The Last Time In Tokyo

Trivia question – Princeton currently has four men's rowers who will be competing at the upcoming Olympic Games. Those four will represent four different countries. Can you name the countries?

Meanwhile, as a follow up to what TigerBlog wrote yesterday about former men's basketball player Justin Conway, there's a story from 2006 that's worth mentioning.

The Winter Olympics were going on, the ones in Turin, Italy. The Princeton men's basketball team was getting ready to play a game, and the coaches and staff were watching the biathlon on TV. Nobody spoke for a few seconds, until then-head coach Joe Scott said this: "You know who would be great at that? Conway."

It's a statement on the high esteem in which Scott, and everyone with the men's basketball team then, held Conway. 

TigerBlog is a big fan of the Olympics. He's never been to the Olympics, but he thinks it would be really cool to go at some point. As he's said many times before, if he could go to any sporting event anywhere that he's never attended, it would be the World Cup final first and then the Olympics.

Considering he's never been to a Super Bowl or an NBA Finals or an NCAA basketball Final Four, that's a big statement.

He has been to a World Series game. It was in the 1983 World Series, between the Baltimore Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies. TigerBlog was a vendor at Veterans Stadium that summer, and he spent his time hawking soda, hot dogs and beer throughout the upper decks of the massive facility. The money was decent, and he attended more than 50 games that year, including the NLCS and World Series.

If you know TigerBlog, you might have trouble picturing him walking around a stadium, handling cash, interacting with total strangers, spilling soda and beer all over him. You're not alone. TB can't imagine how he ever did that.

Meanwhile, back at the Olympics, the Summer Games are scheduled to begin July 23 and run through August 8 and will be held in Tokyo. These Games were supposed to originally be held last summer but were moved back a year due to the pandemic.

It's the second time that Tokyo will be hosting the Games. The first was in 1964, and Princeton was well-represented at those Olympics. 

There were five Princeton athletes in the 1964 Summer Olympics, and three of them won medals, including two golds.  One of the golds was won, of course, by Bill Bradley, who captained the United States to the gold medal in men's basketball. Bradley also won the 1964 Sullivan Award as the top American amateur athlete. 

Jed Graef won gold in the 200-meter backstroke in swimming. TB once wrote this about Graef:

Jed Graef won the gold medal in the 200 backstroke in Tokyo, just a few months after he 1) won the NCAA 200 backstroke and 2) graduated from Princeton. Graef won the 200 backstroke in a time of 2:10.3, which was the world record at the time. He led a 1-2-3 American sweep in the event. Graef's Olympic teammate, Gary Dilley (who swam at Michigan State), set the Olympic record in both the preliminary round and the semifinals, while Graef had the second-best time in both. In the final, Graef edged Dilley by two-tenths of a second, while the bronze medal went to Bob Bennett (a USC grad), who was nearly three seconds behind. 

Seymour Cromwell won silver in the double sculls, finishing behind the Russians and just ahead of the Czechoslovakians. Tragically, Cromwell passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1977 at the very young age of 43.

He was a member of the Class of 1956. The next time TB is up in the Class of 1956 Lounge at Princeton Stadium, he'll make sure to check him out in the class photo.

Princeton was also represented by fencer Frank Anger and cyclist John Allis. Neither won a medal. 

The Olympic Games coming up this summer will have more than five Princetonians, and the final full list of Princeton athletes in Tokyo is not yet completely filled. 

It does seem like every day, another Princeton rower is selected. Most recently, that meant Tim Masters a member of the Class of 2015, who will row in the Australian 8. It is his first Olympic appearance.

As for the trivia question, you have Masters (Australia), Fred Vystavel '16 (Denmark), Nick Mead '17 (United States) and Tom George '18 (Great Britain).