Two Days At The Beach

The scenes could have been straight from any beach anywhere, especially the Jersey Shore.

There were families who were finishing their day trips. There was a group playing soccer. There were signs of picnics, and little kids digging in the sand, and dogs running into the water.

As TigerBlog said, it could have been any beach on any summer day. It wasn't, though.

This beach is like no other beach anywhere in the world.

This was Omaha Beach.

TigerBlog hasn't been touched by any place he's ever been to the way he was when he visited Normandy last week. The enormity of it all smashes you in the face from the first time you see any part of the region, understanding what went on there 75 years ago and how incredibly brave the people who made it happen were.

And after seeing the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, where American paratroopers landed to secure the N13, the vital road out of Normandy that runs to Cherbourg, and then the simply jaw-dropping American cemetery, TB was confused, or concerned, or displeased by the fact that today Omaha Beach is just an ordinary public beach.

This is, after all, a beach where on June 6, 1944, more than 2,000 American soldiers died in a 12-hour span. And now it was just a public beach? At first, he didn't get it.

TigerBlog took the ferry across the Channel to Cherbourg and then headed towards the Normandy beaches, which he didn't realize would take him straight through Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Instead, he found himself driving right through the heart of the town, which, if you've seen "The Longest Day," you would recognize immediately.

Sainte-Mere-Eglise is the town where American paratroopers landed, falling in some cases directly on top of the German soldiers in the town square, the same town square, where on the rainy morning that TB was there, was home to a market that had fruit, bread, breakfast dishes, sausage sandwiches and any number of other things for sale. 

If you looked up to the church next to the square, you'd see what at first glance seemed like a construction project, with plastic tarp covering a scaffold. When you looked closer, you'd see that it was actually a parachute, with a statue of a soldier who hangs from the building. Again, if you saw "The Longest Day," then you remember that scene with Red Buttons.

TB spent two hours in the fascinating D-Day museum at Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and were it not for the places he'd be going later that day and then the next morning, those two hours by themselves would have been a completely chilling experience.

A few hours later, after the rain ended and the sun came out, he found himself walking on a beach, a quiet, peaceful beach, where he was one of maybe 10 people out there. He didn't realize it at the time, but that piece of beach was part of Juno Beach, where the Canadian soldiers landed, between Sword and Gold, where the British landed.

There are still, to this day, remains of German defense barriers visible in the water off the shore. Walking on that beach when it was so peaceful was downright eerie, considering what went on there.

After that it was off to Omaha Beach, but first to the American cemetery. This is the where, as he said, your jaw simply hits the ground.

To see row after row of crosses and Stars of David, stretching out as far as your eye can process, and to understand that these were all Americans who were killed in the earliest hours of the liberation of Europe, well, it simply takes your breath away. The people buried there were mostly 18-22 year olds, much like the people who compete at Princeton University these days.

TigerBlog tried to find some record of Princeton's participation on D-Day, to see if any Princetonians were among those who were buried in that cemetery. He found THIS STORY by Brett Tomlinson of the Princeton Alumni Weekly, in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of D-Day this past June.

If you don't want to read through the whole story, there is this:
The Aug. 11, 1944, issue carried news of a casualty in the Normandy invasion: “On D-Day, June 6, 1st Lt. Jerry Schaefer [’40] was killed in action in France. Jerry was a member of an airborne artillery outfit and had previously seen action in Sicily and in the Allied landings in Italy. To his parents and to his widow, Mrs. Margaret Schaefer, we extend our sincere sympathy.” Schaefer is one of 355 alumni who died in the war. His place of death is listed as Sainte-Mère-Église, France, which is now home to the Airborne Museum, dedicated to the memory the U.S. Army’s 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. 

Three-hundred-fifty-five alums died in the war? TB wouldn't have guessed that.

He does know the story of Tyler Campbell, Class of 1943 and a member of the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame, who died in September of 1944 in Southern France. TB looked up the town where Campbell died and found that it was 200 miles away from where he was in Normandy.

The next day TB went to Ponte Du Hoc, a cliff halfway between Omaha and Utah Beaches. It was critically important that the Americans capture the cliff, since it offered access to both of those beaches and the troops off-shore. It's a cliff, 100 feet straight up, and 255 Army Rangers started out at the bottom. Only 90 of them made it to the top, the rest gunned down, or killed when the Germans cut their ropes as they advanced to the ridge.

When you spend time at these locations, you have to close your eyes and see it, hear it - and more than anything else, appreciate it. TigerBlog certainly did. The only other places he's ever been that can even remotely compare were the Dachau concentration camp in Germany and Gettysburg's battlefield.

And maybe that's why, at first, he was so taken aback at the thought of families who were enjoying Omaha Beach. It just didn't seem right to him.

Then, when he considered what it was that all those soldiers fought for and a lot of them died for, it came to him. It was all about giving back freedom to French families to enjoy that beach.

And suddenly he was okay with it.

It wasn't disrespectful to those who died there.

It was the whole point of it.

Keeping In Touch From England

TigerBlog hopes you enjoyed last week's five-piece series, answering the questions he was asked about some of the emotions he's felt with Princeton Athletics through the decades.

He did something with those five entries that he hasn't done in the 11 years that he's been writing this every day. He wrote all five of them in advance, which meant he didn't have to write at all last week.

