The Puck Chasers

When TigerBlog first started doing this (writing this blog every day, that is), he was asked what he was going to do in the summer.

He figured he'd come up with something. Maybe rerun earlier entries. Maybe only go three days a week. 

If worse came to worse, though, he figured he could always just tell funny Pete Carril stories. 

He certainly has plenty of them, that's for sure. Here are two of them:

1) There was the time that TigerBlog was sitting in the middle seat on an airplane, one row behind Carril, who was in the middle in front of him. To Carril's left was then-assistant coach Bill Carmody. To Carril's right was an older gentleman; Carril was probably around 65 at the time.

Anyway, Carril was working on a crossword puzzle, and the old man kept looking down at the newspaper Carril had, mumbling "21 down is such-and-such; 40 across is this." Each time he did it, Carril just nodded at the man and smiled. Finally, when he went to do it again, Carril said, in classic fashion: "Yo, Pops, when I want your help, I'll ask for it."

2) When told one of his players had made the all-tournament team at an in-season tournament, Carril's response was? "So did the guy he was guarding."

Okay, so TB may have told those before, but they're classics.

When he has no idea what to write about these days, he goes to the Daily Princetonian archives and looks back to this day in history. For instance, today he goes back 100 years.

That would be Jan. 6, 1921. 

There wasn't any huge athletic news that day, other than the fact that there was no ice in Buffalo over the holidays, which cancelled the hockey team's trip there. The best part of the story was that the hockey team was not referred to as the hockey team or just "hockey" but instead as "the puck chasers."

That's a great nickname.

Hockey at Princeton was already more than 20 years old by 1921. What it had that season that it never had before was an actual head coach, as opposed to a captain who ran the team. 

That first head coach was named Russell Ellis, who would lead the Tigers to a 4-4 record (the games in Buffalo never got rescheduled). As of Jan. 6, 1921, though, Ellis hadn't been hired. In fact, according to the story, no coach had been yet, though there was a promise of one in the near future.

Also by 1921, Princeton had won three national championships in hockey, including in 1912 and 1914, when the star was Hobey Baker, for whom the Princeton home rink, and the trophy for the best player in college hockey each year, is currently named. 

Baker, by the way, once played all 73 minutes of an overtime game against Harvard.

There were other stories in the paper that day.

There was a review of the eight games the basketball team played over the holidays, going 5-3. The losses came to Cornell and two teams that are now Division III - Chicago and Wittenberg. Of course, on that same trip, Princeton also defeated Syracuse, Cincinnati and Ohio State. 

The Syracuse game was described this way: "On the following night the team met the strong Syracuse quintet, who were handily defeated 27 to 21. The men showed the result of the previous evening's experience, and their excellent team work was very encouraging. The passing and shooting improved, and a fighting spirit was noticeable."

That by the way is still a winning formula today, though 27-21 these days means a close game in the first half, not a "handily defeated" opponent.

Lastly, there was also a story about a call for students to compete on the track and field team. It had this headline: 

"Men With Or Without Experience Are Urged To Report And Be Coached."

That sounds more like a military recruitment. 

Anyway, that's a brief stroll through the Daily Princetonian of 100 years ago today. 

When the hockey team returns to playing, TB promises to refer to it as "the puck chasers" as often as he can.