Garden Party

Apparently there was a wedding at Madison Square Garden recently? 

TigerBlog's invitation apparently was lost in the mail. He couldn't have gone anyway; he was busy watching a David Attenborough nature documentary. No. Seriously. He was. If you haven't watched any of them, they're great. 

Back at the wedding, the bride is the second-most famous graduate of Wyomissing Area High School, near Reading, Pa. The most famous? That would be Ross Tucker, the former Princeton and longtime NFL offensive lineman and current big-time football broadcaster. 

Tucker was among the 1,000 or so people who actually were invited and attended the wedding. Really. TB asked Tucker what it was like, and he responded with a single word: "Incredible." That's not hard to imagine, right?  

The building that currently hosts the NBA champion Knicks (how does that sound?) and Rangers — and the occasional wedding — is actually the fourth to be known as Madison Square Garden. The first two were located on the actual Madison Square site, at 23rd between Fifth Ave and Broadway. The third was more uptown, on Eighth Ave between 49th and 50th. 

The first MSG opened in 1879 and was replaced on the same spot 11 years later. That building closed in 1925, when the third came into existence and then lasted through 1968. 

The first time Princeton competed in Madison Square Garden was in that first building, shortly before it closed. The occasion was sort of an indoor sports festival that included indoor football (Rutgers vs. Penn) and indoor lacrosse (Rutgers vs. Staten Island Football Club), on a makeshift dirt field laid out over the wooden floor.

The main event was track and field, and Princeton was well-represented there. One of the Tigers who ran there that night was Knowlton Ames, known as "Snake," who is also better known from his football days. Ames had career totals at Princeton of 62 touchdowns and 730 points, neither of which exactly equate to the way the modern game is played but are still school records. 

The name "Snake Ames" is legendary in Princeton Athletic history. His story was not a happy one. He spent three years as the football coach at Northwestern and Purdue before going into finance and publishing. He was originally very successful in both, but huge money losses at the start of the Depression were too much for him to overcome. He'd commit suicide in 1931 by shooting himself in the head while in his car. 

Princeton's history in the various Madison Square Gardens since that first event in 1889 is storied, to say the least. Bill Bonthron, one of the world's top middle distance runners, competed at the Garden numerous times, setting multiple team and national records individually or as part of relays, including a five-man distance medley relay. 

There was this from the Daily Princeton on Feb. 27, 1933:

Princeton's relay team, aided greatly by Bill Bonthron's spectacular spurt in the 1500 meters leg, chopped 14 seconds off the unofficial indoor championship record for the 2900-meter medley relay before 16,000 fans at the A. A. U. track and field games at the Madison Square Garden Saturday night.The relay team, which only last Monday lowered the Princeton record for the two-mile relay to 7:51.8, established a new championship mark of 7:09, breaking the old unofficial record of 7:23 by 14 seconds.

A few decades later, Bill Burke became the first Princeton to run a sub-four minute mile when he finished in 3:58.7 at the 1991 Milrose Games there (TigerBlog interviewed him at halftime of the Princeton men's basketball game in Jadwin Gym the next night). 

The men's basketball team has had some epic nights in the building as well. There was the 1997 Holiday Festival, won by the Tigers with victories of Niagara and Drexel, famously 1) getting 21 assists on 21 baskets and 2) hearing head coach Bill Carmody say "you're smart; you'll figure it out" during a timeout. 

When you talk about Princeton in the Holiday Festival, you have to go back to the 1964 game between Bill Bradley's Tigers and Michigan, led by Cazzie Russell and ranked No. 1 nationally. Princeton led when Bradley fouled out after scoring 41 points, but the Wolverines would come back to win 80-78 — and then beat Princeton in March in Oregon at the Final Four. 

Bradley and Russell would spend several years as teammates with the Knicks, playing in the old Garden and winning a championship in the new one in 1970. Neither was a starter in 1967-68, when the team played in its last game in the old Garden on Feb. 10 (defeating the 76ers) and the first game in the new one four day later (defeating the San Diego Rockets, who played in Southern California for their first four years before moving to Houston in 1971). 

Madison Square Garden calls itself "The World's Most Famous Arena." This past weekend it hosted "The World's Most Famous Wedding."

It's good to know that Princeton was once again represented there, as has been the case throughout the building's history. 

Thinking Of Grant

GUEST TIGERBLOG BY NATE EWELL ON THE DEATH OF GRANT WAHL • Dec. 13, 2022 

Did you see the game the other night? 

If you did, then you know exactly to which game TigerBlog refers. If you didn't or missed what everyone else said about it, the game was the World Cup knockout round game between Argentina and Cape Verde. 

That's powerhouse Argentina, the defending World Cup champion. And that's "who can find it on a map" Cape Verde, with all of 520,000 citizens. Argentina entered the World Cup ranked No. 1 in the world in the FIFA rankings. Cape Verde was ranked 69th. 

