Princeton Squash?

So it's a Sunday in June on only the third weekend without a Princeton sporting event since last August.

Where do you go for blog content? The supermarket, where else? 

That's where TigerBlog was yesterday afternoon when — poof, out of nowhere. Instant content. 

TB wasn't even considering what he was wearing as he walked up and down the aisles. Then a woman came by with her two year old, who was behind the wheel of one of those carts that make little kids feel like they're driving. 

As he always does, TigerBlog told the little boy to "drive carefully," which elicited no response — until the mother pointed to TB's shirt and said "Princeton Squash?"

It was actually an orange t-shirt with a striped P on it, with the word "squash" underneath it. The woman obviously knew something about squash to put it together like that. 

That's when she said that she had gone to Trinity. TB asked her if she'd been a squash player, and she said no, but she had played rugby. 

Trinity, of course, has always been a huge squash rival of Princeton's. The Tigers defeated the Bantoms 5-4 in the 2012 final at Jadwin Gym, ending Trinity's 13-year run of national titles. Three of those titles came at the expense of Princeton in the final, all by 5-4 scores, including the excruciating one in 2009, where Princeton had two match balls for the championship. 

Here is what one fan had to say after the match in 2012, in response to what TB wrote about it:

As one of the sardines in the stands, it was thrilling. I sat for 4 hours, I didn't want to lose my seat. The team played their heart out, riding a wave of emotion. I like to think, selfishly, that the fans helped, but Coach Callahan assembled a talented team. They deserve all the credit. Having seen the previous Princeton - Trinity marathons, this was remarkable. 

Here is what TB wrote about Bob Callahan, the longtime Tiger coach, when he saw him the day after that championship:

TigerBlog was just getting out of his car this morning when a Subaru pulled in at the same time. Out stepped a man wearing a green jacket, white shorts that resemble the kind that players like Arthur Ashe and Rod Laver used to wear at Wimbledon, white socks and black sneakers. He held a green backpack and a plastic supermarket bag that held his lunch. This is what the morning after looked like for Bob Callahan. The Princeton men's squash coach was a few hours removed from a 5-4 win over Trinity to win the national championship and end Trinity's 13-year reign. And now he was walking into the building like it was just another day. Callahan is unflappable, if nothing else.

Nobody had any way of knowing it at that point, but Callahan had less than three years to live at the time. His death, from brain cancer at the age of 59, still haunts TigerBlog — and anyone who knew Callahan. 

Here is what another commenter said about Callahan after that 2012 title:

In an age with more than a few pampered and self-centered professional and college athletes and coaches, no one provides a better example of sportsmanship than Bob Callahan. He works hard year after year to put sensational teams together and you know that he is a competitor - but he never misses an opportunity to offer kind words about athletes and coaches on other teams and he celebrates the excellence and character that athletics can bring out in all competitors. Squash may have a unique culture in this respect, but I think that it has a lot to do with Bob and the example he sets for his team and for others. He would be the first to say that this is not about him and that the athletes - the nine that competed and their teammates who did not make the starting nine - deserve all of the credit. But I bet there isn't a single Princeton coach, past or present, who isn't tipping their hat in Bob's direction to acknowledge a peer who sets the standard for excellence and sportsmanship and who they believe deserves a whole lot of credit. 

There haven't been too many more-liked and more-respected people who have ever lived than Bob Callahan. TigerBlog will take any chance he has to keep his memory alive. 

As he talked to the woman in the supermarket, he thought of Bob Callahan and how he would have reacted. TB asked the woman if she enjoyed her time at Trinity, and she said she had. 

TB then mentioned the squash rivalry and how intense it was but that she seemed nice enough — "even for a Trinity grad."

She laughed. TB laughed. 

Bob? He would have smiled that smile of his and then said something nice about Trinity while making sure she knew TB was only kidding. 

That's how he was. TB misses him. 

So does the world, whether it knows it or not.