By the time I was 8 years old sports had pretty much taken over my life.
I worked at my high school newspaper at Andover which came out weekly unusual for a high school paper. Then my first day at Penn I went right to the 'Daily Pennsylvanian' and pretty much spent most of my college career working both as the sports editor and then editor of the editorial page.
I used to sports gamble a lot and I was getting killed on that but then I found poker and really enjoyed it. But it was a hobby more than anything else. I played it every day but only on pretty small stakes.
The newspapers loved pinup pictures of pretty young swimmers and as a national champion I got more than my share of space in the sports pages.
I keep getting these extraordinary letteres really weird ones from American sports stars - I've always thought you were one pretty lady and now that you're single I want to meet you for a drink.
My chief gifts are - naturally good at all sports with a raw talent for pretty much everything which if nurtured could develop into improper talent.
I had pro offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers who were pretty hard up for linemen in those days. If I had gone into professional football the name Jerry Ford might have been a household word today.
Most of them are pretty down records pretty unhappy pretty confused. Which only reflects how people in general were feeling I mean really the sense that you get is society running down.
No I like to wear as least amount of makeup as I can during my everyday life because I'm just all about keeping my skin healthy and hydrated and I love to laugh and have a great time and smile - that's when I feel the most pretty so I just want to make sure that I stay happy.
It is clear I was never the Pretty Girl. I had my two front teeth knocked out when I was 10 and didn't fix them until I was 19. I have a crooked smile and a nose that looks like it's been broken 12 times but never has been. My nose was always red so people called me Rudolph. My whole face is off-center.