Argentina is in its 19th World Cup, with three championships. Cape Verde is in its first. The game Friday night in Miami would be Argentina's 91st World Cup game all-time. It would be Cape Verde's fourth.  

What would the final be? 3-0? 4-0?

Argentina scored first, with a Lionel Messi goal. Somehow, Cape Verde tied it. That was miraculous enough. What followed was just amazing. 

Cape Verde kept it 1-1 through the end of regulation, largely because of its goalkeeper, Vozinha, who made 10 saves in the game, five against Messi. The fairy tale seemed over when Argentina scored early in the extra time — until one of the most stunning moments the World Cup has ever seen, when Sidny Lopes Cabral curled in a perfect shot from just inside the box to make it 2-2. 

It's hard to overstate just how incredible that goal was. First of all, once Argentina went ahead again, there was probably no one who thought Cape Verde would answer. It was like when Rocky got off the canvas in the 14th round of his first fight against Apollo Creed. 

Sadly, much like Rocky, Cape Verde was defeated when Argentina scored again in the second extra time period. Ah, but much like Rocky, the team from the tiny island off the coast of Africa was the one that left the lasting impression. 

Had Cape Verde won, it would have been the biggest upset in World Cup history and probably the biggest upset in international sports since the 1980 Miracle on Ice. The game, though, was riveting from start to finish and was one of the best sporting events TB has ever seen. When Lopes Cabral's goal when in, TB almost fell of the couch while letting fly some sort of audible expletive. 

Well done, Cape Verde. 

Elsewhere in the World Cup, the United States will have Folarin Balogun tonight when it takes on Belgium in the Round of 16. TB's favorite part of this whole thing is how pretty much nobody outside of serious soccer fans had heard of Balogun before the World Cup started. 

You know who would be loving this World Cup? That would be Grant Wahl, Princeton Class of 1996. TigerBlog wrote this about Grant during the last World Cup in Qatar, where unbelievably Grant passed away in the press box, at the age of 48:

To most of the world, Grant Wahl was the premiere soccer journalist ever from America and one of the greatest ever from any country. Grant's death has brought an outpouring of sympathy from athletes, politicians (including the Governor of New Jersey), fans and especially his fellow writers. To TigerBlog, Grant Wahl, Class of 1996, was more than that. Grant was the guy he met back in the mid-1990s, back when Grant was a student worker in the Office of Athletic Communications and one of the sports editors of the Daily Princetonian. TB knew Grant to be exactly who he was: kind, friendly, funny, strong and pretty much any other positive quality you want to ascribe to someone. 

What stood out first about Grant all those years ago was his ability to write. There are not many who are good writers at a young age, and even fewer who are great writers by that point.

TB has never seen anyone who could write like Grant could as a college student. Certainly TB himself couldn't do it.

Grant was great at telling stories, legendarily so, even back then. His writing was superb, entertaining, well-crafted. More than anything else, though, it was, in a word, mature. If you read what he wrote, you would never have guessed that it came from someone so young.

He wrote this after Princeton's 10-10 tie with Dartmouth on the final day of the 1995 football season, a tie that earned the Tigers an outright Ivy League championship:

A glance at each of the sidelines after Sierk's kick revealed much more than than the hollow-gutted ambivalence that normally accompanies such results.

That's John McPhee-level stuff there. 

That writing skill stayed with him as he grew into that maturity. What he came to develop beyond that was the ability to write difficult truths, and even more difficult opinions. 

If Grant's writing was defined by its maturity as a college student, it was defined by his courage as an adult. That's not a common trait. Most writers want to be liked, especially by the subjects of their writing. It's tough to put that natural feeling aside and hold people accountable, and it's even tougher to do so and then go right into the lions' den of a lockerroom afterwards.

It may not get you liked. It will get you respected. Grant? He had everyone's respect. Perhaps the root of this began with his senior thesis at Princeton, entitled "Playing the Political Game: Soccer Clubs in Argentine Civil Society."

Grant died while literally writing a story at the World Cup about the game between the Netherlands and Argentina. It was the eighth World Cup that he covered. 

Even now, one full World Cup later, it's hard to imagine that Grant isn't there to be a part of it all. What would he have written about Cape Verde? What would have been his thoughts on how Balogun's red card was rescinded? You can guarantee it wouldn't have been some jingoistic cheerleading. 

Read Nate's piece. Read TB's words. Or don't. 

Just know that Grant Wahl was a very, very special person, one who was taken far too young. 

And he would have loved the Argentina-Cape Verde game even more than TigerBlog.  

More Congratulations

After a day of congratulations yesterday, TigerBlog offers up a few more today:

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TB has no idea how big Ieisha Jackson's feet are. He does know that she has big shoes to fill.

Jackson has been named as the successor to the retired Karen Malec and is now the Associate Director of Athletics for Event Operations. 

