Statement by the President Upon Announcing the Creation of the Physical Fitness Awards Program.
IT IS essential that our young people develop their physical capabilities as well as their mental skills. Sports and other forms of active play promote good health and help provide our country with sturdy young citizens equal to the challenges of the future.
Note: The President's statement was made public as part of a White House release announcing the creation of a Presidential physical fitness awards program to give recognition to children between the ages of 10 and 17 who achieve a superior level of physical fitness.
The release stated that the President's Council on Physical Fitness, designated to administer the program, had estimated that approximately 1 million of the 27.7 million students in grades 5 through 12 could qualify for the award. Certificates bearing the President's signature and embroidered award emblems will be presented, the release noted, to students who score well on all seven items of the physical achievement test of the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, a department of the National Education Association.
See also Item 625.
The statement was released at Austin, Tex.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President Upon Announcing the Creation of the Physical Fitness Awards Program. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240915