Jim Jadwin, Sports Information Director

The stranger who introduced herself to TigerBlog in the press box Saturday prior the Princeton-Columbia football game turned out to be Jeane Willis.

Jeane is a senior producer at SNY, the TV home of the Mets. Her nephew Michael Willis is an offensive lineman for the Tigers.

As it turns out, Jeane also was an intern in the Princeton Office of Athletic Communications at one point early in her career. Her trip to the game included a stroll past the OAC, on the Jadwin balcony, for old time's sake.

The Princeton OAC is a radically different place these days than it was when Willis worked here, or when TB first started. The working life of the office bears no resemblance, actually, to what it was even 10 or 15 years ago.

TB was talking about this yesterday with another OAC staffer. It's been an amazing transformation, in every single way, and it's all because of technology.

And yet there exists a pretty strong bond among those who've worked here through the years, almost like they're all alums of the same college, or in this case office.

It's hard to remember the OAC of the early 1990s, when there was no email, no internet, nothing like that. What there was was the U.S. mail, and overnight mail, and faxes sent and received, lots and lots of faxes sent and received.

There is still a fax machine in the mailroom next to TB's office. TB has used it maybe three times in five years or so.

There is still a mail machine. TB has never used the new one, which has been here for years as well. Way back when, he used it every day.

There was even something called "Fax on Demand," through which anyone could access game notes or releases or anything. Updating Fax on Demand was a big thing, and TB can still see himself as he faxes his notes to a central number, from which media members could then retrieve them.

And then there was the ill-fated "JockNet," which he can't really remember the point of, though it was similar to Fax on Demand.

TB can't remember the last time he overnighted anything anywhere. In fact, he wouldn't even know how to go about it now.

Back then, the issue of regular mail vs. overnight express was a big one. It was so much easier to pop something in an overnight envelope and send it off, rather than using regular mail. Except it was so much more expensive.

If someone needed a media guide, off it went overnight. Regardless of when they needed it. Regular mail seemed like so much of a hassle.

The OAC was a media relations office from the time it first hired someone to do sports publicity through a few years after the internet arrived. Everything that was done here was done in the name of assisting the media, because telling the stories of Princeton athletics meant getting those stories to the media. At least 99% of the time or so.

And so that's what SIDs did to get the word out. Pitched story ideas, set up interviews - and then sat back and hoped that the final product would be the message that was originally intended. It didn't always work that way.

As TB said, this is how it was from the time that the University first hired someone for sports publicity.

TB isn't quite sure of the exact lineage, but it does include names like Bill Stryker and Phil Langan and Tom Odjakjian and the guy whom Harvey Yavener ripped in his famous "Sports Information Please" column.

And Jim Jadwin himself.

The address for the OAC is Room 9, Jadwin Gym. One day an envelope came addressed to "Jim Jadwin, Sports Information Director, Office of Athletic Communications, Princeton NJ."

Of course, there is the counter story to that. There was a student worker once who was told to call Robert Morris and Hofstra and ask for their softball rosters. Except she heard "call Robert Morris at Hofstra" and did just that, calling Hofstra's sports info office and asking "is Robert Morris there?"

Eventually, Chuck Yrigoyen took over before giving way to Kurt Kehl and Mark Panus. It was when Panus left that TB snuck in, and he took Kehl's spot when he left to go to the Washington Capitals.

The structure of the office back then had multiple interns, usually for two years. This led to constant turnover, obviously.

Also, because there were no laptops or smart phones, all work had to be done in the office. And because desktop publishing was in its infancy, it took hours to do what now would take seconds, if it was something that was still done.

Because of this, the OAC staff was constantly wedged into the offices on the Jadwin balcony, day and night. Any big project - a football game program, a media guide - often required being here until long after midnight.

In fact, TB remembers clearly missing all of Monday Night Football games when there was a home football game that week, requiring the game program.

He also remembers a certain amount of loopiness after being here so long, including interns timing themselves on who could run out of the OAC, down the balcony, down the stairs, across the lobby, back up the other stairs and back to the office. Or OAC golf, which a nerf ball, a plastic golf club and a course that included having to drive the ball between three different sets of doors.

They were great times of course.

Eventually, the internship positions went away, in favor of full-time positions. The average tenure of the six members of the OAC staff now is slightly more than 10 years.

Everyone has a laptop and wireless internet at home. Everyone has a smart phone.

The key now is video, rather than publications. And social media.

The amount of content produced by the OAC so far exceeds the content produced when TB first started here. The advent of the internet turned the office from a media relations organization to a media relations outfit of its own, with content for all 38 sports that those who competed here in the pre-web era never came close to getting.

All of this content takes less time to produce, but it's also much more time sensitive, which means everyone here is on call basically at all times. It's just how it is.

So when TB met Jeane Willis, he was meeting someone whose job here bears little resemblance to what happens now.

And yet he and Willis were members of the same fraternity, the Office of Athletic Communications at Princeton University.

It's a very special place, where very special people have worked through the years. Some of the best times of TB's life have been spent within its walls.

It's always good to meet an alum.