[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 47 (Monday, November 24, 2003)]
[Pages 1641-1643]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Honoring NCAA Spring Championship Teams

November 17, 2003

    Please be seated. Thanks for coming. Let's see, I forgot who said, 
``This is the people's house, and we're just letting you live here.'' 
You're right. Welcome to the people's house. I'm glad to be just living 
here for a while.
    I'm also really glad to honor some of our country's really fine 
individuals to the White House, all of whom worked to make their team 
successful. It is--we call this Championship Day, where champions come, 
people who put their talents to good use, and people who have got a lot 
of talents to continue to put to use to make sure our country is as 
hopeful and compassionate as possible. So welcome to the White House. 
We're really thrilled you're here.
    We've got some pretty interesting characters with us today. 
[Laughter] Every person has got to have a good lawyer, particularly in 
America. And I got a good one, and that's Judge Al Gonzales, who is the 
White House legal counsel, who graduated from Rice University. Judge, 
thank you for coming.
    We have got Members from the United States Congress with us today. 
From the great State of Texas, Chris Bell and John Culberson. Thank you 
all for coming, Chris and John. I'm glad you're here. I suspect I know 
why you're here. Rush Holt from the State of New Jersey is with us. 
Rush, thank you for coming. Mark Kennedy is with us. Mark, good to see 
you, sir, glad you're back. Cliff Stearns--hi, Cliff, how are you?
    We've got the university leaders with us. Chancellor Nancy Cantor 
from the University of Illinois is with us. Chancellor, we're honored 
you are here. Jim Barker, the president of Clemson University; Malcolm 
Gillis, from Houston, Texas, Rice University. Thank you all for coming, 
and thank you for bringing the people from your universities here to the 
White House. We're glad you're here.
    First, I want to honor an individual. I said this, that we're going 
to honor teams, but we're going to first start off with an individual 
here on Champions Day. The man I'm about to introduce has been winning 
college football games since Harry Truman was in the White House. 
[Laughter] His teams have picked up 409 victories in the course of his 
career, and that's John Gagliardi. The reason why his teams play so well 
is because not only is he a good coach, he's first and foremost a very 
decent person who honors values, who believes in the potential of every 
individual, who leads through example.
    Coach Gagliardi, we're honored that you're here. We appreciate so 
very much Peggy and Jim being with you. Coach Gagliardi told me Jim--or 
Jim told me he's the offensive coordinator. He said, ``I kind of 
like''--I said, ``I kind of like a guy who follows in his father's 
footsteps.'' [Laughter] But it's such an honor to welcome this fine 
human being with us today. Coach Gagliardi, congratulations, and thank 
you very much for being here, sir.
    Every team here did really well. But only one team was undefeated, 
and that was the Mighty Illini tennis team. They were 32-0. Coach Tiley, 
I don't know if it was the scheduling that did it. [Laughter] You had a 
lot of really good players; I know that. I'm so glad you're here. I 
appreciate the fine tennis players being here. I want to congratulate 
you on your undefeated season. I want to congratulate you on being 
national champs in men's tennis.
    The Lady Gators are with us from Florida. If you've got any 
complaints, Lady Gators, about this day, just go ahead and write the 
Governor. [Laughter] This is the fourth team from your distinguished 
university to make it to the White House. I appreciate Coach Thornqvist. 
I'm honored that the Lady

