Rooting Interest

Okay, there are three guys who put TigerBlog into a difficult spot Saturday night. 

Andrew McMeekin. Coulter Mackesy. Ryan Croddick. All three are Princeton men's lacrosse alums. All three are in the Premier Lacrosse League. 

McMeekin and Mackesy play for the Boston Cannons, who hosted the traveling PLL show this past weekend at Harvard Stadium. Croddick plays for the California Redwoods. 

As far as the PLL goes, TB's rooting interest is in the Princeton players, at least one of whom can be found on each of the eight teams in the league. Perhaps TB can ask Dan Arestia, a lacrosse writer who seems to have answers to questions like this one, how many other colleges can make the same claim. 

In fact, TB texted Dan that very question. As it turns out, Princeton is the only team with at least one player on every PLL team. UVa, Maryland and Duke have players on seven of eight. 

Thanks Dan. He is the authority. 

Meanwhile, back at the difficult spot from Saturday night, TigerBlog was faced with the dilemma of watching Croddick try to stop shots from Mackesy and McMeekin. What's someone like TB supposed to do with that? 

When McMeekin wins a face-off forward, which he often does, the excitement of the play builds to see if he's going to shoot or not. There have been very few face-off specialists who can shoot it like McMeekin, by the way. That's ever, anywhere. 

But wait. He's shooting on Croddick. The two are pretty much best buddies. They were teammates on Princeton's NCAA championship team this past spring. 

And then there's Mackesy. TB has wanted every shot Mackesy has ever taken to go in the goal — and more of Mackesy's have done just that than those of any player in Princeton men's lacrosse history (167 of them, to be exact). But again. There's Croddick in goal. 

That's unfair. 

As it turned out, Boston won the game Saturday 12-9. Croddick came off the Redwoods bench to make eight saves while allowing five goals (one a two-pointer), and one of the goals he allowed was from Mackesy, who had two goals and one assist for the game. 

The big story, quite possibly for the whole league this summer, has been the explosion of McMeekin on the pro game. The rookie who rewrote the face-off and groundballs sections of the Princeton record book has been dominant in the PLL, taking on some of the greatest face-off men ever to play the game and still leading the league in winning percentage (62.5 percent) and having more points (2G, 7A) than any other PLL face-off man this year. 

This past weekend was maybe Meeks' best effort. In two games, both Cannons wins, his numbers were 32 for 51, with 20 groundballs, a goal and two assists. 

The game Friday night was a 14-12 overtime win over the Whipsnakes. How'd they win by two in OT? The Whipsnakes got a stop but committed an interference infraction, giving the ball back to Boston. Rather than waiting for anyone to get set on either team, the Cannon's Marcus Holman simply drilled one into the vacated net. Game over. 

Ah, but how did it get to overtime? Well, the answer is a little good fortune and a lot of Andrew McMeekin. The good fortune came when, with the score 11-10 Whipsnakes and a flag down against Boston, Maryland scored a goal just as the shot clock was going to expire, making it 12-10. Had Maryland not shot it there, then it still would be a one-goal game, but with slightly over a minute to play and a 60-second man advantage. The chances of running out the clock were pretty strong at that point. 

Instead, the Whipsnakes took the goal, which actually was probably the only way Boston could win. McMeekin then won the face-off. Goal Boston. Another face-off win. Another Boston goal. OT. And then one more McMeekin face-off win.  

McMeekin's two main opponents this weekend were Petey LaSalla and TD Ierlan. If you don't have the NCAA men's lacrosse record book as one of your bookmarks, then TB will tell you that that LaSalla ranks fourth and Ierlan ranks first all-time in Division I history in face-offs won. 

McMeekin is third in the PLL in groundballs with 79, behind only Mike Sisselberger and Ierlan. Because of Princeton's long run to the NCAA title, McMeekin has played in only nine games this season, as opposed to the 12 for Sisselberger and the 11 for Ierlan. McMeekin, by the way, was 15 for 21 against Sisselberger in their head-to-head matchup, an 11-7 Cannons win over the Archers. 

For some reason, McMeekin has managed to be a bit underrated his whole career, as TB has written before. His list of individual honors doesn't match up to his impact on Princeton's success during his time as a Tiger, which includes four NCAA tournaments, three Ivy tournament championships, five NCAA tournaments wins, one Ivy League title and of course the championship. 

In all that time, McMeekin has never been first-team All-Anything. His biggest accolade was being named the Most Outstanding Player at the 2024 Ivy League tournament, an honor that came down to TB to select. 

Will he be rewarded for the impact he's had on the Cannons and the rest of the league? Boston was 1-2 in the three games McMeekin didn't play to start the season. The team is 6-3 with him in the lineup and clinched its playoff spot this weekend. 

Will he be the PLL Rookie of the Year? His three biggest challengers are all offensive players, including Princeton's Chad Palumbo (another best friend of the Croddick-McMeekin group), as well as Syracuse alum Joey Spallina and Utah alum Ryan Stines. 

Palumbo leads all rookies with 20 goals, along with six assists (that's one fewer than McMeekin by the way). Spallina leads in rookie points with 34. Stines is second in rookie goals, assists and points (18-12-30). 

Will McMeekin be PLL Rookie of the Year? He should be. No question. 

Physical Fitness

TigerBlog had his annual physical early yesterday morning. 

When he schedules doctor's appointments, he likes to take the first one of the day, so the doctor can't be backed up by then. That was the case yesterday as well. 

When the nurse was running through his chart, she asked all the usual questions. Then she asked him this: "Do you drink?" To that, TB responded: "It's a little early, no?"

She laughed. 

