The NCAA News - News and Features

December 15, 1997

NCAA recognizes Dole with 1998 Teddy award

Former Sen. Robert J. Dole is this year's recipient of the Theodore Roosevelt Award, the most prestigious honor bestowed on an individual by the NCAA.

Dole is the 31st person to receive the "Teddy," which will be awarded at the annual NCAA honors dinner January 11 in Atlanta.

As a student at the University of Kansas in the early 1940s, Dole was a three-sport athlete. He played basketball under the legendary Phog Allen, lettered in track and played football. His goal was to complete a pre-medicine curriculum and enter medical school, but World War II intervened.

As a student, Dole signed up for the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps to allow enough time to finish the term at Kansas. He then left for basic training, officer candidate school and, ultimately, combat.

Dole served as a platoon leader in the legendary Tenth Mountain Division in Italy. In 1945, he was gravely wounded on the battlefield trying to rescue a fellow soldier. He endured nine operations and 38 months of hospitalization.

His decorations for heroic achievement include the Bronze Star Medal and two Purple Hearts.

Dole returned to Kansas and earned a law degree at Washburn University of Topeka. In 1952, he was elected Russell County Attorney and was re-elected to that post three times before his election to the Kansas House of Representatives at age 27. He was elected to the first of four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1960.

In 1968, he won a seat in the United States Senate. Dole rose to national leadership in 1971 as chairman of the Republican National Committee. Five years later, he was selected as Gerald Ford's vice-presidential running mate in Ford's unsuccessful attempt to win election as president. (Ford won the Teddy award in 1975.)

Dole's colleagues unanimously elected him Senate Majority Leader in 1984. He retained that position until he resigned from the Senate in June 1996 to devote full attention to his presidential campaign against Bill Clinton. In 1997, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Dole currently is helping to launch the Robert J. Dole Institute for Public Service and Public Policy at Kansas. The institute will concentrate on major policy issues and encourage student and citizen participation in public life.