Taking Requests

TigerBlog used to love to listen to Saturday Night Oldies on the radio.

That's when oldies were oldies. As in doo-wop and early rock ’n roll and that kind of stuff.

Now when he turns on an "oldies" station, what does he hear? Soft rock from the ’70s and ’80s. Disco. The Beatles and Stones. That kind of thing.

That's not oldies. That's Top 40 from when TB was a kid.

And since TB is hardly old, then the music from when he was a kid can't be oldies, right?

TigerBlog's favorite music is termed "classic rock." Well, that and show tunes. He even likes a lot of the same indie rock that TigerBlog Jr. does. He has to draw the line at the music Miss TigerBlog likes, whatever it's called. Just put on FM 106.1 around here and listen for awhile and you'll hear it.

TB is for the most part fine with the music that plays on the oldies stations, even if it's not really oldies.

The 1970s were an interesting - and great - time for music. Within a few weeks, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band released "Darkness on the Edge of Town," the Village People released "Macho Man," REO Speedwagon released "You Can Tune a Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish," Van Halen released "Van Halen" - which has "Runnin' With the Devil" and "You Really Got Me" on it - Barry Manilow released "Even Now," Jimmy Buffet released "Son Of A Son Of A Sailer" and Andy Gibb released "Shadow Dancing."

And that doesn't even count one album that outsold all of them, and most of them combined - the soundtrack from "Saturday Night Fever."

In other words, there were all kinds of competing genres, and yet they all had broad - and enduring - appeal.

For all of that, there was something special about Saturday Night Oldies. That was mostly music from the 1950s and possibly early 1960s. And that's it.

Segueing from music, TigerBlog can also take requests, as he has done often in the past. This time is a little different.

This one comes from Glenn Adams, Class of 1963, who posted this comment yesterday:
Could you please post the breakdown of the points total of the various 8 Ivy schools for all sports within the 2013-2014 school year? And could you please provide the number of Ivy Championships for each school? As the recent issue of the PAW pointed out, Princeton's laudable 27-year streak of winning the Ivy's unofficial All-Sports Championship ended this year as Harvard topped Princeton for the lead this past year. Thanks, Glenn Adams '63

TigerBlog knew this day was coming, through the years and years and decades and decades when Princeton won the Ivy League's unofficial all-sports points standings. One year, he knew, Princeton wouldn't win.

To illustrate his point, TB often referred to the final scene of the movie "Patton," one of the greatest scenes in movie history. Patton is walking triumphantly, defiantly, after the Nazis had been defeated and he had confronted the Russians, and yet as his outside projects an unassailable confidence, in his mind he is mulling over the words that "all glory is fleeting."

So what was he supposed to do when that day happened? Mention it? Ignore it? To mention it would be to publicize the end of a streak. To ignore it would be to lose some credibility for integrity.

As Adams said, for 27 straight academic years, Princeton won the unofficial Ivy all-sports points championship. That is an incredible run, year after year.

This is not an official award. The Ivy League office has never taken ownership of the award and in fact has been adamant about the fact that this something it wanted no part of, ever. At some point, TB stuck the word "unofficial" in to appease Brett Hoover, who was then the communications director at the league office.

The standings are determined by how a school finishes in each of the 33 official Ivy League sports. Eight points are awarded for first, seven for second and so on down the line. If there are ties, the points are split.

Once during the time that TigerBlog has been compiling the standings, Princeton won without having the most Ivy League championships. This past year, Princeton won six Ivy titles, finishing second to Harvard, who had 14.

As for the all-sports points standings, Harvard had 207 points to 189 for Princeton. The next-best total was 144.5.

There. TigerBlog put it out there.

Of course, maybe he'll just word it this way:

Princeton has won 27 of the last 28 Ivy League unofficial all-sports points championships.

The quest for 28 of 29 will begin shortly.