Not that Jackson isn't up for the task. Far from it. In fact, TigerBlog — and anyone who has worked with her — knows that she brings a lot of the same characteristics, personality and work habits that Karen brought to the job for so many years. 

Has it really been eight years since she started at Princeton? According to her Instagram post:

Eight years ago, I started my first “big girl” job at Princeton University as the Director of Track Operations. About a month into working here, I sought out the Associate AD for Event Operations, Karen Malec, and let her know I was interested in events and to let me know if I can be helpful in any way. Fast forward 3 years later, an opening came up in her unit, and I became the Manager of Event Operations. As luck would have it, another position, better suited for me at the time, would open 3 months later. So I became the Manager of Intercollegiate Programming and 3 years later, Assistant Director of Athletics for Programming. My career journey at Princeton has been nothing short of a blessing and it’s not over yet. That being said, as I enter my ninth year working in Princeton Athletics, I do so with the great honor and privilege of carrying on Karen’s 36 year legacy. I’m excited to share that I have been promoted to the Associate Director of Athletics for Event Operations at Princeton University.  

As you can see behind her, Ieisha is now on her fifth title in her time at Princeton. TigerBlog isn't sure if he has the record for all-time job titles at Princeton Athletics, but he does have 11 of them. 

Congratulations to Ieisha. Princeton Events is in good hands. 

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He's not a Princetonian, but he is an Ivy Leaguer. Columbia alum Michael Zheng won again at Wimbledon, moving into a third-round match today against No. 3 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime today around 11:30 Eastern time. 

Zheng also hit one of the more remarkable shots you'll ever see to save a set point in his second round win over Nicolas Mejia Wednesday. Had he lost that point (which you've probably seen by now), he would have been down two sets to none. Instead he won in four 6-7, 7-6, 6-1, 6-4. 

Zheng is the two-time NCAA singles champion, and he defeated Princeton's Paul Inchauspe in the semifinals this past fall. Inchauspe did defeat Zheng in the first singles match between Princeton and Columbia in the ECAC tournament championship match in February at the Si Qin Indoor Family Tennis Center. 

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Congratulations to everyone in the Northeast who loves when it's really hot. This is your weather. 

Today will be the second straight day in Princeton where the temperature soars past 100 degrees, and it certainly feels every one of those degrees if you step outside. TigerBlog will take this over the weather of six months ago, when Princeton was in the beginning of one of the coldest Januaries it has ever had. 

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And finally, congratulations to the United States of America, which turns 250 tomorrow. 

The Declaration of Independence that formally separated the new country from the British Empire was unanimously adopted by the Second Continental Congress, in Philadelphia. That took a lot of courage, since the Empire, well, struck back and didn't let it go without a war that lasted into the next decade. 

What was the fledgling country's original name? It wasn't the United States of America. It was "The United Colonies." It wasn't until Sept. 9, 1776, that the Continental Congress adopted the name United States of America. 

Have a great — and safe — Fourth of July everyone.  

Congratulations

Today begins with congratulations to TigerBlog's longtime friend and colleague Michael Mahoney. 

Formerly at that school in West Philadelphia that issued TB a diploma that he now keeps in a bin in the bottom of his closet, Mahoney will now be working as the Senior Associate Commissioner for Strategic Communications and Media Relations for the Atlantic 10 Conference. 

There aren't many better people in college athletics, or anywhere, than Mahoney. He's one of those people everyone seems to 1) know and 2) like. 

It's good to see him taking a new step in his career. TB can root for the A-10. 

Question for you: How many schools are in the Atlantic 10? 

There are 14 full-time members and five affiliate members in either men's lacrosse or field hockey. TB remembers when the league was the Eastern 8, including Villanova and Pitt. Does Mahoney know all this history? He'll figure it out quickly if he doesn't. 

Keeping with the theme for today, what else is worthy of congratulations? 

There's Princeton Athletics, for one. Specifically, there's this video:

Congratulations go out to everyone involved, those who made the highlights and those who made the video. That's a decade's worth of highlights for most places. That was all in one athletic year at Princeton. 

The 2025-26 year will be remembered for a long time around here, what with 20 league championships, an individual national champion, a team national champion, another NCAA runner up and so much more. One of the teams that won its league championship was the softball team, and one of its stars this spring is the next to be congratulated. 

That would be Graciela Dominguez, who is headed to the Central American and Caribbean Games in the Dominican Republic, where she will compete for the host nation later this month. From the RELEASE: 

Dominguez hit .427 in 2026, the fourth-best single-season batting average in program history, and had 70 hits, fifth-most in a season in Princeton history. She also helped Princeton set a team single-season record with a .347 batting average. 

