A Non-Beltway Perspective on the Death of Gerald Ford


When you're traveling, you're cut off from your usual information sources. As a result, I learned of Gerald Ford's death from a news break on ESPN Radio 920 in Las Vegas.

For those who don't know, there was a reason that ESPN Radio covered the Ford story:


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....

After graduating from Michigan, Ford turned down offers from the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers to play in the National Football League, said Don Holloway, curator of Ford's presidential museum in Grand Rapids.

Instead, Ford went to Yale University to become an assistant football and boxing coach, with the hope that it would help him get accepted into Yale Law School. Ironically, his coaching duties delayed his acceptance until spring 1938.



And the rest is, quite literally, history.

From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here)


[12/28/2006 - my del.icio.us tags for Gerald R. Ford Jr. are here.]

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