JFK ATTENDS NATIONAL FOOTBALL FOUNDATION DINNER
New York City (JFK+50) Fifty-six years ago, December 5, 1961, after meeting with the National Security Council , President John F. Kennedy flew here to New York City to attend the National Football Foundation Dinner*.
The dinner was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The President gave a brief speech after being presented with the Foundation's gold medal.
The President quipped that while politics allowed him to go from being an obscure Lieutenant to Commander-in-Chief, it also permitted him the opportunity to advance from a member of the Junior Varsity football team at Harvard to an honorary member of the Football Foundation's Hall of Fame.
Mr. Kennedy also used the opportunity to remind his audience that Americans had increasingly become spectators of sport rather than participants. He reported that American children were lagging behind their European counterparts in physical fitness.
After the dinner, the President retired to the Carlyle Hotel for the evening.**
*From 1959-2016 the NFF Dinner was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Tonight's dinner is being held at the NY Hilton Midtown because the W-A is undergoing renovations.
**JFK owned a two bedroom duplex "penthouse" suite on the 34th floor at the Carlyle at 35 E. 76th Street. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., had also owned a suite there. JFK owned his suite in the 10 years before his death.
SOURCES
"Address at the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Banquet", 5 December 1961, www.jfklibrary.org/
National Football Foundation, www.footballfoundation.org/
New York City (JFK+50) Fifty-six years ago, December 5, 1961, after meeting with the National Security Council , President John F. Kennedy flew here to New York City to attend the National Football Foundation Dinner*.
The dinner was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The President gave a brief speech after being presented with the Foundation's gold medal.
The President quipped that while politics allowed him to go from being an obscure Lieutenant to Commander-in-Chief, it also permitted him the opportunity to advance from a member of the Junior Varsity football team at Harvard to an honorary member of the Football Foundation's Hall of Fame.
Mr. Kennedy also used the opportunity to remind his audience that Americans had increasingly become spectators of sport rather than participants. He reported that American children were lagging behind their European counterparts in physical fitness.
After the dinner, the President retired to the Carlyle Hotel for the evening.**
*From 1959-2016 the NFF Dinner was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Tonight's dinner is being held at the NY Hilton Midtown because the W-A is undergoing renovations.
**JFK owned a two bedroom duplex "penthouse" suite on the 34th floor at the Carlyle at 35 E. 76th Street. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., had also owned a suite there. JFK owned his suite in the 10 years before his death.
SOURCES
"Address at the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Banquet", 5 December 1961, www.jfklibrary.org/
National Football Foundation, www.footballfoundation.org/
