New Mentors, 1977 Edition

If you've never used the Daily Princetonian archives, then you're definitely missing out on some great stuff.

Maybe it's the historian in TigerBlog, but he can get sidetracked and re-sidetracked and sidetracked yet again when he goes into those archives. He'll start out looking for information on one subject related to Princeton Athletics, and then the next thing you know, he's reading about something fascinating that happened on campus in 1891 or 1919 or something like that. 

Of course, the archives are a great source of information on any historical events involving the Tigers. TB would like to thank all of the students who wrote for the Prince through the years, whether they went into writing or not (most did not).

Did they realize when they wrote their stories that the department historian would come to rely on them in 2021? Did they even comprehend how much help they'd be in the writing and fact-checking of the women's history book? 

Nope. They were either practicing a skill that would serve them well professionally or doing something that was fun at the time and that they probably look back on now with great fondness.

If you spend any time in those archives, you will see the evolution of newspaper writing and design, by the way. That, though, is a subject for another day, or for a senior thesis.

Oh, and HERE is the link, in case you want to get get lost in them yourself.

TB found himself there yesterday, in search of the earliest mentions of Peter Farrell, the longtime women's track and field coach. As was typical, he found himself reading a few stories that had nothing to do with Peter, as they were written before he was even born.

Eventually, though, he got back to the point at hand. And so it was that he found a story from Oct. 10, 1977, introducing new eight Princeton coaches – "mentors," the story called them. 

One of the coaches mentioned was Betty Logan, who was hired to coach field hockey and lacrosse. Logan's story is told in the history book, and it is a fascinating – and sad – one at that, as it talks about how Logan was born in London in 1942, sent to Scotland as a baby to get away from the war and then raised in an orphanage there. 

Another of the coaches was Kris Korzeniowski, a former Polish Olympic rower who would have a huge impact on the overwhelming early success of the Princeton women. There was also a new head women's swimming coach, a graduate of the University of Tennessee – and it wasn't Susan Teeter, another Volunteer who would coach the Tigers for 33 years. Instead, this one was Jane Tyler, an Olympic gold medalist in 1968 and 1972 who led the Tigers to a 44-9 dual meet record and five Ivy titles in six seasons. 

Then there were the two track and field announcements. Both of them would become legends.

One was Fred Samara, hired as an assistant coach under Larry Ellis. The announcement described this way: 

The 27-year-old athlete is a four-time Penn Relays champion and 1975 national AAU decathlon champion, ranking sixth in the world that year.

Samara of course is still at Princeton, still winning league championships and producing athletes of the highest quality. In fact, two of his current athletes recently competed in the Tokyo Olympic Games. 

The other coach was Peter Farrell, hired to be the first coach of varsity women's track and field. The release said this:

An NCAA indoor All-American in 1967 and 1968, he was the IC4A champion in the 1,000-yard run, and was ranked fifth in the country and 14th in the world in 1967.

As you probably know, Farrell coached at Princeton for 39 years, winning 27 Ivy Heps titles - nine each in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. Farrell and Samara are the only two Ivy League track and field coaches who have ever led their programs to the "triple crown" of winning all three titles in one academic year, something both accomplished multiple times.

Farrell was recently named as a member of the US track and field coaches' association Hall of Fame Class of 2021. He'll be inducted this December in Orlando.

Peter Farrell has given so much of himself and his life to the sport of track and field, and he has impacted the lives of so many athletes on his watch. If anyone deserves to be in that Hall of Fame, it's Farrell.

From TB's perspective, he can tell you that one of his absolute most favorite things to do during his more than 30 years of being associated with Princeton Athletics has been to spend time with Peter Farrell. He is a very, very special human being and a real Princeton treasure in so many ways.

Hall of Famer? He's long been one to TigerBlog.