Hall Pass

Remember Friday when TigerBlog told you that his counterpart at Brown, Chris Humm, was a really good guy?

Well, yesterday TB received an email from the Hummer with a picture of Princeton wide receiver Zach Kelly's first career touchdown reception. That was really nice of him to send it along, especially since it's a great picture, as you can see (photo by Louis Walker):

Also Friday, TB mentioned how high up it is to get to the press box at Brown Stadium. It's 114 steps, as the Hummer said.

TB went up and down three times. That's not a bad workout actually. He has no idea how many times the Hummer did it, but every time TB looked up, it seemed like he was either walking up the stairs or down the stairs.

For TigerBlog, it was a weekend spent in the car. He drove up Saturday morning to Providence, leaving at 6:30 for the 12:30 kickoff and getting back around 9:30. Then it was out again early Sunday, to head to Baltimore for the women's lacrosse scrimmages at Loyola - in the pouring rain.

It made for a busy weekend, but it was also a lot of fun.

One of the first people TigerBlog saw in the rain at Loyola was Patty Kennedy, a one-time assistant coach with the women's lacrosse team and the wife of Princeton men's soccer coach Jim Barlow. PK, as she is known to everyone, is one of the absolute nicest people TB knows, and he can't think of anyone who knows her who disagrees. In fact, she and her husband have to be the most universally liked couples you'll ever meet.

Behind PK, TB saw Theresa Sherry, the former women's soccer and women's lacrosse player and another one on the list of nicest people TB knows. Sherry also is on the list of Princeton lacrosse players who have won NCAA championship games with overtime goals, along with men's players Andy Moe, Kevin Lowe, Jesse Hubbard and B.J. Prager.

PK and Theresa were in town for the US Lacrosse National Hall of Fame induction ceremony the night before, there to support Rachael Becker DeCecco, who was joined by Princeton alums Matt Striebel and Ryan Boyle in being enshrined among the greatest in the sport's history.

Rachael, who does color commentary for Princeton women's lacrosse games, was also at the scrimmages.

Here's another picture that was sent to TB yesterday:

Those are Princeton's three newest Hall of Famers.

Here's a picture of the entire group that was inducted:

It is not shocking that in this picture, Striebel has the biggest smile and Boyle has the wryest smile.

Again, congratulations to the three new Hall of Famers. Also, he'd think Theresa Sherry has a chance to get there too; she's already in the the Northern California chapter of the Hall of Fame, which is the first step.

There was something completely fitting about having Boyle and Striebel go into the Hall of Fame together. Their lacrosse trajectories have been linked since 2001, the first year they were teammates, on Princeton's sixth NCAA championship team.

By now, the story is familiar. Striebel played attack for his first three years at Princeton, but Boyle took his spot when he arrived for Striebel's senior year. This moved Striebel to midfield, and it got Princeton an NCAA title - and Striebel called the best midfielder in the world by Inside Lacrosse several years later.

They went on to win three Major League Lacrosse championships and two World Championships, giving them six major championships together. TB hasn't looked up how many other combinations in lacrosse history have won six championships together, with at least one NCAA title, one professional title and one world title, but that list can't be long.

In TB's experience with Princeton men's lacrosse, which is considerable, there are two combinations that stand out above all others. One was the attack unit of Jon Hess, Jesse Hubbard and Chris Massey. The other is Striebel and Boyle.

As for Rachael Becker DeCecco, she is cut from the same personality mold as PK and Sherry. She also was, obviously, a force when she played.

In fact, her claim to lacrosse history didn't start with the Hall of Fame. It went back to 2003, when she won the Tewaaraton Award as the top player in women's college lacrosse that year.

To this day, she is the only player, male or female, to win the sport's highest collegiate award while playing on defense. That's an incredible accomplishment.

She is also the first Princeton women's player to reach the Hall of Fame, joining her coach, and the current coach of the Tigers, Chris Sailer, in the Hall. Together they won 35 of 39 games in 2002 and 2003, winning the NCAA title both times.

And now she's a Hall of Famer. So are Striebel and Boyle.

It was a great night for Princeton lacrosse.