T.R. and Work Ethic 

Some interesting facts about Teddy Roosevelt are shared in a new book, “The Strenuous Life”, by Ryan Swanson. Roosevelt's “mania for sports and physical fitness earned him the nickname, “Mr. Strenuosity”, asserts Mr. Swanson. The book “...argues that T.R. inspired and bullied the lethargic citizenry into better shape and transformed organized sports.” (WSJ book reviewer Edward Kosner). 

Some facts. During the Roosevelt presidency:

+ the first Olympic Games staged in the U.S. were held in St. Louis

+ the National Collegiate Athletic Association was established to reform college football, reducing violence and enhancing fan appeal

+ the National and American baseball leagues played the first World Series

+ New York’s mammoth Public Schools Athletic League was formed, the first big youth-fitness program in America and a model for other cities. [Kosner, WSJ]

He made up for mediocre talent through enthusiasm and boundless sweat. He kept meticulous records of his exercises. “I never was a champion at anything,” he reflected. But he never gave up. [Kosner]

In Roosevelt's time, “people worried that sitting in classrooms and offices would drain Americans of the vigor that farm work and manual labor instilled. Now, the concern is that social media, cellphones, robots and artificial intelligence will turn humans into pallid drones... 

"[A recent] survey found that more than a third of American adults and 17% of children and adolescents are obese, and millions more overweight. Teddy Roosevelt would be appalled.” 

“In life, as in a football game,” he liked to say, “hit the line hard.”

(Mr. Kosner, the former editor of Newsweek, New York, Esquire and the New York Daily News, is the author of a memoir, “It’s News to Me.” )

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”