Picture Time

TigerBlog spent a great deal of time last week watching the Olympic field hockey qualifying tournaments.

His main point of interest, of course, was the Princeton field hockey team, which was represented on the Canadian team by alum Elise Wong and on the Unites States team by junior-to-be Beth Yeager. As it turned out, the Americans were among the 12 teams who ultimately will compete in Paris this summer. 

The U.S. team went into its final group stage game against New Zealand with both teams in position to advance. Yeager would score the only goal of the day, though, moving the Americans into the semifinals (where they would defeat Japan to clinch the Olympic berth) and sending New Zealand into the consolation round, its Olympic dream ended.

As TB watched the end of the broadcast, he could see the U.S. team's celebrating and the New Zealand team's heartbreak. Duncan Yin made this reference to Jim McKay in his guest entry earlier this week: 

If Jim McKay solemnly intoning the phrase, “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” reflects in any way what you want out of life, you could do a lot worse than to every year put on your calendar attending the Princeton-Harvard game.

You might not know its meaning if you're not quite in Yin and TB's age range, but it is probably the most famous scripted line in the history of American sports television. It came in the opening montage of ABC's longtime sports anthology show "Wide World Of Sports," with the great McKay's perfect narration and the flawless juxtaposition of an ever-changing moment of exultation with the sight of ski jumper Vinko Bogataj as he tumbled off the ramp on his approach.

This is from Bogataj's Wikipedia page (so it must be true):

The melodrama of the narration—which became a catchphrase in the US—transformed the uncredited ski jumper into an American icon of bad luck and misfortune. Meanwhile, having retired to his quiet, private life in Slovenia, Bogataj was unaware of his celebrity, and so was surprised to be asked to attend the 20th anniversary celebration for Wide World of Sports in 1981. He received the loudest ovation of any athlete introduced at the gala, and attendees such as Muhammad Ali asked him for his autograph.

A few hours after the end of the field hockey game, TigerBlog was going through the photos that USA Field Hockey had sent when he stumbled across one that is a modern day "thrill of victory, agony of defeat" all rolled into one:

TigerBlog has no idea who the two players are or if they know each other. The emotion that the photo captures, though, is incredible, no? 

While TB is sharing photos, there are a few others that have caught his attention recently. 

Here's one from the men's basketball game against Dartmouth two weeks ago at Jadwin Gym:

As soon as TB saw that shot, it reminded him of another picture he'd seen during a basketball game in Jadwin Gym. He knew it looked familiar.

Of course, there was only one Princetonian in the other photo:

That picture was taken during an exhibition game between the New York Knicks and the Atlanta Hawks on Sept. 25, 1973, a game the Hawks won 97-86. Bill Bradley was one of two Princeton alums in that game; the other was Ted Manakas (then with the Hawks but eventually cut and signed by the Kansas City-Omaha Kings), and both he and Bradley scored 10 points. 

Tickets cost $6. 

Here's another picture that TB caught TB's eye from last month:

That's Princeton's Adam Robbins and Sacred Heart's Dylan Robbins, before their teams played against each other at Baker Rink in December. That's a pretty good picture as well.

Besides, TB has a soft spot for siblings who play at Sacred Heart and Princeton.

And lastly, TB was sent this photo earlier this week:

This is from the 2001 Princeton Varsity Club Senior Banquet. That's Matt Striebel with his Roper Trophy on one side of TigerBlog and Trevor Tierney on the other side of TB. The other guy? 

TB wonders what he's up to these days.