High-profile figures from the world of
hockey, football, and basketball aren't the only sports stars to have
been elected to public office.
"Athletes" such as pro wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura and bodybuilder
Arnold Schwarzenegger also made their mark serving the people, banking
on their successful athletic and Hollywood careers and turning their
star-power into political hay.
JESSE VENTURA
Ventura was one of the seminal performers and broadcasters in the
World Wrestling Federation from 1984-1990. He left the mat game briefly
to focus on his budding movie career, having previously won critical
acclaim for his role in 1987's Predator alongside Schwarzenegger.
It was during his sabbatical from wrestling that he first entered
the political arena, when he was elected mayor of Brooklyn Park, MN.
A second broadcasting stint with Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling
organization followed and, after a four-year stint as mayor, Ventura
left the wrestling world a second time and shocked the political pundits
in 1998 when he was elected the governor of Minnesota as a third-party
candidate. Ventura decided not to run for re-election after completing
his first four-year term, although he has since made some overtures
about running for president.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: After growing up in a small Austrian hamlet, Schwarzenegger
conquered the world of bodybuilding in 1967 when he won the Mr. Universe
title. Seven Mr. Olympia titles (1970-1975, 1980) would follow, prompting
the hulking bodybuilder to move to the U.S. to try to make his name
in Hollywood. His title role in 1982's Conan the Barbarian launched
him to stardom and he became one of the most memorable action stars
of the 1980s and 90s, including his signature role as The Terminator.
The political fires began to burn for Schwarzenegger in 1986 when
he became a member of the Kennedy family after marrying Maria Shriver
- a broadcast journalist who is the niece of President John F. Kennedy.
Schwarzenegger became a vocal advocate of the Republican Party in
the 1980s, leading to his appointment by President George H. W. Bush
as Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
from 1990 to 1993. On Oct. 7, 2003, a record 10 million residents
turned out to vote in California's recall election. When the dust
settled, the voters turfed Democratic governor Gray Davis and elected
Republican candidate Schwarzenegger to replace him.
SPORTING ALSO-RANS
A sampling of figures that turned their
backs on an illustrious sports career and entered the political field
instead:
John Turner: Who says prime ministers can't be jocks?
Turner was one of the fastest Canadian sprinters in the late 1940s.
He guided his University of British Columbia track team to two conference
titles with national-best times in the 100 and 200 metres. A knee
injury kept Turner from qualifying for the 1948 London Olympics.
Peter Lougheed: The ex-Alberta premier played two
seasons of professional football for the Edmonton Eskimos (1949-50).
Mario Cuomo: The former New York governor played
one season in the Pittsburgh Pirates' organization. However, Cuomo's
baseball career came to an abrupt end when he was hospitalized for
weeks after getting beaned in the head by an errant pitch. He finished
the 1952 season at Class D Brunswick with one home run and a .244
batting average over 81 games.
Gerald Ford: The 38th President of the United States
(1974-77), Gerald Ford was a star centre with the University of Michigan
from 1931-35, helping the Wolverines to the national title in 1932
and 1933. Ford turned down offers from the Green Bay Packers and Chicago
Bears to pursue a law degree at Yale University.
Fidel Castro: Baseball historians disagree whether
the dictator ever actually played the game in his native Cuba. One
urban myth suggests he flunked a major-league tryout in the U.S. However,
there's no difference of opinion when it comes to Castro's passion
for baseball: 'il Comandante' was front and centre at a March 1999
exhibition game in Havana between the Baltimore Orioles and Cuba's
national team.
INDEPTH: POLITICAL ATHLETES10 Athletes Who Became Politicians
CBC Sports Online | May 14, 2004
So Montreal Canadiens legend and current Maple
Leafs president Ken Dryden may be on the stump in the upcoming federal
election. That got us wondering: how often do famous athletes cross
that political line in the sand? The answer, in Canada and around
the world, is, not too often. But when they do, people notice. Here's
our top 10:
Howie Meeker flashes a golly-gee grin
for the camera.
The
former NHLer and Hall of Fame broadcaster also dabbled in politics
while playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
During the 1946-47 season, Meeker netted 27 goals and added 18 assists
en route to winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year.
