Roar Forward

TAGD website

So TigerBlog was going back into the archives to see what he's written in the past about TAGD – that's Tiger Athletics Give Day, which is a 24-hour giving day that just happens to be today.

This year's version is Year 8 of TAGD, which has been an overwhelmingly successful endeavor that has achieved and exceeded any of its goals. It has raised a considerable amount of money, which goes directly to student-athlete experience. It's connected and reconnected former teammates. It's been just plain fun.

TB figured he'd go back to the beginning, to see what he thought of it back in 2014. The first TAGD grew out the 150th anniversary of the first Princeton varsity athletic event, which was a baseball game against Williams on Nov. 22, 1864. 

Princeton won that game 27-16, something that obviously isn't a normal baseball game score. Of course, the first football game was won by Rutgers over Princeton 6-4, which also happened to be the final score of the 2004 Iowa-Penn State game (Iowa won). Scoring four points in a football game almost never happens, since it requires to safeties and nothing else. There was one NFL game ever where a team scored exactly four points, and it was done by the 1923 Chicago Cardinals (they were in Chicago Cardinals before St. Louis and Arizona) in a 10-4 loss to the Racine Legion (an NFL team from 1922-24).

Ah, but TB digresses. Today, after all, is TAGD, and he'd like to keep his focus there.

As he said, he went back to 2014 to see what he first had to say about the event. He found a link to this video from the women's hockey team:

By the way, TB also saw that he wrote this on the day after TAGD that year: "TB's biggest fashion struggle, he supposes, is whether or not to tuck a particular shirt in or not. For instance, right now he's wearing a long-sleeve black Nike Princeton Athletics shirt and khaki pants. Should the shirt be tucked in? Let the record reflect that it is. Two things about this: 1) he laughed when he saw that because yesterday he wore the same exact shirt (not one that looks like it but the exact same one from 2014) and 2) he still isn't sure if he should tuck it in or not.

Anyway, that's more digression. And a bit embarrassing.

The women's hockey video is what TB meant about fun. They certainly were. Hey, that works just as well in 2021 as it did in 2014.

Well, other than the slogan. The one from 2014 was "It's a great day to be a Tiger." This year, it's "Roar Forward."

You can see different takes on "Roar Forward" on the social media accounts of all of Princeton's teams. TB helped direct the efforts from field hockey players Aimee Jungfer and Beth Yeager, who both were naturals at comedy. Again, it's all part of what makes the day fun. The two field hockey players certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves.

As TB watched them do their various videos, he wondered if they had a good appreciation for what was actually going on, what the real message is behind TAGD. 

For TigerBlog, it's about investing. TAGD is about creating the best possible undergraduate experience, which in turn attracts the best possible students and athletes to attend Princeton. 

They in turn benefit from their athletic experience, and in doing so, they also are being prepared to do great things once they leave Princeton. It's easy to get caught up in thinking about "the best and the brightest," but it's clear that Princeton Athletics has produced real difference makers in so many important post-Princeton fields: medicine, law, politics, engineering, business, service. 

That's who you're investing in on TAGD with your support for the teams and the athletes. It's a fun day, yes, but it's also a day to remember that when Princeton talks about "Education Through Athletics," it really does believe in what those messages and experiences mean.

So thank you again in advance for your generosity. As someone who has been here for more than 30 years now, TB can tell you that many of the very best people he's ever met have been Princeton Athletes.

Finally, he leaves you with this ... enjoy TAGD everyone: