Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell would have never entered politics if it weren’t for a timely job offer, the steady guidance of a wise mentor and a willingness to take risks. Now Mitchell is being honored as the 2010 NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award recipient for his decades-long career as a public servant.

Known as the “Teddy,” the award is the highest honor the NCAA bestows and is annually presented to a former NCAA 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. Mitchell will receive the award January 15 at the NCAA Honors and Delegates Celebration during the 2010 NCAA Convention in Atlanta.

Mitchell is the second Bowdoin graduate to earn the Teddy. In 2001, the NCAA presented former U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen with the award.

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.”

As 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. 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 him 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.