ESPN Sportswriter - Host Jeremy Schaap to Moderate Event with Celebrated Athletes/Politicians
Sigma Phi Society's James Norris Oliphant Distinguished Speakers Fellowship, With Additional Support from Lawrence Tanenbaum, Sponsors 7:30 p.m. Event
ITHACA, N.Y. – Two legendary athletes-turned-politicians – Bill Bradley, Princeton '65, and Ken Dryden, Cornell '70 – will discuss “Lives on the Run: Sports, Service & Leadership” at Cornell University on Sept. 10. Jeremy Schaap, Cornell '91 and Emmy award-winning ESPN sportswriter and host, will moderate the event.
The evening's sponsors are Sigma Phi Society's James Norris Oliphant Distinguished Speakers Fellowship and Lawrence Tanenbaum, Cornell '68. The event will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Cornell's Bailey Hall. Free tickets are available to the public at Willard Straight Ticket Office and Ticket Center Ithaca beginning August 26.
Former Sen. Bradley (D., N.J.) and the Hon. Mr. Dryden, member of Canada's Parliament for York Centre, Ontario, made celebrated marks in athletic stadiums and political arenas. Both were record-setting collegiate stars in basketball and hockey, respectively, who became Hall-of-Famers and members of championship teams. They followed their athletic careers with distinguished lawmaking careers in Washington, D.C., and Ottawa, respectively. Each continues to exemplify the highest ideals of public service.
“Dryden and Bradley's lives echo each other. Each was a brilliant collegiate athlete, went on to great professional success, and then vigorously pursued a career as a legislator and public servant,” said Schaap, who hosts ESPN's “Outside the Lines. “To hear them reflect on their and each other's lives will be a rare and exciting opportunity.”
Questions can be submitted to the speakers in advance at http://tinyurl.com/BradleyDryden
The evening discussion will include video highlights of their athletic careers.
For more than 40 years, the Oliphant Speakers Fellowship has brought noteworthy individuals to Cornell. “They've ranged from Tom Brokaw and Ed Koch to Oliver North and Muhammad Ali,” explained David Keating, Cornell '10 and student chairman of the Sigma Phi Oliphant Speakers Fellowship: “Sigma Phi's speakers program enhances its members' undergraduate experience while enriching the broader university and Ithaca community. It is unique at Cornell and is one of only a handful of similar undergraduate-run speakers programs nationwide.”
For more information about the event, visit www.oneforestparklane.ning.com.
Sen. William “Bill” Bradley
Bill Bradley was a three-time, All-American basketball player at Princeton University and graduated with honors in 1965 with a degree in American History. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he earned a graduate degree after studying politics, philosophy and economics. Bradley's remarkable tenure at Princeton was the subject of Pulitzer Prize-winning author John McPhee's first book, A Sense of Where You Are.
Bradley went on to become a star professional basketball player for the New York Knicks from 1967 to 1977. During that time, the Knicks won two National Basketball Association championships in 1970 and 1973. In recognition of his contribution to the sport, he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.
In the fall of 1998, his book of basketball-inspired essays, Values of the Game, was published and became a New York Times best-seller. His 1976 book about being a professional basketball player on the road in America, Life on the Run, became a sports classic. In 1977, Bradley was elected to the first of three six-year terms as a U.S. senator from New Jersey. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 2000.
Hon. Ken Dryden, P.C.
Ken Dryden holds a degree in history from Cornell University and a law degree from McGill University. He also has received honorary doctoral degrees from the universities of Ottawa, Windsor, York, McMaster, St. Mary's, Niagara and British Columbia.
At Cornell, Dryden led the Cornell Big Red to the 1967 National Collegiate Athletic Association hockey championship and three consecutive ECAC tournament championships. He was a member of the Sigma Phi Society and vice-president of the Quill and Dagger society.
Dryden was goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens hockey team from 1971 to 1979, during which time the team went on to win six Stanley cups. Mr. Dryden is a proud member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and the International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame and his jersey number 29 was retired by the Canadiens in Jan. 2007.
Dryden was first elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for York Centre in 2004 and was re-elected in 2006 and 2008. From 2004 to 2006, he served as Minister of Social Development. He is the author of four best-selling books: The Game, Home Game, The Moved and the Shaken, and In School. In 1984, he was appointed Ontario's first Youth Commissioner. Before entering politics, Dryden served as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Jeremy Schaap
Jeremy Schaap, a correspondent for ESPN's primetime newsmagazine E:60, received anEmmy award for his work as the host of Outside the Lines. He also is a regular contributor to Nightline and ABC World News Tonight and has been published in Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, Time, Parade, and the New York Times.
A native and current resident of New York City, Schaap is the author of Cinderella Man: James J. Braddock, Max Baer, and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History, a New York Times best-seller, and Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics.
Schaap is the son of the late journalist and broadcaster Dick Schaap. Like his father, Schaap is an alumnus of Cornell University and a former editor of The Cornell Daily Sun and a member of the Quill and Dagger society. He won the Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Writing at the 2005 Emmys, an award named after his father, for an Outside the Lines feature entitled "Finding Bobby Fischer."
Sigma Phi Society's Oliphant Distinguished Speakers Fellowship
In its 40 years, the Oliphant/Tanenbaum Distinguished Speakers Fellowship has brought more than 100 notable speakers to the Cornell Univesity campus. It is one of a handful of student-run, nationally recognized speakers programs in the nation.
Sigma Phi was founded on March 4, 1827. It expanded to its second chapter in 1830, making it the first national fraternity. Cornell's chapter was founded in 1890 with the help of Andrew Dickson White, Cornell University's first president and a Sigma Phi from Hobart College.
Sigma Phi is an ethnically, economically and socially diverse society, with about 30 live-in members and hundreds of alumni. Its members are some of the most accomplished Cornellians, and the Society has always had close ties to the university.
