That'll Be $116.42

So here's a story that TigerBlog is pretty sure his former boss Gary Walters will like.

TigerBlog Jr. has been driving his father's old car for a few years now. As you read this, that car has right around 199,300 miles on it.

As you can guess, it's somewhat beaten up.

Oh, and it's also a mess. That's what you get when you add together a college guy and lacrosse equipment and Wawa hoagie wrappers and empty water bottles.

The car itself still runs really well. Before this car, the most miles TB had ever put on a car was 155,000, on his old minivan, which he traded in for this car. As he understands it, his old minivan ended up as a taxi somewhere in the Caribbean. There are worse retirements for a minivan.

Meanwhile, back at this car, TB is pretty sure it'll get the remaining 700 miles to get to 200,000.

Then it'll be the fight coming between TBJ and Miss TigerBlog over who will get to drive it. MTB is three weeks into having her permit, and she's actually a pretty good driver already. In fact, she drove TB to the field hockey game Sunday, for her first drive from her house to Princeton.

One thing that concerns TB about his daughter as a driver, though, is that her sense of direction is, in a word, horrific. As she and TB drive around, he is constantly stunned by how little she has paid attention to her surroundings, leading to these kinds of conversations:
TB: Why are you turning left?
MTB: I'm going home.
TB: It's to the right.
MTB: It is?
TB: You've lived here your entire life.

Her sense of direction is so bad, TigerBlog half expects her to shoot the ball at the wrong goal in one of her field hockey or lacrosse games.

What does this have to do with Gary Walters? TB is getting to that.

TigerBlog Jr. worked this past summer as a counselor at the Campus Rec day camp at Dillon Gym, a camp he and his sister spent a lot of summers at as campers way back when. In fact, there can't be too many people who have gone to that camp more than TBJ, who was there for five summers as a camper, two or three as a senior camper, one as a CIT and now one as a counselor.

Anyway, one day TBJ returned from work to say that he'd been cut off on the Alexander Road bridge and that his sideview mirror had hit the guardrail. It cracked a little, he said.

Yes, a little. And by a little, he meant, into about 10 separate little mirrors, all of which faced into the car itself, as opposed to, oh, the lane on the right.

Anyway, TigerBlog took the car to Ron, the official car-fixer of the Office of Athletic Communications, to get it fixed. And while it was there, Ron changed the oil and did some other minor maintenance.

TigerBlog told Ron there was no rush on the car, since he was driving his other one and TBJ is at school. Eventually, a few days later, Ron called to say the car was done.

How much was the bill? This is the part that Gary will like.

Ron said it was "$116.42."

Now, do you ever find yourself in a situation where you hear some numbers and they immediately spark some memory? That's what happened when Ron told TB the price.

Was it someone's phone number? A zip code? As it turns out, it's neither.

Then it dawned on TigerBlog.

Princeton defeated Dartmouth 116-42 in the 1967 regular season, when Gary was the senior point guard. It was the first meeting between the teams that year. The second one had a much different score, one that, as TB thinks, would have been a better bill for the car.

In fact, Princeton would score 86 fewer points in the second game - which actually was at Dillon Gym, while the first was in Hanover. Oh, don't worry. Princeton still won fairly easily.

In fact, Dartmouth sat on the ball in that game to keep the score down. Back then, there was no shot clock.

So even though Princeton would score only 30 points in the game, the Tigers still won 30-16. Yeah, it would have been better to pay $30.16.

The 116 points Princeton scored in the first game are the second most Princeton has ever scored in a basketball game, behind the 118 against Wichita State in the 1965 NCAA consolation game.

In all, Princeton has reached 100 points in a men's basketball game 14 times, two of which came last year, after not having done so since 1971. TigerBlog would hardly be shocked to see the team get there again this year.

Anyway, TB has to go get the car. And leave a check.

Oh, and there are two home men's events tonight.

There's water polo against Wagner at 6:30 and there a men's soccer game against St. John's at 7.

And they're both free.