"Red Panda We Love You"

TigerBlog remembers way back in the day when there was a student slam-dunk contest at halftime of a men's basketball game in Jadwin Gym.

He doesn't remember names. He just remembers an unbelievable series of dunks from three students, some or all of whom were on the track and field team at the time. Now that was a halftime show. 

Oh, and there was the guy in 1996 who participated in a halftime contest at Jadwin. When TB wrote his top 40 events in Jadwin history on the building's 40th anniversary in 2009, he ranked this one sixth. Here's what he wrote about it:

A fan, Dave Ulrich of Mount Laurel, N.J., comes out of the stands to participate in a halftime contest during the Princeton-Dartmouth women's basketball game. The contestant has three opportunities to shoot from halfcourt, once each from the where the midcourt line and sidelines meet and once from center court. If he can make two of the three shots, he will win a car. To this point, only one contestant has made even one shot, which earned $100. On this night, this particular contestant makes the first shot and then makes the second, winning the car (a Saturn). Unaware that he has already won the car, he thinks he must make the third one as well — which he then does. The highlight is played nationally and is the “Play of the Day” on ESPN's SportsCenter. 

TB wonders if Dave is still driving around in his Saturn.

Since then, TB would say his favorite halftime show at Jadwin has been "Drums of Thunder," the percussion group of fourth graders from Montclair who pretty much blow the roof off of the building each time they play. 

Then there is Red Panda. She's the woman who balances the plates and bowls on her head and feet while riding a unicycle. How in the world do you do that the first time? 

Anyway, she's long been a Jadwin favorite, and a favorite all over the country. She was doing her act at halftime of the Indiana-Minnesota WNBA game Tuesday night when she fell and had to be taken to the hospital with what apparently was a wrist injury. 

Caitlin Clark even sent her a message after the game: "Red Panda, we love you."

Everyone does. 

By the way, TB was trying to find a photo of Red Panda from her act and as such did a search. And what came up? Lots of actual red pandas. Cute.  

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Here's a fun headline: "Entire Men's Hockey Team Named To ECAC All-Academic Team."

That's right. Princeton went 27 for 27, with every single player's having achieved at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA or 3.0 for the last three semesters. 

That's a lot of smart guys in one locker room. You can read more about it HERE.

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The Premier Lacrosse League will hold its annual all-star weekend in Kansas City, beginning tomorrow with the skills competition and women's game and then continuing Saturday with the East vs. West men's game. 

Princeton will have one starter on both sides of the men's game. Not shockingly, Michael Sowers and Tom Schreiber are once again all-stars.

In fact, Schreiber has been an all-star 11 times now between Major League Lacrosse and the PLL. Sowers is now a PLL all-star for the fourth time. They've both been all-stars on the pro level every year they've been healthy. 

You can watch the all-star game Saturday at 1 on ESPN and ESPN+.

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Speaking of men's lacrosse, TigerBlog found a picture of Coulter Mackesy, a rookie on the Boston Cannons, after a game last weekend in San Diego. Mackesy is posing with three of his former Tiger teammates: Jim Williams, Jameson Moore and Jackson Kane. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Princeton Men's Lacrosse (@princetonlax)

 

Hey, it's always good to have a little fun.
 

*

This is the Fourth of July weekend, of course. Ah, but lingering the not-so-distant future? 

Well, the first athletic event of the 2025-26 season is lingering a mere seven weeks away, as it'll be the women's soccer team against Rutgers on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium on Aug. 22. The team released its schedule for the season, which you can see HERE.

Seven weeks. That's not that far away. 

Still, have a safe and fun Fourth of July.  

More Hoops

And for the second straight day, TigerBlog starts off with something of a correction. 

Before he gets to that, he'll share a story from the 1980s, when he was still covering high schools at the Trenton Times. 

There had been a call into the paper asking for a correction to be issued regarding one of the local teams, the reason long since lost to history. TB's then-colleague Harry Chaykun said this: "How about just writing 'The Times regrets the coverage.'"

That still makes TB laugh, 40 years later. Ah, Harry. TB definitely learned a great deal about the newspaper business — and the effective use of sarcasm — from Harry. 

Today's correction — and TigerBlog does not regret the coverage — comes from Jason Merims, a loyal reader. When TB said yesterday that he'd come up with five instances where an NBA team had Ivy Leaguers as teammates, Jason came back with one more. 

And how could TB have missed this one? 

It was on the 1976-77 New York Knicks, where Jim McMillian of Columbia was a teammate of TB's classmate Bill Bradley.  

