29. Abraham Lincoln was a champion wrestler
During his days along the Sangamon River in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln developed the reputation of being a wrestler of renown. Some of his matches were organized affairs, such as a match with a gentleman named Hank Thompson, which was for a regimental championship during the Black Hawk War. That match was Lincoln’s only loss in a wrestling career which spanned more than a dozen years, and more than 300 known bouts. Lincoln was not the only wrestling aficionado to serve as president, Washington had been a wrestler in his youth, and Taft was on the wrestling team when a student at Yale University.
