Welcome to the only weekend between August and June that has no Princeton Athletic events.
In fact, today is actually Day 2 of a nine-day stretch without a single event. This is due, obviously, to first semester exams.
There is no longer a single Princeton student who can relate to having to take first semester exams, something that was the standard for every Princeton student going back decades and decades. In fact, TigerBlog isn't sure when that academic calendar began, but it certainly was a long time ago.
A quick search of the Daily Princetonian archives showed that there were columns and editorials that called for a change to the schedule going back into the 1970s. There was also a small news item that mentioned that first semester exams for the 1948-49 academic year would run through Jan. 29.
The change actually did happen for the 2020-21 academic year, which means that if you were in the Class of 2022 — like, say, TigerBlog's daughter — you had two years of exams before the holidays and two years after.
The Class of 2024 was the first to have four years of exams after the New Year. With students who would have taken a year off from school, you probably had some in the Class of 2025 who had one year of pre-holiday exams.
Now? There can't be many, if any.
If you recall the athletic calendar, January exams would always mean a two-week break from games, followed by an onslaught of winter sports in a very short time between the end of January and the beginning of March.
In fact, those two weeks used to be when TB would focus on getting the men's lacrosse media guide done, back when media guides were produced. That's when he was the football, men's basketball and men's lacrosse contact.
So with no games this weekend, what should today's topic be? How about this photo:
The year was 2009, TB is pretty sure. That was Courtney Banghart's second year as head coach, when she led the Tigers to a 14-14 record after a 7-23 start a year earlier. The next year? How about 26-3 — and the program has never looked back.
There are three Princeton players in the picture, and all three were cornerstones of the foundation of the dynasty that is Princeton women's basketball. No. 23 is Addie Micir, who would be the Ivy League Player of the Year in 2011. That's Lauren Edwards nearest to the little girl. And that's Devona Allgood about to jump center.
Between the three of them, they combined to score 3,684 points, with all three over the 1,000 point mark. They also combined for five first-team All-Ivy League selections, with at least one for all three.
The date of the game, by the way, would have been Feb. 7, 2009. Princeton won 69-59, and the three in the photo combined for 32 of those 69 points.
And that's that, right? So have a nice weekend and ...
... what? There's more to that photo?
Ah yes, there is. The little girl. That's right.
That little girl is the daughter of one of the greatest players in Columbia women's basketball history, Helen Doyle. In fact, when she graduated in 1985 she was the Lions' all-time leading scorer, and she is still among the program leaders in career rebounds.
Doyle went on to a very successful business career. She also got married to a man named Scott Yeager. Their daughter, the one pictured, is all grown now.
Her name is Beth Yeager.
Yes, that's the same Beth Yeager who recently led Princeton to the NCAA field hockey championship game, where the Tigers fell 2-1 in double OT to Northwestern. Yeager was named the NFHCA Mid-Atlantic Region Player of the Year yesterday, making her the first Princeton player ever to win that award twice in her career.
The All-American teams will be announced this coming Tuesday. Should she be named first-team, she would become the first four-time first-team All-American in field hockey in Ivy League history.
And there she was, rooting for Columbia all those years ago. Nah. She probably knew what the future was. She was probably rooting for the Tigers.
Now that's a picture.
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