As for the doctor, she saw TB's "Princeton Lacrosse" t-shirt and asked what his connection was. As TB explained, she pointed out that she did her undergraduate and medical training at Virginia, site of Princeton's NCAA championship this past spring. 

Dr. Cavalier said that UVa had won the NCAA title when she'd been there, TB started doing the math in his head. These days, all doctors look like they're about 20 years old or so to TigerBlog, so he figured she was way too young for the 2006 championship. 

When he said "2011?," she said that was before her time. That left 2019 and 2021, which means that she's probably not even 30 yet. Oh well. She seems like she knows what she's doing. 

What's the point? Make sure you get your physical and go to the dermatologist. TB needs all the readers he can get. 

*

As TigerBlog mentioned yesterday, the women's basketball team released its schedule for the coming season. The Tigers return four starters (Skye Belker, Ashley Chea, Olivia Hutcherson and Fadima Tall) and have a new head coach (Lauren Gosselin). 

There was a time that doesn't seem that long ago (though it was probably before TB's doctor was born) when the college basketball season didn't start until December. By the time Dec. 1 rolls around, Princeton will have played nine games already. There will be five in December, by contrast.

Among the highlights — well, the highlight — of the non-conference schedule will be the Nov. 15 game at defending NCAA champion UCLA, which comes two days after Princeton plays at Pepperdine. Those games will be a homecoming for Belker, Chea and Emily Eadie. 

HERE is the complete schedule again. 

*

The women's soccer team opens its season in 13 days, at home against Loyola. The men's season won't be that far behind, with an Aug. 28 season opener at home against Villanova.  

Between the two teams, Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium will host five games in August and six games by Sept. 4, which is the Friday before Labor Day.  

The men will open the season as the No. 8 team in Division I according to the United Soccer Coaches. Princeton is coming off a great season, one that saw the Tigers go 7-0-0 in the Ivy League without allowing a goal and earn the No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament.   

*

Back at lacrosse, the Premier Lacrosse League has two weekends left in its regular season, with games this weekend in Boston and next weekend in Philadelphia. The playoffs begin Aug. 29 in Minneapolis and then continue in Utah Sept. 7 before the championship game Sept. 20 at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison. 

Princeton alums are all over the top of the PLL leaderboards this season, where not shockingly the two leading scorers in Tiger history are in the top four in points. Michael Sowers, whose 302 points are the most by any Princeton player ever, leads the PLL with 41 points (21G, 20A); his assists also lead the league, and he has a seven-point lead on second-place C.J. Kirst, his Waterdogs teammate. 

Coulter Mackesy, second all-time at Princeton with 248 points, is tied for third with 33 points, with 17 goals (including three two-pointers) and 13 assists. Andrew McMeekin, Mackesy's Boston Cannons teammate, leads the PLL in face-off winning percentage at 64.2 percent. 

McMeekin has vaulted himself into the thick of the Rookie of the Year race, along with another NCAA champ Tiger, Chad Palumbo (18G, one two-pointer, five assists), Syracuse alum Joey Spallina (32 points) and Utah alum Ryan Stines (28 points).

Mackesy and McMeekin play twice this weekend, tonight at 6 against the Whipsnakes (Joe Juengerkes) and tomorrow at 8 against the Redwoods (Sam English, Ryan Croddick). The second game tonight has the Archers (Ryan Ambler, Beau Pederson) and the Chaos (Palumbo) at 8:30, while tomorrow's schedule also includes the Outlaws (John Dunphey) against the Atlas (Jake Stevens) at 1. 

The Waterdogs (Sowers, Zach Currier) are off this weekend. 

*

Speaking of Andrew McMeekin, he will make his U.S. national team debut at the Pan American Men's Lacrosse Championship in Kingston (the one in Jamaica, not the one that's the next town from Princeton). The tournament will be held Aug. 16-23.

The tournament will be a qualifier for next year's World Championships in Japan. This is full field lacrosse, not the Sixes game that will be played at the 2028 Olympics. 

There are nine teams who will compete in Jamaica, and the top five will qualify for Japan. The U.S. team has a 100 percent chance of being in that top five, as does Canada.  

*

Have a great weekend. And schedule your doctor appointments, preferably the first ones in the morning.  

And The Questions Are ...

And now there are two weeks until the first Princeton Athletic event of the 2026-27 academic year. 

Is that correct? Two weeks? Today is Aug. 6. The first event is women's soccer against Loyola on Aug. 20. Yup. The math checks out.

The first group of Tigers are back on campus. This group will be followed quickly by the rest of the fall teams. 

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Among yesterday's news was the announcement of the Princeton women's basketball schedule for the coming season, which begins Nov. 2. Is that really fewer than three months away? Again, the math checks out. 

Princeton will open its season at home against Belmont in what will be the first game as Tiger head coach Lauren Gosselin. The entire schedule is HERE; TigerBlog will have more about this tomorrow.  

Meanwhile, TigerBlog thanks everyone who seemed to enjoy Princeton Athletics Jeopardy yesterday. TB can tell you that it took him way longer to compile the clues than it would have to write a regular entry. 

He actually had a handful of other categories in mind before settling on the ones he used. Also, like his attempts at Princeton Athletics Connections, it's hard to find the sweet spot between too easy and impossible.

Anyway, he's definitely going to try this again. Hey, there needs to be a Double Jeopardy round and then a Final Jeopardy clue as well.  

As promised, here are the answers questions:

GARY WALTERS

$200 - Gary Walters was the starting point guard on Princeton's NCAA Final Four men's basketball team is this year. 

What is 1965? 

$400 - Gary was the head men's basketball coach at three different colleges — Union, Providence and this Ivy League school. 

