President Calvin Coolidge was not as big a baseball fan as his wife, Grace. But even Silent Cal was caught up in the excitement of the Washington Senators’ unexpectedly successful season in 1924. After the team clinched the American League pennant, the players stopped by the White House to give shake hands and pose for pictures with Coolidge.
It was the start of what would eventually become a tradition of victorious athletes visiting the president, and it will continue Friday when Joe Biden hosts the championship men’s and women’s college basketball teams.
But what began as a partisan rite of passage has become increasingly embroiled in politics, a shift some point to Bill Clinton’s presidency.
Tom Lehman, a professional golfer, turned down an invitation to the White House and described Clinton as “a baby-killer dodge project.”
“That was really when it started,” said Fred Frommer, a former Associated Press reporter who has written about sports history and politics.
After that, there were scattered protests: a member of the Baltimore Ravens, for example, refused to visit the rest of his football team because President Barack Obama supported abortion rights, but the clashes proliferate under President Donald Trump.
When members of the Golden State Warriors suggested they would decline a visit to the White House after winning the NBA title, Trump announced that the invitation was being withdrawn. Instead, some of the players visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture with local students.
More and more athletes began to face questions about whether they were willing to visit the White House. Frommer, who wrote “You Gotta Have Heart,” a book about Washington and baseball, said the trips became “a bit of a litmus test.”
Biden, who has promised to lower the temperature in Washington, has largely avoided such confrontations. But sparks flew in preparation for Friday’s visit with the Louisiana State women’s team.
After the Tigers won the NCAA championship this year, First Lady Jill Biden suggested that a second invitation should also be extended to the team they defeated, the Iowa Hawkeyes.
LSU star Angel Reese called the idea “a joke” and said he would rather visit Obama and his wife, Michelle. LSU’s team is largely black, while Iowa’s top player, Caitlin Clark, is white, as are most of her teammates.
“We were hurt at first. It was emotional for us,” Reese told ESPN in an interview afterward. “Because we know how we’ve worked all year for everything.”
Nothing came of the first lady’s idea, and only the Tigers were invited (and only the men’s champion Connecticut) Reese eventually said she wouldn’t skip the visit to the White House.
“I’m a team player,” Reese said. “I’ll do what’s best for the team.”
Although Reese didn’t decline the invitation, another group of champions will skip the White House altogether. The Georgia football team said it could not come next month due to a scheduling conflict.
Coach Kirby Smart insisted the decision had nothing to do with politics, saying the invitation conflicted with a youth camp being held at the same time.
But who attends and who doesn’t is closely watched in the country’s charged political atmosphere.
“Sports is politics by other means,” said Jules Boykoff, a political science professor at Pacific University in Oregon. “Sometimes it’s very obvious, and sometimes it’s buried under the surface.”
The politicization of White House visits has coincided with what Boykoff describes as “the era of athlete empowerment.” At a time when the country has experienced sweeping social movements, such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, athletes feel more confident using their platforms to share political messages and can use social media as a mega.
“We’re in a new era now,” he said.
Boykoff said White House events were once considered a “family photo opportunity,” giving presidents a chance to show off their lighter side. But given the country’s hyperpolarization, he said, the tradition could run its course. And athletes may want the platform for themselves.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if they showed up at the White House and had something to say, maybe even interrupt the proceedings,” he said.
Most of these visits have been memorable for more playful moments.
Harry Carson of the NFL’s New York Giants threw a bucket of popcorn at President Ronald Reagan’s head in 1987, mimicking his tradition of dousing the coach with a bucket of Gatorade after a win.
In 2021, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly showed up at the White House wearing a mariachi jacket he got from a musician.
And last month, the Air Force Academy football team presented Biden with a helmet. The president laughed.
With his job, he said, “I might need that helmet.”
