[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 17 (Friday, February 27, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1175-S1176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             NYKESHA SALES

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, one of the great opportunities that 
comes with having been elected a Member of the U.S. Senate is to 
participate in deliberations on this great floor. Not just, may I say, 
the discussions and debates and votes on specific legislation, but to 
participate in what we call here morning business, which I have always 
seen as the people's forum, an opportunity to speak on events of the 
day, both public and, in some senses, those that are more personal. I 
would like to do that this morning.
  The subject involves athletics, but it also involves, I think, 
values. This will not be the first time that any Member of the Senate 
has spoken on the floor about athletics, particularly about a team in 
his or her own home State. But the circumstances that lead me to stand 
today are somewhat different. In my own home State of Connecticut, and 
it seems in many places across the Nation, there are discussions in 
newspapers, in diners, on the radio, probably around the water cooler 
at the office, about what happened on the UCONN women's basketball team 
this week. Our great coach, Geno Auriemma, coach of our No. 2 ranked 
University of Connecticut women's basketball team--and, I may say with 
some honesty and a certain amount of envy, the occupant of the chair 
happens to come from the State where the No. 1 team is, Tennessee. But 
Coach Auriemma gave a most unusual gift, as it was put, to his All-
America forward, Nykesha Sales, who is also a native of the State of 
Connecticut.
  As is known by most, with the help of the Villanova Wildcats, who 
UCONN

[[Page S1176]]

was playing on this occasion, the coaches, the referees, in fact even 
with the help and consent of Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese, 
Coach Auriemma gave Nykesha Sales her place as an all-time leading 
scorer in Connecticut women's basketball history.
  That seems generous enough and positive enough, but, as my colleagues 
probably know, the record has been called into question. Although the 
box score lists those two points, they were obtained through an 
uncontested lay-up that required the involvement and consent, if you 
will, of every player on the floor of that arena and of the coaches as 
well.
  Three days prior to that match, that basketball game against 
Villanova, Nykesha Sales ruptured her Achilles' tendon, thus ending her 
season and, since this is her senior year, her career at the University 
of Connecticut, leaving her just two points short of the record as the 
all-time women's basketball scorer, a record that we all felt, who have 
watched this wonderful young woman with pride over these last years--we 
all knew she deserved. This was heartbreaking news, not just to her and 
her family but to the entire team, to the coach, to fans throughout the 
State and I would guess fans of college basketball everywhere. So Coach 
Auriemma reacted as a human being with a big heart, which he has; as a 
great coach as well. He went to the extra effort to arrange a way for 
his star player to get that game-time basket that she needed to 
establish her place in the University of Connecticut record books.
  Since that moment, Tuesday night of this week, Coach Auriemma has 
been criticized by many who say that this gift that he gave, which a 
lot of us feel was not just a gift but something Nykesha Sales earned 
over her extraordinary career at the University of Connecticut, somehow 
calls into question the integrity of the game, that in some way it is 
another form of cheating, some have said surprisingly, and that it in 
some way cheapens the record.
  I rise today to say to my colleagues here in the Senate that I feel 
quite the opposite. I think in this gesture, in this act, Coach 
Auriemma, the coach of the Villanova team, and all the other players on 
the field, have reminded us that beneath the thrill of victory and the 
agony of defeat with which they and we all identify, sports can provide 
opportunities for values to be learned and for lessons to be conveyed. 
Sports are a passion here in America. I yield to that passion myself. 
We find a way, over and over, to take personally the things that happen 
on courts and in stadiums around the country. The reason I think we are 
so attuned to these events is because of the complex web of individual 
dramas underneath the final score that keeps us riveted throughout the 
seasons and throughout the years.
  Just as teams become families among themselves when they are at their 
best, so do our favorite teams, in fact, become our own extended 
families. Former Connecticut women's basketball star, current 
professional basketball star Rebecca Lobo perhaps said it best about 
the events of this week, when she said, ``if the UCONN family''--and I 
stress the family here--``doesn't have a problem with it, why does 
everyone else?'' In fact, this was a University of Connecticut 
basketball record, a school record.
  There are obviously unforgettable moments in sports, moments when we 
are all left full of pride, sometimes full of despair, disappointment. 
We in Connecticut have had our share, like the extraordinary Tate 
George buzzerbeater in the 1990 NCAA tournament, the same NCAA 
championship that the same UCONN women's basketball team won in 1995. 
But I would say that the record that Nykesha Sales established this 
week joins that kind of high ranking of memorable and historic events 
in Connecticut sports history. It's true that Nykesha's basket may not 
have been the single greatest moment of her athletic prowess, 
nonetheless it was a remarkably profound moment of sportsmanship, of 
values, of team spirit, of a sense of family that these teams at their 
best exemplify.

  For those who would condemn or criticize a caring coach and a 
grateful player for doing this, I really ask you to reconsider, again, 
beneath the box score, the final tally, the thrill of victory or the 
agony of defeat, what these sports, particularly at the college level, 
can convey to those who participate in them. I think we have a coach 
here, and a player, who have exemplified the very best in their 
careers. Coach Auriemma displayed a level of concern and, in fact, a 
kind of courage in doing what he did, and it exemplifies the program 
that athletic director Lew Perkins has set up at the University of 
Connecticut, and that not only Coach Auriemma and the women's team 
exemplify but Coach Jim Calhoun on the men's team do as well. These are 
families. These two coaches are, in a way, for the sake of those 
families, the fathers. They practice a kind of what some may call 
``tough love.'' They demand a lot of their players, but they also give 
a lot back to those players.
  There are no two more competitive coaches, no two more competitive 
teams; yet, underneath that, extraordinary personal relationships have 
developed. I always take great pride and am moved by the stories of the 
UCONN basketball players, men and women, when they leave the school, 
graduate and go on--and this, of course, is true throughout the country 
and important to remember--that they have a tendency to call the 
coaches for advice about personal decisions in their lives. So there 
are lessons learned here and values exemplified. Perhaps these don't 
receive as much attention as they should in the coverage of sports 
today. But, again, particularly at the college level, I think that this 
is ultimately what it is all about.
  In this unusual act, Coach Auriemma, and everyone else who was 
involved in this decision, I think, has not only done the right thing, 
but have reminded us that as much as we all share in the exultation of 
victory and the agony of defeat when it affects our team, that 
something else is going on which is that individual skills are being 
developed, that relationships are being formed, that a kind of 
community is being formed, that people accept responsibility for one 
another, and that those values--as we have seen as these players have 
left the University of Connecticut and so many other college programs 
around the country--those values, those relationships, that trust 
continues on beyond and after the competitive days. It leaves us, 
thrilled as we all are to follow our favorite teams, with lessons that 
are ultimately more lasting and certainly are profoundly encouraging. 
So, perhaps it is only sports. Maybe we all make too much of it. But I 
wanted to rise to the defense of a great coach, a great player, a great 
program, a great team, and tell them that I am proud of them.
  I would say, finally, and with all respect to the occupant of the 
chair, it is going to be hard for this UCONN women's basketball team to 
go on to the post-season competition without Nykesha Sales, who was 
their star. I know they are going to give it their all, and I want to 
say to them that no matter what happens in this NCAA post-season 
competition, that as far as I am concerned--and I am sure I speak for 
everybody in the State of Connecticut, regardless of what the results 
are--this team and this coach, both on the court and off, are winners.
  I thank the Chair and I believe with that and yielding of the floor, 
the Senate will be adjourned.

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