Next up is Maile Organek, a coxswain for the men's heavyweight rowing team who guided the second varsity 8 to a gold medal at the IRA championships. You can read THIS FEATURE STORY on the webpage about Organek by another of TB's friends and colleagues Elliott Carr, including this: 

On Tuesday, May 26, she received a sociology degree and was commissioned into the United States Army as a second lieutenant by her grandfather. By Sunday, May 31, she had flown across the country and coxed the Tigers’ second varsity eight to its first gold medal at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship Regatta since 1998. To put a bow on her time at Princeton, Organek was bestowed the highest honor a coxswain can receive in collegiate rowing; the 2026 Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (IRCA) Coxswain of the Year award.

Elliott's story is very good. 

And then there are congratulations to the five Princeton men's lacrosse alums who have been selected to the Premiere Lacrosse League all-star game, which will be Sunday at 2 in Annapolis. 

Coulter Mackesy, the all-time leader in goals scored at Princeton, finds himself tied with Brown alum Dylan Molloy for the PLL lead in points this season with 20 each. Mackesy, in his second year, is coming off a four-goal, two-assist performance this past weekend in California to lead his Cannons to a 15-12 win over the Redwoods. 

Among the other Tigers headed to Annapolis are, not shockingly, Waterdogs teammates Michael Sowers and Zach Currier. Sowers is tied for the league lead in assists (again, not shocking), and Currier, well, TB didn't bother looking up his stats because they never matter when it comes to Currier. 

Shortstick defensive midfielder Beau Pederson of the Archers will be making his first all-star game appearance. In addition to being a defensive beast, Pederson also has three goals and an assist. 

The fifth all-star is rookie Chad Palumbo. Think you've had a good few weeks? Palumbo has 1) won an NCAA championship, 2) graduated from Princeton, 3) led all PLL rookies in scoring to this point.  

The all-star game will be seen live on ESPN. Congrats to all five.  

Top 20 Tigers

Welcome to July, the only month of the year with no Princeton Athletic events. 

Fortunately, the sports world continues, with events like the one currently scattered around North America. 

Here's a question: If France gets a World Cup goal from someone other than Mbappe, does it still count? He seems to score a lot on his own.  

Mbappe scored twice against Sweden yesterday as France won 3-0 to advance to the Round of 16. The second of those goals was about the most perfect two-man play in soccer history. Make sure you check it out. 

By the way, Mbappe has now played 18 career World Cup games and has scored 18 goals. That seems pretty good. Through four games this year, France has scored 10 goals, six of which have come from Mbappe. 

TigerBlog stayed up way later than he expected the other night to watch the entire Morocco-The Netherlands game, won by the Moroccans on penalty kicks after tying it late in regulation. It was a riveting game the entire way, as was Germany-Paraguay before it, another game that went to PKs. 

Oh, and one of the players from The Netherlands proved TB's "roll-over" rule. During the course of play, he went down and rolled over three times (proving that he actually was not hurt but was flopping). A few minutes later, he took a cleat to the head and began bleeding. This time he dropped to one knee (clearly hurt). 

TB's question is whether or not, after 90 minutes of regulation plus stoppage time plus two 15-minute extra periods and their stoppage time, are penalty kicks the best way to decide a winner in such an important situation. Keep playing until someone scores? The positive of that is that teams know they have to attack at some point; the bad news is that game could go on for a very long time. 

Maybe do what field hockey does? Take a few players off the field to open things up? TB should have addressed this during his time on the NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee. 

As you might remember, the Princeton men's lacrosse team won the NCAA championship this past spring. In addition to being an amazing run to the title, it was also worth 100 points for Princeton in the Learfield Directors' Cup standings. 

The Directors' Cup has as its goal to recognize the best overall athletic programs in Division I, Division II, Division III and the NAIA. Its website has this mission statement: 

A program that honors institutions maintaining a broad-based program, achieving success in many sports, both men's and women's, in which all sports that the NCAA, NAIA or Two-Year College sector offers a championship, along with FBS football, and all student-athletes that compete in those sports, are treated equally.

The way it does this is by assigning points for NCAA of NAIA tournament appearances and success. Your league championships don't earn you any points. 

In Division I, each school gets to count 19 sports, of which five have to be men's basketball, baseball, women's basketball, women's volleyball and women's soccer, whether you score points in them or not. The remaining 14 come from your best finishes regardless of gender.  

With the end of the Men's College World Series, the final Cup standings have been released. Princeton finished 20th, which is just remarkable. The Tigers rolled up 878.5 points, the highest total in program history (the Cup dates to the 1993-94 academic year). Princeton's 20th place finish was the second-highest, behind the 18th place of 2021-22. 

What makes it most impressive is the context of who finishes that high. Of the top 44, the other 43 besides Princeton are all in the Power Four conferences. The 19 schools above Princeton were all in either the ACC, Big Ten or SEC (including the overall winner, Texas). 

That is not easy to do. It's one thing to get to an NCAA tournament. It's another thing to advance far enough to get the higher point levels. 