Then he asked Jim Barlow to write a guest blog yesterday, and as always Jim's piece was tremendous and got great feedback. 

Why did he do this?

He's been away for the last week, in England and France to be specific. Actually he's still there, in England, along the southern coast.

It's been a long time since he's had such a vacation. In fact, the last five times prior to this that he has left the United States, it's been with a Princeton team.

Before this trip, he'd been to 16 different European countries, though never to England or France, unless you count a one-hour stopover in the Paris airport in 1974. He's seen a lot in the last week, starting in London, where he went to see, of all things, "Fiddler on the Roof" on the West End.

He's spent he last few days in the southern coast, near the towns of Poole and Bournemouth. He's seen some spectacular beaches on the English Channel, with views to the Isle of Wight to the East. He's stumbled on a seafood festival. He's seen Buckingham and Windsor Castles.

He's also ridden a bicycle that he's rented.

What people in the United States immediately think of when they think of England is that they drive on the other side - the wrong side? - of the road here, with a steering wheel on the other side - wrong side? - of the car. The impact of this goes way beyond mild curiosity.

If you're used to driving on the right side, then you're also used to looking certain ways when you get to intersections. Over here, everything is reversed.

It's even more pronounced when you're on a bike, as TB has learned. He's constantly found himself unsure of which way to look when he gets to intersections, of which there aren't that many, since the English seem to love roundabouts, which can also be confusing.

He's done well though, other than a minor incident with a double-decker bus, which was sort of his fault anyway.

England is a very charming, very welcoming country. The people here have been beyond friendly and very laid back, even in London. They joke about most things, and they speak in very flowery language that enhances the charm.

Even while he's been away, he's still kept in touch with what's been going on at Princeton. The biggest news has been the great success that Princeton has had at the Pan Am Games, which recently concluded in Brazil.

If you went to goprincetontigers.com yesterday, you noticed that four of the top six stories were about Pan Am medalists, and that doesn't include the gold that Kareen Maddox won in 3x3 basketball last week.

Bella Alarie helped the USA women's basketball team to a silver medal, falling 79-73 to Brazil in the final after being unbeaten to that point. Alarie, the rising senior, averaged 6.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.6 steals in the tournament.

Princeton had two alums win field hockey medals: Elise Wong helped Canada to the silver, while Kathleen Sharkey helped the USA to the bronze. Argentina won the gold to automatically qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games, but the U.S. and Canada will still be able to compete in Olympic qualifying later in the year.

Sharkey, by the way, was the flag bearer for the U.S. team in the opening ceremonies, you might recall.

Then there were the gold medalists.

Ashleigh Johnson was the U.S. goalie in women's water polo, and not surprisingly, the U.S. cruised through the tournament unbeaten while outscoring its six opponents 142-24. The U.S. simply dominates women's water polo internationally, and Johnson's resume now includes an Olympic gold medal, a Pan Am Games gold medal, numerous world championships and numerous world player of the year awards.

In women's fencing, four Princetonians combined to win six gold medals, including two each for alums Kat Holmes (epee) and Eliza Stone (saber). The two then were part of team gold medals in their events, and those teams included current Princeton fencers Kasia Nixon (epee) and Chloe Fox-Gitomer (saber).

Todd Harrity also won gold, in doubles squash, which made its Pan Am Games debut.

So what is that, nine gold medals? And two more silver and one bronze?

That's not a bad two weeks in Peru.

Guest TigerBlog - Thoughts As Preseason Is About To Begin

TigerBlog has a standing offer to anyone who would like to share this space to say something about Princeton Athletics and what it means to him or her. 

The person who has taken him up on this the most is Princeton's men's soccer coach Jim Barlow, who led his team to the Ivy League championship and NCAA tournament a year ago. TB asked Barlow if he would write something about what a coach is thinking in the days before preseason begins.  

What he got back is hardly what he expected. In typical Jim Barlow fashion, it is well worth reading:

It’s hard to believe that the summer is almost over. The tell-tale signs are usually when the English Premier League starts (it kicked off this weekend, Go Liverpool!), my Mets have been all but officially eliminated from playoff contention (not this year, thankfully), and my inbox becomes flooded with email reminders about things to do to prepare for the upcoming season. One email that came out of the blue this week was from from Tiger Blog, who asked me if I would like to write a guest blog about what the last few days before preseason are like.

Usually, it’s the best time of the year. The excitement of finally getting to be with the team again, the curiosity to see who improved over the summer, what the incoming class looks like and how the pieces may fit together all contribute to the positive energy and mood of the group. And, it’s the start of a two-week period (yes, two weeks) where the entire focus of the job is on building a team. It’s the real work that drew me into coaching in the first place. This means creating a culture, establishing responsibilities, and challenging and pushing some great student athletes to be better. It’s incredibly fun.

This year, however, the joy of the days leading up to preseason have been tempered a bit.

Last Monday, Princeton lost one of its most gifted and creative artists of all time when Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison died. I haven’t read much Morrison, but the news of her death quickly brought me back to a memorial service that Princeton held just days after the September 11th attack in 2001. Toni Morrison read her poem “The Dead of September 11^th” (click HERE to read it; it’s amazing) at a packed Cannon Green, and her words stayed with me as I kept them taped to my desk in the soccer office for some time. I even quoted them when I spoke at my former assistant coach and close friend Rob Myslik’s ’90 funeral in 2003 after Rob was killed in a car accident.

