The Princeton Cheetahs

TigerBlog was in the supermarket the other day when he overheard this conversation between a man and a woman who were pushing a cart together:

Woman: You want your pretzels?
Man: No, I'm going to get the Cheetos.
Woman: But those are your favorite pretzels.
Man: Sometimes you just feel the Cheetos.

TB isn't sure exactly what it means, though it seems there's wisdom in there somewhere. As it turns out, Cheetos were made by the same person who created Fritos. Annually, there are more than $4 billion worth of Cheetos sold worldwide, though none to TigerBlog, who has never really "felt the Cheetos." 

He does like their ads, though, featuring Chester Cheetah. You know Chester. He's cool.

You'd think there'd be more sports teams nicknamed "Cheetahs." In fact, TigerBlog can't think of one. There are all kinds of cats who are represented in the world of college mascots, including, of course, the Princeton Tigers. There are a lot of other Tigers out there (Auburn, Clemson, Missouri and Towson leap to mind).

There are also Lions, Wildcats, Cougars, Bobcats, Leopards and Jaguars. There must be some cheetahs out there, right? The cheetah is the fastest animal on Earth, and it's the only one of the Big Cats – the Tiger is the largest of them, by the way – who can't roar. That makes for a great nickname. 

The Cheetahs would have orange and black for their school colors. Princeton became the Tigers in the 1870s when they wore black shirts with orange stripes on their sleeves for a football game, and a newspaper account suggested they were "fighting like tigers." Perhaps if they'd said "running like cheetahs" then it would be the Princeton Cheetahs all these years. 

Taking that to another level, think of all the things that are alliterative here: Tiger Talks, Tigers Together, even Tiger Transit. They'd all have to have names starting with "C," like "Cheetah Conversations" and "Cheetah Community." Even the ones that weren't alliterative would be different: "Reading With The Cheetahs."

One current Tiger team that would have been equally as comfortable being known as "Cheetahs" would be the men's soccer team. 

These Tigers – stick with that – are fast and a bit stealthy. They don't roar. They just impose their will.

The men's soccer team has been on quite a roll of late. In fact, the Tigers haven't lost in just about a month, dating back to Oct. 6 and a 2-0 loss to Temple. That game left Princeton at 4-5 overall, though a win over Dartmouth a few days before that meant the team was 1-0 in the league.

Now? Princeton is 10-5 overall and 5-0 in the league after its 2-1 win over a Cornell team that has been ranked in the Top 20 for much of the season. The Tigers picked up goals from Walker Gillespie and Daniel Diaz Bonilla, but the easy choice for Ivy League Player of the Week was goalkeeper Jack Roberts, who made 11 saves, including these two:

Jack Roberts has 5 saves so far in the first half! Check out two right here.

Watch the game here:https://t.co/rX7Df6qzal pic.twitter.com/3qXOSQ934D

— Princeton Men’s Soccer (@TigerMensSoccer) October 30, 2021

The Ivy League standings now have Princeton at 5-0-0, followed by Yale at 3-0-2. Cornell is now 3-2-0; the other five teams have all been mathematically eliminated from winning the championship.

Princeton is at Penn Saturday night (at 7) and then at home the following Saturday against Yale. The Tigers need one win in those two games to ensure the outright title and NCAA bid, or maybe not even that much. A Princeton tie in either game eliminates Cornell, and a tie Saturday along with a Yale tie or loss would mean Princeton wins. 

In fact, Yale's game Saturday against Brown starts at 4 and so will be over by the time Princeton plays. A tie in that game clinches at least a tie for the championship for Princeton; a Brown win clinches at least a tie for Princeton and the NCAA tournament bid (in that case, Cornell could still tie Princeton but the Tigers would have the NCAA bid by virtue of the win last weekend).

On the other hand, Princetion hasn't won anything yet. A Yale win at home over the Bears Saturday and another win next week at Princeton and a Penn win over Princeton would give Yale the outright championship. 

In other words, Princeton has put itself in position to win but still has a long way to go.

The month of October was a great one for Princeton. It's put the Tigers in position for a bigger November, though with some major hurdles to go.

In the meantime, TB will be trying to figure out if there are any colleges nicknamed "Cheetahs."