[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 130 (Tuesday, September 15, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2267-E2268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   TRIBUTE TO UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS DEBATORS BRETT BRICKER AND NATHAN 
    JOHNSON FOR THEIR CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE NATIONAL DEBATE TOURNAMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DENNIS MOORE

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 15, 2009

  Mr. MOORE of Kansas. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have this 
opportunity to congratulate the collegiate policy debate team of Brett 
Bricker and Nate Johnson from the University of Kansas on their 
National Debate Tournament championship this spring.
  Nearly 80 teams competed in this year's National Debate Tournament, 
held in Austin, TX. After 10 challenging rounds of debate, Bricker and 
Johnson defeated the defending national champions from Wake Forest to 
bring home the title. While less prominent than its athletic 
counterparts, collegiate policy debate is a competitive, academic 
activity that exists in universities across the Nation. Students spend 
countless hours throughout the academic year reading articles and 
forming arguments to debate a national topic on both sides. In addition 
to the grueling work required by the activity, students must also keep 
up with their schoolwork, all without the benefit of scholarships.
  I am pleased to share with the other members of the House of 
Representatives a recent article in Kansas Alumni magazine chronicling 
the champions' story. I ask that my colleagues join me in 
congratulating Brett Bricker and Nate Johnson on their championship.

[[Page E2268]]

 Raise the Blue Banner--There's no Room for Argument: KU's Debate Team 
                        Is the Best in the Land

                            (By Joe Miller)

       While other Kansas seniors are enjoying spring break on 
     beaches in Florida, Brett Bricker is in cold, damp Lawrence, 
     his nose buried in books. He reads all day, every day, taking 
     short breaks now and then to grab some food. And he keeps 
     reading while he eats. At night he can't sleep, so he gets up 
     and reads some more, plowing through thick, mind-numbing 
     books about the global economy and farm subsidies, and dense 
     articles culled from peer-reviewed journals.
       lt's grueling, but this is March--tourney time. Bricker 
     knows he must give his all if he wants to bring the national 
     championship trophy back to KU.
       When he needs a break from reading, he trudges across an 
     empty campus to Bailey Hall, downstairs to the basement, to 
     meet with his teammate, fellow senior Nate Johnson. It's a 
     messy place, with tables and study carrels stacked with books 
     and photocopied articles, reams and reams of them, and 
     accordion tile folders and pens and highlighters. And 
     trophies. Lots and lots of trophies.
       ``There's too many trophies,'' he says. ``Not enough room 
     for all of them.''
       But Bricker, a math major, and Johnson, a double major in 
     philosophy and political science, have spent four years doing 
     all they can to add to the clutter. They first set foot in 
     this place when they were high school students and were blown 
     away by the winning tradition showcased on its walls, which 
     are covered with banners: yellow and red for Final Four 
     finishes, burgundy for ending the regular season ranked No. 
     1, and four KU blue ones for national championships: 1954, 
     1970, 1976 and 1983. ``When you get here, you want to work as 
     hard as you can to enshrine your name here,'' Johnson says.
       Among the banners are several bearing their names, each for 
     perfectly admirable accomplishments such as earning top seed 
     in a championship tournament or finishing in the finals or 
     Final Four. But those aren't good enough for Bricker and 
     Johnson. The banners that bear their names aren't Jayhawk 
     blue.
       Folks sometimes compare KU's debate program to its storied 
     basketball program. But that's really doing a disservice to 
     debate. Over the past 50 years, the Jayhawks won the National 
     Debate Tournament four times, made it to the NDT Final Four 
     on 13 occasions, and have qualified for the tourney every 
     year since 1968.
       And, unlike basketball, they do it all without the benefit 
     of full-ride scholarships. The Jayhawk debate squad, a 
     perennial national top 10, is a team of walk-ons. ``Our 
     students debate because they love debate,'' says coach Scott 
     Harris.
       Despite its success, Kansas doesn't attract the nation's 
     top high school debaters the way rivals do. Other top-ranked 
     debate programs, such as Northwestern, Emory, Harvard, 
     Dartmouth and California-Berkeley, reload every season with 
     champion debaters from the best prep schools in the country. 
     Kansas builds its success with in-state students who had 
     little opportunity to compete at the national level.
       ``Kansas has a great tradition of taking kids who weren't 
     especially good debaters in high school and making them into 
     champions,'' Bricker says.
       He and Johnson are perfect examples. Both debated in high 
     school, Johnson in Manhattan and Bricker in Wichita. And 
     though both qualified for the national championship 
     tournament, along with hundreds of other kids, neither made 
     it to elimination rounds, much less the Final Four or 
     championship.
       Yet now they're heading into the final tournament of their 
     college careers, the storied National Debate Tournament, as 
     the second-ranked team in the nation, having been edged out 
     of the top spot by Northwestern in February after a season-
     long, neck-and-neck battle.
       It would have been nice to finish No. 1, of course. But in 
     the big scheme of things, it doesn't matter. All that matters 
     now--indeed, maybe all that ever has mattered--is the NDT.
       Last year, Kansas got knocked out in the Elite Eight. Same 
     thing the year before.
       Now the Jayhawks have one last chance to win it for 
     themselves, and for their coach, who, despite an outstanding 
     record in his 18 years in Lawrence, has never won the big 
     one.
       Harris came to Lawrence in 1991, after a five-year stint as 
     director of debate for the University of Louisville, where, 
     truth be told, he was beginning to feel disillusioned with 
     the game. It's a high burnout activity,'' he explains.
       Observing Bricker and Johnson as they prepare for the NDT, 
     it's easy to see why. Each works more than 40 hours a week on 
     debate during the regular season, much more at championship 
     time. This is in addition to school. And neither of them 
     sloughs off their schoolwork. Both are graduating with honors 
     and have shored up plans to continue their studies, Johnson 
     in law school and Bricker as a master's student in KU's 
     communication studies program.
       Coaching is even more demanding. In addition to managing 
     several dozen debaters and nine assistant coaches (grad 
     students in the communication studies department), and 
     traveling to 18 tournaments a year, Harris also teaches two 
     classes each semester.
       Yet he feels more excited about debate today than ever, he 
     says, ``because of the quality of students we've had here at 
     Kansas. I really feel like I've been spoiled. We've had 
     really good people. I don't know what it is about Kansas. 
     Maybe it's something in the water that produces kids of high 
     character.''
       Also, he gets a lot of help from the administration and 
     alumni. Support for debate has always been strong. It helps, 
     for instance, that the chair of the communication studies 
     department is not only a former KU debater but also a 
     national champion: Professor Robert Rowland, c'77, PhD'83, 
     won the NDT in 1976 with teammate Frank Cross, c'77. But 
     support strengthened in 2001, when Chancellor Robert E. 
     Hemenway formed the KU Debate Advisory Committee, a group of 
     faculty and alumni that raises funds for the program and 
     builds community across generations of KU debaters.
       Mark Gidley, c'83, c'83, who serves on the committee and 
     helped win Kansas' last national championship, in 1983, says 
     the effort has benefited the program and alumni. ``We've had 
     a number of reunions,'' he says. ``It's been amazing to make 
     connections between debaters from the '40s and '50s and the 
     '80s and '90s and to see that we all had the same 
     experiences.''

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