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7337635
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Text of Remarks by the President to Be Delivered at the National Collegiate Athletic Association's 1975 Awards Luncheon [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7337635
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Text of Remarks by the President to Be Delivered at the National Collegiate Athletic Association's 1975 Awards Luncheon [Ford Speech or Statement]
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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1975-01-07
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1975
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Digitized from Box 6 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE
JANUARY 7, 1975
UNTIL 12:45 P. M., EST
Office of the White House Press Secretary
THE WHITE HOUSE
TEXT OF REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO BE DELIVERED AT THE
NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION'S
1975 AWARDS LUNCHEON
SHERATON PARK HOTEL
May I thank you most sincerely for this award -- and for the good will and
good wishes that it represents. It will always occupy an honored position
in my office, in my life, and in my memories. I thank you very much.
I want you to know that I feel very much at home here today because if
you stop to think about it -- the athletic director of any college and the
President of the United States, have a great deal in common. We both need
the talent and cooperation of others to succeed. We both get a lot more
criticism for the losses than we get credit for the wins. We both buy aspirin
by the six-pack -- and we both have a certain lack of permanence in our
jobs.
As one coach put it to me: He didn't so much mind the fact that his name
on the office door was written in chalk
...
it was that big wet sponge
hanging beside it!
But I'm sure I don't have to tell any of you the problems of being an athletic
director or head coach. For instance, I see my good friend Bear Bryant
sitting here
I was talking to Bear and he said we both had the very same
experience on New Year's Day. I said, "How is that possible? I was skiing
and you were at the Orange Bowl. He said, "That's what I mean. We both
hit the top and after that, it was all down hill!"
I think Alabama played a superb game but Notre Dame just seemed to have
that something extra.
It was once said that many of Britain's battles were won on the playing fields
of Eton.
We could also say that amateur athletics has developed much of the muscle
that has built and defended this country. And though a young person might
not go to college, no youngster grows up in America today without some
competitive sport. Sports are not only a preparation for life, their spirit is
part of the very essence of the American competitive system.
We have a saying in my home state of Michigan. As the lakes, rivers and
ponds freeze over, the sight of eager children skimming over the ice is a
common one. And if you ask a young boy or girl how he or she ever learned
to ice skate the answer out our way is a simple one: "I got up when I fell
down."
We have got to get up here in America. As a nation, we must be physically,
and mentally fit because the times demand that we not only compete but that
we excel. And we must do it with enthusiasm -- the enthusiasm found on
the fields of sport. Emerson once said: "Nothing great was ever achieved
without enthusiasm."
This is a time for greatness in our nation and a time for enthusiasm.
(MORE)
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In this spirit, I accept the National Collegiate Athletic Association's 1975
Theodore Roosevelt Award. I accept it not for what I might have achieved
in the past -- but for what I will strive to accomplish, with the help of all
Americans, in the future.
I thank you.
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