What is Dartmouth?

$600 - Gary spent 20 years as the Director of Athletics at Princeton for the second-longest tenure in the position behind only this man.

Who is Ken Fairman? 

$800 - Gary appeared on the Feb. 27, 1967, cover of Sports Illustrated along with this Princeton teammate.

Who is Chris Thomforde? 

$1,000 - A graduate of Reading High School, Gary had this man as his high school government teacher.

Who is Pete Carril?

NUMBERS

$200 - He wore No. 66 for the 2026 NCAA men's lacrosse championship team. That was 66 higher than his father wore as a two-time Ivy men's basketball Player of the Year. 

Who is Cooper Mueller?

$400 - Sarah Lessig is No. 4 on the softball team and No. 8 for this other Princeton team.

What is basketball? 

$600 - Princeton has retired this number, worn by Bill Bradley and Dick Kazmaier, across all of its sports. 

What is No. 42? 

$800 - The leading scorers on both the Princeton women's and men's basketball teams in 2025-26 wore uniforms that ended with this number.

What is 3 (Madison St. Rose wore 23; Jackson Hicke wore 33)? 

$1,000 - She wore No. 15 for the 2012 NCAA field hockey championship team. 

Who is Kat Sharkey? 

FICTIONAL TIGERS

$200 - Fred Flintstone was the star quarterback at this school for the big game against "Shale."

What is Prince-Stone? 

$400 - The World War II movie "The Caine Mutiny" featured a character named Willie Keith, who played this sport at Princeton.  

What is football?  

$600 - Former Princeton football player Joe Cable was a Lt. in the United States Navy in World War II in this musical.

What is South Pacific? 

$800 - Sam Wainwright, the lead character in the novel "With You," was a classmate of this current Princeton head coach. 

Who is Bob Surace? 

$1,000 - F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Allenby" was based on Princeton's Hobey Baker in this novel. 

What is This Side of Paradise? 

BROKEN RECORDS

$200 - Keith Elias is Princeton's career rushing leader with 4,208 yards, or 1,099 more than this player, who previously held the record. 

Who is Judd Garrett? 

$400 - Kathy Issel set the Princeton women's hockey record for points in a career with 218 before graduating in 1995. The previous record was 216, set by this player four years earlier. 

Who is Mollie Marcoux Samaan? 

$600 - Bella Alarie holds the Princeton record for career points in women's basketball with 1,703. The record she broke stood for 30 years and was held by this player. 

Who is Sandi Bittler? 

$800 - Tyler Lussi's 53 goals are the record for Princeton soccer, men or women, and six better than this player whose record she broke. 

Who is Esmeralda Negron? 

$1,000 - Crista Samaras held the women's lacrosse team's record for career goals from 1999 until 2017. Since then, her record has been broken three times, by Olivia Hompe, Kyla Sears and this current holder of the record. 

Who is McKenzie Blake? 

WORKING OT

$200 - His three-pointer with less than a minute to go in overtime gave Princeton the lead for good in the 1996 Ivy League playoff game at Lehigh. 

Who is Sydney Johnson?  

$400 - She is the most recent Princeton field hockey player to score an OT goal, which she did against Rutgers last season. 

Who is Ella Cashman? 

$600 - Princeton has had five players score an overtime goal in the championship game of an NCAA lacrosse tournament — four men and this woman.  

Who is Theresa Sherry (the four men were Andy Moe, Kevin Lowe, Jesse Hubbard and B.J. Prager)? 

$800 - Running back Rob Toresco pitched the ball to quarterback Jeff Terrell on a fourth-and-1 in overtime in Princeton's 31-30 win over this opponent en route to the 2006 Ivy League title. 

Who is Penn? 

$1,000 - Princeton has won two ECAC men's hockey championship games in overtime, with goals from Syl Apps in 1998 and this player in 2018. Hint — this was a max effort goal.  

Who is Max Becker? 

TODAY I AM A DOCTOR

$200 - Deciding to see this Princeton men's basketball alum turned surgeon should be a layup — he made the most famous one in Tiger history. 

Who is Gabe Lewullis? 

$400 - Nicole Harrison is an eye surgeon and still the holder of the Princeton women's track and field record in this event. 

What is the 110-meter hurdles? 

$600 - He graduated as Princeton's career leader in men's lacrosse goals; now he is a renowned surgeon at Johns Hopkins — and seventh all-time in goals scored with the men's lacrosse team.

Who is Justin Tortolani? 

$800 - Orthopedic surgeon Ilvy Friebe was a two-time first-team All-American in this sport. 

What is field hockey? 

$1,000 - This orthodontist has an official bio that reads: As a graduating senior at Princeton University, he received the Pyne Prize, Princeton's highest academic and leadership honor. He was an All-American placekicker, the Burger King Division 1-AA Scholar Athlete of the Year and the recipient of a National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame post-graduate scholarship.

Who is Alex Sierk? 

This Is Princeton Athletics Jeopardy

As TigerBlog mentioned yesterday, he watched Princeton Football alum Kyle Brandt on ESPN's "Jeopardy" show the other day. 

He also said that he might try putting out his own "Princeton Athletics Jeopardy" quiz one of these days. Well, today is "one of these days." TB offers you the "Jeopardy" round. If this goes over well, he'll do a "Double Jeopardy" round on another day. 

Good luck and have fun. TigerBlog will give you the answers questions tomorrow. 

The categories are: Gary Walters, Numbers, Fictional Tigers, Broken Records, Working OT and Now I Am A Doctor.

GARY WALTERS

$200 - Gary Walters was the starting point guard on Princeton's NCAA Final Four men's basketball team is this year. 