Those Knicks missed the playoffs, going 40-42 in the regular season. That would be Bradley's last season in the NBA. A year later he was elected as a United States Senator from New Jersey for the first of three times.

McMillian's sophomore year at Columbia was the 1967-68 season, which was also the first for Pete Carril at Princeton. The Lions and Tigers tied for the regular season championship, setting up a playoff game at St. John's for the NCAA tournament bid. 

Columbia won that game 92-74 as McMillian poured in 37 points. 

Here was a quote from Carril after the game from the Daily Princetonian:

"Nobody helped out on defense at all—they let the guards drive right by us." And how did the writer attribute the quote? Did it say "Carril said?" Did it say "Carril responded?" 

No. It said "Carril grimaced." Who can't close their eyes and see Carril's face at that? 

That was the only time between 1963 and 1988 when the Ivy League representative in the NCAA tournament was someone other than Princeton or Penn. 

McMillian, for his part, went on to be part of the great 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers team, which won 33 straight games and then ultimately the NBA title by beating the Knicks (and Bradley) in five games in the finals. The Knicks returned the favor a year later, winning their second title in four years (a streak that is now two titles in 55 years).

So a thank you goes to Jason for pointing out the missed teammates. 

Another thank you goes TB's longtime friend and local sportswriter Rich Fisher, who emailed yesterday with another basketball note. 

If you knew Carril, you knew "grimaced" was perfect. If you know Fish, then you know he would write this: 

"Well this hoop item may or may not interest you as a little Blog Blurb, but I'm sending just in case. 

 Fred Falchi has gotten the head coaching job at Pennington, and he's bringing back his former player Richmond Aririguzoh as a volunteer assistant his first year. He said Richmond is finishing up his masters' degree so this may be a one-year deal but I'm letting you know. If you don't use it, I'll throw myself off a cliff ... but it will be a very low cliff, so I'll live."

Yeah, that had to be Fish. 

Falchi was the longtime coach at Trenton Catholic, which used to be McCorristin and then before that St. Anthony's.

Aririguzoh played for Falchi during the final years at Trenton Catholic, which has since closed. Aririguzoh also played at Princeton, where he was a two-time All-Ivy selection, including a first-team selection as a senior in 2019-20.

If you look in the Princeton men's basketball record book, you'll see Aririguzoh's name under the field goal percentage section. His career number of .636 ranks second all-time at Princeton (who is first?), and he holds the No. 2 and No. 9 best single-season numbers. 

Who is first on the single-season list? 

The career record is held by Howard Levy (.647). The single-season record is held by Alan Williams (.703).  

July Hoops

Hey, it's July 1.

What else is there to talk about other than basketball, right? 

Oh, there is one thing. TigerBlog wrote yesterday that Princeton has led the Ivy League in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings every year except for five since it began in 1994. As it turns out, that's actually all but three times. 

And with that, now the conversation can turn to basketball. There are, in fact, four Princeton Basketball-related updates. 

The first is a story by Elliott Carr on goprincetontigers.com about recent alum Blake Peters and his "Journey to Jadwin." You can read it HERE.

When it comes to the basketball career Peters had, there will always be two highlights for anyone who has been paying attention. The first came when he was a freshman at Evanston High School outside of Chicago. 

It came in a January game against Maine South. His team was down two with 2.6 seconds to go. Peters rebounded a Maine South missed free throw and proceeded to toss in the game-winner from about 80 feet away, with one hand, no less. 

The shot earned him the top play of the day on SportsCenter and a trip to the ESPY Awards. 

Then there was the more recent one, the one that came in a Princeton uniform. This was in the 2023 NCAA tournament, when Peters made 10 three-pointers in wins over Arizona and Missouri, helping Princeton to the Sweet 16. 

Read the story. Watch the video of his high school shot. Remember his postgame interview on CBS after the Tigers beat Missouri in the NCAA tournament. 

Next up? A current Tiger, Jackson Hicke, a rising junior. 

Now that it's July, it's accurate to say that later this month Hicke will be competing at the World University Games in Germany in 3X3. It'll be an all-Ivy League team, as Hicke will be joined by Avery Brown (Columbia), Chandler Piggé (Harvard) and Nick Townsend (Yale).

Then there is Parker Hill, another recent graduate. Hill just signed to play professionally in Switzerland with a team called Hellios, who plays in the highest level of Swiss pro women's basketball. 

Hill will be the sixth women's basketball alum to be playing professionally this year, joining Blake Dietrick '15 (3XBA), Carlie Littlefield '21 (3XBA), Abby Meyers '22 (Maccabi Bnot Ashdod), Grace Stone '23 (Perry Lakes Hawks) and Kaitlyn Chen '24 (Golden State Valkyries). 