In an eight-year career with the Leafs, Meeker had 83 goals and 102
assists in 346 regular-season games.
After retiring from hockey, Meeker became a Canadian hockey icon,
enjoying a 30-year career in broadcasting, entertaining Hockey
Night in Canada viewers with his trademark folksy phrases, while
at the same time educating them by breaking down the X's and O's of
hockey through his expertise with the instant replay telestrator.
Amazingly,
Meeker also spent three years as a Conservative MP while playing for
the Leafs. In June 1951, Meeker won the federal by-election in the
Ontario riding of Waterloo South. He did not run again in the 1953
election.
Canadian
figure skating royalty, Otto Jelinek and sister Maria first strapped
on a pair of ice skates in their native Czechoslovakia before immigrating
to Canada in 1951. They were Canadian Junior pairs champions in 1955
and later joined the senior circuit, where they claimed four silver
medals and the 1961 and 1962 Canadian Senior pairs crowns.
The brother-sister tandem became world bronze medalists in 1957 and
1958 and silver medalists in 1960, before winning the world pair title
in Prague two years later.
After retiring from amateur competition and being inducted into Canada's
Sports Hall of Fame in 1962, they went on to enjoy a six-year professional
career.
Otto was first elected to the House of Commons in 1972 as a Progressive
Conservative MP and later became a federal cabinet minister in the
Tory caucus, serving as Minister of State for Fitness and Amateur
Sport from 1984 to 1988 under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
Known
as "The Big M" to hockey fans, Mahovlich played 22 total
professional seasons in the National Hockey League and World Hockey
Association. His goal-scoring skills made him a star, but playing
for three of the most storied hockey franchises -- the Toronto Maple
Leafs, Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings -- also elevated his
popularity. Being a member of the 1972 Summit Series team didn't hurt
either.
The nine-time all-star won four Stanley Cup champions with Toronto
and two more with the Canadiens.
After a four-year stint in the WHA and a failed comeback bid with
the Red Wings, Mahovlich retired from hockey in 1978. The Hall of
Famer became an ambassador for the sport and dabbled in various business
ventures. Mahovlich never ran for political office, but was appointed
to the Senate by former prime minister Jean Chretien in 1998, by far
the highest political reward ever for a Canadian athlete.
Mahovlich belongs to the Fisheries and Oceans and National Finance
Senate Committees.
J.C. Watts made the move from pro QB to
U.S. politics.
A two-time Orange
Bowl MVP with the University of Oklahoma and a former U.S. Congressman,
J.C. Watts thrilled CFL fans for six seasons as a mad-scrambling quarterback
with the Ottawa Roughriders and Toronto Argonauts in the 1980s.
Watts was drafted by the NFL's New York Jets in 1981, but like many
African-American quarterbacks who came through run-oriented offences
of U.S. college football, he was projected as a running back by the
Jets. Determined to play as pivot, Watts signed as a free agent with
Ottawa and led the Rough Riders to an appearance in the 1981 Grey
Cup final.
In 1986, Watts was released by the Rough Riders and picked up by the
Argonauts in what was to be his last season.
Once his CFL career was over he made a smooth transition from the
football field to the political field and was elected to the U.S.
House of Representatives in November 1994. As one of the few high-profile
African-Americans in the Republican Party, Watts served four terms
in Congress before leaving politics in 2003.
He
was never the fastest or most gifted athlete. However, Steve Largent
used smarts, durability and a pair of steady hands to shatter multiple
NFL records during his 14-year career with the Seattle Seahawks.
The Hall of Fame wide receiver retired from football in 1989 but resurfaced
less than five years later to tackle a new arena -- politics.
The Oklahoma native was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
as a Republican in 1994. Largent eventually relinquished his seat
in the House to run for Oklahoma governor in 2002.
The ex-footballer came close to taking the state's top job, but suffered
an excruciatingly narrow defeat to Democrat Brad Henry. Largent and
Henry each captured 43 per cent of the more than one million ballots
cast, but the former Seahawk finished just less than 7,000 votes behind
the eventual victor.
