Pro Day

It's pro day here at TigerBlog.

Princeton alums continue to make their mark in professional sports, and Tuesday night was something that might have been a first. Princeton had two players who scored a goal in the NHL on the same night.

Eric Robinson, who was the captain of the 2018 ECAC championship team, had a goal for the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was his second goal of the year - in three games played.

They were also Robinson's first two NHL goals, both of which have come against Montreal and Carey Price.

Taylor Fedun, another Princeton alum, is on his fifth NHL team in seven seasons, and he has seven career goals and 26 career assists, of which six of those assists have come this season with the Dallas Stars.

Fedun also added a goal Tuesday night, scoring in the Stars' 6-1 win over Vancouver.

That's pretty impressive stuff.

Also Tuesday, Max Veronneau, who had two goals and two assists when he went from Princeton to the Ottawa Senators last season, made his first appearance for the Sens this year when he played at Detroit.

Speaking of pro athletes, TigerBlog and Bob Surace had just finished their weekly podcast in the H.G. Levine Broadcast Center yesterday and walked back outside into the hallway when they saw Jason Gallucci, the Princeton Athletics Director of Performance.

With Jason was someone TB didn't recognize. He was clearly an athlete, and TB would have guessed he was a football alum until Surace didn't recognize him either.

That's when Jason introduced him. Turns out it was Mike Ford, the former Princeton baseball player and current member of the New York Yankees.

Ford certainly looks the part of a current Major League Baseball slugger, which is what he is. Ford drilled 12 home runs in 143 at-bats this past season, his first.

When Ford, who is the only one ever to be named the Ivy League Pitcher and Player of the Year in baseball, hit his first home run, TB mentioned that it's one of those accomplishments that can never be taken away. It stays on the resume forever.

The same is true of catching your first NFL touchdown pass, which is something that Princeton alum Stephen Carlson did last week for the Cleveland Browns.

Carlson's touchdown catch was not an easy one. He had to wrestle the ball away from Pittsburgh's Mark Barron and control it after that, all while making sure to get both feet down in the back of the end zone.

It was a great play. It also came on a night when it got overshadowed a bit by the nonsense at the end of the game, which Cleveland won 21-7.

Carlson's TD catch came on a pass from Baker Mayfield, making Carlson probably the only player who has ever caught a touchdown pass from both Mayfield and current Princeton senior quarterback Kevin Davidson.

In fact, Carlson caught 16 touchdown passes at Princeton, which is the third-best total in program history. Those 16 TD passes came courtesy of four different players. Can you name the four?

You already know Davidson is one of them. Who are the other three?

Two of them should be relatively easy right? John Lovett and Chad Kanoff.

The other?

While you think about that, TB was happy to see that Jesper Horsted was promoted from the practice squad to the active roster of the Chicago Bears. Horsted, a first-team All-Ivy selection in both baseball and football at Princeton, caught eight passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns after coming back from injury in the preseason.

Like Carlson, Horsted is also a tight end in the NFL. His debut will come in Chicago against the Giants Sunday.

Horsted is Princeton's all time leader in receptions (196) and TD receptions (28). During his Princeton career, he - as well as Lovett - also had touchdowns receiving, rushing and throwing.

And to whom did Horsted throw his touchdown pass?

Stephen Carlson.