From tennis to T-ball, the White House’s South Lawn is no stranger to sports. But not like the UFC

President Dwight Eisenhower brushes up on his golf game near the putting green on the lawn of the White House, Jan. 13, 1959, in Washington. (AP Photo, File)2026-06-09T10:30:53Z WASHINGTON (AP) — Teddy Roosevelt boxed. Richard Nixon bowled. Dwight D. Eisenhower put in a putting green. George H.W. Bush added a horseshoe pit. Herbert Hoover played a game named for himself to get more exercise, while George W. Bush threw open the space for youth T-ball. The White House and its storied South Lawn are no strangers to sporting events. But they’ve never seen anything like the UFC bout President Donald Trump is hosting to celebrate his 80th birthday on Sunday or the eight-sided, wire-mesh cage complete with an open overhead dome featuring large screens that are surrounded by thousands of arena seats. Workers build the stage for a UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) Workers build the stage for a UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) –> Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. –> Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Sometimes called America’s backyard, the South Lawn was until now known for low-contact sports and joyful events geared toward children or bipartisanship, like the annual Easter Egg Roll or the congressional picnic. The same space being used for blood sport, feting a president who relishes it and playing out in a hulking structure featuring a complicated overhead lighting scheme known as The Claw, illustrates yet another of the White House norms that Trump is gleefully laying to rest — or, in UFC parlance, forcing to tap out. That the president has begun suggesting that he could make the cage-fighting venue a permanent South Lawn fixture further underscores just how far from T-ball the White House has come.“Sports has been central to presidents. I don’t know that it’s been quite the spectacle that it is with the Trump administration,” said Michael Patrick Cullinane, senior historian at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. Teddy Roosevelt pioneered sports at the White HouseMany early presidents were talented athletes before taking office. Abraham Lincoln and William Howard Taft were celebrated young wrestlers. John Quincy Adams was fit enough to take daily naked swims in the Potomac River while in office. But Teddy Roosevelt was the first to make sports a large part of White House life, installing a tennis court on the lawn. His wife, Edith, was concerned about his workload, and the grass court outside his office was meant to force more relaxation. Cullinane, who is the author of “Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis Cabinet” and is a history professor at Dickinson State University, said Roosevelt loved tennis and, though he didn’t play well, he did so “long and vigorously.” Read More Roosevelt would take the court daily at 3 p.m., rain or shine, for seemingly endless six-game sets against top aides. He also boxed, holding bouts in the White House that were far more intimate affairs than Sunday’s UFC fight. While sparring with his military aide Col. Daniel T. Moore in 1905, Roosevelt detached the retina of his left eye. During a recent New York Post interview, Trump was asked about Roosevelt and replied that he “had a lot of energy, loved the outdoors.” He indicated that he knew about Roosevelt’s having boxed at the White House but didn’t comment on how the UFC event might compare. Other presidents brought more sports with themHoover used the lawn to play a combination of tennis and volleyball involving 6-pound (2.7-kilogram) medicine balls that White House physician Adm. Joel T. Boone was credited with inventing to improve his fitness. The game eventually became known as Hoover-ball.His successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had an indoor pool built for polio therapy. Harry S. Truman ordered an old horseshoe pit removed from the White House grounds, but the first President Bush reinstalled it in 1989. President George H.W. Bush tosses a horseshoe on the White House lawn on April 1, 1989. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma) President George H.W. Bush tosses a horseshoe on the White House lawn on April 1, 1989. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma) –> Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. –> Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More His son hosted T-ball on the South Lawn beginning in 2001 and presided over 20 games, with his last featuring Little Leaguers who were the children of active-duty military personnel. President George W. Bush, left, and National Baseball Hall of Fame member Willie Mays open the White House Tee Ball Game on the South Lawn on July 30, 2006. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File) President George W. Bush, left, and National Basebal

President Dwight Eisenhower brushes up on his golf game near the putting green on the lawn of the White House, Jan. 13, 1959, in Washington. (AP Photo, File)2026-06-09T10:30:53Z WASHINGTON (AP) — Teddy Roosevelt boxed. Richard Nixon bowled. Dwight D. Eisenhower put in a putting green. George H.W. Bush added a horseshoe pit. Herbert Hoover played…

President Dwight Eisenhower brushes up on his golf game near the putting green on the lawn of the White House, Jan. 13, 1959, in Washington. (AP Photo, File)2026-06-09T10:30:53Z WASHINGTON (AP) — Teddy Roosevelt boxed. Richard Nixon bowled. Dwight D. Eisenhower put in a putting green. George H.W. Bush added a horseshoe pit. Herbert Hoover played a game named for himself to get more exercise, while George W. Bush threw open the space for youth T-ball. The White House and its storied South Lawn are no…