It's the last one that TB would like to talk about now. 

Here's a highlight from the Valkyries' 84-57 win over Seattle Sunday night:

Chen vision -> @TemiFagbenle -> team vibes high. @ampm | Assist of the Game pic.twitter.com/SxXEwFLN3U

— Golden State Valkyries (@valkyries) June 30, 2025

That was an Ivy-to-Ivy assist, from Chen to Harvard alum Temi Fagbenle (who also was a teammate of Abby Meyers' with the London Lions team that won the European championship a year ago). Elliott (he of the Blake Peters story) had asked TB last week if he knew of any Ivy League teammates in the NBA, what with Princeton alum Tosan Evbuomwan as a returnee for the Brooklyn Nets and former Michigan and Yale player Danny Wolf's having been drafted by the Nets. 

It's possible that there are more, but TB found five of those examples. The first was in 1949-50, when the Boston Celtics had Yale's Tony Lavelli and Dartmouth's Ed Leede (the Big Green arena is named for him). 

There was also Matt Maloney and Ira Bowman on the 2000-01 Atlanta Hawks. The other three all involved Princetonians: 

* Butch van Breda Kolff and Bud Palmer were teammates for three years on the Knicks in the 40s 
* Brian Taylor and Penn’s Tony Price were teammates on the 1980-81 Clippers
* Geoff Petrie and Penn's Dave Wohl were on the 1972-73 Trailblazers

As for Chen, she's off to a really good start in Golden State, who is also off to a good start in its first season. 

More than the points and the rebounds and the assists, you can see the absolute joy that Chen plays with, in that highlight or in any other.  

It's the same look you saw when she was playing at Princeton, and when she won an NCAA title at UConn as a grad student last season. 

And that's your Princeton Basketball update for July 1. 

Now go enjoy your summer day.  

No. 32

TigerBlog's former colleague Stacy Bunting begins her tenure as the Director of Athletics at Bates College this week. 

Bates, if you didn't know, is the Bobcats. The college is located in Lewiston, Maine — where it gets relatively cold in the winter. 

It's around a 45-minute drive north from Bates to the campus of Colby College, which is in Waterville. The Director of Athletics there is Amanda DeMartino, who came to Colby from the College of New Jersey. 

It's the Mercer County to Maine NESCAC AD pipeline.

The NESCAC is the New England Small College Athletic Conference. It is the one of the two dominant conferences in Division III athletics, along with the University Athletic Association, at least if you go by the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup. 

In fact, when TigerBlog went through the final standings for 2024-25, and it was sort of like trying to figure out who won Heps cross country. The No. 1 team in Division III was Emory of the UAA, which also had No. 4 (Washington U.), No. 8 (Chicago), No. 9 (NYU) and No. 16 (Carnegie Mellon).  

The NESCAC countered with No. 3 (Tufts), No. 5 (Middlebury), No. 7 (Amherst), No. 11 (Williams) and No. 19 (Wesleyan). That's 10 of the top 19 teams in Division III, all from those two conferences. Of the other nine, they represent seven different conferences. 

If you're scoring it like cross country, with the top five finishers, then the UAA has 38 to the 45 of the NESCAC. If you add in the sixth for both conferences, though, then you have No. 33 Colby and No. 41 Case Western Reserve, which makes the score NESCAC 78, UAA 79.

Bates, by the way, was 48th in Division III and eighth in the NESCAC. That is one competitive league that Bunting is walking into this week.

If you're wondering who won Division II, that would be Grand Valley State. The top 10 in DII represented nine different conferences. 

Division I? The winner was Texas, who edged out USC and Stanford. Only 4.25 points separated those three. 

The top 33 teams in Division I feature 32 from either the Big Ten, the ACC, the Big 12 and the SEC. The other one is from the Ivy League.

Any guesses? Well duh, it's obviously Princeton. Why else would TB mention it, right? 

The Directors' Cup uses a points system based on NCAA tournament qualification and success. There's nothing else that factors into it. There are no bonus points for being from a Power Conference or for being from a different conference. 

You either make the NCAA tournament or you don't. You either advance or you don't. 

The Cup standings award points in 19 sports for Division I. There are five sports that are included for every team in Division I: baseball, men's basketball, women's basketball, women's volleyball and women's soccer. After that, the top scoring 14 sports per school are counted, so not every school uses the exact same sports. 

The Directors' Cup dates to 1993-94, when Princeton finished 34th. Since then, Princeton's average finish has been 37.1. 

