Theodore Roosevelt Lost Eye in White House Boxing Match

President Theodore Roosevelt lost vision in his left eye after a boxing match inside the White House in 1905, suffering a detached retina when an artillery officer landed a cross-counter that broke blood vessels behind the cornea. Roosevelt kept the injury quiet for 12 years, finally revealing it to reporters in 1917 at a Connecticut health spa, eight years after leaving office.

The 26th president had sparred regularly with aides dating back to his time as New York governor, staging bouts in Albany before bringing the tradition to Washington. According to The Guardian, his final fight came in 1908 during his last full year in the White House. "One day he cross-countered me and broke a blood vessel in my left eye," Roosevelt told the press in Stamford. "I never have been able to see out of that eye since."

Roosevelt Protected Identity of Sparring Partner Who Blinded Him

Roosevelt disclosed almost nothing about the injury at the time, in part to shield the identity of Lt Col Dan Tyler Moore, the artillery aide who landed the blow. Moore learned he had blinded the president only when Roosevelt's 1917 comments appeared in newspapers. "Could you ask for any better proof of the man's sportsmanship," Moore said, "than the fact that he never told me what I had done to him." The late John Gable, former executive director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, said in a 2002 interview that physicians ordered Roosevelt to quit boxing after the retinal damage became clear.

Roosevelt wrote in his autobiography that the punch "smashed the little blood-vessels" and forced him to give up both boxing and wrestling. "Fortunately it was my left eye," he added, "but if it had been the right eye I should have been entirely unable to shoot." He was roughly 50 when he stopped — what he called becoming "an elderly man" — and took up jiu-jitsu instead.

The story surfaced this week as Donald Trump prepares to host a UFC event on the White House South Lawn for his 80th birthday. When podcast host Miranda Devine asked Trump if he planned to enter the cage himself, he said it sounded "like not a good idea."

Source: theguardian.com