In 1948, a cancer-stricken Babe Ruth donated an original manuscript of his autobiography to Yale University. He presented the gift in an on-field ceremony at Yale Field, where he was greeted by the Bulldogs’ baseball team captain, young George H.W. Bush.

With his health failing, Ruth spent much of 1948 in and out of the hospital before passing away in August. Though both the slugger and the statesman look cheerful in the photo, Bush would later call the meeting “tragic.”

I was the captain of the ball club, so I got to receive him there. He was dying. He was hoarse and could hardly talk. He kind of croaked when they set up the mike by the pitcher’s mound. It was tragic. He was hollow. His whole great shape was gaunt and hollowed out.

According to Yale’s alumni magazine, Ruth was healthy enough to call Yale Field “the finest playing surface he had ever seen.”

(Thanks to Eye on Baseball for calling our attention to this story.)