Feeling Old

TigerBlog thought for a few decades that he would only start to feel old when the children of Princeton athletes he covered started to compete here themselves.

That actually started to happen a few years ago, with athletes like men's lacrosse player Jack Crockett (son of former football player Todd) and women's lacrosse players Ellie Mueller (daughter of former men's basketball player Kit and Lane Calkins (daughter of former men's lacrosse player Ed).

As it turns out, that didn't really make TB feel old. You want to know what did? You want to know when TB has never felt older in his entire life? 

TB and TigerBlog Jr. (who is now 25, for those of you who remember when he was a ballboy at Princeton basketball games) were driving along the other day when the song "Love Stinks" came on. TB said that he saw the J. Geils Band and Billy Squier at the Philadelphia Spectrum back in 1981 and it was a great concert.

The fact that the concert was a more than 41 years ago isn't what made TB feel old. It's not that the Spectrum itself was torn down 12 years ago.

It's what TBJ said after that. It hurts TB to type these words:

"So, I have a question. How did you buy concert tickets back in those days?"

Ahhhhhhh. What do you say to that? 

"Well, there was the one cave where they sold the tickets, and it was next to the cave where they performed."

Now that was rough.

Anyway, speaking of ticketed events, HERE is the link to the Princeton Athletics ticketing site. For the record, this is not how TB bought his tickets to the 1981 concert.

There are two ticketed events at Princeton this weekend, and it is the home weekend set for the men's hockey team, who hosts Clarkson tonight and St. Lawrence tomorrow (face-off for both at 7). 

Princeton is coming off a split last weekend at RIT, who was ranked 20th heading in. The weekend began with this from the Princeton men's hockey Twitter feed:

20:00 (1st) Tiger Fight!

Princeton & RIT are underway! pic.twitter.com/E0v1dDUhUg

— Princeton Men's Ice Hockey (@princetonhockey) November 26, 2022

That's pretty good. After RIT won last Friday, Princeton came back with a 5-0 win Saturday, as Ethan Pearson had his third shutout of the season.

The ECAC playoffs are still three months away, so it's way too early to start thinking about who would be playing whom and where come March. At this point, you're trying to improve and pick up points along the way, especially at home, where Princeton will be this weekend and next (against Union and RPI).

You'll need tickets for the Prudential Center Sunday, and you'll want them too. That will be where Princeton heads to wrestle against two more Big Ten schools, Wisconsin (at 2) and Michigan State (at 4).

The Badgers are ranked 11th nationally. Michigan State and Princeton are both in the "others receiving votes" category.

Both basketball teams play on the road this weekend, with the men in Philadelphia tomorrow to take on Drexel and the women in Maine tonight to take on, well, Maine. The Tigers, who already lost one game to a blizzard when they were supposed to travel to Buffalo, won't have that worry this time around.

The women's hockey team, one weekend removed from playing two games in Nashville, are at Union and RPI this weekend. The fencing teams are at the Sacred Heart duels.

Closer to home, the men's squash team hosts Rochester Sunday at noon.

The Princeton campus will also be the home to the Big Al Invitational for men's and women's swimming and diving. The event runs from today through Sunday, with much more information HERE.

The Big Al Invitational continues to honor the memory of Alan Ebersole, a Princeton swimmer who passed away in an accident in Florida in October 2004. TB never met Ebersole, but he remembers the outpouring of grief at his loss and the way the Princeton swimming community rallied around the Ebersole family. Having this event, which has grown into one of the best early-season meets in the country, has to be very special to everyone who knew him.