NCAA HQ

The NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee meetings, at which TigerBlog has been participating this weekend, are being held in the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis.

The building is quite impressive, with walls decorated with murals and inspirational quotes, meeting rooms named for the driving forces behind the evolution of college athletics and a Hall of Champions that celebrates some of the greatest athletes and greatest moments in college athletics history.

There is also the Logo Wall. He's not sure if that's the actual name, though it certainly fits. As you walk into the building, there are logos here, there and everywhere. 

After the first session Monday night, as the committee members were walking out, the challenge was to find their school's logo. Before TB even had a chance to look, there was Princeton, in what was possibly the most prominent position of any school.

Right in the middle is a giant NCAA logo. And just above it and to the right, there is the Striped P. 

The school next to Princeton? That's the Knights. Not the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers. Not the Knights of Bellarmine. These Knights are from Southern Virginia.

Above Princeton is Denver. Next to Denver is New Paltz, which is near where TigerBlog used to go to summer camp as a kid.

There doesn't seem to be any kind of order to the way the logos are placed. TB tried to find a pattern, but there wasn't one.

It makes it better, of course. The biggest of the big-time Division I, just below a very small Division III. It also makes it hard to find your school, unless, you know, it happens to be almost dead center. 

Back in the rest of the building, one of the murals reminds TB of a picture of former Princeton women's lacrosse and soccer player Elizabeth Pillion. TB can't find the picture, but he knows he's seen it somewhere before. 

This will torture TB until he finds the picture. He's positive he has it somewhere.

The men's lacrosse rules committee has been meeting in the James Frank Room. Who is James Frank? 

That's Dr. James Frank. His resume includes being a college basketball player at Lincoln University outside of Philadelphia, an Army officer in the Corps of Engineers, a college basketball coach, a college professor, a senior administrator at two different colleges and then the president of Lincoln.

From 1981-83, while the Lincoln president, he became the first college president ever to become the president of the NCAA. Do you know what happened on his watch? The NCAA first started to hold championships for women's athletics.

After that, he spent 15 years as the commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, which grew from three schools to 10 under his watch. 

Is that all a good resume? 

Dr. Frank passed away in 2019, at the age of 88. That's a life well-lived. 

There's also an Althea Gibson Room. Did you know that Althea Gibson was a legendary tennis player? Yes, you did. Gibson won 56 singles and doubles championships with 11 Grand Slam titles, including both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 1956 and 1957.

Did you know Gibson also played on the LPGA tour? TigerBlog had no idea about that. She was an alum of what is now Florida A&M, where she played on the men's golf team and on the women's basketball team.

Everywhere you look in the building you see college sports history. If TB had more time, he would have gone through the entire facility to find additional Princeton references. 

There are also the inspirational quotes. They all fall under the same general theme, and that theme is a familiar one for Princeton fans. 

They speak about the value that the college athletic experience has on those who go through it. At Princeton, that's always been known as Education Through Athletics.

It's quite a building, the headquarters of the NCAA. If you're a college athletics historian, like, say TB,  you can't really ask for much more.