Happy Anniversary

TigerBlog recently finished "The Queen's Gambit," the Netflix miniseries about a girl who learns chess from the janitor at the orphanage where she lives and then grows up to be as good a player as there is in the world by the time she's 20.

It's a great show. There are seven episodes, and each one of them is really compelling. Even if you know nothing about chess other than which way the pieces can move, you'll still be drawn in to the series.

TB is one of those people who knows which the pieces go and not much else. It got him wondering if his complete lack of knowledge of strategy would be mistaken for hitherto unseen genius were he to play a master player and therefore cause confusion on the part of someone who indeed is an expert.

He doubts it. 

He did wonder why all of the other masters that the lead character dusted on her way to the top were able to coach her. It's not like a physical sport, where the coach can have the mental ability to design winning strategy but not the ability to execute it.

Ah, but TB nitpicks. The show, as TB said, is great. 

Seguing from the chessboard to the gridiron, today is the 151st anniversary of the first college football game ever played. It was on Nov. 6, 1869, in New Brunswick, between Princeton and Rutgers.

As an aside, today is also the birthday of Kim Meszaros, the former Princeton Presidential Award winner and the Executive Assistant to the Director of Athletics. Happy birthday to Kim. And also happy birthday to MotherBlog, who would have been 81 today.

Meanwhile, back at the first football game, a year ago was the huge celebration of the 150th. Round numbers get all the perks. Here's what TB wrote a year ago today:

It was 150 years ago today that 25 Princeton men got on a train and went to New Brunswick to take on 25 of Rutgers' finest in the first college football game ever played. And so what if what they played doesn't quite resemble what college football currently looks like. That damp Saturday afternoon in New Brunswick is where it all started. The game back on Nov. 6, 1869, was played under rules that allowed players to touch the ball with their hands and to bat it towards the goal. The point was to kick it into a goal, and the game would end when 10 goals were scored. And full contact was allowed.

Princeton lost the first game to Rutgers and then won its next 11, even though it would take seven years to play those 11 games.

The Tigers beat Rutgers in the second meeting of 1869, one week later in Princeton, and then won the only game in 1870. The teams did not play in 1871.

In that season, Princeton didn't play any real games, only unofficial meetings with a team from the Seminary. As such, the official records don't reflect any games in 1871.

That was 149 years ago. It's also the last time there was a fall where Princeton played no official football games. 

Until this year, of course. If that trajectory repeats, then the next time there won't be a fall with Princeton football would be 149 years from now, or 2169. TB will probably not still be writing by then.

Here's a quick trivia question for you. Other than Rutgers, Princeton only played one school between 1869 and 1880 that is not a current Ivy League school. Can you name the school? 

TB will give you a few paragraphs for that.

It was 52 weeks ago today that Princeton had its practice at Yankee Stadium in advance of its game against Dartmouth to celebrate the big anniversary.

This year wasn't going to be a major reunion year, as it were, for the anniversary. But it's still the anniversary of that game, which is one of the most important dates in American sports history.

Everything that college football has become all these years started with that game. And so this date will always be a significant one, and a source of pride for Princeton Athletics, round number or not. 

Oh, and the trivia answer?

Stevens Tech.