Today, however, as Princeton and the world mourn Morrison’s death, I cannot help but think how her powerful poem from 2001 could instead be titled, “The Dead of August 2019” in memory of those killed in Dayton and El Paso last weekend. 

Word of those tragedies triggered memories of April 1999, when I was setting up cones for a spring workout. Our captain Chad Adams ’00 came out to the field and told me that a shooting in Columbine High School had just occurred. I remember the shock and disbelief among the players and coaches, and the overwhelming sadness that enveloped the field and the country that day. It seemed no one knew what to say.

I must be steady and I must be clear, knowing all the time that I have nothing to say (Morrison, “The Dead of September 11^th)

What helped me, however, and many others, during those dark days in April 1999 following the Columbine shooting, and after September 11th, 2001, and after January, 2003, when Rob died, and after many other national and personal tragedies over the years (including April, 2008, when Princeton soccer assistant coach Arron Lujan and his wife Heather lost their two-year-old son Vaughn to meningitis) was the Princeton Soccer family. 

And, as I think about the days leading up to preseason and what they are like, I can’t help but feel incredibly grateful that in just another week that family will be back together. In a world that seems so depressing and hopeless lately, this group is inspiring and uplifting, on and off the field, and gives me reason to be optimistic about the future. Our team is made up of players from different races, religions, geographic backgrounds, income levels, sexual orientations, political leanings, and academic interests, and yet, somehow, they all get along, treat each other as equals, work together to solve problems and succeed, comfort each other during tough times, and have a ton of fun. And they’re a pretty good soccer team, too. The glue that keeps it all together is how much they care about the team and each other, in good times and bad. After observing how some of our media and politicians have responded to our recent tragedies, I think our team has much to teach our country.

It's the Princeton Soccer family who rallied together to support Rob Myslik’s family and wife Sue after Rob’s accident and who pays tribute to Rob every time they step on the field named in his memory. It’s the Princeton Soccer family who traveled with the Lujan family to a funeral for Vaughn in Richmond, Virginia, and who decided to get team uniforms with Vaughn Lujan’s name on them to wear to his memorial service in the Princeton Chapel. It’s that same family who rallied around current Associate Head Coach Steve Totten and his wife Liz when Liz was faced with a terrible diagnosis two years ago, and who continue to support them as Liz works incredibly hard to recover. And, as national tragedies are becoming more and more commonplace, it will be the Princeton Soccer Family who pulls together and provides support and hope for each other during these difficult days in our country.

I can’t wait for the guys to arrive to start the work of defending an Ivy title and begin anew the process of becoming a special team. It will be great to have the family back on campus.

Question No. 5.2.0

Well, it's now three weeks until the first athletic event of 2019-20.

Yes. Three weeks from today. It'll be Princeton at St. Joe's in women's soccer.

Of course, if you're a St. Joe's fan, you can up that by a week. It's only two weeks until the Hawks open their season, with games at Drexel two weeks from today and then at Villanova two weeks from Sunday.

Also, by the time Princeton plays its first women's soccer game of the year, there will already have been 17 regular season college football games played. Yes. Fall is almost here.

Of course, it's still quiet around Princeton now and has been all week. TigerBlog has been answering the five questions he received asking him about some of his Princeton athletics memories, and it's been a fun exercise.

Today is Day 5, with one question left:
Most extreme emotions other than happy, sad or nervous (For instance, I think that arguably your best column ever was describing what went through your mind when you inputted the official scorer's entry for your daughter's ground ball. As another example, when I attended Princeton Stadium's 1998 inaugural game against Cornell, the pre-game festivities included football alumni marching onto the field beneath their class banners. Watching the history unfold in front of me, I started to tear up. My girlfriend at the time, a gritty street-smart New Yorker, saw me getting choked up and looked at me quizzically. I felt the need to explain myself and quietly said, "This makes me feel part of something bigger than myself." Within a month, we broke up. I think she literally thought to herself, "Any man who would come close to crying at a football game is not a good long-term match for me.") 

First, TB does have to say that it was the old girlfriend's loss if she couldn't appreciate the moment.

Okay, having said that, this one is the toughest question, because the question is asking about which emotions there are, not just about events or anything like that. And it can't be happy, sad or nervous.

And it's not asking for just emotions. It's asking for extreme emotions.

Hmmm. Where to start?

This question got TigerBlog to thinking about the things he's been a part of at Princeton that have brought out the most emotion in him. Certainly, as the question says, it was at its peak when he saw Miss TigerBlog ’22 play as a Princeton Tiger and be part of an Ivy League champion and Ivy League tournament champion.

But what about beyond that?

It got him to thinking less about events and games and individual honors and more about the people here, the ones he's worked with and the ones he's seen play and coach here. And it's really the day-to-day stuff, seeing how it all comes together to be the successful athletic program that you see here.

And it's the special occasions. The banquets. The retirement parties. The recognitions. The press conferences.

He likes to think that in his way, and in a small way, he's made contributions that have helped that success. It's part of what has kept him here for so long.

TB often jokes about the amount of stuff he owns that says "Princeton" on it. In reality, it's more than just free gear that he's been given through the years.

It's a symbol of what it means to part of Princeton Athletics.

