TigerBlog was talking with Stacie Traube, the longtime assistant in the football office, about something the other day when she brought up the first Princeton freshman to score a touchdown in a varsity game.
The first year of freshman eligibility for football in the Ivy League was 1993, and Princeton had three freshmen who won varsity letters that year: Nick Avallone, Ben Gill and Marc Washington. None scored a touchdown that year.
In fact, it wouldn't be until the 1994 season when a freshman would score a touchdown, and it wouldn't be an offensive player who did so. It was actually linebacker Tim Greene, who blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown in Week 3 against Bucknell.
It was actually a huge play, as it came with 2:09 to go in the game and the Tigers behind 7-6 and gave Princeton a 12-7 win in Palmer Stadium. TigerBlog, then in his first go-round as the football contact, remembers calling Greene's hometown newspaper to get them to include the news.
Perhaps that's why he remembered Greene's hometown when Stacie brought him up. It was Cartersville, Ga.
He's less certain how he remembered Greene's actual first name, when Stacie tested him. It's Ronald.
How TB knew that he has no idea, but he answered it immediately.
Greene, by the way, would end his career as a 1996 and 1997 first-team All-Ivy League selection. He was also a captain of the 1997 "Road Warrior" team, the one that played away all season (well, one home game at The College of New Jersey and a neutral site game at Giants Stadium) as Palmer was demolished and Princeton Stadium built.
It's always good to stroll back to the old days. The old days? Does that make TigerBlog old?
He looked at the 1995 media guide yesterday (those are books that used to get printed before the season and couldn't be altered at all; Bruce Wood, longtime Dartmouth chronicler, is the only person TB knows who misses them) and, among other things, saw the page that had pictures of the administration and support staff. Athletic communications was not included on that page.
There were 28 people pictured on the page, of whom three currently still work here: Stacie in the football office, Elysee Nicolas of the grounds crew and ticket manager Stephanie Sutton.
While TB is being nostalgic, he goes back to the 1989 Princeton football season, one in which the Tigers ended a 20-year drought by winning the Ivy League championship. The team's first-team All-Ivy center that year was Bob Surace, who is now its head coach.
TB doesn't quite make it back to 1987, when Surace was a sophomore and John Garrett was a senior wide receiver. John is the older brother of Bushnell Cup winners Jason (1988) and Judd (1989), also teammates of Surace's. Jason, of course, is now the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Those two will set aside their long friendship tonight when Princeton hosts Garrett, who is the head coach of the Lafayette Leopards. Kickoff on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium is at 7; you can see the game on ESPNU if you're not in the Princeton area.
Surace and Garrett have more in common than one varsity season together at Princeton.
Surace was the head coach at Western Connecticut in 2000 and 2001, putting together a fairly impressive 18-3 record in those two seasons. Then one day his phone rang, and it was an invitation to join the Cincinnati Bengals' coaching staff.
The caller? John Garrett.
During their time in Cincinnati, the two were neighbors who commuted to work together. They were close friends with families who were close to each other as well.
And tonight, they're on opposite sidelines. That was also the case two years ago, when Princeton and Lafayette last played (a 38-17 Princeton win in Easton in Garrett's first season with the Leopards).
The game is the final non-league one for both, who finish their season with six straight league games. Lafayette is 0-5, but the Patriot League figures to be a wide-open dogfight.
The Ivy League does as well. There are currently five unbeaten FCS teams, and three are in the Ivy League - Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale. The latter two play tomorrow in Hanover.
Princeton is coming in off a tough 21-10 win over Columbia in the Ivy opener. The first of the remaining league games is next weekend at Brown, which is coached by former Surace offensive coordinator James Perry.
That'll be a different kind of nostalgia.
And that'll also be the halfway point of the season, shockingly enough.
The rest will be here fast - six league games, including one at Yankee Stadium against Dartmouth.
First, though, it's Lafayette tonight at home.
Old friends. It's always good to see them - even if you're coaching against them.
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1 comment:
I was on the wrestling team with Tim (I was not allowed to play football on Friday nights) and packed boxes of suspended ceiling grid strips at the US Gypsum plant in Cartersville, summer of 94'. He just received his scholarship to Princeton. He ate so much Tuna every day gettin bulked up, I thought he'd sprout gills. Good to see he excelled. We had so much football talent, Tim was far from the best player. We won state champ in 92'. He was a sophomore, but I dont think he started that year. Nice to see he made all-ivy. My other good friend from our team went on to be captain of Davidson's team. We were good at football. Tim was a great guy. Just thought Id look hom up. I was thinking about that hot/sweaty/loud as hell factory job we had workin around all those rednecks.
Guess who this is, Tim.
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