintance with them” in later years.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-06-15

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

G. A. Parker, President of the Canadian Amateur Football Association, invites Theodore Roosevelt to attend an upcoming game between the Corinthians, which Parker manages, and a team of New York players. Roosevelt was previously invited to view a game while he was president, but was unable to attend–Parker promises that if he is now able to come to the game, he will see a great match between the two teams.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-06

Creator(s)

Parker, G. A.