[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 61 (Monday, April 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5025-S5026]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     UCONN NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, for those who have followed NCAA 
basketball this year, not only through the sports pages and TV and 
radio coverage, but through the statements of various Members of this 
Chamber, I did not want to disappoint my colleagues by not rushing to 
the floor this morning to express my pride at the extraordinary victory 
of the University of Connecticut women's basketball team in defeating 
Tennessee yesterday and claiming the national championship.
  Mr. President, there is a part of me that wants to do a Dick Vitale 
impersonation here on the floor--raise the voice, shake the hands--but 
I am going to abide by the rules of appropriate discourse, at least in 
this Chamber, and simply say with quiet pride what a great season this 
has been for this University of Connecticut women's basketball team.
  How much they have taught us, not just in the fact that they had an 
undefeated season, which makes them only the second women's team in 
NCAA history to finish a championship season undefeated; not just that 
they won the championship yesterday against a very formidable Tennessee 
team, but for all they have done for our State of Connecticut to make 
us proud, to make us feel a little bigger than we normally feel in a 
relatively small State, not only helping us through the winter and 
raising our sights as we come out of the recession, but reminding us 
what sports is all about.
  Women's basketball at the collegiate level has reached the big time. 
It has not, obviously, at the professional level, and in some ways 
because of that inequity, this sport remains as pure as sport was meant 
to be. And in the midst of strikes and contract disputes in other 
sports, in the midst of extraordinary competition for enormous salaries 
and promotional contracts, it is great to see a sport, and in this 
case, to focus in on this team of UConn Huskies, that plays the game 
for the 
[[Page S5026]] love of the sport and for the devotion that they have to 
one another and to their coach.
  These are true scholar-athletes. The All American Player of the Year, 
Rebecca Lobo, has an extraordinary average, was considered for a Rhodes 
scholarship, and can make a contribution in whatever she has done.
  This team taught us something else about teamwork. Some of the other 
sports which we watch are focused on not only the extraordinary 
accomplishment of the performers, but the enormous egos of the 
athletes. Rebecca Lobo was criticized a while ago gently by her coach 
for being too selfless, for not shooting the ball enough, for being too 
focused on team play. And she still managed, in spite of all that, to 
be there yesterday at the critical moments to help turn the game 
around, and in the last 2 minutes, to take this team ahead.
  So, UConn Huskies women, your coach Geno Auriemma, we thank you from 
the bottom of our hearts for bringing the championship back to 
Connecticut. And we thank you, too, for reminding us what American 
sports was meant to be, has traditionally been, and what you have made 
it again in our time.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I understand that we are in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
  Mr. KENNEDY. And the time is limited to how many minutes?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Five minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I ask unanimous consent to be able to proceed for 10 
minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? The Chair hears none, and 
it is so ordered.

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