Such is the reward for many NCAA championship teams -- a trip to the White House to meet with the president, occasionally shake his hand, and receive kudos on a job well done. It's a tradition that many have come to expect after winning a national championship, though the process has evolved through the years.

Pinpointing the exact origination of the first visit of an NCAA championship team to be honored at the White House is difficult -- perhaps impossible. Neither the NCAA nor the White House keep such records, and even some member institutions don't know whether their championship teams from 30 or more years ago made the journey. After a call to the White House historian's office turned up no such records, presidential libraries seemed to be the next logical repository for information. However, even those sources aren't sure when the tradition started.

Josh Cochran, archives technician at the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said President Ford met with the 1976 champion Indiana University, Bloomington, men's basketball team -- the last NCAA Division I team to finish a men's basketball season undefeated -- April 20. The meeting took place in the Rose Garden at the White House, and Ford offered his congratulations to the student-athletes and Coach Bob Knight.

"Although it has been speculated that this was the first time an NCAA championship team visited the White House, I have found nothing in our holdings definitively confirming this," Cochran said. Cochran said the Ford Library holdings include about 30 pages of documentation on the visit, including a letter from then-Congressman John Myers of Bloomington, Indiana, requesting the visit. Also included in the documents were staff memos scheduling the event before the Indiana electoral primary on May 4, 1976, and thank-you letters from Knight, Indiana congressmen and then-Indiana University President John W. Ryan.

Ford left office the following January. His successor, President Carter, also met with only one NCAA championship team, according to officials at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta. On April 3, 1980, Carter met with the University of Louisville men's basketball team just before leaving the White House for a stay at Camp David. The meeting lasted about eight minutes and took place in the Cabinet Room. That same day, Carter met with representatives of retail food and drug chains and officials from the Federal Reserve and the Office of Management and Budget.

Establishing the tradition

Regular visits of NCAA championship teams started under President Reagan, who began meeting with student-athletes in 1984, including the University of Southern California women's basketball team and the Georgetown University men's basketball team. Reagan was also the first to expand into both women's sports and nonrevenue sports like field hockey and gymnastics. Among the teams to visit with Reagan at the White House were the 1985 University of Utah women's gymnastics team; the 1987 University of Maryland, College Park, field hockey team; the 1988 Lake Superior State University men's ice hockey team; and the 1987 Pennsylvania State University football team. Reagan also began combining some of the team visits on the same day, generally just men's and women's basketball teams.

Reagan's successor, President George H. W. Bush, continued to expand sports involved in White House visits, including the University of Texas at Austin men's and women's swimming and diving teams in 1991 and the women's gymnastics teams from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, in 1991 and his alma mater, Yale University, in 1992.

President Clinton continued the regular visits, and like Reagan (from California) and Bush (from Texas) before him, also had an opportunity to meet with champions from his home state -- the 1994 national-champion University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, men's basketball team. Clinton, who served as governor of Arkansas before becoming president, had met with the team earlier that season while in the state.

Before the visit became traditional for many teams, NCAA championship teams would occasionally receive a phone call from the president, often on the night of their victory. The president would generally congratulate the team and comment on an aspect of the game.

Perhaps one of the most memorable instances of presidential recognition of a college sports team -- although it did not involve a winner of an NCAA championship -- occurred in 1969, when President Richard Nixon attended an early-December showdown between two top-ranked football opponents, Texas and Arkansas, and presented a plaque after the game proclaiming the victorious Longhorns as national champion. It was a controversial presentation, especially among fans of Penn State's football team, which also finished the season undefeated.

Now, visits are often likely to occur on what the White House calls "Championship Day." President Bush will meet with several championship teams on the same day, sometimes more than a dozen. He has a picture taken with each team, accepts the traditional gifts and offers some brief remarks, recognizing each team for its accomplishments.

Occasionally, the visits spark some sort of controversy (see story elsewhere on this page), but more often than not, they are efficient, educational and the highlight of many a student-athlete's life.

The most recent visit took place July 12 on the South Lawn and included 15 different NCAA championship teams from the 2004-05 championship year, including the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, women's ice hockey team; the Northwestern University women's lacrosse team; the University of California, Los Angeles, men's and women's water polo teams; the University of Georgia men's golf, women's gymnastics, and women's swimming and diving teams; the University of Michigan softball team; the Stanford University women's tennis team; the Auburn University men's swimming and diving team; the Duke University women's golf team; the Johns Hopkins University men's lacrosse team; the Pepperdine University men's volleyball team; and the University of Oklahoma men's gymnastics team.

An expensive memory

The logistics of a visit to be honored at the White House can vary for different teams. The cost of the visit, including transportation to, from, in and around Washington, D.C., is absorbed by the institution, and some schools don't have the budget to accept the honor. Logistics can sometimes be complicated as well, planning for a flight and ground transportation for what, depending on the sport, may include scores of people -- sometimes on very short notice. Security at the White House can be extensive as well.

Planning other activities in the nation's capitol also is at the discretion of officials at each individual institution. When the 2002 Syracuse University men's lacrosse team visited President Bush the September after its championship victory, the team was able to tour the FBI building. Associate Athletics Director Janet Kittell had a connection with the FBI, and despite heightened security requirements after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the students were able to see much of the building. The group also chartered a tour bus, and the driver ferried the student-athletes to different tourist spots as well.

"Our kids get down to the Washington-Baltimore area a lot, and yet they don't get to do the educational things that we so often espouse as part of the athletics experience, because they're just down and back," Kittell said. "They were fascinated. We wished we had more time down there."

Once at the White House, Kittell said the team's time was very structured. Security was thorough but efficient, and each of the six teams that visited that day was sent to a different room and positioned on risers to await the arrival of the president for the team picture. After that, all six teams were brought together for a brief meeting and presentation of gifts with the president.

After the brief meeting, the team was ushered out. A local alumnus of Syracuse hosted the team at a restaurant for a meal before the team's flight back out of the Capitol City.

"We ate that meal way too fast to enjoy it," Kittell said. "It was a whirlwind and it was a pretty expensive trip."

The 2004 team also was invited to meet with the president, but not until April 2005 during the lacrosse season, Kittell said. The team did not make the trip.

The 1995 University of North Alabama University football team was the first Division II school to be honored for winning a national championship by a sitting president at the White House.

With that victory, the team had won three straight Division II football titles and lost only one game -- to Division I-AA Youngstown State University -- in that entire time span. Nine players on that team earned various national honors, including Harlon Hill Trophy winner Ronald McKinnon. Three players were chosen in the next NFL draft -- something Sports Information Director Jeff Hodges believes could be a Division II record -- and a fourth signed as a free agent. During the 25th anniversary celebration of Division II football in 1997, the 1995 North Alabama team was named the best team of the quarter-century.

When the team made its historic trip to Washington in March 1996, the student-athletes were honored with a luncheon on Capitol Hill hosted by Alabama Sen. Howell Heflin. Hodges said dozens of other senators and congressmen were in attendance as well. The team had a lengthy meeting with then-Vice President Al Gore and a briefer one with President Clinton.

Traditionally, teams bring gifts to the president, often a jersey emblazoned with the president's last name and the number "1" -- though "99" or the number of the presidency are also popular choices. Occasionally, teams will bring other items related to their sport as a gift.

At the most recent Championship Day at the White House, Bush accepted numerous jerseys, and a few more unusual offerings as well. The Auburn men's swimming and diving team brought a Speedo -- which Bush joked he would only wear in private -- and the Pepperdine men's volleyball team brought a surfboard, which the president jokingly dubbed "Surfboard One" (see graphic on page A2).