The 20th place Directors' Cup finish is just another major accomplishment for Princeton. So are the 20 conference championships. 

Meanwhile, if you're wondering where Princeton has finished each year since 1994, here you go: 

2026 - 20

2025 - 32

2024 - 34

2023 - 26

2022 - 18

2019 – 30

2018 - 40

2017 - 48

2016 - 33

2015 - 41

2014 - 44

2013 - 35

2012 - 39

2011 - 38

2010 - 32

2009 - 40

2008 - 60

2007 - 63

2006 - 47

2005 - 42

2004 - 33

2003 - 34

2002 - 21

2001 - 24

2000 - 57

1999 - 31

1998 – 25

1997 – 60

1996 – 23

1995 – 29

1994  - 34

 

 

Wimbledon Drive

 

So do you think this road is always called this or is that only during these next two weeks? 

TigerBlog had to go pick something up yesterday (a gift for his brother and brother-in-law; TB would want to know if you told him the same thing), and it was in a warehouse in an office park that he'd never been to before. As he always does, he followed Waze. 

You know what's frustrating about following a GPS like that? It's how it says "turn right in 1,000 feet." How does that help? It should say "right turn coming up in a few ... not now ... not now ... now ... now ... NOW ... TURN HERE IDIOT!!!"

That would resonate more for TigerBlog. 

Anyway, he was so engrossed in trying to find this place that he completely missed the street sign the first time around. He also drove past it on his way back, only noticing it at the last second. He was going to let it go but then thought "blog content" and turned back to snap the picture. 

Wimbledon is one of TigerBlog's favorite annual sporting events. He'll watch more tennis the next two weeks than he will watch Major League Baseball for the entire season. 

He goes back with Wimbledon to the days of Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and newcomer John McEnroe. They remain his favorite players ever on the men's side. 

Are you familiar with the 1980 Wimbledon final between Borg and McEnroe? It was one of two the greatest tennis matches ever played, along with the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal 2008 final. 

Borg defeated McEnroe 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 8-6; the fourth set tiebreaker went to McEnroe 18-16 after Borg had five match points. It took 3:35, because TV timeouts were way shorter then. The 2008 final went to Nadal 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7 and took a total of 4:48. 

There weren't many great first round matches yesterday, though there was one that really interested TigerBlog. He'll get back to that one in a few moments. 

First, there was a tight four-set win for Novak Djokovic, who is one of TB's favorites. Jannik Sinner needed five sets to get out of the first round as the top seed. 

Maybe the best of all the matches yesterday came when an unseeded American player knocked off the No. 26 seed, from Great Britain no less. The Brit is Cameron Norrie. The American is Michael Zheng, who in four hours defeated Norrie 6-7, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, taking the final tiebreaker 10-4. 

Zheng also won his first round match at the Australian Open back in January. He'll next play Nicolás Mejía of Colombia in the second round.  

Is that name familiar? Michael Zheng? 

Yes, it is. 

Zheng won the two most recent NCAA singles championships while at Columbia. That makes the second round match Columbia vs. Colombia. 

Despite winning the NCAA title, Zheng finished sixth in the final ITA singles rankings. Who was fifth? Princeton's Paul Inchauspe. 

Zheng defeated Inchauspe in the NCAA semifinals and then beat SMU's Trevor Svajda in the final. Inchauspe defeated Svajda in the NCAA team tournament, when Princeton fell to SMU. 

Inchauspe and Zheng played three times this past year, and Zheng won two of them. The one that Inchauspe won came in the final of the ECAC tournament, an event in February between the eight Ivy League schools. 

Princeton defeated Columbia 4-3 to win the tournament, helped greatly by Inchauspe's 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Zheng. The deciding point then came courtesy of Landon Ardila at No. 3 singles. Unfortunately for Princeton, Ardila then missed all seven Ivy League matches due to injury, though he was back for the NCAA tournament. 

In a year that didn't include an NCAA men's lacrosse national championship and run by the field hockey team to overtime of its own NCAA championship game, that match in February quite possibly have been the best Princeton event TB saw. Despite that, it was an epic day, one that really stands out to TB, for the competition — and for reconfirming something that TB has long known. 

In the world of Princeton sports, you never know when you're going to stumble across a masterpiece. That's what that match was for TB. What will be the event in 2026-27 that comes out of nowhere to become a classic? 

Who knows. 

In the meantime, TB will root for Columbia against Colombia in Round 2 at Wimbledon.  

Bon Voyage

Do you want to know what everyone should do as his or her 91st birthday approaches? 

That's right. Go on a two-week cruise in the Mediterranean. 

That's what FatherBlog is doing. He flies out of Newark to Nice tonight and then gets on a ship for his vacation. Why not, right? For the record, TigerBlog was not invited. 