$400 - Gary was the head men's basketball coach at three different colleges — Union, Providence and this Ivy League school. 

$600 - Gary spent 20 years as the Director of Athletics at Princeton for the second-longest tenure in the position behind only this man.

$800 - Gary appeared on the Feb. 27, 1967, cover of Sports Illustrated along with this Princeton teammate.

$1,000 - A graduate of Reading High School, Gary had this man as his high school government teacher.

NUMBERS

$200 - He wore No. 66 for the 2026 NCAA men's lacrosse championship team. That was 66 higher than his father wore as a two-time Ivy men's basketball Player of the Year. 

$400 - Sarah Lessig is No. 4 on the softball team and No. 8 for this other Princeton team.

$600 - Princeton has retired this number, worn by Bill Bradley and Dick Kazmaier, across all of its sports. 

$800 - The leading scorers on both the Princeton women's and men's basketball teams in 2025-26 wore uniforms that ended with this number.

$1,000 - She wore No. 15 for the 2012 NCAA field hockey championship team. 

FICTIONAL TIGERS

$200 - Fred Flintstone was the star quarterback at this school for the big game against "Shale."

$400 - The World War II movie "The Caine Mutiny" featured a character named Willie Keith, who played this sport at Princeton.  

$600 - Former Princeton football player Joe Cable was a Lt. in the United States Navy in World War II in this musical.

$800 - Sam Wainwright, the lead character in the novel "With You," was a classmate of this current Princeton head coach. 

$1,000 - F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Allenby" was based on Princeton's Hobey Baker in this novel. 

BROKEN RECORDS

$200 - Keith Elias is Princeton's career rushing leader with 4,208 yards, or 1,099 more than this player, who previously held the record. 

$400 - Kathy Issel set the Princeton women's hockey record for points in a career with 218 before graduating in 1995. The previous record was 216, set by this player four years earlier. 

$600 - Bella Alarie holds the Princeton record for career points in women's basketball with 1,703. The record she broke stood for 30 years and was held by this player. 

$800 - Tyler Lussi's 53 goals are the record for Princeton soccer, men or women, and six better than this player whose record she broke. 

$1,000 - Crista Samaras held the women's lacrosse team's record for career goals from 1999 until 2017. Since then, her record has been broken three times, by Olivia Hompe, Kyla Sears and this current holder of the record. 

WORKING OT

$200 - His three-pointer with less than a minute to go in overtime gave Princeton the lead for good in the 1996 Ivy League playoff game at Lehigh. 

$400 - She is the most recent Princeton field hockey player to score an OT goal, which she did against Rutgers last season. 

$600 - Princeton has had five players score an overtime goal in the championship game of an NCAA lacrosse tournament — four men and this woman.  

$800 - Running back Rob Toresco pitched the ball to quarterback Jeff Terrell on a fourth-and-1 in overtime in Princeton's 31-30 win over this opponent en route to the 2006 Ivy League title. 

$1,000 - Princeton has won two ECAC men's hockey championship games in overtime, with goals from Syl Apps in 1998 and this player in 2018. Hint — this was a max effort goal.  

TODAY I AM A DOCTOR

$200 - Deciding to see this Princeton men's basketball alum turned surgeon should be a layup — he made the most famous one in Tiger history. 

$400 - Nicole Harrison is an eye surgeon and still the holder of the Princeton women's track and field record in this event. 

$600 - He graduated as Princeton's career leader in men's lacrosse goals; now he is a renowned surgeon at Johns Hopkins — and seventh all-time in goals scored with the men's lacrosse team.

$800 - Orthopedic surgeon Ilvy Friebe was a two-time first-team All-American in this sport. 

$1,000 - This orthodontist has an official bio that reads: As a graduating senior at Princeton University, he received the Pyne Prize, Princeton's highest academic and leadership honor. He was an All-American placekicker, the Burger King Division 1-AA Scholar Athlete of the Year and the recipient of a National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame post-graduate scholarship.

Who Is Kyle Brandt?

TigerBlog didn't realize that ESPN was doing its own version of "Jeopardy" until Mark Eckel told him. 

Who is Mark Eckel? He was a longtime Mercer County sportswriter who covered some of the biggest moments in Princeton Athletic history. 

It was Mark who was in Providence on March 17, 1989, when Princeton almost defeated Georgetown in the legendary NCAA tournament opening round game. He was at Lehigh for Princeton-Penn in the Ivy League playoff game in 1996; he was in Indianapolis five days later for Princeton's win over UCLA. 

You can throw in some men's and women's lacrosse, including Princeton's 2003 women's NCAA championship in overtime in Syracuse. And all of that was his sidelight. His main beat was the Philadelphia Eagles and the NFL in general. 

These days he's retired and living on a beach somewhere in the South, though he still follows Princeton sports from down there. It was Mark who asked TB the other day if he knew Kyle Brandt, the former Princeton football player. 

It turns out that Brandt was one of the contestants on the ESPN Jeopardy, which featured athletes, commentators (Brandt fits in this category) and a few actors mixed in. Here is what one of those answers could have been:

"He was the first person to run with the ball on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium."
"Who was Kyle Brandt?"

That's correct. 

Brandt, who appears to have the same outgoing, fun personality he had as a Tiger, was TB's only reason for watching the series. Like most with "celebrities," it can become a little silly, with all the forced humor — and there was certainly enough of that from what TB saw. Still, it'll hold your interest, and you can root for Brandt. 

