OT (Kind of) Sports in the life of a young future president (FDR)

[ramram]

Ok, I started typing up this information for my own sake but thought there might be a few of you who either have a very slow day or else might just enjoy an interesting 120 year old historical trip. Not really sports related but it does have sports in it….more or less at the grass roots level (i.e. 19th century kids playing different sports). It does, however, include a very historical figure.

As some of you may know, besides collecting occasional vintage baseball material, I also collect historically important handwritten diaries. These diaries are mostly military but some of them are just historically interesting, covering such diversity as an 1852 pioneer traveling west on the Oregon Trail to a 1967 East Coast college hippie hitchhiking west to attend the “Summer of Love” in San Francisco (and, no, his name was not Leon Lucky). Anyway, I recently ran across a set of diaries that, although not from a particularly interesting time in history, contained some very rare material related to one of our most important presidents.

These diaries, covering 1895-1898 and 1903, were written by a teenager named James Lippincott Goodwin who was from one of the wealthiest families in the country. His father, James Junius Goodwin, was J.P. Morgan’s cousin and business partner. Their 22,500 square foot mansion, which was built in 1898 and is located at 9 – 11 West 54th Street in New York, still stands today and is valued at over $60 million.

Goodwin attended Groton School, in Massachusetts, which was one of the top schools for the rich and famous (it still exists today). He first attended this Episcopal college prep boarding school in 1896 and then graduated from there in 1900. He then went on to college at Yale (all of his classmates went to either Yale or Harvard). The young men of Groton were the who’s who of society, many of which went on to become quite famous.

Goodwin’s graduating class at Groton consisted of 20 young men. His best friend, at least during his first two years, was a young man named Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt was for the most part an average boy at Groton who was not very athletic (polio didn’t take away his legs for another couple of decades) and was just a little above average as a student. At the time, his claim to fame was his famous distant cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, who was making his mark at the time as a Rough Rider in the Spanish American war and then shortly thereafter becoming governor of New York and then, later, President of the United States.

While at Groton, the young men were not only educated but were also pushed to be athletic. Nearly every day the boys played sports following their classes. Goodwin and Roosevelt spent many, many days playing golf and tennis, hockey, kicking the football around, or playing on the lower level school football and baseball teams. The Groton boys, although pushed to be athletic, were not particularly strong athletes as most had been very coddled growing up.

As a side note, one of the interesting aspects I learned while researching this material is just how inter-related the upper class was at that time. They were very much like royalty was in Europe and marriages were expected to stay within the class and even were often amongst cousins. Most of the first names or middle names were family names which resulted in a lot of cross over amongst names in the extended family. In other words, many of them had a MIDDLE name or FIRST name that was the same as the LAST name of their cousins. Or, I’ll give you an even stronger example: What was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s wife Eleanor’s maiden name? It was Roosevelt. They were cousins and had the same LAST name.

Anyway, here is some of the interesting content (at least to me) of some never-before-seen 120 year old references to the future president as well as just some other neat stuff.

Rob M.
Go Royals!

(Note - Roosevelt is referenced in the diary as “Franklin”, “FDR”, “Rosy”, “Rosey”, “Rosee”, “Roosevelt” & “Uncle Rosee”)

This is a December of 1895 entry regarding Goodwin and some of his friends playing basketball in a neighbor’s barn (at their Hartford, Connecticut Summer/Holiday home). This is a very early reference to basketball as it had only been “invented” by Naismith in December of 1891.

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Went to a “Sporting Show” at Madison Square Garden…”Saw how base balls were made”. I guess they were not too far removed from the sports card shows of today.

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This is a picture of the Groton class of 1900 (Goodwin and Roosevelt included).

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The boys at Groton School played lots of football. Goodwin says, “Rosy and Sanger run well”. Keep in mind, this was one of the lower level teams and neither Roosevelt nor Goodwin were very athletic. This was also well before Roosevelt’s polio.

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Football, rugby and golf:

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Hard core golf….temperature was 25 degrees. Bought a golf “stick” for $1.75.
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Roosevelt is going to help Goodwin in his debate class and Goodwin is gonna help Roosevelt learn to dance.

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While at Groton, Roosevelt makes his first political debate. The debate was in regard to whether the U.S. should increase the size of it’s Navy.

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Getting ready for the base ball season (the referenced J.R. Roosevelt was FDR’s relative who also was attending Groton).

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When Goodwin and Roosevelt didn’t make one of the Groton school baseball teams, they started their own team called the “Bum Base Ball Team”.

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Goodwin was getting tired of FDR’s “freshness” (disrespectfulness).

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Soon to be President, Teddy Roosevelt, stopped in to visit with the Groton boys.

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Snow skiing with FDR.

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Goodwin and Roosevelt – best buds…”My best friend Franklin Roosevelt…”

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Riding in a “motor hansom”, one of the earliest automobiles.

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“Yale” Murphy comes to speak to the boys (same guy from the Mayo’s Cut Plug card).

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Roosevelt, like many of the boys, had been raised and tutored at home before attending Groton. Now mixing with many boys from different parts of the east coast these young men were often sick. Groton had an infirmary which was often quite busy. Roosevelt at this point had come down with Scarlet Fever and was isolated with some other boys who were likewise ill. Roosevelt’s doting mother would sit on a ladder at her son’s window and communicate with him.

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Here's a photo from the internet of the Goodwin mansion that still exists on 54th Street. Some of you New Yorkers might recognize it.

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[baseball tourist]

Thanks for posting. Interesting collecting niche.

[smokelessjoe]

Rob,

Well done, thank you for saving a piece of history... Well written - clear & concise. These are little moments that can only be brought back to life by what I like call "history catchers". Made my day... Wish I could portray my pick-ups in the same understandable manner as you have done.

Shawn

P.S. I have been a member of net54 for many years & do not know how to separate text with scans like you have done??? Would love to learn how