After 44 years in Congress — seven terms in the House, five in the Senate — DICK DURBIN is ready for retirement. But before bidding a final farewell to Capitol Hill, the 81-year-old Democrat joined Wednesday’s edition of the GTPS Insurance-powered “News-Gazette Radio” to talk about banning smoking on flights, convincing a certain junior senator to run for president, protecting college sports and more.

Among the legislative efforts you’ve led over the years was a law prohibiting smoking on domestic airplane flights of two hours or less. Is that one of the achievements you’re proudest of?

Well, I’ll tell you: It started off as an irritation. Congressmen and senators are (often) on airplanes and (sometimes) got in the smoking section. I was one day, flying from Phoenix to Chicago, in the middle seat of the smoking section — and I say this with some amount of amusement — between two chain-smoking sumo wrestlers.

I thought to myself: This sucks. When I get off this plane, I’m going to put in a bill and change this.

I went and told my staff that I wanted to change it and they said: You’re crazy. Nobody beats tobacco. It’s the biggest lobbying group in Washington.

I said: “Well, let’s try” and darned if we didn’t get a vote and it passed.

At the time that I passed that, I had no idea what the ultimate impact would be. But just to give you an illustration: At that time, more than 25 years ago, 29 percent of high school students in America smoked tobacco cigarettes.

Twenty-nine percent. Today, it’s 2 percent.

Once people were aware of the danger and we could respond to it, we did something about it. Lives were saved in the process. I had no idea how big a deal it would be but it turned out to be pretty big.

What else is on your legislative greatest hits list?

Twenty-five years ago, I put in something called the Dream Act. I said if you were a kid brought to this country by your parents — as a toddler, an infant, a young person — and you grew up here, you ought to have a chance at a pathway to citizenship if you keep your nose clean.

Eighty-five percent of the American people agreed it’s only fair to do that. These kids didn’t make the decision to drive across the border. They didn’t make the decision about what forms to file once they got here.

They deserve a chance. If they have no criminal record and they’ve done a good job with their lives, they deserve a chance to earn citizenship.

The Dream Act is the one item of business I wish I could complete before I finally hang it up.

You were among a majority of senators to vote in favor of the sweeping Protect College Sports Act, which passed one chamber last month but still has to clear the House of Representatives. What swayed your decision and what are its odds of passage in the House?

I looked at it long and hard. It’s long overdue that we take a look at college sports today, which are a lot different than 10, 20 years ago, for sure.

I held out until we protected the right of athletes to bring lawsuits for head injuries through state laws. That wasn’t clearly included in the first version; when they put it in clearly, I supported the bill.

Now, it passed in the Senate — 77-22, pretty big numbers. I’m told that it’s going to have a tougher time in the House of Representatives.

When you announced this would be your last term, one of the first people to take to Twitter was Barack Obama, who said without your guidance, he’d never have been a U.S. senator, let alone president. How far do the two of you go back and how would you describe your relationship?

It’s a very close relationship and I will tell you: In November of 2006, we were at the Union League Club in Chicago on a Friday evening. He was the junior senator from Illinois, I was the senior one.

I said: “I need to talk to you.” He said “I gotta get home.” I said: “Give me five minutes.”

I pull him off to the side, close the door and said: “I want you to run for president. I’ll support you for it.”

I wasn’t the first one to suggest it, and I wasn’t the only one to suggest it. But I was the first U.S. senator who said “I’m willing yo back you all the way.”

He said he needed to talk to his wife about it, and that’s understandable. And he made the decision just a few months later to announce in Springfield and I introduced him at that time. For 14 months, I was the only senator who endorsed him and when it was all said and done, he won the Iowa caucus and off he went — to the White House.

You began your Congressional career during the Reagan Administration. Would you say the country and Congress are more polarized now than at any point since — or is that exaggerated?

No, it’s not exaggerated. That is the case, and I think we all sense that.

It’s not uncommon for people to say that they don’t speak to former friends, even some relatives, who have different political beliefs. The division is more graphic than I’ve ever seen in my professional and political life.

And it’s gotta change back. We’ve got to reach a point where we disagree but don’t threaten people with violence or cut them off from our family gatherings. That’s an extreme that should never be part of our democracy.

Last one: What are you going to do with all the free time that comes with retirement?

You know, I’ve been thinking about opportunities and it seems like dog walking is pretty good. It looks like people are paying 30 bucks an hour to walk their dog. (Laughing). I’m looking into a number of things and that’s one of them.