TB won't tell you how he did, but he will say that Brandt has an interesting approach to a Daily Double. He also mentioned his rather interesting career path during the "tell us about yourself" portion, a path that includes time on a reality show and a soap opera before he got into sports media. You can find him on "Good Morning Football" on the NFL Network, along with his work on various podcasts. 

Meanwhile, the Ivy League released its 2026 football media poll yesterday. Yale received 15 of 16 first place votes to finish first in the poll, followed by Harvard, Dartmouth and Penn. Princeton and Cornell tied for fifth, followed by Brown and Columbia. 

These polls don't really have a great history of predicting how the season will actually play out, but they do serve one really important function. They remind you that football season is approaching. 

The current edition of Princeton Football is a little more than six weeks away from its season opener. The Tigers will kick off their 2026 run at Bryant, before the home opener against Albany seven days later.  

If you go to the Princeton Football record section and the all-time results to do a search for "Bryant," you'll find out that 1) the teams have played only once before, in 2023, a game Bryant won 16-13 in overtime and 2) that the captain of the 1881 Princeton team was Pendleton Bryant. That 1881 team, by the way, won the national championship, the third straight on teams on which Bryant played. 

Bob Surace heads into this season with 84 career wins as Princeton head coach, which leaves him second all-time in program history. The record is 89 and has been held by Bill Roper since 1930, so that's an interesting sidelight for this season. 

Another interesting note is that Princeton will have an NCAA champion on its roster this fall, as wide receiver Jackson Green returns after catching three TD passes last year and then being an All-American shortstick defensive midfielder for the men's lacrosse team, who won it all this past spring. That's certainly interesting. 

The Tigers don't currently have a player who has started a game at quarterback, so that decision will be a big part of the preseason. In addition to Green, whoever plays the position will have Josh Robinson, last year's Ivy Rookie of the Year, as a wideout. 

There will be plenty of time to go through the lineup position by position as August rolls into September. In the meantime, the poll does what it does, which is to let you know that Princeton Football is not far off. 

Before then, you can watch Brandt on ESPN Jeopardy. Maybe TB will come back with a Princeton Athletics Jeopardy version one of these days.  

Once

It's been nearly 20 years ago when Princeton head men's soccer coach Jim Barlow asked TigerBlog if he'd seen the movie "Once."

TB doesn't remember the exact conversation, though he's pretty sure it went something like this:

TB: No.
JB: Watch it. You'll love it. 

And so TB did, and he very much did. In fact, he went to Blockbuster and rented the DVD. If that sentence confuses you, then you're way younger than TB. 

"Once" is a great movie. If you've never seen it, "Once" is like no other movie TigerBlog has ever seen. It was filmed for $112,000, without permits, using street scenes in Dublin and apartments belonging to the members of the cast and crew. What came of it was a movie that earned more than $30 million, something that doesn't count the Broadway musical adaptation. 

The movie won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The show won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical. 

Here is the scene from the movie where the song that won the Oscar was first heard:

The movie tells the story of two characters who are never named and are simply "Guy" and "Girl" on the final credits. They are struggling through difficult lives in Dublin, and their shared love is music. 

TB has now seen the movie dozens of times, he'd guess. He also saw the show on Broadway and saw it at McCarter Theater, where Princeton men's lacrosse player Sam Gravitte — then a senior — played the guy.  

The original "Guy" in the movie was Glen Hansard, an Irish singer with the Frames. Hansard played an acoustic guitar and sang with an incredible range, and he performance in the movie was just about perfect. 

The news came last week that Hansard had died in a motorcycle crash at the age of just 56, and it was more crushing, at least to TB, than the news of the average celebrity death. It took TB back to when Barlow first mentioned the movie and how certain he was that TB would like it. 

The movie was released in 2007. A year later, the Princeton men's lacrosse team did an international trip to Spain and Ireland, staying in Dublin on the back end of the trip.  

TB went back yesterday through the file of photos he still has from that trip. They were a reminder of how much TB enjoyed that whole experience, especially when he got to the photos of the magnificent beauty of the Upper Lake at Glendalough. 

On one of the afternoons in the Irish capital, TigerBlog stayed behind while the group went to tour the Guinness factory, choosing instead to walk from the hotel to the nearby Grafton Street, where much of the movie had been filmed. He remembers vividly thinking that everyone there would know every landmark and was amused to see that they didn't. 

TB had not yet started doing his daily blog back then. In fact, it was just a few months off, though he had no way to know it at the time. 

 Instead, he chronicled his experience that afternoon on Grafton Street for a story on goprincetontigers.com, which he shares below. 

First, RIP Glen Hansard. That's a loss that really hurts. Go watch "Once," if you haven't already.   

For those who don't know, "Once" is the story of an Irishman who works in his father's vacuum repair store during the day and plays his guitar and sings on the streets of Dublin at night. He meets a young woman from the Czech Republic who is also a musician, and the movie is the story of their relationship. It won an Academy Award this past year for Best Original Song for the song "Falling Slowly." The man who plays the lead is Glen Hansard, who sings with the famous Irish group The Frames.

More background on the movie includes the fact that it was filmed on the streets of Dublin, and the entire movie took 17 days to shoot. It was done with next to no money and has gone on to make a fortune. The film's maker had no permits to shoot, so all of the street scenes were done from across the street, and the people on the street at the time had no idea they were in a movie.

With that background, it was off to try to find these locations. How hard could it be? Everyone in Dublin must know where this movie was shot, right? It had to be legend by now. Right?

Wrong.

The first 10 people randomly asked had never heard of the movie, let alone knew where it was filmed. It was only after going to Google that it was learned that the street scenes were on the famous Grafton Street. So off to Grafton Street it was. To get to Grafton Street from the Jury's Inn requires a right turn out of the hotel and then a 10-minute walk down Dame Street to Trinity College. Once at Trinity, go right, and the first street sign tells you that you are now at the intersection of Grafton Street and, ironically enough, Nassau Street.

