BOSTON—The 1963 Northeastern football team had finished an undefeated season at 8-0. The quarterback of that team was John F. Kennedy, from Brookline, Mass. The Huskies were waiting to play in Northeastern's very first bowl game, the Eastern Bowl, to be played in Allentown, Pa., on Dec. 12 versus East Carolina.

The sports information office at the time thought it could get some publicity out of posing J.F.K. in a rocking chair as then-president John F. Kennedy—who also was born in Brookline—was traditionally photographed. Northeastern's sports information director Jack Grinold mailed a copy of the photograph to the president.

On Nov. 25, Grinold received a thank-you note from White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, expressing the president's delight in the picture. The note was postmarked Nov. 21, the day before the president's assassination.