[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 41 (Monday, October 18, 1999)]
[Pages 2053-2055]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Honoring the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Champions

October 14, 1999

    The President. Thank you very much. Well, ladies and gentlemen, 
welcome to the White House. I want to say a special word of welcome to 
Purdue Coach Carolyn Peck and UConn Coach Jim Calhoun and their 
wonderful teams. And we're honored to be joined by two Members of 
Congress from Connecticut, John Larson and Nancy Johnson. [Applause] 
Thank you.
    Usually, you know, the Members of Congress, they stand in front of 
the team, and I shake hands with them, and then I go shake hands with 
the team. And I started shaking

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hands with the UConn team, and Nancy Johnson was the fourth person in 
the line, and I wondered what position she could possibly have played. 
[Laughter]
    Well, we're delighted that they're both here, and the two 
Connecticut Senators, Joe Lieberman and Chris Dodd were also here. They 
had to go vote, and they're going to try to get back before we finish. 
But we thank them for coming.
    It's a great honor for me today to welcome the Purdue Lady 
Boilermakers and the UConn Huskies, two talented basketball teams who 
remained focused enough to win the most coveted prize in college 
basketball. It's a kind of a joke around the White House that I am a 
fanatic basketball fan, that I frequently misbehave during the NCAA 
tournament--[laughter]--especially if the Arkansas Razorbacks aren't 
playing well that year.
    But I studied these teams very closely. I'd like to--I think that I 
would like to begin by making two acknowledgements that are important to 
the human element of basketball. First of all, the Lady Boilermakers 
lost one of their teammates, Tiffany Young, last August in a car 
accident, and her parents are here. And I'd like to acknowledge their 
presence and thank them for coming. Would you--well, they're here 
somewhere. There they are. [Applause] Thank you.
    And in this week, I can't help noting that on Monday we lost one of 
the greatest basketball players of all time, Wilt Chamberlain, whose 
dedication, determination, and performance inspired countless Americans, 
most of whom never scored 100 points in a single game.
    Wilt Chamberlain once said, in his rather wry and funny way, ``They 
say nobody is perfect. Then, they tell you practice makes perfect. I 
wish they'd make up their mind.'' [Laughter] One thing is clear. With 
practice and talent, UConn and Purdue got pretty close to perfect. They 
both beat two very talented Duke Blue Devil teams.
    This was a season of firsts. First time a men's team from New 
England had won the NCAA tournament since Harry Truman lived in the 
White House; the first time the Purdue women or the UConn men ever won a 
national championship.
    Let me begin by saluting the Lady Boilermakers. All America was awed 
by your performance. I understand it was fueled by power naps and peanut 
butter. [Laughter] If that's true, I think I'll stay with them both. 
[Laughter]
    They had a dazzling 34-1 season record. I told the coach when we 
were starting this that I happened to see one night, on television, 
their early-season victory against Tennessee. And--because, you know, 
Tennessee's coming here has become a kind of regular event--[laughter]--
Coach Summitt and her husband and her wonderful son have become friends 
of ours. And Al Gore was in a slump the next day. [Laughter] And he 
said, ``Well, they must have had an off night.'' And I said, ``Al, I 
watched the game. They didn't have an off night.'' [Laughter] ``That 
Purdue team is great. It's going to be hard for anybody to beat them.'' 
And it turned out to be right.
    I want to mention the extraordinary contributions of the co-captains 
of the team. MVP Ukari Figgs turned around the final game with 18 
points. All-American Stephanie White-McCarty amassed the second-highest 
number of points in the history of Purdue.
    Basketball is a team effort. It depends upon everyone working 
together and relies heavily on good leadership. The Boilermakers had a 
lot of both. As the first African-American woman ever to win the NCAA 
championship as a coach, Carolyn Peck has demonstrated extraordinary 
leadership, carrying Purdue to two Big 10 tournament championships in 
only two seasons. And I'm glad she's back here with her team today. 
She's just finished her first season as a pro coach, where she missed 
the playoffs, I think she said, by one game. And next year is your 
second season; you've got to deliver. And we wish you well. [Laughter] 
So I'd like to call on Carolyn Peck and give her the microphone now. 
Thank you.

[A this point, Coach Peck made brief remarks.]

    The President. I also want to acknowledge, before I leave the State 
of Indiana, the presence here of a man who has been my friend for 20 
years, the former Senator from Indiana and the father of the current 
Senator

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from Indiana, Mr. Birch Bayh. Thank you, Senator. Thank you. I'm glad to 
see you. Thank you.
    Now, the Huskies. I watched them all year, too. They won 34 games, 
and they were supposed to be a big underdog in the championship. They 
had a team that was determined not to be defeated. Richard Hamilton's 
outside touch and the tough defensive play of Ricky Moore and Khalid El-
Amin gave them a 77-74 down-to-the-wire thriller that will never be 
forgotten by people who love basketball.
    I also want to say that I'm glad Richard is coming to Washington to 
help the Wizards. We need it. [Laughter] Jim Calhoun's achievements as 
the Huskies' coach are tremendous. He's the only coach in NCAA history 
to win 250 games at two different Division I programs. He's the 
winningest coach in UConn history, with the third most wins in all of 
college basketball in the last six seasons.
    When I called Jim to congratulate him on the victory, we had a 
wonderful talk about a lot of things, and I'll always remember our 
conversation. But I told him, and I thought that the Duke coach, Mike 
Krzyzewski, gave him and these fine young men, the ultimate compliment; 
you can only imagine how disappointed he was. He has all those great 
players; they were supposed to win everything easily. It was a fabulous 
game.
    The truth is, UConn was better than they thought they were. And it 
was--at a moment of enormous disappointment, he got before the national 
television cameras and he said, ``We did not lose this game. We were 
defeated by a better team.'' And that says a lot about this coach and 
these players.
    So, Coach, the microphone is yours.

[Coach Calhoun made brief remarks, and the team captains presented a 
jersey and ring to the President.]

    The President. Look at this. I think it's a little big for me, don't 
you? [Laughter] Thank you. I really love this, thank you.
    Now, when does practice start? [Laughter]
    Coach Calhoun. I'll see you Saturday morning at 11.
    The President. Thank you very much.
    Coach Peck. Can we make a presentation?
    The President. Sure. Give them another hand, guys. [Applause]

[Coach Peck and the team's senior captains presented a jersey to the 
President.]

    The President. I can wear this. It's the right size, right? It's the 
right size. I love it.

[A Purdue senior captain thanked the President and congratulated the 
University of Connecticut Huskies.]

    The President. You know, in a year and a half when I'm not President 
anymore, people will, all of a sudden, start treating me as an elder 
statesman or something, and they will all want my advice on various 
things. One of the things people ask me all the time is, isn't it hard 
to keep your feet on the ground and the sense of basic humility when, 
you know, the Secret Service are with you, you fly around on Air Force 
One, every need is just at your fingertips? And I think I will have two 
pieces of advice: One is, have regular press conferences; that'll cut 
you down to size. [Laughter] And the other is, always meet with the 
champions of the men and women's NCAA basketball tournament. They will 
make you feel very small.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 6:08 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Tiffany Young's parents, Gloria 
and Billy Ray Young, and Pat Summitt, coach, University of Tennessee 
Lady Volunteers.