The Tigers have finished as the top Ivy program all but five times. Princeton has also been in the top 50 26 times, including each of the last 15 (other than the Covid years). 

The 2024-25 athletic year saw Princeton win a record 17 Ivy League championships, as well as two other non-Ivy titles. Yes, it was quite a year. 

A new one will be starting soon. How will it go for the Tigers? How will it go for the Bobcats?  

And good luck to Stacey as she starts her new job. You're in a tough league. Moving up in the Directors' Cup will be one big challenge. 

Staying warm will be another. 

It Would Have Been Funny

Something happened to TigerBlog the other day that made him think "this would be a funny way to start a new entry this week."

And now he can't remember what it was. 

It did remind him of this old Pete Carril quote: 

“One of the signs of dementia is that you can remember things from a long time ago but you can't remember what you just did. I read an article about this. I can remember the starting lineup for the old Minneapolis Laker teams. I went to a reunion in Reading of the 1961 team. I think Gary [Walters] was a sub on that team as a sophomore. We made it to the Eastern finals that year. Anyway, I could remember where each of them sat in the classroom. I thought to myself 'dementia; that's what I have.' And then I couldn't remember I read the story, so I thought I was okay, right?” 

Ah yes. There's a Carril quote for everything. 

TB can remember exactly where he was when Carril said that to him, even though it was 18 years ago. He just can't remember what it was that was so funny the other day. 

That quote comes from THIS STORY that TB wrote about Carril in 2007.  

Anyway, whatever it was the other day, it was funny. 

You can laugh now. 

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If you're in the Eastern time zone, you'll have to stay up late to see Princeton alums in the pros on TV.

The Golden State Valkyries of the WNBA take on the Chicago Sky tonight at 10 Eastern in a game that can be seen on ION. The Valkyries are an expansion team, but they're off to a reasonable start, with a record of 7-7 to date. 

The Valkyries are in a three-way tie, along with Indiana and Las Vegas, for sixth place in the league. They're also one-half game ahead of Washington, who is coached by Princeton alum Sydney Johnson.

Speaking of Princeton alums, Kaitlyn Chen is a rookie on Golden State. Chen, a three-time Most Outstanding Player at the Ivy League tournament who then went on to win the NCAA title at UConn last year as a grad student, made her WNBA debut earlier this week with five points in 20 minutes of gametime. 

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This week's edition of the Premier Lacrosse League comes from San Diego, where there will be two games tonight and two more tomorrow. All four of those games feature at least one former Princeton Tiger.

Game 1 features the California Redwoods (with Princeton alum Sam English) against the Denver Outlaws at 9 Eastern, followed at 11:30 with the Utah Archers and the New York Atlas. That second game has all kinds of Princeton connections, with Jake Stevens on the Atlas and Beau Pederson, Tom Schreiber and Ryan Ambler all on the Archers, who are coached by former Tiger head coach Chris Bates. 

The other team in the league that's loaded with Princetonians is the Philadelphia Waterdogs, who have Michael Sowers and Zach Currier, not to mention head coach Bill Tierney. The Waterdogs will play California at 6 Eastern tomorrow, with the Boston Cannons (with Coulter Mackesy and Alexander Vardaro) and Carolina Chaos at 8:30.  

Sowers leads the league in assists with 15 and is second in points with 20. Mackesy did not have a goal in his first game but has back-to-back three-goal games since. 

In all, Princeton's alums have combined for 27 goals and 23 assists through the first four weeks of the season.  

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Princeton fencing was well represented at the Pan American Championships in Brazil. 

From the story on goprincetontigers.com:

The women's épée event saw Princeton fencers take home three medals, with incoming freshman Ruien (Angel) Xiao finishing second, rising junior Hadley Husisian taking third, and Kasia Nixon '21 also taking third as three of the four semifinalists were Princetonians. Argentine Isabel Di Tella defeated American Husisian 15-8 in one semi while Xiao, fencing for Canada, getting a touch past U.S. fencer Nixon 15-14. Di Tella was a touch in front of Xiao 13-12 in the final. Tristan Szapary '24 defeated Venezuelan fencer Ruben Limardo Gascon 15-7 to win the men's épée title, and Maia Chamberlain '22 defeated Mexico's Natalia Botello 15-12 to win the women's saber title. Rising junior Alexandra Lee finished 14th in the women's saber competition.  

The team competitions will be held today and tomorrow.  

License Plates

TigerBlog was driving along yesterday when he noticed that the license plate on the car in front of him ended with "YAV."

Ah, Yav. 

To TigerBlog, "YAV" will always be Harvey Yavener, the longtime local sportswriter who has been one of the most influential people in TB's life. Yav lived into his 90s before passing away two years ago.

