Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the White House. I want to say a special word of welcome to…”

“Thank you very much. Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the White House. I want to say a special word of welcome to Purdue Coach Carolyn Peck and UConn Coach Jim Calhoun and their wonderful teams; and we're honored to be joined by two Members of Congress from Connecticut, John Larson and Nancy Johnson. Usually, you know, the Members of Congress, they stand in front of the team, and I shake hands with them, and then I go shake hands with the team. And I started shaking hands with the UConn team, and Nancy Johnson was the fourth person in the line, and I wondered what position she could possibly have played. [Laughter] Well, we're delighted that they're both here, and the two Connecticut Senators, Joe Lieberman and Chris Dodd were also here. They had to go vote, and they're going to try to get back before we finish. But we thank them for coming. It's a great honor for me today to welcome the Purdue Lady Boilermakers and the UConn Huskies, two talented basketball teams who remained focused enough to win the most coveted prize in college basketball. It's a kind of a joke around the White House that I am a fanatic basketball fan, that I frequently misbehave during the NCAA tournament--[laughter]--especially if the Arkansas Razorbacks aren't playing well that year. But I studied these teams very closely. I'd like to--I think that I would like to begin by making two acknowledgements that are important to the human element of basketball. First of all, the Lady Boilermakers lost one of their teammates, Tiffany Young, last August in a car accident, and her parents are here. And I'd like to acknowledge their presence and thank them for coming. Would you--well, they're here somewhere. There they are. And in this week, I can't help noting that on Monday we lost one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Wilt Chamberlain, whose dedication, determination, and performance inspired countless Americans, most of whom never scored 100 points in a single game. Wilt Chamberlain once said, in his rather wry and funny way, ``They say nobody is perfect. Then, they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their mind.'' [Laughter] One thing is clear. With practice and talent, UConn and Purdue got pretty close to perfect. They both beat two very talented Duke Blue Devil teams. This was a season of firsts. First time a men's team from New England had won the NCAA tournament since Harry Truman lived in the White House; the first time the Purdue women or the UConn men ever won a national championship. Let me begin by saluting the Lady Boilermakers. All America was awed by your performance. I understand it was fueled by power naps and peanut butter. [Laughter] If that's true, I think I'll stay with them both. [Laughter] They had a dazzling 34-1 season record. I told the coach when we were starting this that I happened to see one night, on television, their early-season victory against Tennessee. Because, you know, Tennessee's coming here has become a kind of regular event--[laughter]--Coach Summitt and her husband and her wonderful son have become friends of ours. And Al Gore was in a slump the next day. [Laughter] And he said, ``Well, they must have had an off night.'' And I said, ``Al, I watched the game. They didn't have an off night.'' [Laughter] ``That Purdue team is great. It's going to be hard for anybody to beat them.'' And it turned out to be right. I want to mention the extraordinary contributions of the co-captains of the team. MVP Ukari Figgs turned around the final game with 18 points. All-American Stephanie White-McCarty amassed the second-highest number of points in the history of Purdue. Basketball is a team effort. It depends upon everyone working together and relies heavily on good leadership. The Boilermakers had a lot of both. As the first African-American woman ever to win the NCAA championship as a coach, Carolyn Peck has demonstrated extraordinary leadership, carrying Purdue to two Big 10 tournament championships in only two seasons. And I'm glad she's back here with her team today. She's just finished her first season as a pro coach, where she missed the playoffs, I think she said, by one game. And next year is your second season; you've got to deliver. And we wish you well. [Laughter] So I'd like to call on Carolyn Peck and give her the microphone now. Thank you. [At this point, Coach Peck made brief remarks.]”