#Camaraderie September 18

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For September I am participating in the 30-Day Literary Lesson Coach4aday Challenge with the focus today on leadership teams having CAMARADERIE.

Two weeks ago, I got to spend some time with a good friend Butch Gane and his wife Jan. We hosted a dinner to raise money for the UNC Pembroke Braves Club and they attended.

Last year Butch loaned me the biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H.W Brands.

Literary Lesson

That book opened my eyes to a fascinating chapter of American History when a legendary college football coach named Walter Camp was put in charge of revving up the physical condition of Woodrow Wilson Presidential CABINET. He devised in 1917 a series of exercises for the CABINET. Part of that group was 35-year-old Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, who would be paralyzed by polio four years later.

I just found it fantastic that a team of leaders actually shared time daily to work out together. I have no doubt that type of interaction helps a team jell.

Walter Camp from 1888 to 1892 was the head football coach at Yale. During this time, the Yale college football team Camp coached won 67 games and only lost 2 games.

Starting in 1892, Camp moved to California to become the coach of Stanford University’s football team. The first intercollegiate college football game took place between Camp’s Stanford team and the University of Chicago’s team coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg. The University of Chicago won the game 24-4.

With the entry of the United States into World War I in 1917, Camp was appointed director of the U.S. Navy Training Camps’ Physical Development Program.

Disappointed by the sorry shape of most recruits, Camp devised a simple eight-minute exercise routine he called the “Daily Dozen,” a sequence of calisthenic motions including “hands, grind, crawl, wave, hips, grate, curl, weave, head, grasp, crouch and wing.”

In August 1917, Camp assembled members of President Wilson’s CABINET and other officials to get them in shape for the war. Great link including photos of Wilson’s Cabinet working out.

A lesson for any leader of a team including a CABINET is to value shared time together and the importance of fitness.