Apparently TigerBlog isn't the only one with memories of the 1996 First Bank Classic, the tournament at the recently imploded Bradley Center in Milwaukee that Princeton won by defeating Ohio and Marquette.
TB got this text yesterday morning from John Thompson III, an assistant coach for that team:
First Bank Classic, My memory......
We are taking the ball out of bounds under our basket. The ball is being taken out on the side of the lane opposite our bench. As always we have a shooter in the opposite corner of where the ball is being taken out, which means Gabe is in the corner in front of our bench. Mike McDonnell gives Gabe a cup of water. Gabe is standing in the corner with his back to the court, drinking water and talking to Mike. Marquette forgot about him. As the ref hands Syd the ball Mike says “Now.” Mike snatches the cup from Gabe, and Gabe flips around. The ball is already in the air as Gabe is turning. Catches it and splashes a 3. AWESOME !
Mike McDonnell was the manager of those teams. Gabe was obviously Gabe Lewullis.
That's a great story by the way.
Okay, so now on to the first president of Oklahoma State University.
TigerBlog was able to find out his name, which was Robert Barker, and that's about all. For the rest of this, he's taking the word of the nice gentleman who walked into Jadwin Gym Friday afternoon along with the rest of the OSU wrestling team for a first look at the building, which left them impressed.
He was the one who told TB that Oklahoma State's colors were orange and black because the first president of the school had come there from Princeton. And, in addition, the original nickname for their teams was "Tigers."
As it turns out, the school was founded in 1890 as the Oklahoma Territorial Agricultural and Mechanical College, becoming Oklahoma A&M after the territory became a state in 1907 and finally Oklahoma State University in 1957. TB didn't know that Oklahoma wasn't a state until the 20th century, but that's the case; in fact, Oklahoma was the 46th state, with only Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii to follow.
And the original nickname of the school was actually "Tigers," something that according to the school's athletic website was never really popular:
From the 1890s on, Oklahoma A&M sports teams had been referred to as the Agriculturists or Aggies, the Farmers, and officially - but unpopularly - the Tigers. But by 1924, Charles Saulsberry, sports editor of the Oklahoma City Times, and other writers who regularly covered college events had begun to refer to Stillwater's teams as the A&M Cowboys. Reporters in search of colorful synonyms started sprinkling Cowpokes, Pokes, Waddies, Cowpunchers and Punchers in conversation.
TigerBlog loves a good piece of historical trivia.
The Tigers, er, Cowboys were in Jadwin Friday to work out ahead of Saturday's wrestling match. The OSU wrestlers walked in and looked around the building before heading down to the wrestling room for practice.
For Princeton it was a weekend in which two Top 15 teams came to Jadwin, first No. 15 North Carolina Friday and then No. 3 Oklahoma State Saturday. It turned into an extraordinary showing for the Tigers, who knocked off North Carolina 23-16 before falling 27-12 to OSU.
Princeton came into the week ranked 25th in Division I.
The biggest by-product of the weekend was a reaffirmation of the fact that Matthew Kolodzik is a legitimate NCAA champion contender at 149 pounds. He's been the top-ranked wrestler at that weight all year, and he stayed unbeaten with a pair of wins over wrestlers ranked in the top six.
Princeton, though, is not just about Kolodzik. Princeton won four matches against the Cowboys, including third-ranked 197-pounder Patrick Brucki, who improved to 19-0 with win over No. 10 Dakota Greer.
Lenny Merkin won at 165 pounds, beating No. 18 Andrew Shomers 9-8 to complete a run of three-straight Princeton wins, starting with Kolodzik's 8-3 win over No. 6 Kaden Gfeller with freshman Quincy Monday's 6-5 win at 157.
Kolodzik began the weekend with a 3-2 win over fifth-ranked Austin O'Connor of North Carolina. Brucki won the clinching match with a pin in the first round.
This was a big weekend for Princeton. There are others to come for sure, including the huge Ivy match Feb. 9 at Cornell, as well as the EIWA championships and ultimately the NCAAs.
Weekends like the one gone by, though, do a lot to solidify Princeton's status among the nation's wrestling elite. Plus it was a lot of fun.
The Oklahoma State wrestlers walked into Jadwin Friday afternoon impressed with the building itself.
They left Saturday impressed with the Princeton wrestlers.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment