Nobody Puts Baby In A Corner

One of TigerBlog's favorite movies is "Point Break," a great action movie with a tremendous plot and some great performances. Okay, it's true. TB admits it. He was even okay with the job that Keanu Reeves did as Johnny Utah.

The movie is basically about a young FBI agent (Reeves) with a crusty old partner (Gary Busey) who chase a bunch of surfer/bank robbers led by their leader (Patrick Swayze). It has some great action scenes and chase scenes, and TB was able to forgive the ending.

Swayze, of course, died yesterday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was one of those Hollywood actors who could be counted on time after time to be in good movies, maybe not quite on the Kurt Russell-Alec Baldwin-Charlie Sheen-Joe Pesci level, but close. If a movie came on that you'd never heard of before but had Swayze in it, you'd give it a chance.

Every obit TB read about Swayze included the line "nobody puts baby in a corner" from Dirty Dancing, which is his most famous. The rest of his obit paints the picture of a man who was pretty universally liked and respected, one who battled one of the worst forms of cancer with great dignity to the end.

When TB used to work at the newspaper, in the pre-internet days, we had access to the AP wire. Every so often, news of the passing of famous actors would come across the wire, and someone who was surfing the wire, as it were, would stumble across the item and announce it to the newsroom. One of the more cynical staffers would usually respond "someone else I never met who died," though he was moved when the woman who played Aunt Bea on "The Andy Griffith Show" passed away.

TigerBlog, though, used to think of how these were people he never met but who had made an impact on him nonetheless.

In many ways, it's the same here, when news of the passing of old-time Princeton athletes comes. TB never met many of these people, but he was so familiar with the body of their work that he couldn't help but think he knew them.

When relatives will call about a picture or checking on some factual information, they usually start by explaining who the person they're calling about was. TB often explains that the name is familiar, that the accomplishments are as well.

Today TB received an email from a person he did not know about a former Princeton football player, Rob Beible, whom he's never met. It mentioned that Beible himself is ill and wondered about contact information.

TB immediately recognized the name of Ron Beible as one of the top quarterbacks in school history. A quick check pointed out that Beible is actually fifth all-time at Princeton in passing yardage, and he was Princeton's career leader when he gradated in 1976 (extra credit if you can name the four who have passed him since).

TigerBlog wishes Beible luck against his illness.

He also was sad to see Swayze had passed away, even if he was someone TigerBlog had never met.