[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 41 (Wednesday, April 5, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2157-S2159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    CONGRATULATING THE WOMEN UCONN HUSKIES FOR THEIR NCAA NATIONAL 
                        BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague from 
Connecticut. I appreciate the indulgence of the chairman while I 
digress for a couple of minutes.
  My colleagues will understand that there is a sense of collective 
pride in the Nutmeg State among the Connecticut delegation over the 
success on Sunday night that brought the NCAA

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basketball championship home to Connecticut for the second time in 6 
years. The women did a magnificent job. With all due respect to our 
colleagues from Tennessee, the Lady Vols and Pat Summit, the wonderful 
coach there, there has been a wonderful tradition and competition 
between these two schools. They have met twice this year--a split 
decision. The University of Connecticut won its game against Tennessee 
in Tennessee, and only a few weeks later Tennessee brought its team to 
Connecticut, and they won on our home court. So the final game was sort 
of a rubber match between these two very fine programs, wonderfully 
coached and well-staffed teams, with magnificent players.
  Senator Lieberman and I feel a sense of pride, obviously, as our 
colleagues would appreciate, that the women's basketball team at UConn 
capped a dominating 36-1 season in which they began the season ranked 
No. 1, and they ran through the entire season ranked No. 1, and now 
finished ranked No. 1 and national champs, with a decisive victory of 
71-52.
  All of the years have been memorable for a team which has now 
recorded 14 consecutive winning seasons and 12 consecutive NCAA 
tournament appearances, including the landmark 1994-95 championship 
season in which the UConn women never lost a game, and this season in 
which they only lost one--a loss avenged on Sunday when they beat 
Tennessee in the final tournament game, having lost to them in our home 
court.
  This second national title only seals the legacy of the UConn women's 
basketball program as one of the best programs of the 1990s. So it is 
appropriate that they mark the turn of the millennium with this 
victory. For Shea Ralph, the tireless team leader, and the Final Four's 
Most Outstanding Player, the triumph was even sweeter. She returned to 
play this year after spending last season on the sidelines with her 
second knee injury in 2 years. Her dedication reflects the spirit of 
this entire team. All who watched the tenacity and determination with 
which she played will certainly agree with those statements.
  What stands out about these women is their ability to accomplish just 
as much off the court. Ten players since the 91-92 season have made the 
school's dean's list, and UConn boasts a 100-percent graduation rate 
for recruited student athletes. Every recruited freshman who has played 
for Head Coach Geno Auriemma at Connecticut and completed her 
eligibility has obtained her undergraduate degree.
  Since Coach Auriemma arrived on campus in Storrs in 1985, when the 
team had seen only one winning season, he has compiled 393 wins and the 
third highest winning percentage among active Division I coaches: nine 
Big East regular season titles, eight Big East tournament 
championships, and two NCAA national championships. Coach Auriemma has 
again been named National Coach of the Year--for the third time in his 
career--and has been honored three times, as well, as the Big East 
Conference Coach of the Year.
  Mr. President, as a fan myself, along with my friend and colleague, 
Senator Lieberman, we want to take a moment to voice the importance of 
this team to the State of Connecticut. The Connecticut Huskies have 
ranked No. 1 in the Nation in home attendance for the past 6 years, 
attracting close to 1 million fans at UConn's Gampel Pavilion. This 
kind of support is exciting, especially in a State surrounded with 
talented pro sports teams, but with very few of its own.