If you were ever interviewed by Yav, you remember it. If you ever were in a press conference with Yav, you remember it as well. 

He had a way of making an impression.  

TB will have to reach out to his longtime friend over at the Big Green Alert blog, Bruce Wood, who has to have any number of Yav stories to tell.  

The license plate that ended with "YAV" was one of four that TB has seen in the last few days that conjured up Princeton Athletic memories. Seriously. He's not making this up. 

The first one he saw was "UVA96." 

TigerBlog wanted to follow that car to see if it was a former Virginia men's lacrosse player. Or even fan. 

It it was, then that person would have said "grrrrrr" to TigerBlog. After all, Princeton defeated Virginia in overtime in the NCAA final in both 1994 and 1996. 

Those UVa teams had some of the best players who have ever played, including Michael Watson and Doug Knight, teammates on attack who are both in the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Watson, in fact, was the Most Outstanding Player of the 1996 Final Four. 

Those two teamed with Tim Whiteley to form one of the greatest attack units ever — only to be foiled on Memorial Day with OT goals from Princeton's Kevin Lowe and Jesse Hubbard (both Hall of Famers themselves).

Then there was the license plate that ended in "149." What immediately came to mind? 

That would be "Princeton 14, Dartmouth 9."

Obviously TigerBlog is referring to the 2018 football game on Powers Field between a pair of 7-0 teams. It was an epic defensive struggle, one that started with two long scoring drives on each team's first possession and then turned into one where every yard the rest of the way was a struggle. 

Dartmouth's only points after its first drive came on a safety. Princeton's only points after its first drive came on a fourth-quarter touchdown run from John Lovett. 

Princeton went 10-0 that year. Dartmouth went 9-1. That game remains the best Ivy League football game TigerBlog has ever seen. 

This is from the Daily Princetonian:

Princeton came back into the ball game Saturday to nose out a fighting Dartmouth team, 14 to 9. It was as fine an exhibition of cool headedness, determination and fight as has been shown by any Tiger team in recent years.  

If that doesn't sound like writing from 2018, that's because it was from 1940. Did you know that Princeton rallied past Dartmouth in the fourth quarter for a 14-9 win that season too? 

In that game, Dartmouth kicked a field goal from the Tiger 8-yard line to go up 9-7 with a little more than five minutes left, only to have Princeton's David Allerdice bring his team down the field with his passing, including the winning TD pass with two minutes left. 

Then there was one other license plate, though this one wasn't quite like the others. This one was simply "GO TGRS."

When he saw that one, TB was positive that some major Princeton fan was in front of him. Who was it? Would he recognize the driver?

He even sped up to pass the car and see who was driving. Would he figure it out? Or would he get pulled over, because by the time he pulled up next to the car, he was going around 80.

Well, neither possibility actually played out. 

Instead, there was a man behind the wheel who turned to face TB, presumably to see who it was who was chasing him. And there he was, with his gray hair sticking out under his hat.

And what about that hat? Did it say "Princeton Basketball?" Or "Princeton Soccer." Or "Princeton Anything." 

Nope. It said ...  

... Auburn. 

What a letdown that was.  

Those Are The Rules

INSIDE LACROSSE STORY ON PROPOSED WOMEN'S RULES CHANGES 

The NCAA women's lacrosse rules committee seemingly recognized two realities in the sport:

1) the athletes are faster and stronger and shoot harder than they ever have before, and 
2) the games themselves were taking way too long to play

It's a tough position for a committee. You don't want to overhaul everything that has helped your sport grow, while at the same time you have to do something to move the pace of the game along. 

Women's lacrosse games in recent years have regularly run to nearly two hours and 30 minutes, or even longer. And why? 

The main culprit, ironically enough, has been the increased athleticism, which has led to greater goal-scoring numbers. It's made the game way more exciting, of course, though it needed some major fine-tuning. 

What does extra scoring bring? Yes, it results in many more draws at midfield. And that's been the No. 1 source of the extra time. 

It starts with the need to do a stick check after each goal. You've seen this if you've been watching. 

The player who scores has to immediately drop her stick, or, as it has evolved, slams her stick down as hard as possible in triumph. Then the officials have to confirm it's a legal stick, and only then do the teams head to midfield for the draw. 

This rule, by the way, came from overtime of an NCAA championship game a few years ago, when the goal was scored and all of the sticks flew in the air in celebration. The team that lost wanted to challenge the stick that scored the game-winner — though nobody could figure out which one it was. 

