History Unplugged Podcast

Final Fight of the Southeast Regional Tournament of Presidential Fight Club

George Washington vs. Thomas Jefferson

Andrew Jackson vs. James Monroe

Jimmy Carter vs. Thomas Jefferson

George Washington vs. John Tyler

James Monroe vs. Andrew Johnson

Andrew Jackson vs. James Buchanan

John Tyler vs. James K. Polk

Andrew Johnson vs. James Madison

Woodrow Wilson vs. James Buchanan

Jazz is the most American of musical genres. But its origins are shrouded in mystery. Some like to think that Louis Armstrong and his bluesmen friends were sitting at a bar in New Orleans, when a solar eclipse and Haley's Comet occurred at the same time, causing the musical troupe to start using a swing rhythm. But musicologist Bill McKemy thinks that the origins of jazz can be traced more directly to one man. That is Nathaniel Clark Smith: The Melchizedek of Jazz. Smith was African-American musician, composer, and music educator in the United States during the early decades of the 1900s. Over the next 30 years he would lead bands in Chicago, Wichita, Kansas City, the Tuskegee Institute, and in St. Louis. He was an important educator for many of the prominent early Jazz musicians from Kansas City, Chicago, and St. Louis. And man was his life hard. To make ends meet he played in a minstrel show in the 1890s. He threatened lynching by having Tuskegee students play classical music and other forms of “non-black” music, against the wishes of Booker T. Washington. He risked his life to embrace the slowly emerging new opportunities for non-whites in the United States.  

The winner of this fight advances to the Final Four. Listen to the previous matches in the NE Regional tournament to see which two presidents will square off to claim victory in the regional championship!

Kennedy vs. FDR Stats of Fighters Name: John F. Kennedy Height: 6’0 Weight: 175 Military experience: Lieutenant (navy). Served in combat during World War II. Received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and the Purple Heart. Special abilities: Incredible endurance under extreme pain. Kennedy suffered Addison’s disease his entire life, causing terrible physical suffering in his joints and abdomen. The left side of his body was smaller than the right, producing chronic back pain. He wore a metal brace and used crutches or even a wheelchair when the press was out of view. Despite this, when in August 1943 his boat the PT-109 was ripped apart by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy (now with a ruptured spinal disk) swam four hours with his crew to an island while towing an injured crewman by the life-jacket strap with his teeth. Name: Franklin D. Roosevelt Height: 6’2 Weight: 190 Military experience: None Special abilities: Fearlessness. Lyndon Johnson said FDR was “the only person I knew, anywhere, who was not afraid.” And he was quite hearty before coming down with polio at age 39. Like his distant cousin Teddy, FDR suffered many illnesses as a child but fought back by throwing himself into the outdoors. He loved to swim, box, sail, fish, and jog. But overall he had incredible composure under stress due to his supreme assurance of the importance of what he was doing.

Teddy Roosevelt vs. Franklin Pierce Stats of Fighters: Name: Theodore Roosevelt Height: 5’10 Weight: 220 Military experience: Colonel, U.S. Army.New York National Guard, 1882 to 1886, captain and company commander. Spanish–American War service as second in command and then commander of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders). Special abilities: Being the world’s most interesting man. Roosevelt was a champion intramural boxer in college, practiced judo while president, worked as a rancher in the Dakota territories and got in fist-fights with cowboys, arrested outlaws, gave a ninety-minute speech after being shot in the chest by a would-be assassin, and explored an uncharted river in the Amazon following his failed presidential bid for the Bull Moose Party. Name: Franklin Pierce Height: 5’10 Weight: 145 Military experience: Brigadier General; New Hampshire Militia, 1831–46; Mexican–American War; commanded Infantry Brigade at Battle of Contreras, Battle of Churubusco, and the Assault on Mexico City. Special abilities: Stone-cold ruthlessness. Pierce fought at the end of the Mexican-American War and led a brigade despite being thrown from his horse and injured on the battlefield. He continued to bark orders while completely immobile. While president, Pierce was charged with running over a woman with his horse; the case was thrown out due to a lack of evidence. He was also a chronic alcoholic praised by his opponents as “the victor of many a hard-fought bottle.”

FDR vs. Donal Trump Stats of Fighters: Name: Franklin D. Roosevelt Height: 6’2 Weight: 190 Military experience: None Special abilities: Fearlessness. Lyndon Johnson said FDR was “the only person I knew, anywhere, who was not afraid.” And he was quite hearty before coming down with polio at age 39. Like his distant cousin Teddy, FDR suffered many illnesses as a child but fought back by throwing himself into the outdoors. He loved to swim, box, sail, fish, and jog. But overall he had incredible composure under stress due to his supreme assurance of the importance of what he was doing. Name: Donald Trump Height: 6’2 Weight: 235 Military experience: None Special abilities: Actual ring experience. While Trump has no military experience beyond a few years of his childhood at the New York Military Academy (he said those five years gave him more military training than the military could), he is the only president with actual experience in the professional wrestling ring. In 2007, Trump faced off against WWE owner Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 23. The two sexagenarians threw down in the ring, and McMahon lost the match, having his hair buzzed off as part of bet. Trump was later inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, again, the only president to do so.