In The ’56 Lounge

Lola Wheeler, a current senior, was a netball player in her native England before coming to Princeton. 

Eager to continue her athletic career, she decided to walk on to the women's open rowing team when she got here. She's been part of the program ever since.

Cosmo Iacavazzi is one the greatest athletes Princeton has ever had, a legendary football player on the great Tigers teams of the mid-1960s.

TigerBlog introduced them to each other Saturday afternoon in the Princeton Stadium Class of 1956 Lounge. As he did so, he couldn't help but think about what this meeting says about Princeton Athletics and what it has almost meant.

First, some background.

Lola emailed TB last week to talk about a project she was doing for a class. The basic idea is that she is writing about what it is like for highly competitive athletes when their athletic careers come to an end, whether that is on the college, professional or international level.

TB put her in touch with the first two people who came to mind, both of whom are Princeton alums who were former Olympians. The first was Donn Cabral, the 2012 NCAA steeplechase champion and two-time Olympic finalist whose running career has recently ended. The other was Cathy Corcione, a 1968 Olympic swimmer when she was only 15 who was one of Princeton's first women athletes (and a four-time individual national champion with the Tigers).

Beyond those two, the lounge Saturday figured to be a great place for Lola's research, since there would be a reception (organized by Associate Director of Athletics Kim Meszaros) there that figured to be teaming with former athletes. As it turned out, that was the case.

During the course of the game, Lola was able to talk to several former athletes, from different decades, different sports, different levels of competition. She got answers that were funny, serious, in-depth, heartfelt — often from the same people. 

At halftime, Cosmo walked past the two of them, and that's when TB introduced them. Here you had so much of what is great about Princeton Athletics, all in one really quick snapshot. 

You had two people for whom the ability to compete in sports has meant so much, and in Lola's case, that meant learning something completely new just to be able to continue her athletic career. You have two people whose athletic experience at Princeton has done so much to shape who they are.

And yet they have almost nothing in common. Princeton didn't have women when Iacavazzi played. Now it's been more than 50 years since women first competed. Cosmo is a Hall of Fame football player. Lola is a walk-on rower. Cosmo is from Scranton. Lola is from England. Cosmo graduated nearly 60 years ago. Lola will graduate this year. 

None of that matters, though. They share that common bond of being Princeton athletes. It's special, and it lasts forever.

It certainly did in the case of Ed Weihenmayer. He wasn't at the reception Saturday, at least not in body. He was certainly there in spirit.

Weihenmayer passed away in June at the age of 81. He was the captain of the 1961 team, so he was there just before Iacavazzi.

An undersized offensive lineman (it's possible he was the last Princeton offensive lineman who didn't weigh at least 200 pounds), Weihenmayer had a zest for life that was remarkable, and he and his family traveled the world for one adventure after another. Wherever he went, though, he never fully left Princeton, a place that he loved his entire life.

Weihenmayer was an engineer who stepped away from that career to become a Marine Corps fighter pilot who flew 118 missions during the Vietnam War. After he returned, he had a long career on Wall Street in human resources, and he then retired and became the manager of his son Erik's climbing career. 

Ah yes, Erik Weihenmayer. 

If the name is familiar, it's because there has never been anyone else quite like Erik Weihenmayer. Born with a degenerative eye disease, he fully lost his sight by the time he was 13. Has that slowed him down? Uh, no.

Erik is one of about 250 people all time who have summited the highest mountain on all seven continents. That includes Mount Everest, by the way. He did all this without the benefit of vision (check out the documentary on his Everest climb entitled "Farther Than The Eye Can See").

Erik was one of about 10 or so members of his family who were also in the ’56 Lounge Saturday. TB had met him before and had spoken to him last week to write THIS STORY about his father, but everytime TB is around him or hears him speak, he is just mesmerized. 

How can you not be? Here is a blind man who has summited the highest peaks in the world and who has served as such an inspiration to so many others. Like his dad, he is also defined by his humility and absence of any pretentiousness. 

So maybe the game itself didn't end the way TB and every Princeton fan was hoping. Still, the lounge provided something that in many ways was as special as a championship would have been.

It was a reminder, once again, of what Princeton Athletics is trying to be and is.