Bio: One of this country's most remarkable public figures, Bill Bradley has had a multifaceted career as an athlete, author, and elected leader. Born in Missouri in 1943, Bradley has since high school distinguished himself as both an athlete and an intellectual. He played three varsity seasons on Princeton University's basketball team and was a two-time All-American. During his senior year he was named College Player of the Year and helped lead Princeton to the semifinals of the NCAA tournament. After graduation, Bradley decided to put his basketball career on hold for two years in order to attend Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. He returned to play for the New York Knicks, where he was an integral part of two world championship teams and an all-star. His experiences as a basketball player formed the basis for his celebrated first book, Life on the Run.
After retiring from basketball with a Hall-of-Fame career, Bradley turned his attention to another longstanding passion, government. Having lived in New Jersey during his career with the Knicks, Bradley ran as the Democratic candidate for Senator there and won handily. Upon arriving in office, he focused on issues such as tax reform and eventually established a reputation as one of the most intelligent and principled public servants in Washington. He was re-elected in 1984 in a landslide, and again in 1990 in a much more closely-contested race with future New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman.

Disillusioned with the partisanship and rancor on Capitol Hill, Bradley retired from the Senate in 1996. He taught at Stanford, the University of Maryland and Notre Dame, and authored two books, Time Present, Time Past: A Memoir, and Values of the Game. In 2000, Bradley re-entered the political arena, losing to Al Gore in a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. He then authored The Journey From Here, articulating his vision for the future of the country.