Jadwin Gym once hosted a circus during which an elephant's weight collapsed the floor.
It's also had a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert. Really. It was back on Nov. 1, 1978. The band opened with “Badlands” and more than three hours later finished with an encore of “Rosalita,” “Born To Run” and “Quarter to Three.” Among the other songs played were “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Prove It All Night,” “Racing In The Street,” “Thunder Road,” “Jungleland” and “Backstreets.”
What else has happened at Jadwin? Eddie Murphy did his one man show there during his "Delirius" tour on Aug. 2, 1983. TB saw him three nights earlier at the Valley Forge Music Fair and can vouch for the fact that it was hilarious.
It was the site for one of New Jersey's most famous high school basketball games, one that drew an estimated 13,000 people to the building (Camden vs. Neptune in 1981). It's had all kinds of dramatic moments, with record-setting track performances, NBA games and NCAA championship events in fencing and wrestling.
What's coming in March, though, might just be the craziest stuff the building has ever seen.
The Ivy League men's and women's basketball seasons end in Jadwin from March 9-11 with the two tournaments, to which the top four teams will advance. If the start of the season is any indication, then get ready.
By the way, for ticket information, including how to buy all-session passes or single-game passes, click HERE.
So where to start?
Each team has played three league games. Between the men and the women, there are 16 teams. Only two are unbeaten — the Princeton men and the Penn women.
When Princeton lost 58-55 in overtime to the Columbia women Friday night, it meant that for the Tigers to get an Ivy League championship, Columbia would have to lose at least one game to another team in the league team, something it did not do a year ago.
So what happens? Columbia, riding a 10-game winning streak, was knocked off by Penn Saturday night at the Palestra. Princeton, who was 0-2, rebounded with a convincing 70-48 win over Cornell Saturday at Jadwin as Madison St. Rose had her best game with 15 points, Kaitlyn Chen finished off a 33-point weekend and Julia Cunningham pushed her career total to 932 points.
Just like that, the entire outlook for Princeton changed. Now, even with the two losses, Princeton would be assured of at least a share of the title by winning out.
Princeton plays its final non-league game Thursday at 6 at home against Hartford and then takes on Brown Saturday at 2, also at Jadwin.
On the men's side, Princeton improved to 3-0 with a 68-49 win over Columbia and a 75-68 win over Cornell, both on the road. Next up for Princeton is a trip to Brown Saturday and then Jan. 16 at Penn, which means the Tigers will play six of their final nine league games at home.
Right now, Princeton is ranked fourth in Division I in defensive rebounds per game and 19th in Division I in total rebounds per game. Princeton is also the No. 5 team in the country in rebound margin. Those are gaudy numbers, all of which lead the league, by the way.
The win over Cornell was the 100th Ivy League win for Tiger head coach Mitch Henderson, who became only the eighth coach in league history to reach the mark. Pete Carril, with 310, leads everyone, and that's not going to change any time soon.
The defending Ivy champion Tigers almost got a triple-double from Tosan Evbuomwan against the Big Red, as he went for 15 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. That's tantalizingly close to achieving something no other Princeton men's player ever has and only Leslie Robinson has done on the women's side.
There were five Tigers in double figures against the Big Red, led by 20 from Ryan Langborg. Princeton did what you need to do on a back-to-back weekend with a four-hour drive in the middle — it put Friday night's game at Columbia away with a 36-24 halftime lead and then had 15 players get in the game, with no player who played more than 27 minutes.
Right now, Princeton is 3-0. Cornell and Penn are both 2-1. Every other team is 1-2. Who are the easy wins? Who are the teams with no chance to make it to Jadwin?
The answer to both questions is: nobody.
If this is as wild as Ivy League basketball is after just three games, just wait until the tournaments come to Jadwin in March.
It figures to be madness.
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3 comments:
Here's something that I wrote that briefly discusses the Springsteen concert at Jadwin (that I was at), including a link to a bad recording of the Born To Run performance that night that was messed up by the band). https://sixsongs.blogspot.com/2015/02/jukebox-growin-up.html
Here's something that I wrote that briefly mentions the Springsteen concert at Jadwin (which I was at). There's also a link to a bad recording where you can hear the band screwing up Born To Run that night. https://sixsongs.blogspot.com/2015/02/jukebox-growin-up.html
The Springsteen concert in Jadwin that you mentioned caused a lot of problems. According to the 1/16/13 issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly, students "had stood on the metal folding chairs for much of the concert, grinding the tips of the legs into the basketball court and leaving thousands of circular scars. The repair bill was $15,000. Since that moment, concerts have been few in Jadwin Gym."
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