You Can Quote That

So it's the final Monday in July. 

Where can TigerBlog go for inspiration for today's entry? How about yesterday's edition of the Big Green Alert Blog.

If you have never seen it or read it, the BGA Blog covers all things Dartmouth football, and by extension the Ivy League. There's also a splash of other Ivy sports in there as well.

The man who writes it is Bruce Wood, whose resume includes having worked in Dartmouth sports information and covering the Big Green for the Valley News. 

In the annals of Ivy athletics media history, there aren't too many people who can match up to him in terms of quality, longevity and dedication. 

His daily entry yesterday included three items that resonated with TB.

First, there was a bit of a trivia question. Bruce made a list of the Ivy League schools and the number of schools in the FCS that share their nickname. According to this list, there six FCS schools who are nicknamed "Tigers."

Princeton is one. That was easy. TigerBlog immediately got Towson and Grambling as well. That left three. 

Okay, he'll get back to that. 

Then there was Bruce's daily "extra point," which is more about his own daily routines, experiences and travels than Dartmouth football. On most days, you can find a reference to either his children, his dog or his old VW van.

Yesterday, Bruce mentioned an issue that anyone who has written a story can understand. What do you do with a direct quote when it is grammatically incorrect? Do you clean it up? Do you use it as is?

Bruce said he chooses not to use the quote at all. TB is firmly in the "clean it up a bit" camp. Actually, to be more accurate, it's "clean it up a bit without changing the meaning." He figures that his own questions are not listed word-for-word and besides, he's never had anyone ever tell him he misquoted them.

Of course, TB also has a great deal of experience in making up quotes. This isn't to say he fabricates them. It's just that through the years, there have been a few coaches who have told him: "make me sound smart."

His favorite story of making up a quote dates back to, who else, Pete Carril. Back when Midnight Madness started to become a big deal, TB got a call asking for a quote from Carril about whether he would do it. 

TB didn't even bother going up to the basketball office. He just waited an hour and called back to give the reporter Carril's (made-up) quote: "I can't stay up that late."

And the quote? It ended up making it all the way into Sports Illustrated. Carril either never saw it, thought he actually said it or simply didn't care either way. 

And the other three Tigers? TB came up with another. Tennessee State. Seriously, he didn't look it up. That leaves two.

TB mentioned that there were three things in Bruce Wood's blog from yesterday that were of interest. The third was the best of the three:

In fairness, there was also a highlight video of the Harvard-Dartmouth game a year later. Bruce called them "what might be the most hard-fought loss and most remarkable win since Big Green Alert came online in 2005."

The Princeton-Dartmouth game in 2018 remains the most intense Ivy League football game TigerBlog has ever seen. It's up there with any sporting event he's seen live for that matter.

If you forgot, that game matched 7-0 Princeton and 7-0 Dartmouth. Each team had a long scoring drive on its first possession, and then the defenses pretty much took over. Dartmouth's only other points came on a safety. Princeton's only other points came on a 34-yard touchdown drive. Every play was contested. No yard came easily.

Final score: Princeton 14, Dartmouth 9. Two weeks later, Princeton was 10-0 and Dartmouth was 9-1. The difference between unbeaten Ivy champion and runner-up was razor-thin.

And that leaves two more FCS Tigers. 

Okay, he had to look these up. One is Jackson State, whom TB thought was the Jaguars. The other is Texas Southern; TB would have guessed something other than Tigers. 

By the way, there are six FCS Tigers, and three of them are in the SWAC (Jackson State, Texas Southern and Grambling).

Anyway, thanks, Bruce, for today's inspiration. 

And if you don't make a daily stop at Big Green Alert, you might want to start.