Politicians Who Know How to Play Ball Tom McMillen, left, and Bill Bradley had long careers in Washington after their N.B.A. playing careers. "We had a jock caucus then," McMillen joked. BALTIMORE - One very tall man in Maryland knows something about competing hard until the game ends, and Tom McMillen's advice to candidates in Tuesday's elections is this: Shake every hand. Mel Evans/Associated Press Representative Jon Runyan, a Republican from New Jersey, is one of only two professional athletes who hold seats in Congress. His campaigning until the polls closed in 1986 might have made the difference in his successful race to represent Maryland's Fourth Congressional District in the House of Representatives, McMillen, a former N.B.A. player, said over the weekend. Only after absentee ballots were counted over the next week was McMillen declared the winner by over 400 votes. "I stayed until 8 at night working at the precinct to get the last vote," he said. That's a very, very important lesson. You don't stop until the game is over. A 6-foot-11 forward and center for the Knicks, the Buffalo Braves, the Atlanta Hawks and the Washington Bullets before entering politics, McMillen, a Democrat, served three terms in the House in an era that was more bipartisan than it is now. His colleagues in the House included the Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky who later served in the United States Senate; the N.F.L. (and A.F.L.) quarterback Jack Kemp, a Republican from New York; Mo Udall, a Democrat from Arizona who played for the original Denver Nuggets in the National Basketball League, a precursor to the N.B.A.; and Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, a judoka who competed in the 1964 Olympics and, like Bunning, later served in the Senate, even switching party affiliations from Democrat to Republican along the way. Bill Bradley, the Princeton and Knicks star, was then serving in the Senate as a Democrat from New Jersey. Bradley, Kemp and Udall unsuccessfully sought the presidency, and Kemp ran as the vice-presidential candidate when Bob Dole led the Republican ticket in 1996 and lost to President Bill Clinton. It was a real proliferation. While the Capitol's athletic ranks have since thinned, this Election Day may usher in a supply of reserves. Only two professional athletes now hold seats in Congress: Representative Jon Runyan, Republican of New Jersey, who was an offensive lineman for 14 years in the N.F.L., mostly with the Philadelphia Eagles, and Representative Heath Shuler, Democrat of North Carolina, the third overall pick in the 1994 draft whose forgettable career as a quarterback started with the Redskins. Shuler is preparing to depart Washington for a second time. Elected to the House in 2006, he is not running for re-election after the realignment of his 11th District, in western North Carolina. Earlier this year, he declined, too, to enter the race for the state's open seat for governor. Runyan, a first-term member of the House who represents the Third District, is locked in a tight race with a Democrat, Shelley Adler, who is seeking to win the seat once held by her late husband. A former N.F.L. player running for the House is Jimmy Farris, Democrat of Idaho, who was a wide receiver for the Redskins and several other teams. And at least two first-time House candidates played collegiate basketball: Danny Tarkanian, a Republican from Nevada who is the son of Jerry Tarkanian and played at U.N.L.V.; and Al Lawson, a Democrat from Florida, who played at Florida A&M. None, of course, possess the star quality of recent House members like the Hall of Fame wide receiver Steve Largent, Republican of Oklahoma, and Tom Osborne, Republican of Nebraska and former football coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. J. C. Watts, a Republican from Oklahoma and a quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners, overlapped part of the period during which Largent and Osborne served. Two athletes who served in the House beginning in the late 1960s were the Olympic decathlon champion Bob Mathias, a Republican from California, and Wilmer Mizell, a Republican from North Carolina and a pitcher whose experiences on the 1960 World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates and the hapless 1962 Mets doubtless provided a superb introduction to the ups and downs of political life. But name recognition takes an athlete only so far in Washington, with reputation hardly assuring office holders of substance, accomplishment or even likability. Bradley and Kemp are two who did particularly well, making their marks with a mastery of tax policy, said Norman Orenstein, an American Enterprise Institute analyst who specializes in Congress.