Ever wonder? How many U.S. presidents were college athletes?

Have you ever wondered how many of the U.S. presidents were college athletes? Well, if the answer doesn't surprise you, the most popular sport will. Here's a few tid-bits that may be of interest . . .

Both George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush were cheerleaders at Yale University. The elder Bush was also the captain of the Yale baseball team.

Bill Clinton won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University after attending Georgetown University. Upon arriving at Oxford, Clinton joined the rugby team.

Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford both played college football. In addition to football, Reagan was a cheerleader and he also served as captain of the Eureka College swim team. Ford played offense and defense for the Michigan Wolverines. After graduating from Michigan, Ford turned down offers to play professionally for the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers. Instead, he opted for law school at Yale.

Basketball was the sport of choice for Richard Nixon while he was attending Whittier College. John F. Kennedy was on the swimming team after transferring from Princeton to Harvard. He was also a member of Harvard Boxing Club.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a two-way football player at West Point. On offense, he was a starting running back and on defense, he played linebacker. Eisenhower publicly lamented that the greatest disappointment of his life was not making the baseball team at West Point.

Despite having polio, Franklin D. Roosevelt was a member of the cheerleading squad while he attended Harvard University.

Herbert Hoover didn’t actually play college sports. That didn’t stop him from being involved in college athletics while attending Stanford University. He was the student manager for both the baseball and football team.

And . . . William Howard Taft earned the intramural heavyweight wrestling championship while he was at Yale University.