The first stop is Saint-Tropez, which just happens to be one of FatherBlog's four favorite places in the world (it's actually No. 1 on his fab four). The other three? Istanbul, Rio and South Africa. 

FB grew up in Brooklyn, graduated from Boys' High, briefly attended Hunter College and then spent two years in the Army. It was during his storied military career — he'll tell you he rose from the rank of private all the way to private — that he developed his love of traveling, something that has never waned. 

As such, despite all of the "you're almost 91; are you sure you can handle such a cruise" questions he was asked, he still has been determined to do this. If TigerBlog had to guess, he'd say the odds are greater that his father has another big trip in the future than they are that this will be his last one. 

If you're looking for FB's secret to such longevity, it's something along the lines of this: Eat whatever you want. Don't exercise a lot. Don't go to doctor's offices. 

So anyway, bon voyage, FatherBlog. Have fun. Make good decisions. That's what TigerBlog would say to his kids, so he might as well tell his dad that too. 

It dawns on TB that his father, for all his world travels, has seen very little of the United States, or Canada for that matter. It's pretty much all been international, covering Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and Africa. To his memory, TB doesn't think his father has been to Antarctica, so six continents isn't a bad record. 

TB now shifts the focus to North America, where the current World Cup has entered the 32-team knockout round. It began with one game yesterday and is now down to 31 teams, after Canada's goal in stoppage time meant a 1-0 win over South Africa and a spot in the final 16. 

CANADA TAKES THE LEAD IN STOPPAGE TIME 🇨🇦

Stephen Eustáquio is the hero! pic.twitter.com/ZaSCikmLiB

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) June 28, 2026

Canada, of course, is coached by Princeton alum Jesse Marsch. His career trajectory has seen coach successfully on this continent and in Europe, including in the English Premier League, Major League Soccer and the Austrian Bundesliga (where he led his team to a spot in the Champions League). 

What's going on now is all new for Marsch, and for Canada. Prior to this World Cup, the Canadians had never won a World Cup game, let alone reached the knockout stage. Before 2026, Canada had qualified for two World Cups, going 0-6 in Group Stage games and scoring only a single goal. 

This time, Marsch led Canada to a 1-1-1 record in the Group Stage, which put Canada into the knockout stage. Yesterday's game was the first the team played outside of Canada, in Los Angeles to be exact. It was also the only knockout round game played to date, leaving Canada as the first team to advance. 

Here is part of what Marsch had to say aftewards: 

"Our goal in tournament -- other than inspiring our nation -- was to make a run to face one of the giants of the soccer world. And given Morocco's recent run, they are a giant. And given the Dutch's dominance over the decades, they are a giant too. I feel like [this next game] is a free hit and we are going to go out and give it our best shot."

Next up for Canada will be the winner of the game between the Netherlands and Morocco, which will be played tonight at 9 Eastern in California as well. The team that advances tonight will face Canada Saturday in Houston. 

Saturday is the Fourth of July, which might seem like an interesting day to focus on Canada. But hey, Princeton alums are Princeton alums. And Marsch is an American, from Wisconsin. He also joins his college coach at Princeton, Bob Bradley, as Tiger alums who have coached a team into the final 16. 

 

Summer Friday

Welcome to the first full weekend of summer. 

What is on your dance card? Whatever it is, keep this in mind: there are eight weeks to go until the first Princeton Athletic event of the 2026-27 academic year. And, as he does every Friday in the summer, TigerBlog will remind you of the countdown as the new year approaches. 

In the meantime, have a great weekend — but only after you read up on this:

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Well, Princeton University is no longer the same. Karen Malec doesn't work here anymore. 

That's a tough sentence to write. There hasn't been a day, until today, where TB has worked at Princeton and Karen hasn't. 

As TB has written before, Karen announced her retirement back in March after 34 years at Princeton. Nobody has ever served the department with greater devotion and professionalism. Maybe others have been up there with her, but nobody has ever outdone her. As such, she clearly has earned her retirement and whatever she wants to do with it. 

It's just that it won't be the same without her. TB ran into her outside Jadwin on the 20,000 step walk the other day. He knows they'll stay in touch. It's just that, again, it won't be the same.  

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Speaking of 20,000-plus steps in a day, TigerBlog got this text from his colleague and friend Warren Croxton: 

"176 straight days of 20,000 steps."

Impressive Warren. It does make TB wonder how many steps Warren had 177 days ago. 

Also, it got TB to thinking. You could take 20,000 steps in the NBA and still not get called for traveling.  

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Cleveland State. 

That was the school TigerBlog couldn't remember the other day. Fortunately, his longtime friend Bruce Wood of the Big Green Alert emailed him the other day with the quote he couldn't remember. 

It came after TB wrote about Jerry Tarkanian and his issues with the NCAA. Tark had a wildly famous quote about the organization he hated. It went like this: 

"The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they're going to give Cleveland State another year of probation." 

