It's been two weeks since Pete Carril passed away, and TigerBlog continues to hear from people who want to share their own stories of the man so many of them knew as simply "Coach."
Pretty much all of them have been great.
It's a real testament to just how many people were touched by Carril through the years. He was definitely the kind of person who made an impact on you when you met him, even if it was only once. He's not someone whose words were easily forgotten, and he took over any room he was in with a simple "Yo."
TigerBlog has shared a few Carril stories with you already, but here's another one:
There was a time when an overseas coach came to Carril and asked him to travel with him to teach his team Carril's offense. Instead of that, Carril told the other coach to come see him and he would teach him and then he could teach his team.
"After about 10 minutes," Carril said, "I said to him 'no offense, but it would take less time for me to fly there and teach them than it will to stay here and teach you.'"
For some reason, as TB was driving this weekend, he was reminded of how Carril drove a large, dark blue Oldsmobile that the University gave him as part of his contract. When Carril retired, he either gave the car back or the University took it back (and discontinued the practice), but however it happened, the car became part of the department's motor pool.
That was when there was a motor pool, so department members could sign out cars to go on the road. TB signed out Carril's car for every away men's basketball trip, and the car became known as the "Hall of Fame car."
The first time TB used it, he found Carril's umbrella in the trunk. It became a symbol, something that stayed in the car and went unused forever, or at least as long as TB had the car.
TB hasn't thought about that car in a long time, and he's not sure why he thought of it over the weekend. It did make him smile.
The Princeton men's basketball team has been in Spain for almost all of the time since Carril's death, which seems somehow appropriate and, well, respectful, given that Spain was the home of Carril's father Jose and Carril was very proud of his Spanish roots.
Here's part of how the team spent its Sunday:
Spending this Sunday in a different kind of temple. #CampNou #FCB #LosTigresEnEspana pic.twitter.com/lWeldFyt2Q
— John Mack (@jlmack00) August 28, 2022
That stadium is the home of one of the highest profile teams in all of sports, FC Barcelona. The stadium seats 99,384 (no idea why they didn't push it past 100,000, but okay).
The home team played Real Valladolid yesterday, winning 4-0. If TB had to guess, he figures that it was an incredible experience for the Tigers in a series of incredible experiences. It also appears that the team had good seats.
Okay, one more Coach story.
There haven't been too many bigger characters in Princeton Athletics history than former longtime volleyball coach Glenn Nelson. He might be the only one who didn't call Carril "Coach," since he called everyone "Cuz."
Nelson was a great volleyball coach and a great storyteller. He could have had a long career in comedy had he gone in that direction.
He and Carril were close. They played a lot of tennis together through the years. After Carril began coaching in Sacramento, he'd come back to Jadwin in the summer. On one such occasion, he came into TB's office when Nelson happened to be there.
They had this actual conversation:
Nelson: Coach, remember how I asked you to get me some Sacramento gear and you gave me those shorts?
Carril: Yes.
Nelson: Here's your wallet. It was in the pocket.
Then he flipped it back to him.
Ah, TB has a million more just like that one.
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