Inside Roosevelt’s Tennis Cabinet

About the event:

In the final days of his presidency in 1909, Theodore Roosevelt invited a group of trusted friends to the White House for lunch. They had never gathered as a group before, but they shared a remarkable bond: each had played tennis with the president, and each had quietly helped shape the policies of his administration. Reporters jokingly dubbed them the “Tennis Cabinet,” but their influence was anything but trivial.

In this book talk, historian Michael Patrick Cullinane brings this overlooked circle into focus. Drawing on rich research and vivid storytelling, Cullinane reveals how this eclectic group of lawmen, lawyers, diplomats, reformers, and adventurers helped combat corporate greed, advance public health and consumer protections, shape conservation policy, address civil rights violations, and guide American diplomacy at a pivotal moment in the nation’s rise to global power.

By looking beyond Roosevelt’s towering public image, this program offers a fresh perspective on how informal relationships, trust, and collaboration helped lay the groundwork for what would become the American Century. Join us for a fascinating exploration of leadership, influence, and the people history nearly forgot.

Dr. Michael Patrick Cullinane is a professor of history and Lowman Walton Chair of Theodore Roosevelt Studies at Dickinson State University. He is the author of Theodore Roosevelt’s Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon and Remembering Theodore Roosevelt: Reminiscences of His Contemporaries. Cullinane is the public historian for the Theodore Roosevelt Association and the senior historian for the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, opening in 2026.

Moderator Edward F. O’Keefe is the CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation. He previously spent two decades in broadcast and digital media, during which time he received a Primetime Emmy Award for his work with Anthony Bourdain, two Webby Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and a George Foster Peabody Award for ABC News coverage of 9/11. A former fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, he graduated with honors from Georgetown University. He was born in North Dakota and lives in New York with his wife, daughter, and son.