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Gators are with us today. And I want to congratulate you as well for 
being the national champs, representing your school.
    The Clemson golf team started the year at number one--this will be 
your Clemson men's golf team--and they ended the year at number one. 
That's called a wire-to-wire, start to finish. I appreciate very much 
Larry Penley; he's been the coach. He's been there for only two decades. 
He's taken a while to get it right. No. [Laughter] I want to 
congratulate Coach Penley and the mighty Clemson golf team. I know the 
people down there in South Carolina are really proud of you.
    Last year I had the honor of hosting the Princeton women's lacrosse 
team, and so I just kind of said, ``You think you'll be back next 
year?'' They said, yeah, they thought they'd be back next year. I like 
people who do what they say they're going to do. [Laughter] I want to 
congratulate the Princeton women's and Coach Sailer for winning your 
sport back-to-back. These are great athletes and great scholars with us. 
And I'm real proud that you're here. So I asked them once again, ``Are 
you going to be back next year?'' They said, ``How about you?'' No. They 
said--[laughter]. I appreciate--[laughter]--never mind. [Laughter]
    The USC women's golf team is with us. Mikaela Parmlid was the 
national champ last year, the individual championship. The thing I like 
about her, she was more interested in helping her team win. And thanks 
to Andrea Gaston, the Lady Trojans, they beat a difficult field and are 
national champs from USC. I bet there are some men's football players 
that'd like to be here as well from your university. [Laughter]
    The mighty Virginia Cavalier lacrosse team is here. This is--I 
didn't know much about lacrosse. I kind of saw it in the periphery for a 
while. Then I watched--I happened to be working out upstairs and watched 
the finals. Whew, it's a tough game, and banging each other over the 
heads with sticks, and--[laughter]--but I'm proud of Coach Starsia and 
the Cavaliers for winning this important championship, a 9-7 
championship game. It was a classic of conditioning and toughness and 
desire. And I'm proud to say that you won it.
    We've also got the UCLA softball team here with us, ladies' softball 
team. I can remember when I was the Governor of Texas, I used to work 
out in the weight room. And I can remember the Texas girls telling me, 
they said, ``Don't worry, Governor, we'll be the national champs.'' They 
forgot about Coach Enquist's team. The UCLA Bruins are a great ladies' 
softball team. It's a tough field, and they had great pitching--a very 
competitive team. And I want to congratulate you all for being here. I 
asked if there are any that are going to be on the Olympic team. I think 
three or four hands went up who will be representing the United States 
in Olympic softball. I pity the teams they play. [Laughter]
    Finally, the mighty Rice Owls are here with us. I grew up in 
Houston. I can remember going over to the ballpark over there on the 
campus to watch the Rice teams of old play. Coach Graham and the Owls 
not only represented a fine university well, they represented a great 
baseball State. They--I told Coach Graham, I said, ``It's great to be 
with people who go to a fine school and at the same time beat a really 
tough, tough field in baseball.'' And so I want to congratulate the 
mighty Owls for coming. I know a lot of folks in Houston are really 
proud of your accomplishments. So are a lot of people in Texas.
    So this is Championship--we're honored to have the teams with us--
Championship Day. The thing--the lesson I love about team sports and 
about champions is that champions work hard. They live a good, clean 
life in order to succeed. But they all serve something greater than 
themself in life. And that's an important example for our country. It's 
important for people to recognize that serving something greater than 
yourself in life makes you a whole person, helps you understand the 
significance of life.
    My call to these champs is to remember that now that you're a 
champion, a lot of people, particularly young kids, are looking at you, 
wondering what it's like to be a champ, wondering what it's like to 
serve the school or the region or the State so very well. It means 
you've got a little extra task at hand, means you got to understand that 
you're an example for somebody and you can actually

[[Page 1643]]

affect somebody's life in a positive way by how you handle the 
responsibilities of being a champion.
    Again, congratulations for working hard, for winning. 
Congratulations for what you have done. Congratulations for what you're 
going to do with your life. May God bless you all, may God bless your 
universities, and may God continue to bless our great country.

Note: The President spoke at 2:40 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Malcolm Gillis, president, and 
Wayne Graham, head baseball coach, Rice University; John Gagliardi, head 
football coach, St. John's University, his wife, Peggy, and their son, 
Jim, offensive coordinator, St. John's University football team; Craig 
Tiley, men's tennis head coach, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign; Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida; Roland Thornqvist, women's tennis 
head coach, University of Florida; Larry Penley, men's golf head coach, 
Clemson University; Chris Sailer, women's lacrosse head coach, Princeton 
University; Andrea Gaston, head coach, and Mikaela Parmlid, former 
player, women's golf, University of Southern California; Dom Starsia, 
men's lacrosse head coach, University of Virginia; and Sue Enquist, 
women's softball head coach, University of California-Los Angeles.