TB knew it was something like that. Thanks for the heads up Bruce. 

*

The group stage of the World Cup is winding down, with the 32-team knockout round to come. This is the first time that there have been 48 teams in the draw and then 32 in the knockout round. 

Canada is one of the 32 teams who will continue to play beyond the group stage. Reaching the knockout round is a first for Canada, which had never won a World Cup game prior to this year.

The team is coached, of course, by Princeton alum Jesse Marsch. In a nice little World Cup fact, Marsch is now the second former Princeton men's soccer player to coach a team into the knockout round, along with Bob Bradley, who had been Marsch's coach at Princeton.  

*

TigerBlog went to see "South Pacific" yesterday at the Bucks County Playhouse. The musical, which by the way was written by Rogers and Hammerstein in nearby Doylestown, has always been one of TB's favorites. 

He's mentioned this before, but musical theater is one of his favorite things, especially classics like "South Pacific." He doesn't like to see plays. He wants to walk out of the theater humming and singing, like he did yesterday. 

His seat was on the aisle, seat X101 to be exact. As it turns out, his seat was the aisle, middle and other aisle, since there was no other seat in the row. In fact, his seat was next to the lighting and sound board in the back of the theater. 

This was great for the first act and second act. It wasn't quite as peaceful at intermission, since it was directly in the path of those who needed to use the ladies room. That line snaked past TB's seat, and his determination to stick it out in his seat quickly ebbed when he got whacked by an older woman's walker. That's when he decided it would be best to stand off to the side til the curtain came back up. 

If you don't know much about the show, it's set in, well, you can guess that part, during World War II. One of the main characters is named Lt. Joe Cable, who is of all things a Princeton alum, at least a fictional one. He's also described as "athletic," though it never says what sport he played. 

After the show, TigerBlog ran into Lt. Nellie Forbush, or at least the actress who played her (Alexandra Socha). She had previously played Glinda in "Wicked" on Broadway; that's another of TB's all-time favorites. 

TB asked her if she knew Sam Gravitte, the former Princeton men's lacrosse player who had also been in "Wicked" on Broadway. She said that yes, she knew him, but no, they hadn't been in the show together. 

Sam is in a new show in New York City at the Laura Pels Theater on West 46th Street. This show is called "A Walk On The Moon," a musical based on the 1999 movie that is set in the summer of 1969. TB hasn't seen it yet, but he'd like to. He did see Sam as Fiyero (the male lead) in "Wicked" though, and he was spectacular. 

If you're interested in Sam's new show, you can get more information HERE.

See? Not all Princeton lacrosse alums in New York City work on Wall Street. At least one works on Broadway.  

The 20,000 Steps

Okay, John Nolan, you'll appreciate this story. 

Who is John Nolan? He's a broadcaster in Indiana whom TigerBlog tried to hire at Princeton when Nolan graduated from Syracuse. He's done a lot of college basketball and, for the last two seasons, has been the play-by-play man for the Indiana Fever. 

It was Nolan who once mentioned to TigerBlog about America's obsession with round numbers. TB couldn't help but think of that yesterday afternoon. 

If you had been in TB's neighborhood, you might have noticed that he was walking up and down his driveway. Why was that? Well, it's because he had 19,200 steps for the day — and he had to get that over 20,000, no? 

And so he did. See for yourself:

That was for you, John Nolan. 

Anyway, how did TB get that many steps in? It started with a nice morning walk and then continued with a massive tour of the Princeton campus, a tour that started on Nassau Street, made its way through the Art Museum and Prospect Gardens all the way to Jadwin Gym and ultimately the racket center on the other side of the lake. After all that, it was back to Nassau Street. 

And, of course, ultimately up and down his driveway. 

If you walk around the campus during the school year, it's obviously awash with people and energy. Every where you go, you'll see any and all segments of Princeton life. It's nearly impossible for TB to do so and not run into at least one person he knows. 

In the summer it is wildly different. There is hardly anyone around, and many of those who are fall into the category of visitors, either campers or those attending conferences or those who've come to do a tour and the like. 

That's not to say that nobody was around. TB saw field hockey backup goalie Kylie Elefante, a rising sophomore who was a member of the team that reached the second overtime of the NCAA championship game last fall. 

Oh, and TB should mention that BrotherBlog is in town from Seattle, and he and Princeton superfan Pattie Friend joined TB on the long walk around the campus. BB works on a college campus as well, the University of Washington, where he is a law school professor. TB at one time considered going to law school, though he's sort of glad he never did at this point. 

The other thing to mention is that Pattie Friend is an extraordinary Princeton campus unofficial tour guide. Also, when you walk around with Pattie Friend, she will inevitably find someone she knows.

In the case of yesterday's walk, that came in the form of someone who was walking into Jadwin. TB had no idea who it was; the only thing he knew was that she wasn't wearing shoes and her socks were dirty. 