Jack Kemp was Bob Dole's running mate
in the 1996 U.S. election.
One
of the biggest names in Republican Party politics over the last 40
years, Jack Kemp first made a name for himself during a stellar pro
football career.
Kemp spent 13 seasons playing quarterback for the San Diego Chargers
and the Buffalo Bills in the American Football League. An accomplished
signal-caller, Kemp led the Bills to back-to-back AFL championships
in 1964 and 1965 when he was named the League's most valuable player.
Upon retiring from the game in 1969, quarterback Jack Kemp became
Congressman Jack Kemp, as he represented the Buffalo area and Western
New York from 1971-1989 in the House of Representatives.
Although he failed in a 1988 bid to earn the Republican Party presidential
nomination, he ended up serving as the Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development under President George H. W. Bush and was named Senator
Bob Dole's running mate in the 1996 election.
Bradley's path took him through Princeton,
Oxford, the NBA and the U.S. Senate.
Bradley was one
of the first big-name jock-turned-politico figures in North America.
The Princeton graduate laid the groundwork for a political life by
taking a now-extinct patient route to the pros. The former college
Player of the Year delayed his basketball career to study two years
at Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, followed by a stint
in the Air Force Reserve.
Bradley eventually landed in the NBA in the late 1960s and didn’t
disappoint. He forged a successful 10-year Hall of Fame career with
the New York Knicks, which included a pair of world championships.
After retiring at the end of the 1976-77 season, Bradley wasted little
time entering the political fray. He was first elected to the U.S.
Senate in 1978 and served for nearly two decades.
Bradley had his sights set on the U.S. presidency in 2000, but lost
the Democratic nomination to then vice-president Al Gore.
Being
a Member of Parliament or sitting in the House of Lords are lofty
accomplishments for many British politicians. But these achievements
somehow seem run-of-the-mill on Sebastian Coe’s resume.
The former middle-distance runner is one of the most decorated athletes
in British history. Coe burst onto the global track scene in the late
1970s by smashing a handful of world records. He cemented his place
among Britain’s all-time sporting heroes by winning Olympic gold
medals in the 1,500 metres at both the 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles
Games. He was so dominant that the 800-metre world record he set in
1981 wasn’t broken until 1997.
Coe retired from athletics in 1989 and was elected as a Conservative
Member of Parliament in the 1992 British election. More was to come:
he was named government whip in 1997, became the confidant and private
secretary to leader of the opposition William Hague, and was elevated
to the House of Lords in 2000.
Despite his multiple roles in public life, Coe maintains his ties
to sport. He is head of the 2012 London Olympic bid and is also on
the ruling council of track and field’s global governing body.
Imagine if hockey
superstar Wayne Gretzky waded into Canadian politics after his remarkable
playing career. The cricket equivalent happened in Pakistan with Imran
Khan.
The charismatic Khan, who many cricket scribes have called one of
the best all-around players in history, dazzled with both his batting
and bowling skills. His pitch exploits earned him millions of fans
worldwide and he secured a special place among Pakistanis for leading
his nation to the 1992 World Cup title.
Khan never intended to get involved in political life, but a personal
effort to establish a cancer hospital for Pakistan's poor citizens
changed that. He eventually formed the opposition Tehriq-E-Insaaf
(Movement of Justice Party) in 1997.
With
eight Olympic and eight Commonwealth medals to her credit, swimmer
Dawn Fraser is a sporting icon in her native Australia.
Considered one of the greatest Olympians of all time, Fraser broke
39 world records during her glorious career and was the first woman
to break the one-minute barrier in the 100-metre freestyle.
A 19-year-old Fraser first swam her way into the hearts of Australians
when she set a new world and Olympic record in capturing the gold
medal in the 100-metre freestyle at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.
She cemented her status as a swimming legend when she won gold in
the 100-metre freestyle in Rome in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964 to become
the first swimmer to win the same event in three consecutive Olympics.
After retiring in 1965, she turned her efforts to coaching before
entering politics in 1988 when she was elected as an independent to
represent Balmain in the New South Wales Parliament.
