Senior Writers

TigerBlog's title — his 11th at Princeton — is now Senior Writer/Historian.

Until earlier this week, he had never seen anyone else in college athletics with the title Senior Writer. Now he's found two of them, and they're both at the same school, the University of Florida.

How did TB find this out? 

The College Sports Communicators, the organization known for decades as "College Sports Information Directors of America," announced the results of its annual Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest Monday afternoon. The winner was one of the two Florida Senior Writers, Chris Harry, who won for his piece on former Gator men's basketball player Patric Young, who is now in a wheelchair after a devastating accident in a pickup truck in June 2022. 

The story's title is "I will be the one who determines this chapter of my life." You can read it HERE.

Harry's background is in newspapers, where he spent 30 years as a sportswriter. Now he writes for the UF website, and his bio on the site says this is what he likes to do most at work:

"To tell the story of University of Florida athletics from the inside by hopefully giving readers (and Gator fans) some insight not available through traditional media outlets; a peek behind the curtain, if you will."

That very much resonated with TigerBlog, who has the same exact approach to his own position at Princeton. That is the very essence of what he writes here every day, for that matter. Harry certainly seems like someone to whom TB can relate.

Harry spends most of his time with Florida's men's basketball team, which is how he got to know Young in the first place. The story is one of tragedy and triumph, of Young's spirit in the face of his life-changing ordeal, of the support he's gotten from his wife, family and the Gator basketball program. 

Does he ask himself why it happened to him? 

"The rain falls and the sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous equally. Anyone of us can face anything."

Congratulations to Chris Harry. His story was well-deserving, and he is quite worthy of the honor.

According to the CSC story, Harry's piece on Young "narrowly edged" out TigerBlog's story "The Strength of Mark Ellis," which earned national runner-up honors. Mark Ellis was a strength and conditioning coach at Princeton before he left to go to Northwestern a few weeks ago, and he is one of the most impressive people TB has ever met. 

You can read that story HERE if you haven't already.

It appears that TB is making progress, by the way, since a year ago he also earned national runner-up honors with his story on John Schroeder, a men's lacrosse player killed on 9/11. The release for last year said that TB was "edged." He's gone from "edged" to "narrowly edged" in one year. 

Not to brag or anything, but TigerBlog has had the National Story of the Year three times. The three that won? His story on Pete Carril's first year without a basketball team to coach after he retired from the Sacramento Kings, his story on then-11 year old Nick Bates after the men's lacrosse team rallied around him after his mother Ann passed away and his story on men's lacrosse player Tyler Campbell, who was killed in World War II.

He's also now had four overall national runner up stories and a bunch of stories that have won the top national prize for the different categories, of which there are eight. TB's feature on Ellis was in the Coach/Administrator Profile category; Harry's was in General Feature.

Speaking of the writing contest, TB also wants to mention his good friend and colleague Justin Lafleur, who won top honors in the Historical Feature category for his piece on Dartmouth softball as part of the Big Green's 50th anniversary of women's athletics celebration.

There are also district winners. The country is split into eight districts, of which Princeton is in District 2. 

TB's Princeton colleague Warren Croxton won the District II top honor in the Social Justice/Diversity and Inclusion category with his piece on Tiger football player Nasir Cook and his Nashville Youth Initiative. You can read that one HERE.

Warren loves to write feature stories, and it's great to see him recognized for his work. 

In fact, it's great to see everyone who is recognized. The writing contest is important because it encourages excellence in an area that in these days of social media and video might not always get the attention it deserves.

It's nice to know that there are those who still take the task of writing long-form stories seriously and excel at it.  

Fred Stabley Sr., by the way, was Michigan State's sports information director from 1948-80. He passed away in 1996 at the age of 81.

HERE is the link to the story that has all of the national and district winners.