Dwight Eisenhower – Military General, President and…Professional Baseball Player?

With spring training getting under way, you should know the virtually unknown story of the only U.S. president to play pro baseball.

It's true - President Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in World War 2 and later President of the United States was once a PRO baseball player. According to MSN.com, he played nine games as an outfielder for the Class D League 1911 Junction City Soldiers, in Junction City, Kansas. He did it because he needed the money to go to college.

The scandal here is that the following year he went on to play football for West Point, and, as we all know, you can't play as an amateur college athlete if you've already been a paid professional, at any level. Even as a part time baseball player in some low level league in the middle of Kansas. That's why Eisenhower played under the fake name "Wilson". But, even though "Ike" lied to West Point about his amateur status, he actually told the story to the Associated Press and a couple of major league managers in 1945.

These days, a story like that would be all over cable news TV. It didn't seem to harm "Ike", even though, at the end of his life, he told his staff to "avoid discussing" his pro baseball career.

Here's the story.

And, as always - Go Tigers.

Banana Don and Stephanie McCoy amuse and thrill you every weekday morning from 5:30 –10AM on the radio at 100.7 WITL.

Banana Don can be reached via email at don.jefferson@townsquaremedia.com and on Twitter at @WITLBananaDon and @WITLFM. Also, Facebook friend Banana Don and Stephanie at Facebook.com/BananaStephanie and Facebook.com/WITLFM.