Amy And Merrily

The First 50 Podcast With Merrily Dean Baker And Amy Campbell

TigerBlog is pretty sure that most goalies get started the same way.

The coach of the team of little kids is at practice one day and says they need a goalie. Is anyone interested?

And only one hand goes up. And so is born another goalie.

It's a thankless position. TigerBlog can tell you from first-hand experience that it can be brutal to be the goalie's father. As he's said before, every time a goal is scored, everyone looks at you like if you'd done a better job raising your child, the ball or puck would not be in the goal.

Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh. Still, it's a tough position to play.

On the other hand, it usually means a chance to play. And that's all that Amy Campbell was looking for when she put her hand up at the first day of field hockey tryouts for her college team.

Campbell told that story when she appeared on the second episode of "The First 50" podcast, a bi-weekly conversation devoted to the celebration of the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton.

The podcast is hosted by Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan, and by TigerBlog. The guests on the second episode were Amy and Merrily Dean Baker.

Campbell was one of Princeton's top athletic administrators from 1988-99. Baker, of course, was the one who started the women's athletic program 50 years ago.

TB has known Campbell for several decades. He only met Baker back in January, though he knew a lot about her - and especially the extremely high regard in which she has always been held by everyone who has ever mentioned her.

Campbell and Baker both were athletes in the pre-Title IX era, when opportunities for girls to play sports were limited. In fact, it often was a function of where you happened to grow up, since some areas were way ahead of others when it came to providing those opportunities.

The two of them spent their careers working to expand those opportunities, both in compliance with the law itself but more so because it was the right thing to do. At Princeton, they both made dramatic impacts.

The conversation with the two and with Mollie lasts more than 50 minutes.

TB was timing it as they went along, and he kept alerting Mollie about the time every five or 10 minutes. As was the case in the first podcast, with Margie Gengler Smith and Helena Novakova, he couldn't believe how quickly time was flying by.

Campbell and TB worked together for many years at Princeton. Among TB's first memories of his time in the department is the extreme professionalism with which Campbell always handled herself and the high standards that she set, both for herself and everyone else there.

She was a huge believer in equity, and she had no tolerance for those who did not see the reasons why that was. 

Her personality comes out really well in the conversation. She's always been very laid-back and very thoughtful, and a deep-thinker on top of that. She can be very soothing and comforting, with a great empathetic quality to her.

As for Baker, she is sort of the original Mollie, or what Mollie would have been like if the charge had been hers to start women's athletics at Princeton. They actually have much in common, most notably their unbridled energy and their focus on staying true to the task and the mission at hand.

Every time TB hears Baker talk about what she did in the early 1970s to get the women's programs off the ground, he can see Mollie's having done it pretty much the same way.

The conversation they have on the podcast showcases that. Baker has just turned 78, but she has lost nothing off her fastball. And she certainly has lost nothing off her verve, which is one of her most defining characteristics.

The first two episodes of the podcast have been exactly what TB was hoping it would be. It's the story of women's athletics being brought to life, and not just in a way that says what event happened when.

It's more about the people who took it from its origins and made it into what it is now. And it's about the lessons that Princeton Athletics, and athletics in general, have taught the people who have been most involved in them. 

TB hopes you enjoy this episode. 

It's with two women who deserve an extraordinary amount of credit for what Princeton women's athletics is today.