Congrats To Chas, Good Luck To Bullis

TigerBlog stopped in on the COSIDA website and was greeted by the face of his colleague Chas Dorman.

Chas was one of the sports information association's Rising Star award winners a year ago. There was a video on the site of the 2020 winners and the 2021 winners.

You can see it HERE.

Chas thanks a bunch of people for helping him along the way, including his old coworkers during his time at Penn and now the people he works with at Princeton, including TigerBlog, even if he mentioned TB last. Or was that saving the best for last?

He talks about being a bit old for a rising star, with his 40th birthday looming down the road and his wife and twin three year olds. He also talks about what has kept him in athletic communications despite the nights and the weekends and the constant challenges.

TB has certainly felt them. He's also seen a lot of people, really high-quality people, who gave up the field because of them. 

If you want to watch the video, great. If not, this sort of sums up what Chas was trying to say:

His basic point is that you work in sports, that you go to games for a profession. More than that, it is, to use Mollie Marcoux Samaan's favorite word, it's "fun" to be in this business.

Congratulations to Chas on his award. He's certainly been a welcome addition to the Princeton Office of Athletic Communications.

While TB is talking about his colleagues, and for that matter while he's using the word "fun," he wants to talk for a few minutes about another person he's worked with for a long time. That would be John Bullis.

If you don't know the name, John Bullis was hired by TB to be Princeton's first full-time video content creator. He's an enormously talented videographer and storyteller, and he's made some of best videos TB has ever seen in college athletics. 

He's done so many great videos at Princeton, and told so many amazing stories through the lens of his camera. They've run the gamut, from the TAGD videos (the one where Jesper Horsted narrates the poem that ends with "He marks not that you won or lost but how you played the game" while Princeton athletes of all sports are featured is TB's all-time favorite Bullis work) to the Tigers All-Access to mic'ing up players and coaches during practices and games and even to the tongue-in-cheek series "Who's the Tiger."

You can also add to that the documentary that he produced on Chuck Dibilio, the football player who went from rushing for 1,000 yards as a freshman to having a stroke several weeks later. The documentary told Dibilio's story, from the on-field success all the way through his recovery. 

In many ways, Bullis was ahead of his time as a college athletics videographer. He set high standards for production and content while at the same time being able to adapt as the needs changed with the explosion of social media.

John Bullis is also one of TB's all-time favorite people, and not just at Princeton. He has a huge heart, is extraordinarily loyal, is very much a team player and, more than all that, is just plain old fun to be around. When you were down or stressed or whatever and saw him in the office, things would just brighten up immediately. TB often referred to him, lovingly, as the big dog he's never had.

Bullis is now going to take a leave of absence from Princeton to pursue another of his passions: service. He is on his way to basic training – like Chas, a bit old to be considered a rising star, but he is going to give it his all. 

He has always talked about joining the military or law enforcement. He lost his best friend, who was killed in Afghanistan. This is his way of honoring him (in addition to the documentary he did on him), and it shows Bullis' truest colors.

He isn't leaving Princeton permanently. He will be back at some point. 

In the meantime, though, it won't be quite the same without him there. TB was in his office the other day and found a note that Bullis had left for him. It was one of the most touching things TB has ever read, and he was truly moved by it.

Thanks for everything, big dog.

Best of luck. And stay safe out there.