John worked basically every night someplace, whether it was minor league baseball, Philadelphia pro teams or college sports. Most notably, he was the voice of Big Five basketball at the Palestra.
He spent several years as the PA announcer for Princeton football, as well as doing some other Princeton events, including the four home NCAA tournament games for the women's soccer team's 2004 run to the Final Four.
TigerBlog took over the PA announcer's role at Princeton Stadium after McAdams died in his sleep back in 2005, at the age of 64.
There will always be one word that TigerBlog would use to describe John McAdams, and it's a word that isn't really commonly used to describe people anymore. That word? John McAdams was a "gentleman."
TB thought about John this past Saturday, before he took to the mic before the Tigers' 2018 home opener. It's TigerBlog's 14th year as PA announcer now.
The game that played out in front of him was a wildly impressive one for the home team. Princeton defeated Monmouth 51-9 in the first meeting ever between the two, and coupled with the 50-7 win over Butler last week, Princeton has now outscored its two opponents by a combined 101-16.
It all led to this tweet:
Princeton has looked great through two weeks. It also hasn't been any sort of one-man, or even one-unit, show.This is the 1st time Princeton has opened a season w/ back-to-back 50-point games since ’86 … 1886. Tigers took it to Stevens Institute in back-to-back weeks; sorry, highlights of those wins aren’t available.— Princeton Football (@PUTigerFootball) September 22, 2018
Princeton ranks first or second in the FCS in scoring offense, team passing efficiency, fewest penalties, rushing offense and fewest turnovers. In fact, Princeton has yet to turn the ball over at all in two games.
If you want to talk about individuals, how would you even begin to pick the top five players on the team through two games. There are about 15 you could legitimately consider for that list, maybe more.
The game Saturday night started out with a 71-yard Monmouth run that led to a field goal and a 3-0 Hawks lead. The Hawks, by the way, reached the NCAA playoffs last year.
If you were briefly distracted after the field goal, it was 14-3 Tigers in what seemed like a blink. If you were distracted a little longer, it got to 30-9 by halftime.
John Lovett was again brilliant, with five touchdown passes on a 21 for 27, 332 yard night. He also ran for 71 yards and another TD.
Which wide receiver had a better night? Stephen Carlson - you can read all about him HERE - caught 11 passes for 179 yards and two touchdowns, while Jesper Horsted caught eight for 150 yards and three touchdowns (breaking the school record for career receiving touchdowns, by the way, with 20, one better than Derek Graham).
When was the last time Princeton had two 150-yard receivers in one game?
There were many others on both sides of the ball who played really well. It's like TB said; there are 15 players who could have been in the top five. Forget just offensive and defensive stats. There's also the matter of the offensive line, which allowed exactly zero sacks and enabled Princeton to run for 283 yards.
So where do the Tigers stand now, two weeks into the season?
Well, they're confident, and they're playing really well. Their offense at times looks unstoppable, led by Lovett, who is smart, strong, experienced and showing no effects of his year off.
On the other hand, there are eight Ivy League teams, and five of them are 2-0.
After this weekend, at least two, and no more than three, will be 3-0. Penn and Dartmouth, two of the 2-0 teams, meet in Hanover Saturday.
This will be after Princeton and Columbia, also both 2-0, play Friday night at 6 on ESPNU in New York City. If you recall a year ago, Princeton was 2-0 as well before Columbia defeated the Tigers 28-24 on Powers Field.
There figures to be a lot more known about the Ivy League after the two games next weekend, at least the early part of the Ivy League race. The game at Columbia should be a good one.
And a big one. At least a big one for September.
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