Now That's A Database

It's possible, though unlikely, that the good people who run the ncaa.com website sat around and said "how can we keep TigerBlog busy for a few hours?"

It is one explanation for the genesis of a new feature from the national office of intercollegiate athletics in Indianapolis. What feature? 

It's a database of all-time NCAA champions. You can access it by clicking HERE and scrolling down.

TB already has it bookmarked.  

As you probably know, TigerBlog is fascinated by historical information, especially as it relates to Princeton Athletics. It's in his title, after all — historian. 

This from the introduction: "This interactive database provides a visual overview of high-level information on every NCAA team and individual since 1921. Users can explore details including winners, runners-up, game and event scores, head coaches, season records and site/host information."

How cool is that? 

What's the first thing TB did? He looked up Princeton's NCAA champions, of course. 

You do need to keep in mind that this database only covers officially NCAA-recognized sports and events since 1921. Among the sports where Princeton has won many national championships are men's and women's squash, men's heavyweight and lightweight rowing and women's lightweight rowing, as well as football in the pre-FCS era.

Also, the NCAA list only recognizes men's golf champions from 1939 on. Princeton won national titles in men's golf in 11 times prior to that (and in 1940). 

To that end, Princeton has won 13 NCAA team championships and produced 54 individual NCAA champions. Interestingly, Princeton has four NCAA women's rowing championships, all for winning gold in specific races, and they're all counted under the individual wins. That's one championship per boat, not one for every individual in the boat.

Can you name Princeton's 13 NCAA team titles? TB will give you a few paragraphs to think about it. 

Princeton's 13 team titles ranks second in the Ivy League. First? That would be Columbia with 16 — all in fencing, half of which were from 1951-1971.

The 54 individual champions come from eight different sports. The breakdown is: men's swimming and diving (22), mixed fencing (11), men's indoor track and field (6), men's outdoor track and field (4), women's rowing (4), men's fencing (4), wrestling (2), women's outdoor track and field (1).

Which schools have won the most NCAA titles? How about the top five? It's likely that you will get four of them easily. 

In first place? Stanford, with 136. The next two? UCLA with 123 and USC (the one in Southern California) with 114. TB's colleague Andrew Borders, a UCLA grad, would not be okay if USC was ahead of his Bruins. 

The fifth-place team is Texas, with 60. What school has 62 and is in fourth place? 

Hint — There is a current Princeton head coach who contributed to the total. Hint 2 — That school also has the record for individual champions. Hint 3 — It's a bit of a trick question.

TB will get back to that shortly. First, there's the matter of Princeton's 13 NCAA team championships: 

* six men's lacrosse (1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001)
* three women's lacrosse (1994, 2002, 2003)
* one field hockey (2012)
* two fencing (1964, when it was men only, and 2013, when it was mixed)
* men's golf (1940) 

The answer to the other question? That would be Kenyon College. 

The Division III Owls have produced 597 individual NCAA champs. The breakdown by sport? It's one in women's tennis, two in women's track and field, three in men's tennis — and 593 in swimming and diving. 

Princeton head women's swimming and diving coach Abby Brethauer was on three of Kenyon's NCAA championship teams before graduating in 2002. She was also a 13-time All-American. 

Anyway, TigerBlog would like to thank whoever it was who did all the work to put this all together. If there's a way for the NCAA office to monitor who is spending the most time on this site, it's likely that someone there will, in a few weeks, say something like "hey, it's that guy from Princeton again."