During last night’s edition of “A Closer Look,” Seth Meyers compared Donald Trump’s tariff announcement to Caligula’s appointing his horse to the Roman senate.  Although Meyers described the story as “apocryphal,” he wondered if such a presence in the United States Senate would result in the equine always voting “neigh” on legislation.  Or whether a Cory Booker-like speech in the Senate chamber by a female member of the “world’s greatest deliberative body” would be known as a “filly-buster.”

I am always amazed what triggers long-shelved memories.  In this case, I returned to my senior year (1966-67) at Thomas Jefferson High School (TJHS) in Richmond, Virginia during which I served as sports editor of our student newspaper The Jeffersonian.”  As I still try to do on this blog, I viewed that year as an opportunity to approach my responsibilities counter-intuitively, including stories outside the usual high school sports fodder. 

Emulating my then sports journalism idol George Plimpton, I finagled an interview with Meadowlark Lemon of the Harlem Globetrotters which included a brief game of one-on-one.  (I did not embarrass him.)  Or during pre-game warm-up, playing catch with future New York Yankee pitcher Ron Reed when he was still on the roster of our hometown Triple-A Yankee affiliate the Richmond Virginians.

But the most outrageous effort to push the envelope and the subsequent series of events occurred in April 1967.  In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson introduced what he called “The President’s Challenge” to promote physical fitness among the country’s youth.  Participants received points for various physical fitness activities or sports participation.  Based on the number of points amassed, students received a Presidential Champions Award ranging from bronze to platinum.

In the April 7, 1967 issue of The Jeffersonian (that year April Fools Day fell on a Saturday), we published a story describing how TJHS embraced Johnson’s fitness initiative by adding polo to the school’s sports programs.  The article include a picture of the president seated on a polo pony.  (For you youngsters out there, PhotoShop was decades away.  The picture was created by cutting and pasting printed pictures and then photographing the resulting montage.)  The caption read, “President Johnson on his favorite filly, Buster.”  You can imagine my delight when Meyers made a similar reference 58 years later, proving that some puns are timeless.

But the story does not end there.  We sent a copy of the newspaper to the president.  And much to our surprise, we received a letter on White House stationery thanking us for establishing a polo team at TJHS.  It was signed by “Lyndon B. Johnson” (or more likely by his autopen).  The text was included in “Letters to the Editor” in a subsequent issue though many students thought we had also manufactured the response.

POSTSCRIPT

While researching the history of The President’s Challenge, I came upon a reference to a story on the U.S. Department of Agriculture webpage “MyPlate.gov” which was summarized on Wikipedia as follows:

The Trump administration terminated the program on June 30, 2018. The reason stated was that the private sector created many other tools that have the same purpose, so it was discontinued to invest in newer ways to help Americans have a healthy lifestyle.

When I clicked on the Wikipedia link to the source material, it took me to “MyPlate” which now informs readers.

We’re sorry. The page you are looking for could not be found. You can try using the search box on the top of the page.

Thank you for visiting MyPlate.gov. Have a happy and healthy day! 🙂

One can only assume the private sector companies to which the Trump administration referred included KFC, McDonalds and E-Z-GO/Cushman golf carts.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP