Hockey News

The 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles were held three years after the start of the Great Depression.

Because of the worldwide economic collapse, it was difficult for some countries to send teams to the United States for the Games. The result in men's field hockey was that only three teams were able to compete - India, Japan and the host Americans.

The result was that all three countries were guaranteed a medal before the start of the competition. The gold went to India, which isn't surprising. In fact the only surprising part is that India managed to put together the funding to get there at all.

India won in 1928, when nine teams competed. India won again in 1936, in a field of 11. There were no Olympics in 1940 or 1944 due to World War II (India crushed the German team 8-1 in the 1936 final), and the Indian team won again in 1948, 1952 and 1956. Since then, the only other two times India won were in 1964 and 1980, while European teams have won seven of the last eight, including Belgium most recently in Tokyo. 

Meanwhile, back in the three-team field of 1932, Princeton was well represented on the American team, with four alums who were on the team that won bronze (and went 0-2, to be fully transparent). 

For some reason, only three of those athletes - Horace Disston, Samuel Ewing and David McMullin III - were listed as bronze medalists on the official Princeton list on goprincetontigers.com. The fourth Tiger, Warren Ingersoll, was omitted, something that was corrected yesterday.

Ingersoll, in the Class of 1931, rose to the rank of Major in World War II. He passed away in 1995 at the age of 87.

Ingersoll led a very accomplished life. From his PAW obituary:

He had been chairman and president of F. G. Okie, Inc., a pharmaceutical service company headquartered in Ft. Washington, Penn., until his retirement in 1978. He served on the advisory board of the Girard Bank and the township park board and as a director of the Bryn Mawr Hospital for many years. Waddy was a member of the 1932 U.S. Olympic team, won the U.S. Amateur Racquets Championship in 1940, and held membership the Gulf Mills and Pine Valley Golf Clubs, where he won championships several times. He was president of the U.S. Seniors Golf Assn. from 1973-75.

One note - Ingersoll is not the most famous Princetonian to come from his high school. Nope. Ingersoll went to St. Paul's in Concord, N.H., which is the same prep school that had sent Hobey Baker to Princeton 20 years earlier. 

While the subject today is hockey, TigerBlog has been following the current women's hockey world championships in Calgary, especially the Canadian team. Canada features two Princetonians, current player Sarah Fillier and recent grad Claire Thompson.

TigerBlog doesn't pretend to know much about international hockey, but his sense is that the Canadians and Americans are the favorites. Maybe that's because there have been 19 previous World Championships for women's hockey, and Canada has won 10 times while the U.S. has won nine times. The only time those two didn't finish 1-2 was in 2019, when Finland upset Canada in the semifinals.

Canada started the tournament with a 3-0 win over that same Finland team and then a 5-1 win over the Russians before yesterday's game against Switzerland, a team Canada was 11-0 all-time against prior to the game and had outscored 100-2 in those games. Next up is the final game of the group stage, against the U.S. tomorrow before the knockout round begins with quarterfinals Friday. The semifinals would then be Sunday, followed by the final Monday.

Fillier, the youngest member of the Canadian team, had a pair of goals in the first two games, while Thompson had two assists. 

Also, these World Championships come only six months prior to the start of the Winter Olympics. Women's hockey was first added to the Winter Games in 1998, and either the U.S. or Canada has won every gold and finished 1-2 each time except for when Sweden won silver and the U.S. won bronze in 2006.

Fillier and Thompson were key reasons why Princeton won the 2020 ECAC tournament championship and was positioned to make a serious run at the NCAA championship before the pandemic.

For all of the information on the women's tournament, click HERE.