Grafton Street is a walking street, filled with shops and shoppers. Somewhere on this street, Hansard stood and sang, and much of the story of the movie revolved around that. Certainly now somebody would know where exactly all this happened.

Nope. Not the first four people asked, but at least they had the excuse of being from Toronto. Not the women who worked at the flower stand, not a guy named Adrian who worked in a gift shop, nobody. Not even the four-man singing group from the Czech Republic who performed halfway down the street and hawked their new CD. They were pretty good, too. Could it be a coincidence that they were singing somewhere around where the street musicians in the movie did?

"Yeah, never heard of it," their manager said. "It had a Czech singer in it? Cool."

The first scene of the movie includes a song by Hansard, who is standing outside of one store with his guitar case open as people throw coins in. A young man comes and swipes the case and then sprints under an archway into a park, where Hansard tackles him. The park had to be at the end of Grafton Street, so finding it was simple.

St. Stephen's Green Park was a busy place in the early afternoon. There were people everywhere, including Mark, who buys and sells cars and was born and raised in Dublin. He was sitting on the grass in the exact spot where Hansard made his tackle.

"I saw the film," Mark said. "Loved it. Don't remember that scene, though. It was right here?"

Yes, right there. With the park found, it was time to zero in on the storefront that had been the background for Hansard and the filming spot across the street that was out of sight to passersby.

Crossing back onto Grafton Street, there was Linda, a radio station personality who was doing "man on the street" interviews. Her "man" on this street was actually a 17-year-old named Maude, who became the first Dubliner who actually saw the movie and knew where it was filmed.

"Right over there," she said. "Right in front of the Dunnes store."

Yup. That was it. Dunnes was a short distance away. Inside the entryway stood John Doyle, the store security manager. Surely John knew the reason his store was, uh, famous.

"Right on this spot," John said, poking his head out of the store and pointing straight down as he faced to the right. "He stood right there and sang."

Did John know a movie was being filmed?

"No. There are always people singing out there. I think I was on holiday when they filmed."

As for that filming, there were four large windows opposite the Dunnes, any of which could have hidden a camera.

And that was that. The locations of "Once" had been found, though with very little help from the locals. They had to be kidding, right? When "IQ" or "A Beautiful Mind" were filmed in Princeton, they couldn't record a frame without having the entire town know where it was.

The Dubliners had to have known all the time. Maybe they all got together and decided to mess with the tourists, and maybe they forgot to tell 17-year-old Maude.

 

Items For A Summer Friday

A few items for your summer Friday, before the page turns into August ... 

* 

One day later than he originally said he would, TigerBlog posted his Ryan Croddick feature story yesterday. 

He invites you to read it, which you can do HERE. 

Croddick, if you don't know, was the Princeton men's lacrosse starting goalie the last two seasons, including a senior year that saw him earn first-team All-American honors and become the Most Outstanding Player at the NCAA Final Four as Princeton won the championship. In addition, Croddick has spent most of his life watching as his father John has battled ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. 

The Croddick's story is uplifting and inspirational and has a deep message that 1) is found at the very end of the 7,500 word piece and 2) should resonate with everyone. 

TB hopes you read it. And that you come away, like he did, with even greater respect and admiration for the job Croddick did in his time at Princeton. 

*

Congratulations go out to Princeton head field hockey coach Carla Tagliente, who was inducted into the  New York State Public High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame Wednesday night in Buffalo. 

Tagliente attended Marathon High School, where one of her teammates and closest friends was Hilary Matson. Is that name familiar? Matson is one of the best Princeton field hockey players of all time. 

Tagliente, of course, was a great high school and college field hockey player. Her 159 career goals scored are still the fourth-most ever by a New York public school player, and she scored 51 in one season, which still ranks eighth. 

What you might not have known about her was that she scored 1,692 career points in basketball, still second at Marathon, and she was also a first-team all-state selection in track and field (and is still the Marathon record holder in the triple jump).  

By the way, the Marathon High School graduating class with Tagliente and Matson totaled 55 students. That's total. 

Congratulations to Carla. The field hockey team opens its season Sept. 4 and 6 at the Conference Crossover at North Carolina, taking on Old Dominion in the first game and then UNC in its second (Penn will play the opposite schedule there).

Princeton went 18-4 last year and lost in overtime in the NCAA championship game to Northwestern. 

*

While the subject is "field hockey and congratulations, " there is also Martha Russo, who was a superstar in field hockey and lacrosse in the 1980s at Princeton before two devastating knee injuries ended her career. Before that, she was a member of the U.S. women's national team in field hockey and was a lock to be on the team for the 1984 Olympics. 

Her athletic career over, she then shifted her focus to art, becoming a renowned sculptor. She recently had an exhibit in Europe, and TB received an email release announcing that "Walker Fine Art artist Martha Russo has been shortlisted for the European Cultural Centre Italy's ECC Awards 2026, presented as part of Personal Structures — Confluences in Venice."

This is from the release: 

Martha Russo creates sculptural and installation-based works that exist at the threshold of language and compel the viewer to engage on a visceral level. Rooted in the process of ceramics, yet deliberately challenging its historical associations, her work transcends traditional materiality, defying gravity and spilling into space. She harnesses the chameleon-like properties of clay to explore notions of mystery, wonder, and fragility of the natural world. Her work radiates both a quiet tension and undeniable force that creates a primal connection between the viewer and the work, a connection that is felt in the body as much as it is first seen by the mind’s eye.

