U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen is living proof that sports legends engender reverence even when they run the largest agency in the U.S. government.

The former Bowdoin College basketball student-athlete will accept the NCAA's highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award, at the Association's Honors Dinner January 7, 2001, during the NCAA Convention in Orlando, Florida.

Cohen was a member of the NCAA's 1987 Silver Anniversary class. He expressed a touch of awe when he spoke about his 1962 basketball-playing peers who were not winners of the award, which recognizes former student-athletes for their accomplishments since graduating 25 years before. That group included NBA Hall of Famers John Havlicek and Dave DeBusschere, former NBA veteran Terry Dischinger and CBS basketball commentator Billy Packer, among others.

"I had some minor players on my 'team,' " Cohen understated. "At the athletics level, that (award) was very special."

Obviously, the "Teddy," which recognizes Cohen's undergraduate career as a student and an athlete, and his continuing commitment to the highest personal standards, also means a great deal to the former senator from Maine.

"I've won two awards that are named after presidents (former President Eisenhower's name is on the other) and this is one of them. That in itself makes it special," he said. "And any time you have an award of national prominence, that makes it special. With Teddy Roosevelt, given his robust intellect and athleticism and what he means to this country, this is very special."

The professional path that earned him those honors began at a fledgling law practice with a former schoolmate in his hometown of Bangor, Maine. Through various civic projects, he built enough of a reputation that he eventually was elected to city council and as mayor, then to three terms each in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

In 1996, during his third term as senator, the Maine Republican was asked by President Clinton to cross party lines and become the administration's third secretary of defense, succeeding William Perry and Les Aspin. The surprise offer came after Cohen, who has never lost an election, announced unexpectedly in 1995 that he would not seek a fourth term in the Senate, citing his disappointment with the partisan nature of Congress.

Self-discipline in athletics

Cohen said his athletics background has benefited him greatly through his distinguished career.

"The self-discipline one has to develop to improve on the athletics field through the rigors of training, in knowing the consequences if you violate the rules, and in the need to study the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent creates a strong foundation for anyone to succeed in any field," said Cohen, who is a member of the New England Athletic Hall of Fame. "You learn all of those in college athletics. All of those are important in business and the same is true of politics."

Basketball and its influence followed him through travels that ran his personal odometer to 700,000 miles in the last year alone. During a trip to Kosovo, he mingled with children at a refugee camp in which a hoop had been erected.

He also tries to find time for more competitive games. Apparently, Pentagon pickup contests of three-on-three, which include numerous former collegiate players, can be very rigorous. And it doesn't matter if you are a king or pawn.

"There are some terrific ballplayers there," he said. "When you get on the court, there is no respect for titles. Once the pin-striped suit comes off, I'm fair game. There are some players who are one notch below professional level. Every once in a while I forget how old I am and have to play with them."

That's not often these days. Being the "Sec Def," as the position is known to insiders, demands 16- to 17-hour work days.

Such diligence was not always Cohen's way. His love of basketball ran so deeply in college that he admitted choosing his major of Latin mostly because it would give him more time to play hoops than did some other choices.

"I'd like to say (choosing Latin) was from a deep inspirational commitment but the truth is that it came rather easily to me," he said. "I had taken it in high school and I took it as my second language in my first years of college. (Choosing Latin) was a combination of having a professor wanting me to stick with it and giving me more time to play basketball."

He also was known much more for offense than defense. In an article about Cohen in his alma mater's alumni magazine, former teammate Ed Callahan addressed the irony of his former teammate's current title by wondering aloud "Secretary of Defense? Secretary of offense, maybe."

"There was more than an element of truth in that," said Cohen, who led Bowdoin in scoring as a junior and senior. "When I was a freshman, a Portland, Maine, sportswriter said that I could score 40 points on a good night and 20 on a bad, so that immediately got other teams to double-team me the rest of my career.

"During the rest of my career, my accuracy went down. My standing two-handed set shot was no longer standing because I had to be moving a lot more of the time to get free. I expect I wasn't exactly Michael Jordan on defense."

From scoring to scribing

After graduation, Cohen toyed with trying out for the American Basketball Association, which was just starting. He thought the three-point shot (which the NBA and NCAA did not yet have), might give him a role. He realized, however, given his size and talent, that that would have been a quite a challenge.

Instead he thought of opting for something more realistic, sort of.

"I was struck by romanticism. I was going to go to Europe and buy a motorcycle, ride around and write a novel about my experiences," he said.

The Bowdoin grad ended up following a more conventional path, at least initially. Cohen earned his law degree from Boston University, achieving the same cum laude status he had as an undergraduate. The conventionality ended soon thereafter. His romanticism was somewhat realized, sans the motorcycle.

Cohen has visited more countries than the Harlem Globetrotters. He has authored or co-authored nine books, including international-espionage novels and books of poetry.

The former Latin scholar was penning another novel in 1995 when President Clinton asked him to cross party lines to "secure the bipartisan support that America's armed forces must have and clearly deserve."

In his current role, Cohen serves as the principal defense policy advisor to the president and is responsible for the formulation of general defense policy and policy related to all matters of direct concern to the Department of Defense, and for the execution of approved policy.

In looking back at his aspirations as a collegian, he still expresses wonder at where he is today.

"If you asked me back then where I would be now and I said I'd be the civilian leader of the most powerful military force in the world, I'd have been indulging in fictional fantasy," he said.

During talks with students about career choices, he said he is amazed by the number who raise their hands when asked if they know what they want to do as adults.

"I advocate getting to know as much as you can about a variety of fields because you never know where you're going to end up," he said.

He talks about the importance of not limiting yourself, of getting to know as much as you can about different fields. Then he hearkens back to athletics for an example.

"Flexibility is critical to a ballplayer, both in terms of limbs and ligaments and in developing the ability to adapt to different situations in a flowing field," he said. "It's important whether you're on the battlefield, in business or on the basketball court. I tell the students that it's important to have goals, but not to become so fixated on them that you lose the ability to adapt."

In emphasizing such openness, he cited a favorite quote from the philosopher Kierkegaard: "Life must be lived forward but it can only be understood backward."

Now that life as Sec Def soon will be a part of his past, Cohen looks forward to continuing to work in international affairs as a private citizen, but at a far less rigorous pace with less travel.

That should give him more time on the court.