Former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton has been receiving much national media attention in recent days for his and fellow Iraq Study Group co-chairman James Baker’s comments and recommendations on the Iraq War.

At least two Chattanoogans remember when the spotlight was on him as well more than 60 years ago for his athletic and academic accomplishments as a grade-school student on Missionary Ridge.

Selden Landress, who owned Belvoir Pharmacy in Brainerd for a number of years, and Ed Tankesley of Signal Mountain were good friends with the longtime lawmaker when he lived here. They have also followed his career over the years.

“He was quite a good athlete,” Mr. Landress remembered. “He was always the best basketball player for his age in town and was also a champion sprinter. And he was tall for his age.”

Mr. Tankesley remembered that not long after Mr. Hamilton moved to Chattanooga, some fellow students at Missionary Ridge Grade School were all “sizing him up” on the playground. They all challenged him to a race, and a number of the fastest youngsters lined up against him. “He went off and left everybody,” said Mr. Tankesley with a laugh.

They also remember that he was considered a well-liked and fine person.

According to records, Mr. Hamilton, who is now 75 years old, resided in Chattanooga from 1935-43. During that time, his father, Dr. Frank Hamilton, served as pastor at First Methodist Church at Georgia and McCallie avenues, which has been torn down except for its steeple. The family had come from Daytona Beach, Fla.

While here, he resided briefly at 201 Glenwood Drive and later at 128 S. Crest Road on Missionary Ridge in a home that was torn down for the ridge-cut freeway construction.

He went on to become a standout basketball player at DePauw University in Indiana. He later attended Indiana University law school and practiced private law for 10 years before entering politics. He served as a U.S. Congressman from Southern Indiana from 1965-99.

Considered one of the most respected Democrats in the area of foreign affairs, he chaired the 1980s’ committee that investigated the illegal sale of arms to Iran, a United States adversary, to fund the anti-communist Contra guerilla group in Nicaragua. The hearings brought to the forefront Col. Oliver North, the coordinator of the arms sales, who some saw as breaking the law and others saw as an American patriot.

After leaving Congress, Mr. Hamilton also served as vice chairman of the 9-11 Commission.

In 1994, while working at the Chattanooga Free Press, I had overheard then-Editor Lee Anderson say that Lee Hamilton was from Chattanooga. Always interested in well-known people with connections to Chattanooga, I later contacted Mr. Hamilton’s office in Indiana and was able to get a telephone interview with him.

I remember that he had a serious and businesslike manner to his voice, but that he kindly and fondly recalled his times in Chattanooga. I later sent his office a copy of my article, and he sent me back a nice personal letter thanking me.

He had told me that he had not visited Chattanooga much since leaving, although he and his wife had stopped at Missionary Ridge and other familiar areas while passing through Chattanooga on one occasion and that the visit had brought back many memories. He added that he hoped to revisit the city again some time.

He also said that he had excellent memories of growing up in Chattanooga. “I have always thought it was a delightful place to live,” he said at the time. “I enjoyed very much the hospitality of the people. It was a very friendly town.”

Mr. Hamilton attended Missionary Ridge School through the sixth grade and then Brainerd Junior High before his parents, he, and his older brother, Richard, moved to Evansville, Ind. He said that his parents were partial to public education, so Baylor or McCallie was not an option.

While living here, Mr. Hamilton said that he played miniature golf at the Tom Thumb golf course on Lookout Mountain, played on and around the now-razed Civil War battlefield observation tower next to Missionary Ridge School, and played basketball at the former YMCA on Georgia Avenue, which has also been torn down.

Mr. Landress said this week that a shared love of basketball was how he and Mr. Hamilton became friends. He remembered that they would play in the old YMCA gym for a while, and then they would get run out of there because some adults or somebody else needed to use it. They would then go a few feet away to the First Methodist Church gym and play.

Mr. Tankesley recalled that Mr. Hamilton once won numerous awards at a track meet on the small indoor track in the upstairs of the old Georgia Avenue YMCA.

In fact, Mr. Tankesley remembered that Mr. Hamilton was unable to be there for the awards ceremony, so Mr. Landress picked them up for him. Mr. Tankesley remembered the master of ceremonies telling Mr. Landress that he better save himself the trouble of sitting down after he had picked up one or two awards, because more were coming. “He had won every award,” Mr. Tankesley remembered.

He also raced in the finals of a grammar school division of the100-yard dash at the Baylor Relays. Mr. Tankesley remembered standing at the finish tape and seeing Wes Brown, who went on to have an outstanding golf career, barely beat him in what Mr. Tankesley remembers was a record that stood for several years.

Mr. Hamilton also usually finished near the front academically while in Chattanooga and was a natural leader who was admired by his teachers, the two added.

While at Baylor for the Baylor Relays himself, Mr. Tankesley said that he walked up on top of the hill, thought it was a beautiful school and decided he wanted to go there. He did and graduated in 1948. He went on to become a pharmaceutical representative and was later a stockbroker.

Another former classmate at Missionary Ridge was the late Chattanooga Free Press executive Frank McDonald.

Both Mr. Landress and Mr. Tankesley said they have had little contact with him since their early years.

Mr. Landress said that he saw him once at the restaurant at the Watergate hotel complex in Washington, D.C., about the time that the Watergate scandal was unfolding in the early 1970s. He was engrossed in a conversation with some other elected officials, but Mr. Landress approached him.

“I did speak to him briefly,” he said. “He was nice but he was involved in an important conversation, so we did not have a very long chat. But I still recognized him.”

Mr. Tankesley said that he had heard a number of years ago that a Lee Hamilton was involved in politics and suspected it was the same person he had once known. So, while visiting one of the congressional offices at the Federal Building downtown, he had them contact Mr. Hamilton’s office.

He started asking the person in Mr. Hamilton’s office if the congressman had formerly lived in Chattanooga. The person did not think so. But then Mr. Tankesley asked if he had a burr haircut, had an older brother named Richard, was the son of a preacher and had played basketball. After getting an affirmative to all those answers, Mr. Tankesley knew his old Chattanooga classmate was the same person as the congressman.

Mr. Tankesley later sent Mr. Hamilton some copies of old Missionary Ridge class photographs, which Mr. Hamilton had misplaced. Mr. Hamilton wrote him back thanking him. “He sent me a little note or something,” he recalled. “I may have sent him something else. I am not sure.”

Mr. Tankesley and Mr. Landress have also continued sending praises about Mr. Hamilton to those who will listen.

“He was a straight guy,” Mr. Tankesley said. “I think he always had that reputation.”

Mr. Landress said his whole family seemed to be fine people. “After his father left, that church went down,” he said. “His father was quite a well-known person.”