The winners of the awards across five categories will be announced on Nov. 22. 

*

Lastly for today, there is women's basketball/softball player Sarah Lessig, who is also a member of the United States national women's baseball team. Team USA went 5-0 the last two weeks in a qualifying tournament, earning a spot in next summer's women's baseball World Championships. 

This is from the goprincetontigers.com story, which you can read HERE: 

Lessig appeared in two games as a hitter, going 1-for-2 with a run scored and made two appearances on the mound, striking out seven in three innings. She collected a save vs. Korea and picked up the win vs. Hong Kong. 

The picture alone is ferocious. 

*

And with that, TB says "have a great weekend." He'll see you in August. 

On Sale Now

TigerBlog begins today by rescinding his shout out to himself yesterday, when he said he'd be posting his feature story on Ryan Croddick, the goalie who was the Most Outstanding Player at the Final Four as Princeton won its seventh NCAA men's lacrosse championship.

As it turned out, the story won't be posted until today. He promises. He even got a handful of notes yesterday wondering where the story was. 

TB gave you the first paragraph yesterday. Here's the second: 

The eye blinks at around the same rate. Even the complex computer that is the human brain, equipped with its billions of neurons, cannot process a moment in time so small. So how to explain the man on the other side of the table, then? Maybe it’s as simple as acknowledging that to him, traditional measures of time are irrelevant. 

That whets the appetite. The entire story runs more than 7,500 words, which makes it the single longest feature story TB has ever written, other than chapters in the women's history book. You can buy that HERE, by the way.  

In the meantime, another week has come and gone, which means that as of today, Princeton is just three weeks away from the start of the 2026-27 athletic year. How can that be, right? 

It will begin on Aug. 20, when the women's soccer team will host Loyola. That will be Game 1 of nearly 700 athletic events between that game and the NCAA track and field championships in June.

Speaking of Princeton soccer, there is the matter of the men's team. The Tigers are coming off a 15-2-2 season that saw them go 7-0-0 in the Ivy League without allowing a single goal in any of those games and earn the No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament. 

The 2026 season begins Aug. 28, at home against Villanova. That game will be followed by another home game three days later against Portland, which sounds like an interesting matchup. 

There aren't many bigger Princeton Athletic fans anywhere than men's soccer coach Jim Barlow. When his team isn't playing he can be found watching any number of other Princeton teams play. 

This is why it wasn't surprising to TigerBlog to see Barlow make a tiny cameo in a video on the ticket page. You can see the video HERE; did you find Barlow? 

The ticket page now has five separate entries to buy season tickets for the upcoming 2026-27 regular seasons. Those five are football, men's and women's basketball and men's and women's hockey; HERE is the link to the main ticket page. 

All five of those teams have their own storylines heading into their coming seasons. Maybe the biggest one will be the debut of Lauren Gosselin as the women's basketball coach, after she had been part of Carla Berube's staff for so many years. 

Princeton returns four starters from last year's team, which went 26-4 and won the Ivy League and Ivy League tournament championships. From 1985 through 2009, Princeton women's basketball won two Ivy titles. Since then, the team has won 12 more and played in 11 NCAA tournaments. 

Princeton Athletics has undergone numerous changes since TigerBlog first came around back in the late 1980s. Right up there with anything has been the growth of women's basketball and especially women's basketball attendance, which has increased several times over in the last 15 or so years. 

What's most noticeable about that growth has been the number of men and boys in attendance at the games. Princeton women's basketball has become a terrific event each night. 

The men's team has a long history of being a great draw at Jadwin Gym. Every football game on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium is a happening. 

Both the men's and women's hockey teams are coming off great seasons, the women with an ECAC regular season championship and NCAA tournament appearance and the men with a dramatic run at the ECAC tournament before finally falling in overtime in the championship game. 

Hobey Baker Rink? It's quaint and historic, and game nights there are something if you've never been to one.  

The football team opens its season Sept. 19 at Bryant before the home opener seven days later against Albany. Then there are two straight trips to New York City, for the Ivy opener at Columbia and a non-league game at Wagner. The season finishes with four home games among the final six. 

And this will all be kickoff very soon. Tickets? On sale now.  

 

 

Shouting Out

Before anything else today, TigerBlog would like to give a shout-out to the men and women who took the pothole-decimated roads around his house and turned it into what you see here. 

Fresh oil and chips for everyone. Don't get the reference? It's what the sign said when the road was recently paved. TB mentioned it last week. 

Who else is worthy of a shout-out today? 

Jami MacDonald had a goal and an assist as Canada did in fact defeat Wales very early yesterday morning at the women's lacrosse World Championships in Tokyo. The Canadians finished the round-robin portion at 3-0 and advanced to the quarterfinals, which begin began today. 

Canada was to play the host Japanese team at 7 pm local time, which, if TB is doing this correctly, would be 6 am in the Eastern United States. If so, then the game might already be finished by the time you read this. 

The winner of the Canada-Japan game will play Friday against the winner of the game between England and the Haudenosaunee. That game started at 2 am today, so unless you were either up really late or really early, that game is now over. 

The other side of the bracket has Israel and Australia and the United States against Puerto Rico. Those games are probably over by now as well. 

The finals will be Sunday. The last three championship games matched the U.S. and Canada. 

Meanwhile, TB sends a shout-out to his longtime friend and former colleague Craig Sachson, who, along with TB's current athletic communications friend and colleague Warren Croxton and another Princeton Athletics employee whose name might be familiar (head football coach Bob Surace) are ridiculously avid Philadelphia 76ers fans. 

