Princeton's First Bushnell Winner

Jason Garrett, the current offensive coordinator of the New York Giants, was the second Princeton football player ever to win the Bushnell Cup as the Ivy League Player of the Year.

That was in 1988. 

The Bushnell Cup was first awarded in 1970. Of course, Ivy League football began in 1956, and there were All-Ivy League teams from the start. For that matter, there were All-American teams back in 1889, or 101 years from when Jason won the Ivy Player of the Year Award and 100 from when his brother Judd did so as well.

So why no Ivy Player of the Year from Year 1? It doesn't make much sense. 

How about other sports? The first year of Ivy League men's basketball was also 1956-57, and there was no Player of the Year until the 1974-75 season. 

Why?

Even weirder, there was no Player of the Year until then, but there was a Rookie of the Year five years before that. TB will have to find out why.

In men's lacrosse, there was no Ivy Player of the Year until 1974. In baseball there was a Pitcher of the Year in 1977 but no award for player or rookie until 1993. 

Again, why?

Anyway, Jason Garrett was the second Princeton football player to win the Bushnell Cup. Who was the first?

You know it wasn't Cosmo Iacavazzi or Stas Maliszewski or Ron Landeck, because the award didn't exist in the 1960s.

Here's the stat line for the first Princeton winner: 1,041 yards on 214 carries with 16 rushing touchdowns.  

The year was 1974. The player was Walt Snickenberger.

In addition to being Princeton's first Bushnell winner, Snickenberger is an a rather exclusive club that you probably don't want to be in, though it does speak to your individual greatness, In Ivy football history, only six players have won the Bushnell Cup on teams that did not have a better-than .500 league record.

Only four players did so before the league went to an Offensive and Defensive Bushnell winner in 2011. The only other Princeton player besides Snickenberger to be in that club is quarterback Chad Kanoff, who won the award in 2017.

Snickenberger's name is all over the Princeton football record book, among the all-time leaders in areas like rushing yards, rushing touchdowns and all-purpose yards. Among other things, his 3,173 career rushing yards are the sixth-best total in program history.

Walt Snickenberger came to Princeton from Ithaca High School. If that sounds familiar, it's because it's the same high school that sent, among others, Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan to Princeton. 

In addition to winning the 1974 Bushnell Cup, Snickenberger was a two-time first-team All-Ivy League selection and a 1974 first-team All-American. That does make him the only Ivy League player ever to be a first-team All-American from a team without a winning league record.

Again, that suggests a player who was extraordinary.

Walt Snickenberger passed away earlier this month at the age of 68.

From his obituary:
In his sixty-eight years, he wore many hats, from scholar and standout athlete, to loving husband, proud father, dog lover, and most recently, adoring grandfather.

TigerBlog also learned from the obituary that Snickenberger was married to his wife Wendy for 37 years and that they had three children, all of whom became college athletes: Alex, who played golf at Boston College; Mark, who played football at Hamilton; and Sally, who played field hockey at Vermont.

TB doesn't think he ever met Walt Snickenberger. He has seen his name in the record book for football for all these years, and he knows what a great player he was. 

There was something he didn't know about Snickenberger until he learned it from the obituary. In addition to being a three-time letterwinner in football, Snickenberger also lettered three times in hockey. 

This got TB to wondering if that had ever been doing before. He knows of athletes who played football and lacrosse, or football and baseball, or football and track and field.

But football and hockey? This had to be unique, right?

Then he realized how obvious the answer was. Hobey Baker and all.

Baker, of course, was only 26 when he died shortly after World War I. Snickenberger was 68. They both were gone way too young.

TigerBlog sends his condolences to the Snickenberger family, as well as all of his friends and teammates from Princeton.