"Looking at the athletic strengths, feats, and shortcomings of our presidents, John Sayle Watterson explores not only their health, physical attributes, personalities, and sports IQs, but also the increasing trend of Americans in the past century to equate sporting achievements with courage, manliness, and political competence."--Dust jacket [p. 2].

A colorful look at how modern presidents play sports, have used sports to play politics, and what our fan-in-chief can often tell us about our national pastimes. POWER PLAYERS tells all the great stories of presidents and the sports they played, loved and spectated as a way to better understand what it takes to be elected to lead a country driven by sports fans of all stripes. While every modern president has used sports to relate to Joe Q. Public, POWER PLAYERS turns the lens around to examine how sports have shaped our presidents and made for some amazing moments in White House history, including: Dwight Eisenhower played so much golf he had a putting green built outside the Oval Office!. (He also almost died on a golf course while in office.) How John F. Kennedy’s touch-football games with family were knowing plays to polish the Camelot mystique. People might not have related to the aloof and awkward Richard Nixon but, hey, he would bowl a few frames just like them. Ronald Reagan didn’t just play the part of “The Gipper” for the silver screen, but truly adopted the famous footballer’s never-say-die persona. George H.W. Bush once ran a horseshoe league from the White House – with a commissioner and brackets! (He would later claim to have come up with the fan expression, “You da man.”) Bill Clinton’s Arkansas Razorback fandom was so intense that he could be found shouting at the referees from a box at the basketball national championship game in 1994. George W. Bush’s not only owned the Texas Rangers but also threw out the most iconic first pitch ever in the 2001 World Series. What really went down when Barack Obama played pickup hoops with the North Carolina Tarheels. (He later won the state by .3 percent of the vote.) Donald Trump is the only president ever featured in a professional wrestling storyline—and everything real and fake that went with that. In the pages of POWER PLAYERS, a love of sports shines through as the key to understanding who these presidents really were and how they chose to play by the rules, occasionally bluff or cheat, all the while coaching the country into a few quality wins and some notorious losses.

This informative playing card deck presents the outstanding accomplishments and historical highlights of eleven presidents, from George Washington to James Polk. The illustrated deck contains 60 cards, including four Jokers, and can be used for traditional card games as well as for an educational learning tool. The four Queen cards feature interesting historical information about the White House, and the Kings outline the presidential powers. Also included is a set of instructions for playing an Authors-style card game.

This book seeks to fill a major gap in the literature about fictional representations of presidents by studying more than 40 plays, written since 1900, which have had prominent productions on or off-Broadway or in another major city.

It’s important to learn about the U.S. presidents, butit’s even better to have fun while doing it. Have Fun withthe Presidents is filled with activities, recipes, games,puzzles, profiles, quotes, and fascinating facts, about all 42American presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush. You will learn all kinds of interesting things about thepresidents, their families, and the times in which they lived, butthis is much more than just a book of facts. The games andactivities in Have Fun with the Presidents will give you abetter understanding of each president’s importantcontributions, interesting hobbies, and unique personality. In Have Fun with the Presidents you will learn that Herbert Hoover and his wife spoke Chinese in the White House asa way of maintaining their privacy Dwight Eisenhower was an enthusiastic cook who loved grillingon the roof of the White House Two of Theodore Roosevelt’s sons managed to sneak a ponyinto a White House elevator so they could take it to their sickbrother’s bedroom George H.W. Bush hated broccoli so much he had it banned fromthe White House kitchen And much more!