Ted Kennedy has been a longtime United States Senator from the state of Massachusetts for a great many years. He has been a champion of those in need, whether those without health care or those being treated unequal to others. With his recent diagnosis of having a brain tumor, lets take a look at 7 Things You Didn’t Know About: Ted Kennedy.

1. Senator Kennedy has written a children’s book titled “My Senator and Me: A Dog’s Eye View Of Washington, D.C.”.

2. Ted Kennedy ran for President in 1980 against a sitting President from his own party.

3. Ted Kennedy was initially expelled from Harvard for cheating, he then enlisted in the United State Army and would eventually re-enter Harvard, graduating in 1956.

4. Ted Kennedy was the sole survivor of a small plane crash in 1964 that left him with three crushed vertebrae.

5. In 2004, Senator Kennedy was stopped numerous times while trying to fly from Boston to Washington D.C. for questioning because his name was similar to that of a name that was on the Homeland Security list of names that needed additional screening.

6. In the 1955 Harvard vs. Yale football game which was won by Yale with a score of 21-7, Ted Kennedy caught the only Harvard touchdown pass.

7. Many TV and big screen movies have been made about the Kennedy family, Ted Kennedy has been portrayed on screen by Kevin Hare, Dylan Price, Craig T. Nelson, Jared Cook, Fraser McGregor, Patrick Labyorteaux, Matt Letscher, Jacob Richmond, Matthew Dundas, and Kevin Conroy among others.

No matter what the result of his illness, Ted Kennedy will go down as one of the most effective politicians of his era.