The Life and Accomplishments of Senator Bill Bradley
 

Bill Bradley was born July 28, 1943 in Crystal City, Missouri, a small town on the banks of the Mississippi River, 36 miles south of St. Louis. The only child of Warren and Susan Bradley, Bill enjoyed a middle-class family upbringing in an ethnically and racially diverse town with a strong blue-collar base. The son of a well-respected, small-town banker and a former schoolteacher, Bill was often teased for his family’s success and sought to fit in as "one of the guys" by playing basketball. For Bill, "basketball was the great common denominator. It didn’t make any difference who you were."

Through hard work, practice and perseverance, Bill succeeded in basketball; scoring 3,000 points in four years of high school and winning All-American honors his junior and senior years. Although basketball was Bill’s passion, he was a very well-rounded individual. He was also an Eagle Scout, the high school student body president, and a member of the baseball and track teams.

Recruited heavily out of high school, Bill initially chose to attend Duke University in North Carolina, but changed his mind after completing an educational tour of Europe in the summer prior to his freshman year. The trip, which sparked his interest in international affairs as well as the prospect of studying at Oxford University, caused him to reconsider his college choice and attend Princeton, instead of Duke. Although Princeton did not give out athletic scholarships, they had an impressive record of producing Rhodes Scholars.

At Princeton, Bradley showed that he was one of the best college basketball players ever. During his college years, he was a three-time All-Star selection, the 1965 College Player of the Year, 1965 NCAA Tournament Player of the Year and the 1965 Sullivan Award Winner. He was also a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. basketball team in the 1964 Olympics. The consummate team player, Bill held the accomplishments of the team above personal ones saying, "the great player is one who makes the worst player on the team good."

Bradley worked hard in academics as well as basketball, graduating from college with honors in American history. In the summer before his senior year, his deep commitment to civil rights and interest in politics led him to work as an intern in the congressional office of Richard Schweiker (R-PA) and then to work on the presidential campaign of former Pennsylvania Governor William W. Scranton.

Following college, Bradley was drafted by the National Basketball Association’s New York Knicks, but opted to attend Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, instead. While abroad, Bill had the opportunity to visit Germany, Russia and the Middle East, which served to intensify his interest in world affairs. He eventually received a master’s degree in politics, philosophy and economics.

Following graduation, Bradley returned to the U.S. to join the Knicks. Before stepping onto the court, however, he joined the Air Force Reserves, opting not to wait for a draft notice. He was accepted into the Officer Training School at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, followed by Personnel Training at the base in Amarillo. Bill served on active duty for nearly six months in 1967, before joining the Knicks midway through the season. For the next five years, while playing basketball full-time, he joined his reserve unit for one weekend a month and two weeks during the summer to fulfill his service duties. Bradley attained the rank of first lieutenant.

On the court, Bill struggled his rookie year before coming into his own in his second season. In 1969-70, he helped the Knicks win their first national championship, followed by a second in 1972-73. The second championship season was Bill’s best and he made his only All-Star Game appearance that year. Retiring from basketball in 1977, he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Bill worked hard to have a life broader than basketball and he used his time as a professional athlete to meet new people and visit new places. During the off-season, Bill would also travel abroad, meeting with journalists, government officials, academics, businesspeople and social activists. Not only did he participate in basketball camps targeted to disadvantaged youth, but spent breaks teaching reading at the Urban League in Harlem. He also worked as an assistant to the director of the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C. making contacts in Democratic circles. In 1976, Bill also became an author, with Life on the Run, which chronicled his experiences in the NBA and the people he met along the way.

Bill did find a way to make time for a personal life. In 1974, he married Ernestine Schlant, a German-born professor of German and comparative literature. Ernestine began teaching at Montclair State College in 1971 and remains on the faculty today. Following their marriage the two settled in New Jersey and in 1976 had a daughter, Theresa Anne.

After retiring from basketball, Bill ran in New Jersey for the U.S. Senate. In the June 1978 primary he defeated his two democratic challengers and in the general election beat a vigorous Republican opponent. At 35, he was sworn in as the youngest member of the U.S. Senate.

Early on in his Senate career, Bradley was assigned to the Finance Committee and Energy and Natural Resources Committee, seats he held throughout his 18-year Senate tenure. Later he did stints on the Special Committee on Aging and the Select Committee on Intelligence. He was reelected in 1984 with the largest plurality ever achieved by a New Jersey Democrat, and in 1990 retained his post despite a hard-fought challenge.

In the Senate, Bill approached his role as a legislator who writes laws, a leader who shapes national opinion and an advocate who fights bureaucracy on behalf of individual citizens. Assisting children and families was constantly at the forefront of his legislative agenda. He sought to make parents accountable by systematically reforming child support enforcement and successfully passed legislation addressing serious children’s health problems caused by lead. He was also a chief proponent for the Earned Income Tax Credit and introduced legislation to help struggling middle-class families pay for their children’s college education by proposing Self-Reliance Loans.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Bill also made reducing the federal budget deficit a priority. In 1981, he was one of three Senators who supported President Reagan’s cuts in spending, but opposed his tax cuts, a position that would have entirely prevented the debt explosion of the 1980s. He also consistently supported comprehensive campaign finance reform.

As a policymaker, Senator Bradley focused on the "big picture." In his opinion, structural solutions, as opposed to Band-Aids, were the most effective way of dealing with the nation’s problems. He espoused a "big picture" view of tax reform as well as foreign policy.

A close victory in 1990 and his wife’s brush with breast cancer in 1992, were turning points in Bill’s Senate career; serving as a wake-up call that liberated and motivated him to "share what was in his gut as well as mind." Increasingly, he began to use his Senate platform as a "bully pulpit" to speak out on issues of race and promote racial healing.

A self-described "workhorse," Bill retired from the Senate in August 1995 when his third term ended, realizing that there was much he could do to improve America from outside Congress. "I am leaving the Senate," he said, "but I am not leaving public life."

Bradley’s promise to remain involved and engaged in the American dialogue was kept as he served as chair of the National Civic League, worked on international issues at J.P. Morgan & Co., and advertised the Advertising Council. He also headed up an institute focused on leadership at the University of Maryland, worked on issues of international affairs at Stanford University and taught an undergraduate public policy seminar at the University of Notre Dame. He also wrote two more books, Values of the Game and more recently, The Journey from Here.

Since he left the Senate at the top of his game, Bill Bradley sought the Democratic nomination for President in the year 2000, in an effort to "unleash the enormous potential of the American people."