Do You Remember

Here is something for you to start the new month:

Okay, so it's not the 21st night of September. Still, it is September, and that is the name of the song.

That video was recorded in 1990 in Japan. That's around the time that TigerBlog saw Earth, Wind and Fire in New York City, and it's among the absolute best concerts he's ever seen.

TB's favorite song by the group is "Fantasy," which is up there with the best songs he has ever heard. Across the board, though, the group has such a unique and powerful sound that he can't think of a single song of theirs that he doesn't like.

So now it's September. August certainly flew by, right? 

TB starts out the month by sending his congratulations to his colleague Elliott Carr on his recent engagement to Colleen Doherty, who works as event and administrative coordinator at the Ivy League office. The two were recently in Australia, Elliott's home country and a place he hadn't been able to go since the start of the pandemic.

You have to travel a long way to find a nicer person than Elliott. TB is very happy for the two of them.

Being that this is September, there are some other pieces of news for TB to share, though none are as big as Elliott's news.

First, TB has a new title, his 10th all-time at Princeton. This one is his favorite: Senior Writer/Historian.

That sounds pretty good, right? And speaking of titles, that leads him into the second thing he wants to mention.

Of all of his titles, none of them has had the phrase "sports information director" in it. Yesterday was the day for members of the College Sports Information Directors of America to vote on whether or not to change the name to College Sports Communicators.

TB wrote about this when the issue was first presented and said he wasn't sure how he was going to vote. He ultimately voted in favor of the name change, largely because he believes that the term "sports information" conjures up images of a profession that doesn't exist anymore. The organization has had the name, by the way, for more than 60 years now.

He's not wild about the name "College Sports Communicators," and he does like "CoSIDA" as a nickname. Still, he voted for the change, because, you know, change is often a good thing. Maybe "College Athletics Communicators" might have been better.

The results of the voting will be known today. TB will let you know. To change the name requires a 60 percent "yes" vote and a minimum of 10 percent of the eligible voters to have voted. The number that TB is most interested in is actually the percentage of people who voted.

Lastly, today — Sept. 1, 2022 — marks TB's first day on the NCAA men's lacrosse rules committee. It's a four-year term, and TB is one of four new members of the eight-person panel. Maryland head coach John Tillman is the chair, and there is representation across all three NCAA divisions. There's also a mix of coaches (five of them) and administrators (three).

TB has taken a unique road to the committee. His playing career is limited to an over-40 league in which he tore his patella tendon. His coaching career consisted of six years of coaching his son.

His lacrosse background is in communications. He has helped write the rules of statkeeping, which has required anticipating every conceivable scenario that could happen in a game. He's always been interested in the intricacies of the rules, and he has some ideas about ways to improve the way the game is played. 

At the same time, there have been a great number of changes made to the game over the last few years, almost all of them for the better.

He joins the committee on what is an off-year, since rule changes are for the most part enacted every other year. There is a chance to make rules changes that require immediate attention, but for the most part, this first year will be spent observing, discussing and getting a lot of feedback.

His term runs through 2026. 

Anyway, welcome to September.