ORLANDO, Florida -- The annual NCAA Honors Dinner January 7 was a time to celebrate the many current and former student-athletes who have transferred their athletics success into success in academics and in life.

Those honored on this special night have won Olympic medals, Heisman Trophies, national championships and all-America honors. They have set national records, played professionally, been elected to Congress and authored books. They have graduated with honors, won Emmys and led cultural exchanges around the world. They have taught disabled children to ride horses, earned perfect marks in medical school and even saved lives.

Jack Ford, ABC News co-anchor and correspondent, was the master of ceremonies for the evening. Ford, a former football student-athlete at Yale University, also was an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award winner in 1997. Ford related how his son, then 10 years old, and his daughter, then 14, had attended that NCAA Honors Dinner with him, and how it had made a lasting impression upon them, which was so notable in part because they had traveled to so many places and seen so many things. The Ford children had never seen anything like this.

"(My children) were never as impressed as they were with this event," Ford said. "Afterward, I asked them what they had thought about it, and they both were astonished that so many people could be so successful -- not just in athletics, but in academics and in life.

"In my profession, we are essentially the chroniclers of society. But the sad fact is that we often chronicle the worst in society. This evening is an opportunity to chronicle the best in our society and come face to face with incredible hope and success."

U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen accepted the NCAA's highest award, the Theodore Roosevelt Award. The 34th recipient of the honor, Cohen is a former Bowdoin College basketball student-athlete and a winner of a 1987 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award.

Cohen related a story about how he was once asked, considering all of his other experiences, why he still listed his experience as a student-athlete at Bowdoin on his resume.

"I told (the woman asking), 'Perhaps it's not significant to you, but to me it was everything.' Being a student-athlete at Bowdoin was where I learned the joys of victory, the sorrows of defeat. It was where I learned about discipline, goal setting, teamwork and the pursuit of perfection."

Cohen reminded the audience that members of the military have much in common with those in athletics, and that it's always appropriate to remember those who are sacrificing to provide everyone else with the freedom to go to school and participate in athletics.

"We live under the blanket of freedom, safe and secure every night, because of these people," he said. "We need to pay tribute to our military as often as we can."

Kevin M. Listerman, a former basketball student-athlete at Northern Kentucky University, accepted the Today's Top VIII award on behalf of the student-athlete recipients.

Listerman, who led Northern Kentucky to a 106-26 record over his four years, along with two Division II national championship runner-up finishes, served as chair of the Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and was a summa cum laude graduate of Northern Kentucky .

He pointed out that athletics is often about the pursuit of dreams, and those dreams sometimes begin as a childhood game.

"As a kid, I used to go out on my driveway and imagine that I was playing in front of a packed arena," he said. "And the wonderful thing about being a kid is that you get to play, coach, referee and even be the color commentator. I would always dream about what I would do on that court someday.

"And, thanks to the NCAA and Northern Kentucky, I got to live my dream. I believe that dreams are what we celebrate this evening. Not just dreams in athletics, but also dreams of modeling academic excellence and character."

Listerman encouraged those in attendance to continue to pursue their dreams with passion, and he thanked the many parents and families in attendance who had inspired their offspring to lead lives of good character.

"My mother has always been such a good role model," he said. "She always knew how to keep athletics in perspective. When I would come home after a competition, she would never ask, 'Did you win?' or 'Did you play well?' Instead, she asked, 'Did you have fun?'

"Yes, Mom. I lived my dream: I had the opportunity to live the life of a college student-athlete. And yes, I had fun. I have always had fun."

The other winners of the Today's Top VIII were: Drew Brees, football, Purdue University; Matthew Busbee, swimming and diving, Auburn University; Alia Fischer, basketball, Washington University (Missouri); Andrea M. Garner, basketball, Pennsylvania State University; Kristy Kowal, swimming and diving, University of Georgia; Amanda Scott, softball, California State University, Fresno; and Josh Sims, lacrosse, Princeton University.

Steve Largent, a U.S. Congressman from Oklahoma, five-time MVP for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and a former football student-athlete at the University of Tulsa, accepted the Silver Anniversary Award on behalf of the six recipients.

The award honors former student-athletes who have distinguished themselves professionally since completing their college athletics careers 25 years ago.

Largent asked dinner attendees to pull dollar bills out of their pockets and look at the eagle on the back.

"You see the phrase, 'E Pluribus Unum,' or 'Out of many, one,' " he said. "The two arenas that speak the loudest about this phrase are the military and athletics. In both, you see and learn that the whole is better than the sum of its parts. And by learning lessons about unity and about team, we just might be able to solve many of the problems we face as a society.

"I'd like to say 'Thank you' to the NCAA for the lessons that, as a student-athlete, I learned about life, learned about unity and learned about 'Out of many, one.' "

The other Silver Anniversary Award winners were: Alpha V. Alexander, basketball, volleyball, tennis and lacrosse, College of Wooster, now a consultant and author; Archie Griffin, football, Ohio State University, currently an associate athletics director at the school; Steve Raible, football and track and field, Georgia Institute of Technology, currently an Emmy Award-winning news anchor in Seattle; Lee Roy Selmon, football, University of Oklahoma, now the associate athletics director for external affairs at the University of South Florida; and Wally Walker,, basketball, University of Virginia, currently the president and general manager of the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics.

Award of Valor

For only the seventh time since the award's inception in 1974, the NCAA selected Award of Valor winners. This year's winners, Rob Best, Shawn Elliot and Stacy Searels, are members of the Appalachian State University football coaching staff.

Ford detailed the trio's courageous act, which took place this fall when 13 members of Appalachian State's football team support staff were in a fiery accident. Best, Elliot and Searels were in the team bus that came upon the accident shortly after it happened. They immediately sought to rescue the two victims trapped in the wreckage and threatened by fire.

Ford also read a letter from Jonathan Taylor, one of the students the trio rescued. In the letter, Taylor noted that the three "exemplify heroism every day," and that that was perhaps most evident in the way the team members -- who had been taught by the coaches -- aided the victims, providing first aid, moving them away from the burning vehicles and comforting them.

Best, the team's offensive coordinator, spoke on behalf of the award recipients.

"The three of us are here before you tonight grateful and humble," he said. "Thanks to a lot of prayers and excellent medical care, the student-managers, athletic trainers and videographers who were in the van are all on the road to recovery from their injuries sustained in that accident," Best said.

Ford concluded the program by noting that all the winners of the NCAA awards shared a common bond of courage.

Highlights from the program will be broadcast on ESPN February 2 at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.