Talking TAGD

TAGD Website - Click HERE to give today

TigerBlog really liked the recent series of "TAGD Talks" that appeared on goprincetontigers.com and social media.

They're really short videos in which different Princeton athletes describe a few different aspects of their personal experiences here. They're all really good.

If you want to see them, they're right here:

 TAGD Talk No. 1 - Carrington Akosa
TAGD Talk No. 2 - Katie Pratt-Thompson
TAGD Talk No. 3 - Jesper Horsted
TAGD Talk No. 4 - Claire Collins
TAGD Talk No. 5 - Stephanie Sucharda
TAGD Talk No. 6 - Devin Cannady

TAGD, of course, stands for "Tiger Athletics Give Day." Today is TAGD.

It's a 24-hour day of giving, a competitive fundraising competition among Princeton's 37 teams and 17 Athletics Friends Groups. It started at midnight, and it will run until midnight.

There are competitions for the most total dollars and most total gifts, so every donation matters, regardless of amount.

Today is the fourth edition of TAGD. The first one grew out of a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the first athletic event at Princeton - a baseball game against Williams in Nov. 1864 - and it has increased in support and competitive intensity each successive year.

TAGD proves something conclusively that TigerBlog has known all along. The coaches here are very competitive people.

They don't like to lose. Games especially. Or at TAGD.

There are different groups who compete against each other for bonus funds, and there is an all-out effort to energize Friends' groups and alums to win each group. This is especially obvious on social media, where the teams themselves put together some really creative messages that they send to their supporters.

Something new this year for TAGD will be a Facebook Live production between 3 and 4 this afternoon. You can find it originating from the University's Facebook page HERE.

The Facebook Live production will include interviews with Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan, as well as videos on several Princeton athletes, live interviews with others and the ability to ask questions.

There will also be other videos showing TAGD activities throughout the day. Those will be on social media.

What does the money raised go to here?

It goes to providing Princeton's 1,000 varsity athletes with the best possible experience that is possible. It goes to any number of initiatives that aren't able to be provided through the standard funding for the programs.

It is only through the generosity of all of the people who give each TAGD that Princeton is able to, well, be Princeton. And what does TigerBlog mean by that?

He means be a model college athletic department. He means recruit the best student-athletes in the country and then allow them to be a part of something that enables them to "Achieve, Serve and Lead." He means fostering friendships that last a lifetime. He means developing the same loyalty to Princeton and to the athletic teams here that all of those giving back have, something that sustains the program's long-term success.

Mostly, though, it's an investment in the people who compete here. These are the young people you see in the TAGD Talk video series, plus all of their peers.

They're an incredibly talented, amazingly impressive group of people. TigerBlog, all these years later, continues to marvel at them and what they do, how they compete so successful athletically and academically at such a high level of both.

On the occasions when TB has been asked to talk to recruits, he always says that if you took a graph and plotted the highest academic group on one axis and the highest athletic group of the other, the point where they intersect would be very, very small. Those kids are in that group.

By the way, he thinks he's right by using "axis" there.

Anyway, the investment goes way beyond just the athletic experience for four years. It's not just a few shiny new toys.

It's the investment in the people themselves. It's developing these extraordinary people to their fullest. It's teaching them all of the lessons that are learned here by athletes, all of which take they take with the when they leave here.

And that's when the money raised through TAGD really pays off.

It's the way the experience here stays with them through their lives. It's how that manifests itself as they reach their 30s, their 40s and beyond. It's about the things that they accomplish, small and large, that make such a positive impact on their communities and in many cases way, way beyond as they go down their respective paths.

That's what the money raised through TAGD brings.

If you've given in the past, you know how thankful everyone at Princeton is for your contributions. And again, Princeton Athletics is grateful to everyone who will give today.

Your gifts is doing way more than just helping the Tigers win games.

It's helping fully develop some of the greatest young people you'll see anywhere - the kids who compete in Princeton uniforms.

Thanks again.