Love Me Tender

Happy 90th birthday Elvis Presley. 

He's actually been gone for longer than he was alive, having been born on this day in 1935 and then having passed away on Aug. 16, 1977, at the age of 42. 

There have been very few cultural phenomenons in this country who have been more impactful than Elvis. Back in 1956, his first movie — "Love Me Tender" — debuted, including in Princeton. On that day, the Daily Princetonian took a poll to see what Princetonians thought of the King of Rock and Roll.

There were four different groups who were asked for their thoughts: Princeton students, Princeton professors, Princeton residents and Princeton High School girls. According to the Prince, the percentage of those who said they liked Elvis broke down this way: 

Princeton students: 40 percent
Princeton townspeople: 40 percent
Princeton professors: five percent (hah, that's hilarious)
Princeton High School girls: 72 percent (that's lower than TigerBlog would have thought)

Princeton Athletics will honor Elvis by having no games today. It will also honor whoever might have a birthday tomorrow — Joan Baez? Dave Matthews? Jimmy Page? Crystal Gale? — without any games as well.

If your birthday is Jan. 10, though, you are going to be awarded no such respect. Princeton will be having a big weekend beginning Friday and running through Sunday, by which time there will have been 22 events having been contested. 

It's not exactly as busy as it was back on that weekend in November, but it's an avalanche of competition when you consider that there were only 19 Princeton events between Dec. 9 and Jan. 9. That's 32 days. 

So where to start? 

There are two big basketball games, one at Princeton (women) and one in Cambridge (men), as the Tigers take on Harvard. TB will have more on those games later this week. 

Besides, there's so much else on the schedule (which you can see HERE).

If you haven't been to the new squash center, you have a big-time chance this weekend, as the Princeton men and women host Yale Saturday and Trinity Sunday. All four matches begin at noon. 

On the men's side, the current rankings go like this: 1) Penn, 2) Yale, 3) Princeton, 4) Trinity. Princeton is 3-0 as the schedule starts to heat up, and the Tigers are 26-1 in individual matches in those three team events, 9-0 wins over Drexel and Navy and an 8-1 win over Williams.

For the women, those rankings go 1) Harvard, 2) Trinity, 3) Penn, 4) Princeton. Yale is currently seventh.

There's home men's and women's swimming and diving too, as Navy and Kenyon come to DeNunzio Pool Friday (5) and Saturday (11). 

Then there's the weekend in hockey. There are four games between the Princeton men and women, three of which are on the road. 

The women's team is at Quinnipiac Friday and then Yale Saturday. If you look at the ECAC standings, you'll see the Tigers in seventh place, 1.5 points behind Yale, while Quinnipiac is six points ahead, in fourth. 

The men's team has a home-and-home with Quinnipiac. Princeton is tied for sixth with Cornell, while Quinnipiac is seven points ahead of both, in first place. 

In other words, both league races have a long way to go. 

By the way, if you're a current Princeton student or Princeton High School girl, it's quite likely that your top Spotify list of 2024 does not include anything from Elvis. It's also possible that you can't name any of his songs. 

Sigh. 

It's not your fault that your generation's music is awful.  

Anyway, this weekend begins a long run of busy weekends, a run that will take Princeton all the way through the rest of the winter and through the spring. The last 32 days, which featured 22 days with no events at all, will vanish into the rearview mirror. 

Before all that, though, TB will be diving into his list of the top 25 Princeton coaches of all time. The amount of feedback he got on that subject yesterday was quite surprising. 

The list will be his alone, so let him know if you have any problems with what he comes up with. He started the project yesterday, and, hint — the first five to him are obvious.