To The Class Of 2021

TigerBlog smiled when he read what Nate Ewell tweeted the other day.

Ewell, who was a student-worker in TB's earliest days at Princeton, was one of the 1996 winners of the "Spirit of Princeton" award. He wrote this earlier this week, when the current winners were announced: "25 years later I can safely say that this honor was the coolest thing I'll ever win. Congrats to this year's honorees. Seriously, imagine being told you embody the spirit of the best damn place of all. It's enough to go to one's head."

The best damn place of all. Those words were written by Kenneth Sherman Clark, Class of 1905, for Reunions five years after his graduation.

That was 116 years ago. The spirit of the song still resonates.

If you have any doubt about that, then you didn't watch the Gary Walters PVC Awards Banquet last night. The common theme was the amazing bond that being a Princeton athlete creates, with teammates, with the other teams and with the University as a whole.

It's something that could have gotten lost during the last 14 months, as the pandemic disrupted the athletic experience of the current Tigers so completely and unfairly. Instead, it's something that came through perhaps more than ever.

As Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan said early on in the show last night, her hope is that the members of Class of 2021 always "draw strength and community from your teams." 

Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber also appeared during the banquet. His message was about persistence and resilience and how much the last 14 months have been an unwanted lesson in both of those qualities. Princeton Athletics, he said, are about making a difference for the better in the world.

The 2021 banquet was the 24th overall and second straight that was forced to be online due to the pandemic. Despite that, the event celebrated the soon-to-be-graduating athletes, complete with the highest departmental awards.

The hosts were men's volleyball player AJ Chen and field hockey player Julianna Tornetta, who brought a great deal of energy to their role. Chen, by the way, was a winner of this year's Spirit of Princeton award, the same award Nate won 25 years ago. 

There were 11 winners of the award this year, two of whom were athletes - AJ and men's lacrosse player Terrell Seabrooks (shot putter Kelton Chastulik was a 2020 winner). TB has never met Chen, but he has known Seabrooks since he first joined the men's lacrosse team. He can tell you without hesitation that he is wildly deserving of the award.

One of the highlights of every banquet is the awarding of the Class of 1967 Citizen-Athlete Award, given for outstanding contribution to sport and society. The winner this year is Vietta Johnson, an orthopedic surgeon and former women's track and field sprinter and hurdler from the Class of 1982. Johnson went from Princeton to Harvard Medical School, and her career has been one dedicated to providing care for those who otherwise might not have had access to it. 

TB got to know Vietta this year, first on a Class of 1982 call and then as part of the celebration of the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton. She is an amazingly impressive person, and her accomplishments are inspirational. She is a perfect match for the award.

Marcoux Samaan also presented the Lorin Maurer Award, named for TB's late colleague who passed away in a plane crash in 2009. Here is the wording of the award: Awarded to that member of the Princeton Athletics family who best reflects the passion, dedication and infectious enthusiasm that defined Lorin Maurer’s character and her inspiring impact on colleagues and friends. Awarded in the memory of Lorin Maurer h78, 1978-2009.

The winner was Associate Director of Athletics For Events Management Karen Malec, and who else could it have been after a year in which she did so much during the pandemic, going into work every day, helping to coordinate testing and vaccinations and doing so much else to keep the campus running while helping the athletes enjoy as much of a college experience as possible. 

The biggest awards are the Roper Trophy and the von Kienbusch Awards, given to the top male and female senior athletes. The Roper Trophy went to fencer Daniel Kwak, an NCAA runner-up and later NCAA regional champion in the year there were no national championships. Kwak, on the way to medical school, mentioned how honored he was to be joining a legacy of those who have won the award.

Another highlight for TB was the way the von Kienbusch Award was introduced by the first two winners, Helena Novakova and Margie Gengler-Smith, who happened to be the first two women ever to compete for Princeton. The winner was Clara Roth, who said it was overwhelming to be included on the list of winners. She didn't mention it, but she's the 50th anniversary of women's athletics winner as well.

The banquet ended with as it always does, with a video tribute to the seniors, in this case 153 of them, as well as the singing of "Old Nassau." 

It usually happens in a tent at the Grad College or in a dressed up Jadwin Gym. Hopefully, the 25th edition of the banquet will be back to normal.

In the meantime, there will always be something very, very special about this class, and the one before it. They didn't get the experience they wanted, but they left their mark as Tigers nonetheless, in a way that brought out the very best of them.