That first banquet was held in Jadwin Gym and was a very small affair. The current namesake of the banquet did not invite TB, or, as TB remembers it, pretty much anyone else who worked in the department.
By Year 2 it had already become a bigger event. Now in its early 20s, the Gary Walters PVC Awards Banquet is one of the jewels of the Princeton Athletics calendar.
It was held last night in Jadwin Gym, though attendance for this one is about five or six times what it was for the first.
TB wasn't there last night. He was in Washington, D.C., at the Tewaaraton Award ceremony. Princeton junior Michael Sowers was one of the five men's finalists, and he had an incredible record-setting season (including the Princeton records for points in a season and a career), even though he wasn't the winner last night.
The fact that Sowers was one of the finalists meant that TB wasn't at the banquet in Jadwin, which further meant that he missed the banquet for the first time since that first one. His streak of consecutive banquets ended at 20.
He's sorry he missed it. He always enjoys seeing the seniors this close to graduating, the culmination of four years of hard work, great competition and, as current Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan mentioned in her speech last night, fun:
I’ve seen it in
the joy you have for each other as teammates. I’ve seen it on each team’s
social media postings, where you can see how there’s fun even in those early
morning lifts. I’ve seen it on your faces as I’ve watched you compete and
celebrate. And I feel it when we ask you what you’ll remember most about your
experience - The bus rides; the inside
jokes; the singing, the dancing; the silly contests, the competitions; the
cheering on your fellow student-athletes; the joy of winning; and the pride you
have in wearing the P on your chest.
It would have been nice to see Chris Young at the banquet last night. Young, the former Princeton baseball and basketball standout who pitched 13 years in the Major Leagues, was the winner of the Class of 1967 PVC Citizen-Athlete Award, for outstanding contribution to sport and society. He and his wife Liz, a former women's soccer player, have made a lot of those outstanding contributions to both.
TigerBlog obviously didn't hear what Chris had to say, but he can imagine it was humble, well-considered and from the heart. TigerBlog was the men's basketball contact when Chris was a player in the late 1990s, and he is about the most genuine person you will ever meet.
The biggest awards of the night are the Roper Trophy and the von Kienbusch Award, given to the outstanding senior male and female athletes.
On the women's side, the winner was Claire Collins of the women's open rowing team. Claire, of course, is in Indianapolis, competing at the NCAA championships.
There was a great video, though, from the Conner Lounge in the Jadwin Lobby, where Collins thought she was meeting with her coach, Lori Dauphiny. Instead, Marcoux Samaan walks in holding the von Kienbusch Award and surprises her with it.
The look of surprise and joy on Collins' face is tremendous.
For the men, the winner was John Lovett, the football quarterback who is now trying out for the Kansas City Chiefs as a do-it-all offensive weapon. Lovett will forever be known as one of the best ever to play football at Princeton, and his resume includes two different Bushnell Cups as Ivy Offensive Player of the Year.
For all of the records he set for touchdowns and everything else, the best thing about Lovett is that he was the team's best player who played the glamour position but yet there is nothing he wouldn't have done to try to help the team win. He would have played all 60 minutes if they'd let him.
He just exuded two things as a football player at Princeton that will stay with TB for a long time. First, he was an incredible leader. Even the year he was hurt in between his two Bushnell Cups his leadership ability was obvious.
Second, he just loved to play football. There has never been another Princeton football player that TB has seen that has made it as clear just how much he loves to play.
And so those were the two big winners.
As for TB, he missed the banquet - in the sense of both "he wasn't there" and "he wished he could have been."
Next year? Hopefully Sowers will be back at the Tewaaraton ceremony, and hopefully he'll be winning the award.
TB will be there is he is. Or maybe he won't be. Maybe he'll be starting another streak of consecutive banquets.
Right now he's at 20 for 22. That's pretty good.
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