The emotion that he's getting at is the same, he suspects, as the one that the commenter had when he saw the first game at Princeton Stadium.

It's pride.

It's a sense of pride in the entity that is Princeton Athletics. It's been something great to have been a part of all of this time.

Anyway, that's the last of the questions for the week. TigerBlog enjoyed the exercise, and he's appreciative of whoever it was who posed the questions.

Have another great summer weekend.

And get ready. Opening kickoff is rapidly approaching once again.

Question No. 4.2.0

When TigerBlog first started in the newspaper business, Rule No. 1 was simple

No cheering in the press box.

That sort of still stands these days, though the line is a bit blurrier than it used to be. SAT flashback: the sound of cheering in the press box is to TigerBlog as fingernails on a chalkboard are to most people.

Because of that, TigerBlog learned long, long, long ago - like more than 35 years ago - never to show emotion at games he was covering. It didn't matter if it was a national championship in lacrosse or an NCAA basketball win or anything else.

If you've ever noticed TigerBlog at a game, you've noticed that he's somewhat emotionless, no matter what is happening. This even extended to all the games his kids have played, during which he simply stood at watched from the sideline.

He has, of course, had certain reactions to certain events, such as shots that hit the pipe or miraculous catches and such. But those are of the "oooooh" variety, as opposed to the "yessss!!!!!" variety. TB is not an exclamation point kind of guy.

Also, because he's been to so many games in so many situations and seen so many victories, he doesn't really get all that nervous at any one event.

He remembers vividly, for instance, the end of the 2001 NCAA men's lacrosse championship game. Princeton was up a goal as Syracuse gave the ball to Mikey Powell out of a timeout, and Powell scored all by himself with 16 seconds left to force overtime. It looked all the world that Syracuse had the momentum during the four-minute break.

TB was confident that Princeton would win, though. It was all just part of the drama. And Princeton did win.

So the fourth question of the week is this: What are the most nervous moments you've had, in-game or otherwise?

This is not one where he has a lot to choose from, as he said.

He does have an answer though. He remember how extraordinarily nervous he was for one particular game, back in 2009.

It was a men's basketball game at Jadwin against Cornell. Princeton won 61-41, as four Tigers were in double figures. Want to guess who?

That, by the way, was the middle season of Cornell's run of three straight Ivy titles. The Big Red won that year with an 11-3 record.

And the four Tigers in double figures in that game were: Pawel Buczak (15), Dan Mavraides (12), Kareem Maddox (11) and Marcus Schroeder (10).

It was a nice win for Princeton, who would finish second in the league that year. It was hardly a major moment though.

So why was TB so nervous? It was because of something that happened before the game was ever played.

TigerBlog Jr. was 11 years old in 2009. He was already very into sports, and he was also a saxophone and bassoon player.

He and his friend Matthew - who also is a recent college graduate and who was a four-year lacrosse starter and a captain this past year at Chestnut Hill College - were ball boys for Princeton basketball for a few years. They're still best buds to this day, by the way.

Anyway, TBJ wanted to combine his two interests and play the national anthem on his saxophone before a Princeton basketball game. As it turned out, the game against Cornell was the only one on the schedule that didn't already have an anthem performer, so he got the job.

Now TBJ was hardly a concert-ready musician. But he was determined. He practiced and practiced the anthem until he felt he was ready to go - even if his rate of playing it perfectly was about 50-50.

And now he was going to stand out there, at center court, by himself, and play it before the game.

So yeah. TigerBlog was extraordinarily nervous.

TBJ was usually better at the first half of the song, so he got off to a pretty good start. There were tougher notes to get to in the second half, but he got through those fine too.

Then there was the part TB forgot to warn his son about. During the anthem, Cornell fans always yell "RED" when it gets to "the rocket's red glare." When they did so, it startled TB - but not TBJ, who remained focused all the way through the end, never missing a note.

Jeff Taylor, today a very successful documentary filmmaker, did video for Princeton back then, and he made a recording of TBJ's version of the anthem. TigerBlog has watched in many times through the years.

At one point, he zooms in on TigerBlog, who was courtside with John Sadak ready to go on the radio. You can't tell by looking at him, because he looks emotionless, but TB was really, really nervous.

The most nervous he's ever been at a Princeton game, for that matter.

Question No. 3.2.0

TigerBlog has been fortunate in that his team's have won so much more than they've lost in the 30 years he's been covering Princeton sports.

It goes way beyond that, of course.

TigerBlog has been a part of NCAA championships, Ivy League championships, individual championships of all sorts. He always says he's had way more than his share of big victories, so he can't really complain much about losses.

He's also not taking credit for the wins, obviously. 

That's not to say that he doesn't. Or that certain losses have stung more than others.

So today is Day 3 of a week of TB's memories, inspired by a comment last month asking about very specific games, emotions and such. Today's question is:

What is the saddest or most bitter you've been due to Princeton sports?

Sad and bitter? Those are pretty intense emotions.

This isn't the same as being disappointed that Princeton lost. There have been a lot of those games, where Princeton lost and it's been a disappointment.

As TB said above, he's lucky that the wins have far outweighed the losses.

When he thinks of games that have disappointed him, he usually comes back to ones where he felt like Princeton might have been the better team but didn't play well or dug itself too big an early hole and couldn't climb out.

