Commencement 2007 - Villanova University

He played intramurals at La Salle High. He played intramuralshere at Villanova that freshman year before the coach spottedhow great he was.“How do you think it feels?,” he said when asked what it feltlike to make the professional Basketball Hall of Fame, “to a guywho back in high school was only playing intramurals?”I bring this up today because it doesn’t sound like your usualjock story. We all saw Kareem Abdul-Jabbar back when he wasLew Alcindor at Power Memorial, or LeBron James back when hewas an All-American high school star. We’re used to people beingborn great, being super-stars in their teens.What I love about Paul Arizin making it from intramuralsto one of the greatest basketball players in history is what hisstory tells us about the world beyond the Palestra.The good news for most of you out there today, graduatingfrom Villanova but worried about your future, is that the PaulArizin story is more like most people’s life stories—and practicallyall the great success stories ever. Because the people whomake it in this world don’t show their stuff in school. You lookaround among your classmates and you have no idea who’sgoing to be successful at what they end up doing. No idea.Why? You’re thinking about being a lawyer, or a doctor orgoing into business. Your big chance to make it will come whenyou’re well into your profession, five, 10, 20 years from now. It’llcome when you’re actually in the game—out there on the courttaking shots—just like Paul Arizin was when that coach sawhim out there on the court.This is what life is like for most of us.When you hear my introduction, all the great jobs I’vehad—speechwriter to a president, top aide to a legendarySpeaker of the House, newspaper bureau chief, the host of twonational TV shows—you look so smooth. One job afteranother, like a neat stack of tuna fish cans.Believe me, it wasn’t that neat. I got my first job—as aCapitol cop—after knocking on 200 doors of U.S. senatorsand members of Congress. I took that job, which had meworking in a Utah senator’s office ’til 3, then moonlightingwith a .38 police special ’til almost midnight, because it wasthe only way to get in the door, to break into Capitol Hill.Because it allowed me, three months later, to become a senator’sfull-time legislative assistant.How did I get the nerve to question senators and otherpoliticians the way I do? It’s because I used to write theirspeeches, draft their amendments and sit on the Senate floorassisting one of them.I also know how a White House works, and whom toblame when something goes wrong—because I worked inone for four years.I know what Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif., current Speaker of theHouse] is doing—and she’s doing great—because I spent ahalf-dozen years starting every morning with one of the greatestSpeakers in history.Yeah, I ask tough questions. When I look at the bad informationthat we got from the government, on life and death mattersof peace and war, I wish I could ask even tougher questions.Nothing is more dangerous than to treat politicians, of eitherparty, in office or out of office, as if they are “dispensers of truth.”Before we trust, we should do everything we can to verify.“You can’t win unless youget in the game. It’s howyou learn the lingo, you learnthe cadence of the game.”—Chris MatthewsThe Rev. Peter M. Donohue, O.S.A., ’75 A&S, Universitypresident, awards the honorary degree to Chris Matthews.Anyway, that’s my job these days and I can’t think of abetter one for someone like me.You know, life is a lot like those kids you see standing at aneighborhood basketball court watching the big kids play.Ever watch those kids? Ever been one? They stand there,throwing the ball back in when it goes out of bounds. Theystudy how the big guys move the ball and, sooner or later, oneof them has to leave to go home for supper or whatever, andone of their pals yells, “Hey, punk, wanna play?”You can’t win unless you get in the game. It’s how youlearn the lingo, you learn the cadence of the game. It’s howyou meet people. Yeah, it’s not what you know, it’s who youknow. But you can get to know people. Life is filled with gettingto know people. And you’re there when lightning strikes.I want to talk about another Villanova grad: Gerald Tremblay,Class of 1957 [A&S, education]. He’s also in my highschool’s Hall of Fame, and decades of students and parentscouldn’t imagine him not being there.Jerry Tremblay taught English at La Salle [high school]—literature, I mean. When he read Henry IV, Part 2, standing in theaisle with that paperback copy, he made young Prince Hal and big,Summer 2007 15