Record Tied

This was the second straight weekend in which TigerBlog set his clock back an hour. 

Twice? How's that? 

The first tine was last Saturday/early Sunday in Italy, which turned its clocks back one week earlier than the United States. This was especially helpful since the bus for the airport left at 6 am. 

The second time was obviously this Saturday. TigerBlog can tell you from long-ago experience that it's not a great morning for parents with babies and toddlers, who don't quite understand what having an extra hour of sleep is supposed to mean. 

So yes, that was how TB came to set the clock back twice in one year. That's a record for him.

It's because of a different record that TB will put off for a day talking about a pair of championships from this past weekend. 

No, today belongs to Princeton head football coach Bob Surace. 

When TigerBlog thinks about unbreakable Princeton records, the first that comes to mind is Bill Bradley's 2,503 career points in basketball. Despite the fact that he did it in three years with no three-point shot, Bradley's record hasn't come close to being touched in the 60-plus years since he did it. 

Then there is Michael Sowers in men's lacrosse. Sowers had 302 points. To put that in perspective, Coulter Mackesy is in second place, 54 points back of Sowers. Nate Kabiri enters his senior year 95 away; nobody has ever had more than 90 in a season, and that was Sowers. And if someone does get that many points, they won't be close to his points per game of 6.423. That's nearly two full points per game more than anyone who has ever played at Princeton. 

If you look at pro sports, there are certain records that will stand forever. Cy Young won 511 games. Nobody will come close. Look up how many assists Wayne Gretzky had. In case you didn't know, it's 1,963, which just happens to be more any other player has points. Again, no one will come close. 

One record that has always fascinated TigerBlog is Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in 1941. That's 85 years ago, and nobody has ever had a longer streak than Pete Rose's 44 in 1978. Why does this fascinate TB? It's because it wouldn't take years or decades to do it. All you need is 57 games, and yet nobody has come close. 

And this is what brings him to Bob Surace. This past Saturday, Surace's team rallied to defeat Cornell 21-20 in a thriller on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. The win was huge for the Tigers, who got the help they needed Friday night when Dartmouth beat Harvard 24-14. 

As such, the Ivy standings now have a three-way tie at the top with Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth all at 3-1. And guess who comes to Princeton this coming Saturday? That would be Dartmouth, who will be here for a kickoff at noon. 

Princeton won the Cornell game despite 1) having only 14 rushing yards, 2) being out-first-downed 27-15 and 3) losing the time of possession stat basically 40 minutes to 20. Princeton won the game with three Josh Smith touchdown receptions, including the game-winner with 1:33 to go. 

Princeton had two quarterbacks who both threw for at least 124 yards and had at least one touchdown pass. When was the last time that happened? Maybe in the Harry Nakielny/Brock Harvey days, when they'd rotate series by series? 

TB will try to look that up.  

In the meantime, that win Saturday was the 89th for Surace, tying a 96-year-old record for wins by a Tiger football coach. Surace, who is now tied with Bill Roper, got a game ball from Equipment Manager Clif Perry. 

It’s Brotherhood. @CoachBobSurace | #JUICE 🍊🥤 https://t.co/1SRms4VmwU

— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) November 1, 2026

What you see there is what you get with Bob Surace. 

To TB, this is sort of like DiMaggio's record. It takes more than 57 games obviously, but it also doesn't require a 40-year career either. This is only the 16th season of Surace's career at Princeton. 

If you look at the roster of Princeton head coaches, you'll see Hall of Famers, leaders of multiple Ivy championship teams, innovators in the sport's history. What you don't see, or didn't see, until Saturday was someone who could match that "89" of Roper's. 

And now Bob Surace has done that. It's even more impressive considering that he started out 2-22 before turning it around. Since then, he is 87-46 since, with four Ivy League championships. 

TB texted Surace after the game with his congratulations, and Surace came back with a thank you text of his own. Maybe this was a bigger deal to a historian like TB. 

Or maybe Surace was just too busy turning his attention to Dartmouth and the games after that, at Yale and home against Penn, with an Ivy title to be chased.