So who was it? How about Alexandra Kelly, the All-American jumper who just finished her Princeton track and field career. Kelly was also a von Kienbusch Award finalist this past spring. Mrs. Friend knows Kelly from her job checking students into Cannon Club for dinner on Sunday nights. 

This time, she and Kelly gave each other a nice hug, with big smiles. TB asked them to pose for a photo, which they happily did. 

For TigerBlog, it was nice to see someone he'd never actually met but about whose many achievements at Princeton he'd written. He didn't introduce himself though. He just watched Kelly and Mrs. Friend talk about what's next after graduation, how each other was doing and just enjoying each other's company as old friends do. 

In that moment, TB was reminded of something that he's known for a long time. Those in the athletic department talk about doing what they do to help the athletes have the best possible experience. That's certainly been a driving factor for TB all these years, and he's pretty sure he's been successful. 

But it's not something unique to him or his colleagues. The Princeton athletes come from all over (in the case of Kelly from Long Island) to spend their four years on the campus where TB, BB and Pattie walked yesterday. And they are touched by any number of people while they're here. 

Pattie Friend is one of them. She's one of those who makes Princeton better for the Alexandra Kellys who come into her orbit. 

It was a great day for 20,000 steps. And for that reminder. 

For a quiet early summer day at Princeton, there wasn't much more you could have asked to see than that.  

Shark Tales

If you're in TigerBlog's age range, then everything about the above screenshot makes you laugh. 

If you're too young to appreciate it, well, you missed out on a great decade. 

Just in case you don't know who those referenced are, TB offers you a quick primer: 

* Barney Miller? He was one of the greatest police captains in one of the greatest precincts with one of the greatest rosters of detectives in New York City history (at least the fictional kind)

* Kojak? Who loves ya baby? He was the greatest fictional police officer New York City has ever seen (with all due respect to Barney Miller). 

* Jerry Tarkanian? The Shark? He had a bit of a, um, interesting relationship with the NCAA during his years as the men's basketball coach at Long Beach State, UNLV and Fresno State. In fact, Tarkanian sued the NCAA twice, once in a case that reached all the way to the United States Surpreme Court and another that ended with a $2.5 million settlement of a harassment suit (though the NCAA didn't admit the harassment). 

Of those three, by the way, only Barney Miller (actually Hal Linden) is still alive. 

Tarkanian — the only one of the three who actually was a real person — went 2-1 against Princeton, as near as TB can figure. At least that's how TB remembers it. 

Tarkanian's UNLV teams defeated Princeton 68-56 in the second round of the 1984 NCAA tournament 69-35 in the 1990 regular season. That second game came on banner-raising night at the Thomas and Mack Center after the Runnin' Rebels won the 1990 NCAA championship. 

The 1984 NCAA game? Princeton had four players who went all 40 minutes, including one who led the team with 24 points on 10 for 13 shooting, with a team-best seven rebounds mixed in. Can you name him and the other three? 

The third game was in December 1995, during Tarkanian's first season back at his alma mater (and Pete Carril's last season at Princeton, though nobody knew it at the time). Princeton won that game 59-54, with 34 of those points from the two most recent Tiger head coaches, as Mitch Henderson has 18, and Sydney Johnson had 16. 

Oh, and Carril always made TB laugh when he referred to the name of the school where Tarkanian spent most of his career. Everyone calls it "Nevada-Las Vegas." Carril called it "Las Vegas, Nevada." TB isn't sure why he found that funny, but he always did. f t TigerBlog remembered those three games. That is, he searched his own personal database. 

This came after he asked three different AI sites this question: "What was Jerry Tarkanian's record against Princeton?" None of the three got the correct answer, including ChatGPT, which offered this: 

I could not find any record of a game between one of Tarkanian's teams and Princeton during those years. In fact, modern head-to-head databases list no prior meetings between Princeton and UNLV before their 2024 NIT game, which occurred long after Tarkanian's coaching career ended. So Tarkanian's record against Princeton was: 0–0 (never met).

If you're wondering who had the big game in the NCAA tournament, that would be Howard Levy. TigerBlog will never miss a chance to refer to his good friend Howard. 

The other three Princeton players who went all 40 minutes? Billy Ryan, who had a team-best seven assists, Kevin (Moon) Mullin, who had 18 points, and John Smyth. 

Ryan, to this day, is still Princeton's career leader in assists with 413, which would be 30 more than second-place Spencer Weisz.  

Howard also is a Princeton career record holder still, with a .647 shooting percentage. Only three Princeton players have ever been at least .600 — Richmond Aririguzoh (.636) and Alan Williams (.614). Had Richmond made six shots that he missed, the record would be his. 

Anyway, thanks to Super 70s Sports, which is one of the funniest sites you'll visit (again, the disclaimer is you have to have experienced 70s pop culture). 

And don't trust everything AI tells you.