This week, the NCAA women's lacrosse rules committee announced that, among other proposals, the need to do a stick check should be eliminated. Also, teams would have 30 seconds to line up at midfield to be ready for the next draw or possession would be automatically given to the other team. 

There are other proposals as well, but that one is the one that should do the most to speed things up. This is from committee chair Amy Foster.

“At the Division I level in particular, there was concern about games consistently extending well beyond two hours. For media purposes, that window is important, but it is also important for just the enjoyment of the game. Changes in the penalty structure and penalty and game administration could positively impact both.” 

Foster, by the way, is a Senior Deputy Athletic Director at Cornell. It seems that both the men's and women's rules committee chairs are from the Ivy League. How about that? 

This was a non-change year for the men's committee but obviously a change year for the women. This proposal, and the others, really seem to be a move in the right direction. 

From here, by the way, the next step is to have the recommendations of the committee go to the NCAA's Playing Rules Oversight Panel for its approval. 

While the subject today is women's lacrosse, TigerBlog would like to congratulate Princeton's coaches for being selected as the IWLCA Mid-Atlantic Region Coaching Staff of the Year. As you hopefully recall, Princeton won the Ivy League championship and reached the NCAA quarterfinals before falling to eventual champion North Carolina. 

Princeton is led by head coach Jen Cook and her staff featuring Maggie Brown, Molly Dougherty, Kerrin Maurer and Ali Robinson.   

This is from the story on goprincetontigers.com:

Princeton's .800 winning percentage was No. 1 in the Ivy League and No. 5 nationally, and the Tigers were among the nation's cleanest teams in terms of possession with a national rank of No. 5 in clearing percentage (.939) and No. 3 in turnovers-per-game (11.1). No team in Ivy League history had a more prolific offensive season than the 2025 Tigers who scored an Ivy record 308 goals, led by a second-team All-American attacker in McKenzie Blake, who broke a 41-year old Ivy League record with 89 goals herself. She was one of three IWCLA All-America selections for Princeton this season, the first such honors during Cook and staff's tenure. Improvement has been the hallmark of this group as they have increased their win total each year, including a +5 improvement in victories this year from last.
Included this year was an 11-game winning streak, Princeton's longest in 21 years and eight wins against teams ranked in the Top-25.

Congrats to the Tiger coaches.

And to the NCAA women's lacrosse rules committee, who seemed to get it right with these proposed changes. 

Welcome Back Coach Kessel

COURTNEY KESSEL NAMED HEAD COACH OF PRINCETON WOMEN'S HOCKEY 

TigerBlog was hoping for a Game 3 in the Men's College World Series.

And a Game 7 in the NHL Finals. 

Oh well. He ended up with neither. There was a Game 7 in the NBA Finals, which didn't exactly have a lot of drama in the fourth quarter. The best part of that game? 

Kristin Chenoweth's version of the national anthem. 

KRISTIN CHENOWETH SINGS THE NATIONAL ANTHEM 🤩

PERFECT WAY TO TIP OFF GAME 7 ON ABC! pic.twitter.com/BVUEcNmD8L

— NBA (@NBA) June 23, 2025

 Who couldn't have liked that? Okay, maybe TB is a bit biased because Chenoweth was the original Glinda in "Wicked." 

Still, she crushed the anthem Sunday night in Oklahoma City, which is close to where she grew up. Who knew she was such a big Thunder fan? 

By the way, if you could go to either 1) the MCWS, 2) Game 7 of the NBA Finals or 3) the deciding game of the Stanley Cup finals, which would you choose? 

TB would go with the baseball. 

And all of that brings him to, without a segue, the hiring of the new head coach of the Princeton women's hockey team. 

Courtney Kessel was introduced yesterday as the new head coach of the Tiger women's hockey program. She comes to Princeton from the same league where former head coach Cara Morey left to join, the Professional Women's Hockey League, where Kessel had been the head coach of the Boston Fleet.

Kessel has been at Princeton before, serving as an assistant coach under Morey from 2019 until she joined the Fleet in 2023. She was at Princeton for the 2019-20 season, which saw the Tigers go 26-6-1 and win the ECAC championship.

That victory came in overtime at Cornell, then ranked No. 1 in the country. The game-winner came from Mariah Koepple that night.

Koepple is a player in the PWHL. Here is what she had to say about the Tigers' new head coach:

“Courtney is the perfect fit for Princeton and the women in the program. I am so excited to see what she can bring to this team to elevate it even higher. My time at Princeton when Courtney was there was unmatched, and I am so thrilled with her selection as the new head coach. She allows her players to excel in all aspects of their lives which is something so special to see. Courtney brings a level of compete and skill that will really propel this program forward. ‘PWIH’ is in great hands and I just know there are many championships in the near future. PWIH FOREVER!”

