Happy 83rd

When TigerBlog first thought of having to come up with subjects every day in the summer, he figured there would be no way to do it.

There are no events. What can he write about?

He figured he'd go three times a week instead of every day. Or maybe rerun some blogs from earlier in the year. Maybe the blog from exactly six months earlier.

Six months ago today was Jan. 10, 2013. TigerBlog wrote about drug testing in professional sports and how it applies to college - and Princeton - athletes.

If worse came to worse, TB figured, he could always just tell funny Pete Carril stories on his summer blogs. People seem to love those.

Like the time that TigerBlog was sitting in the middle seat on an airplane, one row behind Carril, who was in the middle in front of him. To Carril's left was then-assistant coach Bill Carmody. To Carril's right was an older gentleman; Carril was probably around 65 at the time.

Anyway, Carril was working on a crossword puzzle, and the old man kept looking down at the newspaper Carril had, mumbling "21 down is such-and-such; 40 across is this." Each time he did it, Carril just nodded at the man and smiled. Finally, when he went to do it again, Carril said, in classic fashion: "Yo, Pops, when I want your help, I'll ask for it."

Great stuff.

Want another one?

Glenn Nelson, the former volleyball coach, kept asking Carril - his longtime tennis partner - for a pair of Sacramento Kings shorts when Carril started working there. Finally, Carril gave him a pair. The next day, Nelson saw Carril in Jadwin and said "remember those brand-new Kings shorts you gave me? Your wallet was in the pocket."

Then he flipped his wallet back to him.

When told one of his players had made the all-tournament team at an in-season tournament, Carril's response was? "I saw that. I also saw the guy he was guarding made it." When Carmody asked rhetorically "how dumb can you be?" when one player went left instead of right out of a timeout, Carril answered "don't sell him short; he's very dumb."

One player had great shooting range; he just didn't have great making range. How did Princeton shut down one high-scoring team? They had guardable players and we guarded them.

One time when Princeton played a game at Iowa State, the official was the same one who had called Bobby Knight for the technical, prompting a relatively famous moment in college basketball history. When Carril thought his team was getting the short end of the officiating stick, he yelled out "no wonder that guy threw a chair at you."

Why tell these stories today? Because it's July 10, which is Carril's 83rd birthday.

TB was going to write a little bit about Carril for his birthday, but instead he's going to revisit some things he wrote two and three years ago, because they're both still so true.

This was from his 80th birthday:

He is a driven man, one with a high level of expectation of those who played for him.

In Carril's own words: "If you lower standards, they turn around and attack you."

TigerBlog maintains that in the long history of Princeton athletics, there are four icons who rise above everyone else. Three were Princeton athletes - Hobey Baker, Dick Kazmaier and Bill Bradley; the fourth is Carril.

TB once wrote that Carril has long been the conscience of Princeton basketball (and to a larger extreme, Princeton athletics), and by that he means that Carril was never one to let anyone get away with anything less than full effort, full commitment. He couldn't be conned as head coach, and he cared little about what a person's background was. Nobody had a free pass on his teams.

He himself grew up poor, and TB has heard stories both heartfelt and hysterical about Carril's experiences as a child and the effect they had on him.

Today, at the age of 80, he's a more mellow person. He's still the conscience of Princeton basketball, but he does so from the perspective of your wise old uncle that you see a few times a year.

And yet, he hasn't slowed a step. He still has the quick wit, the dominating persona, the ability to sniff out the BS immediately.

There has never been anyone to walk into Jadwin Gym quite like Pete Carril. Now that he's 80, there still isn't, and TB suspects it will forever be this way.

And this was from his 81st:

TB tells Carril stories all the time, always getting big laughs from the people here who hardly know the man.

It's something TB will do for as long as he is here, because it's important for everyone here to know who Carril is and what he did for Princeton basketball and Princeton Athletics.

As Carril walked slowly down the hallway, hobbling somewhat from years of wear-and-tear, TB was thinking about how Carril is in the basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

Think about it. Is there anyone in the Hall of Fame who did less as a player, no offense to Carril's solid career at Lafayette? Or, for that matter, as a coach, where he his resume includes no NCAA championships, no Final Fours, no international success.

In a building filled with people who were NBA champions, Olympic gold medalists, college All-Americas, Carril's place there is unique.

Put another way, the Hall of Fame features an army of people who are there because of what they were physically. Carril is enshrined because of his mind and the impact that his mind had on his sport.

There is nobody else like Pete Carril, at least nobody that TB has ever met.

It's always good to hear the "Yo."

For his 83rd, TB will simply say Happy Birthday Coach.

And he speaks for all of Princeton when he says "many more."