When President Dwight D. Eisenhower received the NCAA’s first Theodore Roosevelt Award in 1967, he was too ill to receive the honor in person. His son John attended in his stead, with his father accepting the award through a letter.

The younger Eisenhower noted that while his father had enjoyed an eventful public-service career, winning a varsity letter at the U.S. Military Academy was one of his proudest accomplishments.

His entrance into Army wasn’t a planned event — he sat for the U.S. Naval Academy entrance examination, but discovered he was too old to attend by Navy rules. Instead, he attended Army.

After excelling in high school football and baseball, Eisenhower played football as a sophomore at Army. He was a promising player, but a knee injury in a 1912 game against Tufts University ended his athletics career. The injury was devastating to him, and he considered resigning his commission, but he persevered and graduated in 1915. The rest, as they say, is history.

In the letter to NCAA Convention delegates in 1967, Eisenhower praised the fitness value of college athletics. But that was not the only benefit he cited.

"(Athletics) develop latent qualities of leadership and promote the essentials of teamwork," he wrote. "Because of these advantages, our students normally become better citizens of our country and are better prepared to carry out the responsibilities and enjoy the privileges of freedom."