There have been a lot of the first kind. Well, not a ton. But enough.

You want an example of the second? The 2002 NCAA men's lacrosse championship game, where Princeton lost to Syracuse 13-12 after falling behind big early. Syracuse was probably the better team that year, but Princeton could have won had it not started out so slowly.

But that didn't make him bitter. Just disappointed.

So do most losses. Even the ones that really sting. They don't really lead to bitterness.

That's why this is such a good question. It's digging much deeper.

Bitterness. Hmmm.

His first thought about this one left him with two games. Both were men's basketball games. Both were in the NCAA tournament.

Is he missing any other obvious ones? Football? Maybe the 1993 game at Penn, a 30-14 loss in a game in which the Tigers never really could get themselves going. As TB thinks about it more, that was more of the first kind he mentioned before.

Lacrosse? Maybe the 2009 NCAA quarterfinal loss to Cornell in a 6-4 defensive battle. But again, that wasn't really bitterness. That was the third kind of tough loss, the one where there are two pretty even teams and one had to win - and it turned out not to be Princeton.

It was also Bill Tierney's last game as Princeton head coach, something TB didn't realize at the time. Maybe if he had he would have been more bitter about it. 

No, for actual bitterness, he'll have to go with those two men's basketball games.

One was in the opening round of the 1991 tournament, at Syracuse against Villanova. Princeton lost that one 50-48 as Lance Miller hit a floater in the lane with two seconds left.

TigerBlog was still in the newspaper business then. In fact, he was in the Carrier Dome football press box, not courtside, as Miller hit his floater, because he needed to be near a phone to be able to send his story to the paper the second the game ended as deadline approached.

You can imagine how far away he was. And he was bitter. Even if he didn't at Princeton yet, he really wanted to win that one, mostly because he wanted Kit Mueller to get an NCAA tournament win.

Mueller, by the way, played 40 minutes in that game and had 14 points and eight assists without a turnover.

Then there was the 1998 second round loss to Michigan State. This had elements of the second kind of loss, since Princeton fell behind 10-0 to the Spartans.

Princeton came all the way back to tie it on a long two-pointer by James Mastaglio late, but Mateen Cleaves came back and drilled a three to put the Spartans ahead for good. The final was 63-56.

TB remembers sitting with Steve Goodrich in the interview area waiting for Michigan State to get finished and being able to hear what the Spartan players were saying. They were being super complimentary, and each time they said something nice, TB and Goodrich both said "grrrrrr" somewhat audibly.

That year, of course, was when Princeton went 27-2. TB really, really wanted that team to get to the Sweet 16, which would have meant a game against North Carolina (the only team to beat Princeton during the regular season) at Kentucky.

All these years later, TB can still see Miller's floater (from so far away) and Cleaves' three-pointer (he was directly behind the basket at which Cleaves shot), and he still says "grrrr" every time he thinks about it.

Now that's bitterness.

Question No. 2.2.0

TigerBlog answered the first question yesterday about the greatest games and events he's seen at Princeton, with the caveat that historical significance had to be factored into the equation.

For today, the question is this: Most improbable team or individual achievements (other than comebacks, which we covered)

When TB first saw this one, he thought of one team that rose above all others when it comes to improbability. As for an individual? There were a lot of them, but he settled on one.

Unlike yesterday, TB will cut right to the chase with these two.

He'll start with the team. It's the men's basketball team from 2000-01.

The 1999-2000 Tigers included head coach Bill Carmody and top assistant Joe Scott, both of whom left after that season. Scott became the Air Force head coach in the spring, and Carmody left in early September to take over at Northwestern.

With very little time between then and when practice began, John Thompson III became the Princeton head coach. He had previously been the second assistant coach.

This was Thompson's head coaching debut, and the team he was coaching was also hit hard by circumstance.

The biggest circumstance actually happened 21 years earlier, when Chris Young was born in late May instead of after June 1. Because of that technicality, Young was eligible for the Major League Baseball draft in 2000, after his sophomore year, and by Ivy League rules he could not longer play basketball once he was a professional in baseball.

As a result, Princeton no longer had the man who was going to be as dominant a center as there would be in college basketball that year. 

Then there was Spencer Gloger, who transferred from Princeton to UCLA. In all pretty much the entire projected starting lineup was gone for one reason or another.

Out of this uncertainty grew a team that won an Ivy League championship and reached the NCAA tournament. It did so as Thompson learned on the fly as a head coach, growing quickly into someone who was a genius at managing games and building a team culture.

And the team itself was still led by its center, Nate Walton. In addition to being one of the five best passers TB has seen play at Princeton and a reliable scorer as well, Walton had a personality that galvanized his team. His leadership that year was as good as any TB has seen from a Princeton athlete.

Walton was joined by a solid cast - including Kyle Wente, Andre Logan, Ed Persia, Ahmed El-Nokali, C.J. Chapman and Mike Bechtold - that played extremely well together. The Tigers, with their coach's philosophy of "be in first place at the end of each weekend," went 11-3 in the league but won the championship by two games over Penn and Brown.

Walton should have been the Ivy Player of the Year that year, by the way.

As for the individual, there are a lot of them, but TigerBlog will go with the performance of men's lacrosse player Seamus Grooms in the 1998 NCAA semifinals against Syracuse.