That tells you a great deal, doesn't it. 

Kessel is herself a former great player, one who had international experience with the Canadian women's team and who was a two-time first-team All-Hockey East selection and a second-team All-American at New Hampshire. 

She's also part of an incredibly athletic family. Her husband is Blake Kessel, who was also a player at New Hampshire and then a long time pro. 

Blake's brother Phil won three Stanley Cups (two with Pittsburgh, one with Vegas) and played in an NHL-record 1,064 consecutive games. Their sister Amanda has won three Olympic ice hockey medals with the United States.

Oh, and Phil Kessel Sr.? He played football with Washington in the NFL and Calgary in the CFL.

And now she is back at Princeton. 

TigerBlog didn't know her well during her first go-round here, but he did know her well enough to see the same qualities that Koepple did. She is a very warm, welcoming person, and her positivity is obvious from the first time you speak with her. 

It'll be 100 degrees in Princeton most of this week, which doesn't exactly scream hockey season. On the other hand, Kessel is only four months or so away from puck drop on her first season as the Tiger head coach .

TB wishes her the best of luck, obviously. 

There have only been five other head coaches in the 45-year varsity history of the program. Kessel will be the sixth. 

TB hopes it'll be a long time until there is a seventh. 

Welcome back, Coach Kessel.  

Dog Surfing

Well, it's officially summer. 

And what does that mean? You know. It's dog-surfing season. 

Dog-surfing? 

TigerBlog watched the end of Game 1 of the Men's College World Series best-of-three championship series between LSU and Coastal Carolina Saturday night. It was a riveting Game 1, in which LSU scored one run in the first and then won 1-0 behind a complete-game, 130-pitch three-hitter from Kade Anderson. 

Shockingly, it seemed like his mother was nervous, excited and ultimately thrilled — at least that was TB's take from the endless times the broadcast cut to her in the stands.  

A game like that is next to impossible these days in the Major Leagues, by the way. LSU, by the way, won the second game 5-3 yesterday to take the national championship. 

Anyway, when the game ended, TB flipped through the channels for a second and then saw what will undoubtedly replace baseball and every other sport as America's Pastime. Yup. It's dog surfing.

This couldn't be real, right? Dogs on surfboards? This had to be AI, or a dream or something. 

Nope. It's legit. And it's riveting. 

Surf's up, pup. 

There are different categories based on the size of the dog and whether or not it's a tandem, which could mean either two dogs or one dog and one human. 

This is great stuff. TB watched for five minutes and already was annoyed at the judges for putting Rosie second in the mid-size dog category. Rosie should have won easily. 

Also, the TV feed had a Go Pro that was on the front of the surfboard. Did the dogs look happy? They certainly looked wet. One looked a bit concerned. Another looked annoyed — Why are the humans harshing my mellow? 

It all made him want to write about dogs in today's entry. Maybe he could write about the Waterdogs of the Premier Lacrosse League, but that would have been too easy. 

You know what else would have been easy? Going through the current issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly. Get it? PAW.

While going through the PAW online, TB did come across THIS story about women's basketball alum Abby Meyers and her recent season of playing in Israel. There are no dogs in the story, though it does mention yaks.  

Were there any great moments of dogs in Princeton Athletic history?

How about foxes? They're sort of like dogs. Princeton Foxes include Stephanie Fox (softball ’93), Kevin Fox (football ’77), Finn Fox (men's lacrosse rising sophomore) and J.R. Fox (men's basketball ’39).

There have been cats, that's for sure. For starters, there's the whole "Tigers" thing, right?  

Then there have been cats such as Kat Sharkey (field hockey ’13), Cat Caro (field hockey ’17), Kat Holmes (fencing ’17), to name a few. Former men's lacrosse player Cathal Roberts' nickname was "Big Cat."

There have been bears too: Bear Lockshin, Bear Altemus, Bear Goldstein, all of whom were men's lacrosse players.  

Rabbits? Well, there was women's basketball player McKenna Haire. And men's soccer player Antoine Hoppenot.  

Some others that popped into TB's mind: current men's lacrosse player Cody Lam and former women's soccer player Catherine Byrd.  

There haven't been any alpaca, though there was an All-American football player in the 1920s named Al Packer. Just kidding. TB is pretty sure nobody named Al Packer ever played anything at Princeton. He just thinks alpaca are cute. 

They are, right? 

So dogs? 

Ryan Boyle had a dog named Gus when he played lacrosse at Princeton. TB remembers seeing Boyle and Gus walk away together after more than one game. 

