In all, they have 31 years of experience as the Ford Family Director of Athletics at Princeton. They are also three of the six people who have ever held the official title as Princeton's Director of Athletics.
There is also a Roper Trophy, a von Kienbusch Award, an NCAA Final Four men's basketball berth, 10 individual Ivy League titles, more than 20 individual All-Ivy League honors, a photo on the cover of Sports Illustrated and a photo in Rolling Stone magazine — not to mention countless coach hires, facility upgrades, work towards the integration and acceptance of athletes on this campus and the words that have come to define Princeton Athletics ... "Education Through Athletics."
There is no Princeton athlete since 1994 who does not owe at least one of these three people a huge "thank you" for the athletic experience here and the subsequent impact the lessons learned from competing here have had on each and every one of them.
Obviously, the three people are the current AD, John Mack, and his immediate predecessors Mollie Marcoux Samaan and Gary Walters. They are three people who have given a ton to Princeton Athletics and Princeton University in their lives and three people for whom being the AD here has been a calling as much as anything else.
By the way, who were the other three to hold the official "Director of Athletics" title? That would be Ken Fairman, Royce Flippin and Bob Myslik. And that dates to 1934.
All six were Princeton athletes. Again, being the AD here is a calling.
TigerBlog got to spend time with the three most recent ADs last week at the Nassau Inn, where they were part of a committee tasked with something that should appeal to any Tiger fan.
The group — which also included Tisha Thompson of the Class of 1999 and an investigative reporter for ESPN these days. She brought a great deal of energy and enthusiasm to the project. In fact, TB gave her a copy of his book on the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton, and when she asked him to sign it, he wrote this: "Don't ever change. The world needs your passion."
TB sees John and Gary often, obviously. It had been a while since he'd seen Mollie, and as such it was really good to do so. He and Mollie first met when she was a student worker in the Office of Athletic Communications (something Mack also did as an undergrad) and as such go way, way back.
If you've ever talked to Mollie, you know that she is a whirlwind at all times. It's just who she is.
What was the goal of this committee? It was to choose, and then rank in order, the 25 greatest athletes in Princeton history. Is there anything that sounds like more fun for TigerBlog?
The Princeton Alumni Weekly put the group together, and the results will be released in the magazine's January issue. As such, TigerBlog and everyone else on the committee are sworn to secrecy as to the names on the list, which, for that matter, isn't officially finalized quite yet.
What really stood out to TB was just how many great athletes Princeton has had in its history. Any exercise like this one is by definition highly subjective, but what is not disputable is that this list also was going to from the start have to exclude some athletes who won Olympic medals, are in Halls of Fame and are among the all-time greats in their sports.
It's a great problem to have to deal with if you're on a committee with that job.
As TB looks at the list now, he is struck by so many different aspects and how many really tough choices there were. He'd love to go over all of those with you right now, but that'll have to wait until January.
As he said, he's promised total secrecy until then.
So in the meantime, let him just say that it was a great process, a great group of people to work with and project that he hopes everyone will read and then share their own feedback.
It was also great to see half of Princeton's ADs in the same place at the same time.
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