Princeton had won the 1996 and 1997 NCAA titles. The focal point of those two titles, and the run at the third, was the attack trio of Jesse Hubbard, Jon Hess and Chris Massey, who'd finish their careers with 618 points in 60 games and 121 points in 11 NCAA tournament games.

Their legacy is as the greatest attack unit in college lacrosse history (depending who is making the statement but in the top three no matter who is), but that wouldn't have been the case had the Tigers not won again in 1998.

Princeton trailed Duke 8-4 in the third quarter of the quarterfinals and then came back to win 11-9. Then, in the semifinals against Syracuse, it was another 8-4 deficit in the third quarter, and this time Princeton rallied for an 11-10 victory. The final would be a 15-5 romp over Maryland.

And who was the hero of the semifinal comeback? It was none other than Seamus Grooms, who was the fourth roommate of Hess, Hubbard and Massey.

Grooms scored two fourth quarter goals in that Syracuse game, and without him, there would have been no win that day, which would have meant no third straight title, which would have meant not quite the same legacy.

Grooms finished his career with 19 goals. He chose the right moment to score twice.

Question No. 1.2.0

It's been nearly a month since TigerBlog got this comment left here:

TB, four years ago, I left a comment suggesting a few topics for your summer columns. (Left comment on 6/12/15; your last response on 8/28/15.) You predictably knocked those pitches out of the park, so here are some more ideas that you might consider to be in your strike zone.
Greatest games or events you've witnessed, considering their historical context (last time, you answered exclusive of historical context)
Most improbable team or individual achievements (other than comebacks, which we covered)
Saddest or most bitter you've been due to Princeton sports
Most nervous moments you've had, in-game or otherwise
Most extreme emotions other than happy, sad or nervous (For instance, I think that arguably your best column ever was describing what went through your mind when you inputted the official scorer's entry for your daughter's ground ball. As another example, when I attended Princeton Stadium's 1998 inaugural game against Cornell, the pre-game festivities included football alumni marching onto the field beneath their class banners. Watching the history unfold in front of me, I started to tear up. My girlfriend at the time, a gritty street-smart New Yorker, saw me getting choked up and looked at me quizzically. I felt the need to explain myself and quietly said, "This makes me feel part of something bigger than myself." Within a month, we broke up. I think she literally thought to herself, "Any man who would come close to crying at a football game is not a good long-term match for me.") 

He's waited until this week to answer them. There are five questions, and he'll respond to one per day for the next five days.

When he answered these questions four years ago, he used the titles of "Question No. 1" and so on. Does that make these Question 1.2.0 and so on?

Anyway, TB will get started.

Question No. 1.2.0 is: Greatest games or events you've witnessed, considering their historical context (last time, you answered exclusive of historical context)
Obviously all of these answers center around Princeton sports. For instance, he covered the famous Duke-Kentucky game at the Spectrum while he was still in the newspapers business, and that was probably the greatest game he ever saw (and a lot of other people ever saw) with significant historical context mixed in.

Also, it only counts if TB was there or watched it live on videostream or TV (this lets out the 1989 Princeton-Georgetown men's basketball game, among others).

So, what's the answer? Hmmm.

The greatest game TigerBlog has seen with historical context mixed in? He'll start with a few honorable mention selections (in no order), and while he does, he's guessing that you already know what the No. 1 answer will be.

* Princeton 14, Dartmouth 9 (football, 2018) - This was an epic football game that started out with back-to-back long touchdown drives to make it 7-7 in the first quarter and then became the tensest Ivy League football game TB has seen as Princeton trailed 9-7 for much of the game before pulling it out in the fourth quarter. The drama was even greater given the stakes: both teams were 7-0 coming in and neither would lose to anyone else all season.

* Princeton 72, Penn 64 (men's basketball, Ivy League tournament semifinal, 2017) - Princeton went 14-0 in the league in 2017, but that was the first year of the league tournament, which meant that Princeton needed to win two more games to get to the NCAA tournament. Playing on the home court of fourth-seeded Penn, Princeton trailed for pretty much the entire game before Myles Stephens tied the game with an offensive rebound and put back with five seconds left in regulation. It was all Tigers in the OT. Princeton then defeated Yale in the final to be the first team - and so far only - to go 16-0.

* Princeton 8, Virginia 7 (women's lacrosse, NCAA final, 2003) - Theresa Sherry's overtime goal gave Princeton a second-straight national championship. What TB - who did the radio from the Carrier Dome that day - remembers most is the caused turnover by Alex Fiore that led to Whitney Miller's tying goal with a little more than a minute left in regulation.

* Princeton 63, Penn 56 (men's basketball, Ivy League playoff, 1996) - Princeton had lost eight straight to Penn, including a 63-49 loss four days earlier to force the playoff. Princeton led most of the way this time, only to have Penn tie it late in regulation. Sydney Johnson hit a huge three-pointer with less than a minute to go in the OT, and Princeton sprinted away for the win and NCAA tournament bid. That was also the night Pete Carril announced he was retiring.

* Princeton 3, Washington 1 (women's soccer, NCAA quarterfinals, 2004) - The game drew 2,500 fans to old Lourie-Love Field and advanced Princeton to the NCAA Final Four, marking the only time an Ivy League team has done so. Princeton scored twice in the second half to snap a 1-1 tie in what was a dominant performance in a huge moment.

