Herbert Hoover: the record and the legends

The Chief. The 31st president, 1929-1933, from Iowa. Every story here is tagged Record, meaning it’s documented, or Legend, meaning it gets told a lot and doesn’t hold up. Each one links to its source.

President: 31st
In office: 1929-1933
Home state: Iowa
Party: Republican
Height: 5'11"

The record

RecordHoover's doctor made up a game so the president could get exercise without leaving work: a six-pound medicine ball thrown over an eight-foot net, no running. Hoover played Hooverball almost every morning except Sunday, rain or shine.Source: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, History of Hoover-Ball
RecordIn 1900 Hoover and his wife Lou were trapped at Tientsin, China, during the Boxer Rebellion. For almost a month under fire, he directed the building of barricades while she worked in the hospitals.Source: National Archives, Biography of Herbert Hoover
RecordIn 1921 Hoover organized food aid for famine-struck Soviet Russia. When critics said he was helping a Communist government, he answered that 20 million people were starving, and whatever their politics, they would be fed.Source: White House Historical Association, Herbert Hoover
RecordHoover was born to a Quaker blacksmith's family in West Branch, Iowa, and was an orphan by age nine. He was sent to live with an uncle in Oregon.Source: White House Historical Association, Herbert Hoover

The legends

LegendHoover loved telling how, as Stanford's student manager at the first Stanford-Cal game in 1892, he forgot to bring a football. His own presidential library says some of his early-years stories have mythic overtones. He did help run that first game.Source: Hoover Presidential Library, President Hoover and Football

What he cared about

Recovering from the Depression through cooperation and loans, not direct payments to people.
Limiting navies. He pushed the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
Feeding people in famines and wars, whatever their government.

The full record

In 1932 his administration ordered the Army to clear the Bonus Army camp of unemployed World War I veterans, and troops used tanks, bayonets and tear gas on them and their families.

How he fights in POTUS KO

Mining engineer with a medicine ball

Hoover was a grinder: mine camps, a month of barricades, a medicine ball every morning. In the ring he wrestles, holds on and waits you out.

See POTUS KO

Questions about Herbert Hoover

What is Hooverball?

Hoover's doctor made up a game so the president could get exercise without leaving work: a six-pound medicine ball thrown over an eight-foot net, no running. Hoover played Hooverball almost every morning except Sunday, rain or shine.

Was Herbert Hoover in China during the Boxer Rebellion?

In 1900 Hoover and his wife Lou were trapped at Tientsin, China, during the Boxer Rebellion. For almost a month under fire, he directed the building of barricades while she worked in the hospitals.

Did Herbert Hoover forget the football at the first Stanford-Cal game?

Hoover loved telling how, as Stanford's student manager at the first Stanford-Cal game in 1892, he forgot to bring a football. His own presidential library says some of his early-years stories have mythic overtones. He did help run that first game.