Charlie Inverso inherited a Rider men's soccer team that went 2-15-1 the year before he got here.
Now in his fifth year, he's already taken them to one NCAA tournament and into the national rankings. This was after he won five national junior college championships and had a 434-46-14 record as the head coach at Mercer County Community College.
It was during his time with the Vikings when TigerBlog first met Inverso. Every now and then when TigerBlog was working at the newspaper, he covered MCCC events, usually either men's basketball or men's soccer.
Mercer County Community College connects with Mercer County Park in a huge, spacious, in some ways beautiful piece of land in West Windsor, about 15 minutes from the Princeton campus. The park includes a rowing center that has been the home for NCAA championships and U.S. national teams, as well as walking/biking paths, a ton of baseball and soccer fields, an ice rink and tennis courts.
If you walk through the park, eventually you end up at the college. For a junior college, it has great facilities.
One of TB's all-time favorite stories from his newspaper days involves covering a men's basketball game at Mercer. During a particularly heated game, the Mercer coach (an excitable type, and not Howard Levy), argued a call, stormed down the end of the bench, kicked open the door - and found himself locked outside when it closed behind him.
This was while the game was going on. Mercer kept playing. Eventually the coach, who had to run around the side of the building, past the tennis courts, over to the front door and then back into the gym, came flying around the corner and back to the bench, just in time to get T'd up by the ref. It was the only time TB can remember a ref laughing as he issued a technical foul.
Anyway, TB would cover a few games there a year. And in soccer. From the first time TB covered Inverso's teams, he could tell he was dealing with a special coach. And a personable one.
And, as it turned out, a talented one. TB wrote this about Inverso in 2010:
TB remembers being at a Rider men's basketball event that included
the top sports-talk duo of all time, Mike and Mad Dog, back at their
absolute peak in the early '90s. The night at Rider (it wasn't a game;
it might have been a Midnight Madness type of thing) included a Mad Dog
sound-alike contest, and Inverso stunned the whole crowd and the two
radio big shots with his imitation of a conversation that the two would
have had about how Judas betrayed Jesus (TB's people don't have a great
working knowledge of this situation, but he has a basic understanding
of what happened). Inverso, as the Mad Dog, went on and on about how
appalled he was by Judas, and finally interrupted himself as Mike and
said: "hey, Judas was a bad guy; what do you want?"
TigerBlog didn't realize until he read Inverso's bio on Rider's webpage yesterday that he had been an assistant coach at Princeton from 1980-85, which means he finished his career here under Bob Bradley and started it under the coach who preceded Bradley.
Jim Barlow, the current head coach, followed Bradley. The one who came before Bradley was Bill Muse, who coached here for 11 years and won more than 60 percent of his games.
Barlow, by the way, has won 156 games in his Princeton career, the most of any Princeton coach. His most recent win came against Inverso, with whom Barlow goes way back.
Princeton defeated Rider 3-1 Tuesday night. The game was scoreless for 60 minutes and then had four goals in a stretch of 22:04. Luckily for the Tigers, three of them were by Princeton, including the first two in the career of Greg Seifert, a senior defender.
For that matter, Princeton scored one goal in the first 240 minutes of the season and then had three in those 22 minutes (and four seconds).
And, for that matter, Princeton is now 0-2 against unranked teams and 1-0 against ranked teams. Rider, who had been 4-0-0, is ranked 22nd this week. It's a testament to the job that Charlie has done at the school, which is about eight miles from Princeton, in Lawrenceville.
Actually, now that TigerBlog thinks about it, Inverso is probably the only person with a connection to all five schools he used to cover in the newspaper business: coaching at Princeton, Mercer, Rider and Rutgers and graduating from the College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State College).
Next up for Princeton is Boston University, tomorrow at 5:30 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium. Can't be there? It's on ESPNU.
BU isn't ranked, which might be a negative for Princeton.
The Tigers have three more games after that one before the Ivy League season starts. Only one is at home, but both are easily attendable, with games Tuesday at Drexel and Wednesday the 28th at Villanova. In between Princeton hosts FDU, on Saturday the 24th.
After that, it's Dartmouth at home on Saturday, Oct. 1.
As for Barlow, TB was talking to one of his colleagues, Andrew Borders, about how he actually covered Barlow as a high school player at Hightstown High School, which isn't far from Mercer County Community College and the park. Barlow's high school team was loaded.
Now Barlow is in Year 21 as Tiger head coach.
Princeton opened the season with losses to West Virginia and St.
John's. The win over Rider is a really good sign that Princeton is now
rounded into game shape and ready for the next set of challenges.
The next one is on national TV, tomorrow at 5:30.
A few members of the team filmed a funny video in advance of that game. You can see it HERE.
It's funny, right?
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
School Is In Session
Today is the first day of classes at Princeton University.
Of TigerBlog's eight semesters at Penn, he can remember the very first class of only one of them, the very first one, not surprisingly. It was a political science class, in the University Museum building, which is across South Street from Franklin Field.
For that matter, TB can remember his entire first semester schedule - political science, economics, calculus and German.
As an aside, TigerBlog Jr. now has a politics class this semester. His class consists of him, one other male student, 20 female students and a female teacher.
TigerBlog's favorite classes at Penn were Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy, History of the American South, astronomy and a labor history class. His least favorite were a philosophy class, the second semester of econ and an introductory sociology class.