* Princeton 4, Colgate 3 (men's hockey, ECAC opening round series, Game 2, 2017) - You can't really have much more drama to a sporting event than you had in this one. Princeton, down a game in the series and facing elimination, tied the game on an Eric Robinson goal with one second left in the regulation and then won it on Max Veronneau's OT goal to even the series. Princeton then won it the next night to advance to the quarterfinals.

* Princeton 2, Clarkson 1 (men's hockey, ECAC championship game, 2018) - This one came really close to matching the drama of the game a year earlier against Colgate and had a big edge in historical significance. This time, it was Princeton who gave up the late goal as Clarkson scored with 6.4 seconds left to force OT, but it was Princeton's Max Becker who scored 2:37 into overtime to give Princeton the championship.

* Princeton 50, Penn 49 (men's basketball, 1999) - This is the famous comeback game, the one in which Princeton trailed 29-3, 33-7 and 40-15 at the under-16 media timeout before rallying for the win. It loses points because Penn came back to win the Ivy League championship that season, but the nature of the comeback was historic all by itself.

* Princeton 5, Harvard 2 (baseball, Ivy League Championship Series Game 3, 2003) - Princeton won the game to take the series and advance to the NCAA tournament. TB's biggest memory is just how in control Tiger pitcher Thomas Pauly was the entire time, as he threw a complete game four-hitter 

* Princeton 10, Syracuse 9 (men's lacrosse, NCAA championship game, 2001) - Princeton has won six NCAA men's lacrosse titles, and four of them came in overtime, so really any of them would work. For TB, though, the 2001 game was the most emotional, partly because of the way Syracuse had manhandled Princeton in the 2000 regular season, 2000 championship game and 2001 regular season, partly because of the way Princeton had the lead the whole game before Syracuse tied it with 16 seconds left forcing the Tigers to win in OT despite having no momentum at that point and mostly because it's the championship Bill Tierney won with both of his sons, Trevor and Brendan.

* Princeton 80, Green Bay 70 (women's basketball, NCAA tournament, 2015) - Princeton had five players - Michelle Miller, Annie Tarakchian, Alex Wheatley, Blake Dietrick, Vanessa Smith) score in double figures for the only NCAA tournament win in program history to date.

And the winner is? Well, TB can answer that in one word. The winner is ... obvious.

* Princeton 43, UCLA 41 (men's basketball, NCAA tournament opening round, 1996) - What else could it be other than that magical night in Indianapolis? Princeton upset the defending NCAA champion on Gabe Lewullis' layup with 3.9 seconds left. It was an NCAA tournament win for the Tigers, and it was the 514th and final win at Princeton for Pete Carril. 

Second Cousin, One Hip Removed

TigerBlog has never understood the whole first-cousin, second-cousin thing, not to mention the whole "once-removed" piece.

He has a cousin Linda, who is his mother's first cousin. Linda's mother and MotherBlog's mother were sisters.

As an aside, neither Linda's mother (Ruthie) nor MB's mother (Judy) stood more than five-feet tall.

Anyway, what does that make Linda to TigerBlog? Second cousins? And where does that leave Nicole and Jill, Linda's two daughters? Third cousins? Second cousins once removed?

Linda recently had hip replacement surgery. She's struggling a bit but making progress.

It took her awhile until she shared with TB one piece of news about the surgery. As it turns out, her surgeon ran track at Princeton.

The doctor's name is Peter Sculco, Class of 2004. He was a middle distance runner here.

Small world, no?

So that's his cousin Linda. TB believes she's his second cousin, one hip removed. By a Princeton guy.

It's a summer Friday again. It's also August 2nd.

This means, of course, that opening day for Princeton athletics for the 2019-20 academic year is not that far away.

In fact, it's just four weeks from today, Aug. 30. It'll be the women's soccer team at St. Joe's.

If you care about such things, this will be TB's 31st year covering Princeton athletics. That's a long time.

It dawned on him the other day that in all the time he's been here, he's never once applied for another job. Maybe it's because about 75 percent of his wardrobe says "Princeton" on it somewhere?

The summer is certainly flying along. Think about it. Opening day for the women's basketball season is three months from Monday.

Princeton, who has won two straight Ivy titles and seven in the last 10 years, starts the 2019-20 season at home against Rider on Nov. 5.

The first thing TB did when he saw the story about the women's basketball schedule was to see if the Tigers play more than one game in January this year. If you remember, Princeton played once in January last season, losing to Penn, and then had to wait four weeks to play again, by which time it was February.

Of course, it worked out pretty well for the Tigers, who went on to beat Penn in the second regular season matchup, tie the Quakers for the league championship and then beat them in the Ivy tournament championship game to reach the NCAA tournament.

The answer to the question about January is that Princeton will be doubling its total number of games in the month, from one last year to two this year. That's because Jan. 31 falls on a Friday.

It'll be Princeton at Penn on Jan. 11 and then at Dartmouth 20 days later. It's actually one fewer week off than last year.

This year, of course, will be Year 1 for head coach Carla Berube, who had such overwhelming success at Tufts before coming here. It'll also be Year 4 for Bella Alarie, and, well, you just don't want to miss out on anything when she plays.

Alarie will be chasing the school record for career points as she heads down the path of her senior year. If she matches last year's total of 525 (which she did despite missing nine games to start the year due to an injury), she'll finish with 1,826; the current record is 1,683, and this will be the 30th anniversary of when it was set, by Sandi Bittler Leland.