Then there is Watson. He's a Princeton Bulldog, belonging to the family of former women's lacrosse player Shea Smith. 

Ah, Watson. If anyone can relate to you, it's TigerBlog. You know, the whole shifting allegiances from one Ivy League school to another. 

In his case, it was his alma mater to Princeton. In your case, it was your distant cousin the mascot in New Haven to Princeton. Watson was a frequent visitor to Princeton games as well. 

There are probably way more animal references that TB might have seen had he spent more time on it. Has there been a letterwinner named "Lyons?" An All-American named "Deer."

There have to be some Tigers who were nicknamed "Moose" or "Horse" or something like that. This requires more research.  

In the meantime, there's this from the Beach Boys:

Little surfer
Little dog
Wagging through the morning fog.
Do you love me, do you surfer dog? 

Ah, yes. America's Pastime. Dog surfing.

It's here to stay.  

TigerBlog h'65

Imagine, for a moment, that you're being led around the Princeton campus, making one seemingly random turn after another, with no obvious clear destination.

You've been told that your end point is something important. What could it be? 

A lecture? An exhibit? A tour of a new building? What? 

If you're TigerBlog, you don't usually do well in situations like this. He wants answers. He doesn't want to have to guess. Even worse, he doesn't want to have to keep asking what's next.

His escort on this sojourn was his friend Pattie Friend, whose husband Lloyd was in the Class of 1965 (that's a foreshadow, by the way). For her part, she was playing it up in a big way, pretending to be lost, saying "is it left or right" and then "oh yeah, this way."

She could probably tell that she was starting to annoy TigerBlog. How could she not? 

He asked only one question: "Is this going to be fun?" She just smiled. 

Eventually, the long and winding road led to the football stadium. There, in one of the tunnels near the top of the stadium stood a man in a pair of khaki shorts and an orange collared shirt that said "Princeton Golf" on it. 

TB, though, immediately thought of a different sport. The man was, after all, Cosmo Iacavazzi, one of the greatest athletes Princeton has ever known and the captain of the 1964 undefeated football team. 

Did this tell the story, though? No, it didn't — not even when Cosmo first extended his hand for a firm handshake. 

This all left TB more confused than ever. 

Little did he know that one of the greatest honors of his life was about to come his way. 

"On behalf of our class," Cosmo said, "it's my privilege to let you know that you have been chosen to be an honorary member of the Class of 1965."

Was this on the level? Was this some sort of joke? 

"This is for real," Cosmo said. 

Once he realized that this was on the up and up, TB couldn't stop smiling. An honorary member of the Class of 1965? 

That's the class that featured Cosmo, as well as another fairly well-regarded athlete — Bill Bradley. And men like Johnny O'Brien, who grew up at the Milton Hershey School before playing football at Princeton and then returning to the school as its headmaster after a successful business career. There's a limitless amount of respect for that trajectory.

The Class of 1965 has certainly left its mark on this University. Its roster is a series of alums who have lived by the University motto: "In the nation's service and service of all humanity," and they have incredible contributions in the areas of government, the military, business, medicine, law, athletics and so many others. 

And now TB is an honorary member. That's something that overwhelms him.

When you go to work at Princeton in your 30s, you're not thinking that one day you might be honored by any class, let alone one as legendary as the Class of 1965. You're just thinking about what needs to be done that day, that season, what game might be coming up. 

TB has had that same attitude in the 31 years he's been doing this. It's why he continues to write here everyday, because every day brings with it something special to be shared, with another challenge to be creative. 

It's why he also still gets that same feeling of excitement for gamedays. It's why he sits here now ready for the start of the 2025-26 athletic year, and why he is already looking forward to the opening weekend of field hockey in early September, even if it's still June. 

Of course, there is one fair question to be asked: Why did the Class of 1965 choose TigerBlog for this honor? 

Cosmo said it was in recognition and appreciation of all of the years that TB has been chronicling the athletic achievements — and the athletes — of the Class of 1965 and all the other Princeton classes. That was something that made TB's heart flutter and resulted in an ear-to-ear grin. 

TB hasn't done this for the recognition. He's done it because it's always been something he's passionate about and something that has challenged him. 

In all of his time at Princeton, he's never once applied for another job anywhere else, in athletics or anything else. This is what he's wanted to do, and this is where he's wanted to do it. 

And that's why, come Monday, there will be another entry here. 

But it'll come from someone who has been changed a bit by his meeting with Cosmo. 

Honorary? Yes. 

Honored? More than you know. 

Thank you to everyone in the Class of 1965 who supported this. 

TB is proud to be your newest classmate.