TACOMA, Wash. — Dean Ando is excited about attending the Democratic National Convention.

Ando, 47, of Tacoma, Wash., ordered business cards that not only include his post office box and e-mail address, but also announce to the world that he is a "national delegate pledged to Senator Barack Obama," and — it says so right on the front of the card — "Barack's high school classmate!"

Ando, one of eight national delegates from Pierce County, was friends with Obama, known then as Barry, in 1971 when they were both 10-year-olds at Punahou School.

"Dean-O" and Barry played basketball together, and he said they remained friends until they graduated from high school in 1979. After that, the two went separate ways — Ando to Claremont College near Los Angeles and eventually to a state government job in Olympia — and Obama to Occidental College in Los Angeles and later to Columbia University, Harvard Law School and into politics.

Ando followed his old friend's career from afar, taking note when Obama became the first black president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, when he ran for the U.S. Senate, and when he delivered the speech at the 2004 Democratic convention.

When Ando and Obama were kids in Honolulu, Obama was clearly smart, but was more interested in basketball than politics, Ando said. "He had no political inklings," Ando said. "I think that really was developed after he left Hawai'i."

Ando, on the other hand, grew up in a political household. His father served on the Hawai'i state Board of Education for 20 years, and Ando said he grew up around "grassroots politics."

On Punahou's freshman basketball team, Ando was the point-guard and left-hander Obama a forward. Ando quit basketball after that year to concentrate on cross-country running. Obama went on to play on his school's state championship team in 1979.

Ando met up again with Obama in December when the candidate came to Seattle.

"I got to hang out with him for about 10 or 15 minutes, much to the dismay of the Secret Service," he said. "He was still the same funny, smart kind of humble guy I knew growing up.

"I always tell people, 'If you could just spend a few minutes with Barack, you would know he's the real deal.' "