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Today's Tidbit... Game-Used Sweaters and All The Presidents' Sons
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Today's Tidbit... Game-Used Sweaters and All The Presidents' Sons

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Football Archaeology
Apr 17, 2024
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Football Archaeology
Today's Tidbit... Game-Used Sweaters and All The Presidents' Sons
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If you wrote a book report on Grover Cleveland while in the 5th grade, you may recall that Cleveland is the only U.S. President to serve nonconsecutive terms. His second term ended on March 4, 1897, when William McKinley became President.

Cleveland began his first term as a bachelor before marrying Frances Folsom in a White House ceremony in 1886 when he was 49 and she was 21. Folsom's father, who had been a friend of Cleveland's, died when Frances was 11. Cleveland became her legal and financial guardian, though she lived with her mother or attended boarding schools. She was an attractive and gracious First Lady, sharing many of her husband's progressive views and supporting various charities.

(Frances Folsom Cleveland c. 1886)

As the end of the second term neared, the Clevelands bought a home in Princeton, New Jersey, where they planned to raise their children. Amidst the excitement of the Cleveland family coming to town, the folks associated with Princeton's football program got the idea to hold a charity auction to raise money for one of Frances Cleveland's favorite charities, a New York kindergarten fund.

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