Among the non-league highlights for the women's team will be two trips to the Midwest, including games at Iowa State and Iowa that will be a homecoming for junior guard and 2019 first-team All-Ivy League selection Carlie Littlefield, who comes from Waukee, Iowa.

Littlefield's hometown is about an hour from Ames (Iowa State) and a little more than two hours from Iowa City (Iowa).

The other Midwest trip is to Missouri, who won a game in the NCAA tournament last season, and St. Louis. That's in mid-December.

In all there are eight teams on the schedule from the postseason last year. It's a pretty good mix of games, and there are 13 games in Jadwin Gym. You can see the whole thing HERE.

In the meantime, enjoy your summer weekend.

There aren't that many of them left.

Take A Bow Sam

With all due respect to Fifth Avenue, the two most famous streets in New York City are Broadway and Wall Street.

Princeton lacrosse, of course, has been well-represented on Wall Street for decades. Now it's represented on Broadway as well.

Sam Gravitte, Class of 2017, recently made his Broadway debut in "Wicked," the long-running musical about the witches from the "Wizard of Oz."

Think about that. A little more than two years out of school and he's already on Broadway.

TigerBlog has spent a lot of his 30-plus years at Princeton marveling at where these people come from, to be able to balance the academics of Princeton with the way they excel athletically and beyond. Sam Gravitte is way up near the top of that list.

For starters, Sam is an incredible athlete. He was a major contributor all four years at Princeton on defense, playing with a longstick or a shortstick at various times.

He brought exceptional speed and fitness to the field. He was physical. He was tremendous in transition. He could even face off.

He scored three goals and had an assist, as well as 28 caused turnovers and 100 ground balls. He was the kind of player good teams need to have.

Combine that with a very accomplished academic career, and that alone would have been impressive enough.

Then throw in the other side of him.

Gravitte was a theater kid from the start, the son of theater parents. By the time he was in high school he was already taking on some of the most challenging roles there were, like Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables."

At Princeton he performed at McCarter Theater, including as the male lead in "Once" his senior year. As a sophomore, he played in a 16-15 overtime win over Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and then raced back to Princeton in time for the curtain to go up in another show, "Spring Awakenings," at McCarter.

There's a jump from that to Broadway, obviously.

After graduation, Sam spent a year in the national touring company of "Wicked." Then, after leaving the tour in April, he was cast in the ensemble and as the understudy for Fiyero, the male lead, the Broadway version.

TB talked to Sam yesterday and asked him a bunch of questions for a feature story that you can see on goprincetontigers.com or by clicking HERE. He wanted to know all different kinds of things, especially if there are similarities between playing lacrosse and being in a musical in terms of coaching, preparation, anything. It made for a fun conversation.

Meanwhile, when Princeton head men's lacrosse coach Matt Madalon told TigerBlog that Sam would be performing as Fiyero for a few shows, TB didn't hesitate to say he was in.

TB has seen a ton of shows in his life and knows the songs from a lot of them, but he had never seen "Wicked" and knew only one song from it: "For Good." Plus, Sam would be in it.

TB, Madalon and Miss TigerBlog ’22 made their way into New York last Saturday for the matinee, in which Sam would be playing Fiyero. They were outside the Gershwin Theater about 50 minutes before curtain, along with several hundred others who were waiting to get in, when Sam came strolling down West 51st Street on his way in.

In one way it was a little like watching players walk down to Caldwell Field House before getting into their uniforms before a game. In another it was completely different, the lead of a Broadway show casually making his way to the stage door, as the crowd that was gathering had no idea who he was.

For the moment anyway.

It wouldn't be Princeton lacrosse, though, if the program didn't share this moment with one of their own. In addition to men's head coach Madalon and women's player MTB, Princeton lacrosse was well-represented in the theater Saturday.

There were three current players who had played with Sam - Jon Levine, Arman Medghalchi (and his parents) and Zack Struckman. Former women's player Erin McNulty was there.

In fact, it's been like this all summer, a flock of Princeton lacrosse to see "Wicked." It's what the lacrosse teams do.

Since TB had never seen "Wicked," he didn't know when Fiyero would be making his first appearance, or, for that matter, what the story even was, beyond some reference to the witches from Oz. Because of the costumes and makeup for the opening song, TB couldn't figure out if any of them were Sam.

It become clear a few minutes later that they weren't. Sam's first scene came when he arrives at a college in Oz as the lazy rich party guy, on the back of a cart, and begins to sing "Dancing Through Life."

From then through the end, including his dramatic duet with Elphaba, who is the Wicked Witch of the West, as they sing "As Long As You're Mine," Sam was incredible. His talent and presence are obvious, and he just looked so at home on the stage.

And when the show ended, it was time for the curtain calls. It was an enthusiastic crowd from the start, and as each group of performers came out, the ovation got a little louder.

As Fiyero, Sam came out second to last, just before the two main witches, who came out together. As Sam went to the center of the stage, the noise level amped up even higher.

It was well-deserved.

"It's pretty cool that I get to do this thing I love and then people stand up and clap for me at the end of my work day," he says. "That is not lost on me."

He said it in a very humble way. That's how he is.

He should also get used to it.

That's how talented he is.