Thomas Hauser on Sports: Remembering the Journey

Bill Bradley Remembered

Bill Bradley is my idea of what a public servant should be. But like millions of Americans, I knew him first as a basketball player. Bill Bradley Remembered The first time I saw Bill Bradley, I was a freshman at Columbia and he was a junior at Princeton. It was Saturday night, January 18, 1964, at Columbia’s antiquated University Gymnasium.The Lions had an ordinary team, but a sell-out crowd of 2,050 had gathered. Despite being only twenty years old, Bradley had captivated the nation. He was the best college basketball player in the country, multitalented and intensely handsome. Even then, people spoke of him as a future president of the United States. John McPhee had begun to research a profile of him for publication in The NewYorker. It was an electric night. Bradley played the game differently from the other players, like a grown man among children. But unlike later Princeton teams, this one had a weak supporting cast. Columbia executed close to perfection and took a 31–19 halftime lead. Princeton rallied to tie the score at 47, but the Lions hung tough and won 69–66. Bradley scored 36 points. No one else for Princeton managed double figures. It was a sweet victory for the Lions against their most hated rival. Eleven months later, Bradley was in NewYork again; this time for the Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden. Back then, the Holiday Festival was the most important midseason basketball tournament in the nation. In December 1964, it offered a classic confrontation between Princeton and the top-ranked representative of big time college basketball—#1 Michigan. On the Columbia campus, distaste for Princeton was balanced by the belief that a good showing by theTigers against Michigan would be a plus for the Ivy League as a whole and hence for Columbia.After all, Bradley represented not just Princeton but the entire Ivy League philosophy. Bradley dominated the Wolverines, scoring 41 points before fouling out with Princeton ahead by twelve markers.The Garden crowd gave him a THOMAS HAUSER ON SPORTS 31 three-minute standing ovation.There were four minutes, thirty-seven seconds left in the game.And Princeton folded, losing by four points. Still, the Bill Bradley legend was growing. He was a banker’s son from Crystal City, Missouri, who had chosen the Ivy League over bigtime college basketball. Despite being double- and triple-teamed, he led the nation in scoring his senior year of college, averaging 32.3 points per game. Ultimately, he would finish his college career with 2,503 points, placing him third in the record book at that time behind Oscar Robertson and Frank Selvy. Classically graceful on and off the court, he was a scholar-athlete in every sense of the word. After his final home game at Princeton, his classmates, with the permission of the school administration, presented him with the cast-iron clapper from the bell in Nassau Hall. Nassau Hall was the oldest building on the Princeton campus .The bell had sounded every day dating back to a time before the American Revolution. The capstone of Bradley’s college basketball career was the 1965 NCAATournament. Princeton beat Penn State and North Carolina State before facing Providence in the regional finals.The Friars had lost only once all season and were heavily favored. But Princeton had Bradley. “A WholeTeamTouched by Stardust” was how Sports Illustrated headlined its account of theTigers’ stunning 109–69 upset victory. That put Princeton in the Final Four for a rematch against Michigan. Once again, Princeton took the lead; this time by five points.And once again, several questionable calls put Bradley in foul trouble.With their star on the bench, the Tigers faltered. Michigan pulled away and won by seventeen. But Bradley’s career wasn’t over.Two nights later, against Wichita State in the consolation game to decide third place, he erupted for 58 points to set an NCAA-tournament single-game scoring record. Now, without doubt, Bill Bradley was “our guy”—a belief that was confirmed three years later. After graduating from college, Bradley spent two years as a Rhodes Scholar and six months on active duty with the United States Air Force Reserve.Then he joined the NewYork Knicks. Meanwhile, on a cold winter night in February 1968, Columbia was readying to play Princeton at University Gymnasium. Just before the 32 THOMAS HAUSER opening...