James Earl Jones h’80

As you already know, James Earl Jones passed away earlier this week.

Some personas are so big, though, that they will live forever. Jones has one of those personas.

He also had one of the greatest speaking voices of any human being ever. He's probably tied for first all-time with Morgan Freeman, actually.

Ironically, Jones hardly spoke as a child. At least that's what it says on his Wikipedia page:

From the age of five, Jones was raised by his maternal grandparents, John Henry and Maggie Connolly, on their farm in Dublin, Michigan; they had moved from Mississippi in the Great Mirgration. Jones found the transition to living with his grandparents in Michigan traumatic and developed a stutter so severe that he refused to speak. He said, "I was a stutterer. I couldn't talk. So my first year of school was my first mute year, and then those mute years continued until I got to high school." He credited his English teacher, Donald Crouch, who discovered he had a gift for writing poetry, with helping him end his silence. Crouch urged him to challenge his reluctance to speak through reading poetry aloud to the class.

That's pretty good work out of Mr. Crouch. 

Did you know that James Earl Jones graduated from the University of Michigan and then was an Army officer? Maybe. 

Did you know that he also held an honorary degree from Princeton in the Class of 1980? TigerBlog didn't.

Here's what was said about him back at Commencement that year:

"Vigor and intensity are his trademarks; intelligence and sensitivity, his tools. He commands the stages of classic and modern drama using his supreme talents to penetrate and enrich the hearts and minds of his audiences." 

There were 997 seniors in the Class of 1980, by the way. The split was almost exactly two-thirds men, one-third women.

The Class of 2024 had 1,295 seniors graduate last May. The split was just short of 50-50, with a handful more men than women.

As TB was looking up how many graduates there were, he came upon this quote from University President Christopher L. Eisgruber from his speech at Commencement. It reminded TB that the Class of 2024 began its time here not actually being here but instead remotely during the pandemic:

“We had to learn anew how to show up for one another and with one another. We had to recall, or reinvent, the rituals that knit us together and the practices that enable us to cooperate effectively with one another. You leaned into academic projects and extracurricular ones. You reconstructed, refreshed, and revitalized a capella groups, athletic teams, dance troupes, musical ensembles, religious and spiritual groups, debating societies, scientific laboratories, co-ops, eating clubs, entrepreneurial networks, the undergraduate and graduate student governments, the Triangle Show, the Princeton University Band, and countless other organizations.”

TB definitely took for granted a lot of pieces of the Princeton experience prior to that. Now? He's promised himself that he would never do that again, and he hasn't.

From his piece of the Princeton universe, he appreciates even more now every time a new year starts, every time a team gets to compete. Starting tonight and continuing through Sunday, there will be seven Princeton teams who will compete in 16 different events. 

The game tonight is a women's soccer matchup between the Tigers and Drexel, with kickoff on Myslik Field at 7. Princeton is 3-1-0 on the young season, while Drexel is 1-3-1, with a tie and four one-goal games, including a 2-1 win over Penn.

Princeton is also home Sunday against Georgetown at 5.

The other teams who play this weekend are the field hockey team, women's rugby team, men's water polo team, women's cross country team, women's golf team and women's volleyball team.

If you're looking to see Princeton teams play, you can come to campus and see six events. Or you can hop in the car and head to Happy Valley, where Princeton teams will play seven events. 

That has to be a bit of a rarity, no, with more events on a non-Ivy campus than here at Princeton? For his part, TB will be at one game here (field hockey tomorrow at 5 against Miami of Ohio) and one at Penn State (field hockey Sunday).

If you want the complete composite schedule, you can find it HERE.