Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to TigerBlog.

Where were you 42 years ago today? 

TigerBlog knows where he was. And he presumes that one of the current Supreme Court justices owes him a thank you.

It was 42 years ago this afternoon that TigerBlog, then a pre-law student at Penn, made his way up from Philadelphia to Bryn Athyn in Bucks County. The occasion? A high school football game between the Pennington School and the Academy of the New Church. 

It wasn't much of a game. Pennington played a slow first half but then rolled to the win 22-0 (it was 6-0 at intermission), tying the school record for consecutive wins at 18. TB remembers all of that off the top of his head, by the way. 

He was there to write a story about the game for the Trenton Times. He had never before written a sports story. He can't remember what he wrote, though he would guess it wasn't very good. 

TB did know that once he saw his story in the paper the next day, he was no longer a pre-law student. He had to dig deeply into the paper to find it. The lead story that same day: Steve Carlton won his 300th game. 

His starting salary, by the way, was $15 a story and 22 cents a mile.  

Since that start, TB can't imagine how many games he's covered, how many words he's written. The answer to both is "a whole lot."

And to think his mother always told him he couldn't make a living out of sports. 

The person who got him started in the newspaper business was Jack McCaffery, who was then at the Trenton Times before moving on to the Delaware County Times. It was Jack who asked TB if he wanted to cover some high school football games, something that TB had expressed no interest in and had not applied to do.  

When TB mentioned to Jack that he would be interested but that, you know, he had no idea what he was doing when it came to writing for a newspaper, Jack said that it didn't really matter. TB had become friends with Jack, by the way, after having the same work-study job at Penn as Jack's brother, whose name is Fran. 

Perhaps you recognize the name Fran McCaffery, who is now the head men's basketball coach at Penn. 

TigerBlog has quite often thought about what his alternate life would have been had he not stumbled into what started out as a hobby and would ultimately become his career.  

Had he stayed with his original plan, he just assumes he'd be a Supreme Court Justice by now, right? That would mean that one of the nine Justices wouldn't have the job at the moment. 

He'd have to guess that he'd probably have a little more money ($15 a story and 22 cents a mile doesn't go as far as you'd think). He'd also have missed out on having so many incredible experiences and meeting so many amazing people. 

His work in this business has literally taken him around the country and the world. He's seen Princeton teams play in eight different time zones (including international trips, obviously). 

He has no doubt that he took the right path for himself. The challenge to be creative, the people he's worked with and the opportunity to be part of so many great moments  in Princeton Athletics history — these are things that he can't imagine having missed out on for all these decades. 

Even today, he still wakes up happy that this is how it's all worked out for him. 

This Friday will be a big field hockey game, between Princeton and Harvard on Bedford Field. TB remembers back to when he was covering the men's basketball team in the 1990s and there would be a big weekend ahead. 

He'd get this feeling of anticipation and excitement. He couldn't believe it was only Monday, only Tuesday. It's the same this week for the field hockey game. 

So for today's anniversary, TB would like to give a thank you to Jack McCaffery, whom he has not seen in a long time but to whom he is eternally grateful. 

Maybe Jack saw something in young TB. Maybe he just needed help covering games. 

Whatever it was, Jack told TB that day that "once you get the ink in your blood, you never get it out." 

How right he was.