  This team has reinforced the importance of women's athletics at the 
collegiate level--including issues such as title IX--and whether it is 
Connecticut or Tennessee or another worthy team, I am pleased to see 
such a high level of attention and excitement nationwide for women's 
college athletics, and particularly for basketball.
  It was in 1995 when we last congratulated a national champion UConn 
women's team. The future of graduating players that year in the sport 
they grew up playing was limited to involvement in training or coaching 
at collegiate and high school levels. Today, we should all be proud of 
the fact that these champions may go on to follow their ``hoop 
dreams,'' if you will, and continue to inspire the dreams of others by 
playing basketball professionally.
  I congratulate everybody involved in this great victory on a 
memorable tournament and season, including All-Americans Svetlana 
Abrosimova and Shea Ralph, as well as Sue Bird, Asjha Jones, Tamika 
Williams, Kelly Schumacher, Swin Cash, Marci Czel, Stacy Hansmeyer, and 
many other talented players; Coach Ariemma, Associate Head Coach Chris 
Dailey, and Assistant Coaches Tonya Cardoza and Jamelle Elliott.
  Again, we look forward to a wonderful season next year. We welcome 
them to Washington, and invite our colleagues to meet them when they 
come here.
  At the appropriate time, Senator Lieberman and I will submit a 
resolution regarding this great success the other night.
  I yield to my colleague from Connecticut.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank my friend and colleague.
  I am delighted in the midst of this debate on the budget, which 
sometimes lacks exhilaration, to interject, along with our friends from 
Michigan, a note of euphoria. This euphoria, of course, is of the 
basketball variety.
  We are just days removed from the completion of that exhilarating 
spring spectacle we've come to know as March Madness--the National 
Collegiate Athletic Association Basketball Tournament. And here in the 
Nation's Capital, Senator Dodd and I are very fortunate and proud to be 
establishing a spring rite of our own: coming to the floor on behalf of 
grateful fans across Connecticut--and we would like to think admiring 
fans across America--to praise the incomparable University of 
Connecticut Huskies, last year's men's team and this year's women's 
team champions of the basketball world once more.

  With this victory on Sunday night defeating archrival Tennessee 71 to 
52, the women Huskies not only earned their second national 
championship in 5 years, they also managed to set a school record for 
wins with 36 and to overcome what was their only loss in an otherwise 
perfect season to a very good Tennessee Volunteer team.
  As just one measure of the University of Connecticut's captivating 
run to the championship, four of the five players named to the All-
Tournament team were Huskies, including the tournament's Most Valuable 
Player--the extraordinary and indomitable Shea Ralph.
  In celebrating this tremendous achievement, we are particularly proud 
of our National Coach of the Year, Geno Auriemma, for whom victory 
served on Sunday night as something of a triumphant homecoming. Geno 
was raised in the steel mill town of Norristown on the outskirts of 
Philly by his parents who brought him and his family from their country 
of birth, which was Italy. He was accompanied to Sunday's game by his 
mother, Marsiella, who watched from the stands. And, as anybody who 
watched the game on television learned, she was holding a jar of holy 
water in her lap, which she sprinkled on Connecticut's players for good 
luck.
  They responded by playing what I would have to call a divinely 
inspired game.
  It was, if you saw the game, one of those occasions when everything 
seems to come together and go right. It was an extraordinary experience 
for those of us who are the fans of this team.
  On Monday, as the dawn came, people across Connecticut bore witness 
to a spectacle that I think few fans of women athletics could have 
envisioned when Congress first passed title IX in 1972. Across the 
State, from Danbury to Dayville, from Stamford to Stonington, 
communities came together and exalted in the accomplishments of this 
great Huskies team, a celebration equal in intensity to the one sparked 
by the men's championship last year. The Hartford Courant thought so 
much of the Husky victory that it dedicated its entire front page to 
their win, and it says it in one word. Here is a great picture of our 
coach, Geno Auriemma, doing his impersonation of Alan Keyes in the mosh 
pit --in this case, the team holding our triumphant coach. The one word 
which expresses our attitude in Connecticut about this great team is 
``euphoria.''

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  Huskymania, we have come to learn, is an equal opportunity 
experience. In the town of Storrs, the picturesque, wooded hamlet that 
the University of Connecticut students, faculty, and administrators 
call home, more than 5,000 people turned out Monday for a midday pep 
rally of appreciation at the Gampel Pavilion, where sellout crowds 
watched this great team work their magic all year long. As the 
celebration grew more and more boisterous and enthusiastic, it seemed 
hard to believe that this was the same part of our State that used to 
be called ``The Forgotten Corner,'' because these days, if you follow 
college basketball, it is an awfully hard place to forget.
  The fact is, thanks to the Huskies, Storrs is home to the stars now. 
We like to think of it as the ``College Hoops Capital of America.

  Last year, when we came to the floor to celebrate the men's victory, 
I closed with an impersonation of a University of Connecticut 
cheerleader. I was advised by many people, including my dear friend and 
senior colleague, not to repeat this performance. But you know that I 
feel it would be unfair. So very briefly, U-C-O-N-N, UConn.
  Thank you. I yield the floor.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, the last time I saw something like that 
was when Senator D'Amato did a tune.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. The Senator, let it be known, was one of my role 
models. I compliment him.

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