George Mitchell '54 Awarded NCAA's Highest Honor
BRUNSWICK, Maine - Former U.S. Senator and Bowdoin College
graduate George Mitchell '54 has been named the 2010 Theodore Roosevelt Award recipient. The highest honor
bestowed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA),
the award is presented annually to a former student-athlete for
whom competitive athletics in college and attention to physical
well being after graduation have been important factors in a
distinguished career of national significance and achievement.
It is the second time that a Bowdoin graduate has been honored
with the award, nicknamed “The Teddy.” Former U.S.
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen '62 was recognized with the
award in 2001.
Bowdoin joins Stanford, UCLA, the U.S. Naval Academy, Ohio State
and the U.S. Military Academy as institutions with multiple "Teddy"
award winners. Mitchell will receive the Theodore Roosevelt Award
on January 15 at the NCAA Honors and Delegates Celebration during
the 2010 NCAA Convention in Atlanta.
The product of a large, tight-knit family, Mitchell grew up in a
small town in Maine. One of five children, his father was the
orphan of Irish immigrants and had only a fourth-grade education.
His mother was a Lebanese immigrant who couldn’t read, write,
or speak English.
After graduating in 1954 from Bowdoin, where he was a four-year
member of the basketball team, Mitchell completed a two-year stint
in the military. He then earned a law degree from Georgetown with
the intention of returning to Maine to practice law. When he
couldn’t find a law firm to hire him in his home state, he
accepted a job with the U.S. Justice Department, where he practiced
for a couple years, until the office of the then-Sen. Edmund Muskie
of Maine came calling.
Mitchell had no interest in politics or plans to pursue a career
in that arena and told Muskie as much. Even so, the veteran
lawmaker offered Mitchell a position and simply requested that he
stay through the senator’s next election.
“I joined Muskie’s staff intending it be a short time
until I could get back to Maine to practice law,” said
Mitchell, who was Muskie’s executive assistant from 1962-65.
“But as it turned out, through his inspiration and guidance I
got interested and active in politics.”
Mitchell’s initial entry into politics hasn’t been the
only time he was the recipient of an unexpected turn of good
fortune. After Muskie was appointed secretary of state in 1980,
Mitchell was a surprise pick by the governor of Maine to finish
Muskie’s term.
He had returned to Maine to practice law and was serving as a
federal judge at the time. No one, he said, believed he could win
an election once the shortened term was completed. Still, he took
the risk and was rewarded, ultimately serving as a senator from
1980-95.
Consequently, he speaks from personal experience when encouraging
current NCAA student-athletes to be prepared for opportunities they
hadn’t considered and to be willing to take risks.
His other advice: Aim high and don’t fear failure. Falling
short is inevitable, Mitchell said, but it is also one of
sport’s greatest lessons.
“Nobody wins every game,” Mitchell said. “Very
early in life, you come to terms that you’re going to lose
some and you’re going to win some. You have to bounce back
from the defeats.”
obAs it happened, Mitchell nearly missed out on college altogether
since his father was out of work during Mitchell’s senior
year of high school. However, a friend of the family arranged
an interview at Bowdoin on Mitchell’s behalf and, like
many present-day student-athletes, he financed his education
through scholarships and working various jobs. Among other things,
Mitchell was a security guard and grounds crew member at Colby
College, a delivery truck driver, and a steward in the dining room
of his fraternity’s house.
Somehow, Mitchell also found time to play basketball for the Polar
Bears at Bowdoin. He wasn’t the strongest player – in
fact, Mitchell was constantly unfavorably compared to his three
athletically gifted older brothers – but he enjoyed his four
years as a student-athlete.
“It meant a lot to me not just for the benefit you get from
participating in sport – teamwork and a sense of being a part
of a group of people dedicated to winning and to an
objective,” he said, “but also to be able to satisfy
myself that I could compete, albeit not on the level that my
brothers did, but still at the college level.”
Mitchell has since gone on to compete at the highest levels of the
national and international legal and political arenas. In addition
to a stint as a federal judge and his 14-year tenure in the Senate
(where he spent six years as Senate majority leader), Mitchell has
been heavily involved in peace negotiations in Northern Ireland and
between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. President Obama has
appointed
Mitchell as a special envoy to the Middle East.
He also has been part of the senior leadership of several
high-profile corporations and organizations, such as the Walt
Disney Company, Federal Express, Xerox and Major League
Baseball’s Boston Red Sox.
Even so, Mitchell said one of his highest accomplishments had
little to do with his service in the Senate or any of his business
dealings. As a senator, he traveled extensively through Maine and
took time to speak at all 130 high schools in the state. Along the
way, he met many youngsters who reminded Mitchell of himself
at the same age – uncertain, insecure, lacking a sense of
worth, self-esteem, or direction. Moreover, the graduation rate in
the state was low.
That experience led him to establish the Mitchell
Institute in 1995. The institute awards one scholarship to a
graduating senior at every high school in Maine. So far, more than
1,600 students have received more than $7 million in aid. The
institute also administers leadership, mentoring and public service
programs.
“Now a lot of the youngsters who have gone through the
programs are doctors, lawyers, teachers and really playing an
important role in the life of the communities in our state,”
said Mitchell. “I did a lot of important things when I was in
the Senate – working on peace and other things – but to
me, that’s the most meaningful.”
Before he accepted President Obama’s request to serve as
Special Envoy, Mitchell was chairman of DLA Piper, a worldwide law
firm. The author of four books, he is the recipient of multiple
honors including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Hesse
German Peace Prize and the UNESCO United Nations Peace Prize.
