Happy 108th

Happy birthday Joe Schein, Class of 1937.

You read that right. Class of 1937. 

Joe Schein turned 108 yesterday. He's Princeton's oldest living alum. If you're 108, that means you were born in 1915, or two years before the United States entered the war. That's World War I, by the way.

Happy Birthday to #PrincetonU’s oldest living alumnus Joe Schein '37, who turns 108 today! 🖤 🧡

Three cheers for Joe! pic.twitter.com/iYykgXu2I5

— Princeton University (@Princeton) February 23, 2023

If you think the world has changed a lot since you've been alive, imagine what it looks like to Schein, a retired psychiatrist. He was also a varsity athlete at Princeton, having lettered in fencing.

TigerBlog has seen Schein lead the P-Rade many times. TB also found this on a story about Schein on his birthday a year ago:

According to Princetoniana expert Greg Lange ’70, writing in the Princeton Alumni Weekly, Schein, son of Russian immigrants, was an excellent debater and athlete — captain of the state-champion fencing team from Barringer High in Newark, New Jersey. He entered the University as one of 11 Jewish students in the Class of ’37, lettered in fencing, won honors with his thesis on Baudelaire in Modern Languages, and was active in the pre-med society. Schein also organized and led some of the earliest Jewish services on campus, which often included Albert Einstein.

The fencing team this year got together to sing "Happy Birthday" for Mr. Schein. TB would like to join them in sending his best wishes.

With birthday wishes to start, today's business also includes a huge early season men's lacrosse game on Sherrerd Field, as Princeton welcomes the defending NCAA champion Maryland Terrapins to town. Face-off tomorrow is at 1.

The game is a rematch of last season's NCAA semifinal game, in which Maryland defeated Princeton 13-8. The Tigers actually outshot Maryland 49-47 in that game, but the Terps got a career-best 19 saves from goalie Logan McNaney in the win. 

If you count returnees from that game, Princeton returns five of its eight goals (two from Alexander Vardaro and one each from Christian Ronda, Coulter Mackesy and Alex Slusher) and Maryland returns four of its goals (two from Owen Murphy, one each from Kyle Long and Jack Brennan). None of that, of course matters. Yes, Maryland was hit hard by graduation (and suffered a really unfortunate injury when McNaney tore his ACL), but you'll be waiting a long time before the Terps run out of talented players.

Princeton is ranked third or fourth, depending on what poll you like. Maryland is ranked sixth. It'll be a great game.

While the lacrosse season is just starting, the Ivy League basketball and ECAC men's hockey seasons are coming to the wire, with two games left for each team in all three. 

The men's hockey team is on its way to Union and RPI, and almost all of the math favors having the Tigers at home next weekend in the first round of the playoffs. The top four seeds all get byes. The next four host a first round game (the first round is no longer best of three).

As for basketball, the women are home tonight against Harvard, with tip at 6. Princeton enters the weekend tied with Columbia (at Brown tomorrow) for first at 10-2, while Harvard and Penn (at Dartmouth tomorrow are both 8-4. 

Princeton, Columbia, Harvard and Penn are locked into the Ivy tournament, to be held at Jadwin in two weeks. The order of seeding, and the Ivy League champion (the regular season winner is the official Ivy champ) is very much up in the air.

Princeton ends the season at Penn, while Columbia hosts Cornell and Harvard hosts Dartmouth.

On the men's side, Princeton, Yale and Penn are all 8-4 and tied for first place. The matchups are the same as the women, with the sites reversed. Princeton and Harvard tip in Cambridge tomorrow at noon.

Princeton, Yale and Penn are all in the tournament, but they continue to pursue the championship. Columbia is mathematically eliminated. The other four are competing for the last remaining spot, and there are about a thousand different outcomes or so. 

It's the last weekend of February. It's a time of big early season lacrosse and end of season basketball.

And of course yet another happy birthday to Joe Schein.