TB texted them yesterday to ask if they were okay with having their team assemble a roster of completely unlikeable players. To that, Craig responded with: 

Not sure what you’re talking about. If you remember correctly, we’ve always loved Lebron. And Jaylen Brown. 

Well played, Craig. Surace, for his part, said he was bummed that Draymond Green resigned with Golden State or it would have been yet another member of the unlikeable club. Surace also referred to the coming rivalry with the New York Knicks (also known as the NBA champion New York Knicks) as "our dream team against Villanova."

It's an interesting phenomenon, of course. If you've always rooted against a player and suddenly he's on YOUR team, do you suddenly like that player? 

TB has always thought of that when thinking about where some of his all-time favorite Princeton athletes might have gone had they not come become Tigers.  He would have had to root against all of them, though he would never have liked them in the first place since, you know, they could have been Tigers and chose not to be. 

Next on the shout-out list would be all of the Princeton rowers who won medals at the U-23 World Championships in Duisberg, Germany. The men's four race had, obviously, 12 total medalists. Of those 12, nearly half — five — are Princetonians. Tristan Wenger and Marcus Chute made up half of the gold medal boat from Great Britain. 

You can read more about that HERE.  

The women's open team had four rowers who won medals, including Joely Cherniss and Lauren Dubois, who won gold with the United States eight boat. You can read about the women's success HERE.

Another shout out goes the way of the four women's hockey players who will be competing at the USA Women's National Festival next week: Uma Corniea, Megan Healy, Gabby Kim and Rosie Klein. As it says in THIS story: 

At the conclusion of the camp, USA Hockey will name the U.S. Collegiate Women's Select Team, which will face Canada in a three-game series Aug. 12-15 in Richmond, British Columbia.

Lastly, TB sends himself a shout out. Coming up later today (or maybe already, depending on what time he gets this posted) will be his latest feature story, this one on Ryan Croddick, the goalie on the NCAA championship men's lacrosse team this past spring and the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. 

Here's the first paragraph: 

A ball moving at 80 miles per hour will travel 10 yards in 0.256 seconds. That’s two-hundred-fifty-six-one-thousandths of a second. Two-hundred-fifty-six-one-thousandths of a second.

 

As the great writer John Irving once said, the first paragraph should tell the entire story of a novel. TB thinks this paragraph does that for his feature on Croddick. 

Tokyo Time

Sometime around last fall, TigerBlog snapped a picture of a dog who appeared to be driving a car. 

TB said something like "he seemed to be good at parallel barking." Barking. Get it? 

This is a picture TB grabbed yesterday. The dog driving this car is definitely dialed in for safety, as he is checking his sideview mirror before heading out.

Of course, he decided he needed to turn around, so he made a three-point turn. You know what they call those? K9-Turns. Darn funny, that TigerBlog is.  

Anyway, how did TB and the rest of the world survive without the ability to grab a phone and snap a picture of a dog in the sideview mirror? Seriously, TigerBlog didn't even own a camera before smart phones took over the majority of picture taking in the world these days (unless you count the many great professionals Princeton Athletics uses). Now he takes pictures of almost anything, especially dogs who appear to be driving cars. 

TB did a search for what percentage of photos take these days, and he found some pretty incredible stuff, according to the PhotiAiD report analysis, if it is to be believed (and who knows what can be believed these days, right?).

You can read it for yourself: 

In each mobile phone, users can typically store approximately 2,795 photos.

Globally, more than 92 million selfies are being clicked regularly in 2025.

In America, average people check their smartphones six times a day to take a photo.

As mentioned in passport-photo.Online, around 1.8 to 2 trillion photos are taken on mobile annually, representing 5 billion photos captured daily and 57,246 every second.

That's incredible, no? Also, what percentage of photos taken are taken on a smartphone? TB will give you until the end to guess. 

While all this is being pondered and processed, there's the matter of something going on this week on the other side of the world. Specifically, that would be the World Championships of women's lacrosse, currently underway in Tokyo. 

You can root for the United States if you like. The Americans are clearly the favorite, having won the gold medal in nine of the 11 previous events dating to Year 1 in 1982. The only team to win besides the USA? 

That would be Australia, who won in 1986 and 2005, both times in the U.S., in Haverford and Baltimore. The United States has won the last four, defeating Canada in the final of the last three. 

The Canadians are the underdog but also the sentimental choice for Princeton fans, possibly. Why? Because recent Princeton graduate Jami MacDonald is making her full national team debut for Canada. 

MacDonald did win a silver medal with the Canadian team at the U-20 World Championships two years ago in Hong Kong, falling to, you guessed it, the United States. 

By the time you read this, Canada almost surely will have improved to 3-0 at the conclusion of the round-robin portion. Canada already had easy wins over Australia and Germany to start the tournament, and its final game in pool play was against Wales began at 2 am today Eastern Time.

Should Canada win (or already have won) it would clinch first place in Group B. Next up would be the quarterfinals, which will be held tomorrow. The semifinals follow Friday, and the championship game is Sunday. 

There are also two other Princeton alums who are competing in Tokyo, both for the Philippines. Those two would be Olivia Pugh, who graduated in 2022, and Sarah Nelson, who graduated in 2025. 

The Philippines went 1-2 in Group D, finishing behind unbeaten Israel and 2-1 Japan, the host. The top two in each group advance to the quarterfinals, which leaves the Philippines in the consolation rounds to play for 9th- through 16th-places.  

MacDonald had a goal and assist in the first two games. Nelson had two goals and one assist in the three games, while Pugh plays defense and has no stats on the tournament website. 

Oh, and according to that report? How about 92.5 percent of all photos are taken on smartphones, with 7.5 percent on traditional cameras.