TAGD 11

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TigerBlog had lunch with his kids the other day.

It's a bit of a rarity these days, what with both of them out in the world, making their own ways. It's always something he enjoys very much. 

There was a time that doesn't seem all that long ago when his two little children were regulars on the Princeton campus, at games and camps and preschool and who can remember what else? 

Well, TB can remember. How he could he forget? They were among the absolute best times of his entire life.

Today they're both in their 20s, with TigerBlog Jr. not all that far away from 30. How did that happen? If you've been reading TB since he first began doing this back in 2009, you're probably shaking your own head at that as well.

Miss TigerBlog, as you probably know, went from growing up on the Princeton campus to being a student on the same campus. She graduated in 2022 with a degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and as a four-time letterwinner for the women's lacrosse team. MTB ’22.

Today? She works in aerospace engineering while working on her master's degree in the same field. TB is impressed with his daughter. 

Why bring this up today? 

Because it's Tiger Athletics Give Day, that's why. 

What does one have to do with the other? That's simple. 

It's TB's belief that his daughter would not have been able to plow through the grueling major she chose the way she did without the balance that being a varsity athlete brought. That experience has left her with valuable life-lessons — and when TB says "life-lessons," he's not using that as a throwaway term but in a real, tangible, visible way — that she is applying now and will forever.

To have a life-changing experience like that is an immeasurable asset. Forget the championships (and Princeton won the Ivy women's lacrosse championship each of her years). It's that experience that is the biggest part of what Princeton Athletics is all about.

And that experience is what an investment in TAGD is all about. 

Giving financial support is always about what you are investing in and believing in the positives that your investment will bring. In this case, you can be 100 percent certain that your investment is having a big impact. 

TigerBlog is partial to his daughter's experience, of course. You can pick any team you want, though. Pick any player at random you want.

They all benefit from what happens today. And that benefit is then paid off in a big way by their lifetime contributions to society. 

Princeton Athletics has produced aerospace engineers, and so much more. There are doctors, lawyers, educators, coaches, business professionals, military leaders. They all draw every day on what they learned as Princeton athletes. 

TAGD began in 2014 as a way of celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first Princeton intercollegiate athletic event, a 27-16 win over Williams in a baseball game on Nov. 22, 1864. Full disclosure: TB forgot that this past Nov. 22 was the 160th anniversary.

As TB thinks back to the planning for that first TAGD, he remembers tons of ideas that were thrown around, any number of different names that were considered. Who would have guessed where it would have gone from there. 

Where has it gone? 

TAGD has grown from Year 1, when nobody in those meetings had any idea of what to expect, to now, where it is a wildly successful annual event that has helped provide the kind of experience that Princeton Athletics prides itself on being able to provide, for every athlete who comes through every program. 

As always, TAGD's rules are the same this year. Only gifts that are given from now through midnight tonight will count towards the challenges of total donors and total dollars. 

Today is a day of fun for all of those involved. There will be social media posts and friendly competition between the various Friends' Groups. There will be phone banks and outreach directly from the athletes. There will be celebrations of Princeton teams, past and present. 

Underneath it all, though, will be the real benefit of TAGD. 

Pick the team. Pick the athlete. Go back and look to those athletes from 2014, when TAGD first started, and see what they're doing today. Look ahead to what they'll be doing 10 more years from now, 20 more years from now. 

That's what your gift is supporting.