Cricket 1 And The Green Ghost

Cricket was in TigerBlog's office yesterday.

Actually, it was Cricket 1. There's Cricket 1 and Cricket 2, and only Cricket 1 was in the Office of Athletic Communications. 

The Green Ghost was there too, except he's there most days. 

Who are these phantoms? 

Cricket 1 is Lori Dauphiny, the longtime legendary head coach of women's open rowing at Princeton. Cricket 2 is her brother. 

The Green Ghost is Neal Moyer, one of the Department of Athletics IT specialists. If TB's office door is open, he will be looking directly across a small hallway and right at the Green Ghost.

Where did this nicknames come from? They were their CB handles.

TigerBlog isn't 100 percent sure exactly how all of this came up during their time in the office yesterday. He does know that as soon as he heard them exchange handles that he was going to use "Cricket 1 And The Green Ghost" as the title of today's entry — and possibly later on as the title of a novel or something. 

Do you know what a CB is? Have you ever used one? If you're under-40, TB is guessing not.

The CB in question is a Citizen's Band radio. They were very, very, very popular for a very, very, very short time in the 1970s. 

In fact, this song was actually the No. 1 song on the country and pop charts for a while in 1975:

These days, communications are much different. Back then, pretty much everyone either had a CB radio or pretended they did.

By the way, this was before anyone knew what a text message was. Now, according to what TB was able to learn, more than 80 percent of Americans regularly text and more than six billion texts per day are sent in the United States alone.

Ah, but the CD. There was a charm to it.

Cricket 1 and Cricket 2 used to talk to truckers from their home in Washington state, along the highway that went to the eastern part of the state. The Green Ghost still uses his every now and then, but hey, remember, he's an IT guy.

Of course, what do you talk to a rowing coach from Washington about these days? The movie "The Boys in the Boat." TB and Cricket 1 were very much in agreement about the fact that the movie was a nice sports movie but that the book was much better. 

Here's what TB had to say about the book after he read it a few years ago:

The book is a fascinating study of what life was like for the rowers, especially the one around whom the book is centered, a rower named Joe Rantz. They became teenagers and attended college during the Great Depression, and just piecing together enough money to attend college - and eat - was a struggle for most of them.

At the same time, the book also contrasts what the Washington rowers went through with what was going on with the rise of Nazi Germany at the same time. It ends with a great description of the gold medal race, a larger message about what it took to bring down Nazi Germany and then a rundown of what happened to each rower for the rest of their lives.

An alternate in the boat, by the way, was a man named Dutch Schoch. After graduating from Washington and attending the Olympic Games as an alternate, Schoch came to Princeton to coach, and he was the men's heavyweight coach from 1946-65. He was also the head golf coach from 1966 until his death in 1970.

After talking about the book, Dauphiny talked about having been out on the water already and how nice it was with the sun out. Was it cold, TB asked her. She said it wasn't too bad, but then again, she probably long ago developed a different sense of what it means to be cold out on the water.

The women's rowing season is still seven weeks or so away. Dauphiny's team is coming off a third-place national finish, both in the first varsity 8 race and in the total points standings. That's two straight third-place finishes, by the way.

Perhaps a movie can be made about how Dauphiny builds a successful rowing team. Between 2011 and the present, there have only been two times when Dauphiny's team has not won the Ivy League championship. She has produced NCAA champions and Olympic medalists. 

She has coached her Tigers to every NCAA championship since the regatta was first held in 1997. She's a two-time national coach of the year. She's a member of the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Hall of Fame.

When TB asked her where she came up with her CB handle, she said she wasn't 100 percent sure. Maybe she meant the Cricket part.

The No. 1? That's obvious.