A few notes about the last paragraph:
* Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy was taught not on campus but at the American Philosophical Society, which was located on 5th Street, near Independence Mall. TigerBlog, his roommate Charlie (a Wharton student who was fulfilling a requirement) and the rest of the class used to have to make their way from campus to where the class was, and the group often walked the 30 or so blocks together when the weather cooperated
* History of the American South was a two-semester class taught by Drew Gilpin Faust, who is now the president of Harvard
* the astronomy class was just fun. It was TigerBlog's best-ever experience with learning for learning's sake
* the labor history class was taught by Walter Licht. TigerBlog would pay him back for the good grade he gave by giving him Princeton-Penn basketball tickets several decades later
* The reason he didn't like the other classes was as much a reflection on the professors as the subjects themselves
So that was TigerBlog's academic career in a nutshell.
TB went to Penn figuring he'd become a lawyer. BrotherBlog went there figuring he'd become an engineer.
So what happened? BrotherBlog is a lawyer. TigerBlog found a job in the newspaper business at the start of his junior year and never really looked back.
Every now and then, TB wonders what life as a lawyer would have been like for him. You know, after he graduated from Yale Law and clerked for a Supreme Court Justice and worked his way up to the Supreme Court himself.
But would he be happy?
Anyway, as TB said, today is Day 1 of classes at Princeton. Prior to that first day, Princeton's fall teams combined to have 35 different competitions.
Now that school has started, there are some really big ones in the very near future.
Let's see.
This Friday alone, Princeton will be at No. 2 West Virginia in women's soccer, No. 14 Virginia in field hockey and home against unranked Boston University in men's soccer. That game might not match ranked teams, but 1) Princeton will come in having just beaten a ranked team and 2) it will be televised on ESPNU.
Princeton is 6-0-0 in women's soccer, but that has not impressed the coaches who vote in the national poll. The Tigers are receiving votes, but not even that many of them.
West Virginia? The Mountaineers are 6-0-1, with three wins (Ohio State, Clemson, Duke) against Top 20 teams and the tie against another Top 20 team (Penn State, who also happens to be the defending NCAA champion).
West Virginia has allowed four goals in those seven games. Princeton's Tyler Lussi, the top scorer in program history, has seven by herself in six games, tying her for third in Division I in goals per game.
On the field hockey side, Princeton was ranked 16th last week and then beat the No. 12 (Albany) and No. 10 (Delaware) teams in the country to vault to No. 10.
Princeton is 3-1 on the season, with its only loss to No. 3 North Carolina. After the trip to Charlottesville, Princeton will be back on Bedford Field for a game against No. 7 Maryland.
You can't accuse Princeton of ducking anyone.
As for the men's soccer team, the Tigers defeated previously unbeaten Rider 3-1 last night in a game that was scoreless at the half. The Broncs came into the game ranked 22nd nationally and having allowed just one goal in four games.
The game against BU will be the second this year to be broadcast live on ESPNU, after the women's win over Villanova.
And of course, after those Friday events comes the opening kickoff for Princeton football season. The Tigers will host Lafayette at 5 Saturday, after Community and Staff Day and before the evening ends with fireworks.
Classes starting. Huge games. Perfect weather.
It's a pretty good week around here.
Of TigerBlog's eight semesters at Penn, he can remember the very first class of only one of them, the very first one, not surprisingly. It was a political science class, in the University Museum building, which is across South Street from Franklin Field.
For that matter, TB can remember his entire first semester schedule - political science, economics, calculus and German.
As an aside, TigerBlog Jr. now has a politics class this semester. His class consists of him, one other male student, 20 female students and a female teacher.
TigerBlog's favorite classes at Penn were Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy, History of the American South, astronomy and a labor history class. His least favorite were a philosophy class, the second semester of econ and an introductory sociology class.
A few notes about the last paragraph:
* Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy was taught not on campus but at the American Philosophical Society, which was located on 5th Street, near Independence Mall. TigerBlog, his roommate Charlie (a Wharton student who was fulfilling a requirement) and the rest of the class used to have to make their way from campus to where the class was, and the group often walked the 30 or so blocks together when the weather cooperated
* History of the American South was a two-semester class taught by Drew Gilpin Faust, who is now the president of Harvard
* the astronomy class was just fun. It was TigerBlog's best-ever experience with learning for learning's sake
* the labor history class was taught by Walter Licht. TigerBlog would pay him back for the good grade he gave by giving him Princeton-Penn basketball tickets several decades later
* The reason he didn't like the other classes was as much a reflection on the professors as the subjects themselves
So that was TigerBlog's academic career in a nutshell.
TB went to Penn figuring he'd become a lawyer. BrotherBlog went there figuring he'd become an engineer.
So what happened? BrotherBlog is a lawyer. TigerBlog found a job in the newspaper business at the start of his junior year and never really looked back.
Every now and then, TB wonders what life as a lawyer would have been like for him. You know, after he graduated from Yale Law and clerked for a Supreme Court Justice and worked his way up to the Supreme Court himself.
But would he be happy?
Anyway, as TB said, today is Day 1 of classes at Princeton. Prior to that first day, Princeton's fall teams combined to have 35 different competitions.
Now that school has started, there are some really big ones in the very near future.
Let's see.
This Friday alone, Princeton will be at No. 2 West Virginia in women's soccer, No. 14 Virginia in field hockey and home against unranked Boston University in men's soccer. That game might not match ranked teams, but 1) Princeton will come in having just beaten a ranked team and 2) it will be televised on ESPNU.
Princeton is 6-0-0 in women's soccer, but that has not impressed the coaches who vote in the national poll. The Tigers are receiving votes, but not even that many of them.
West Virginia? The Mountaineers are 6-0-1, with three wins (Ohio State, Clemson, Duke) against Top 20 teams and the tie against another Top 20 team (Penn State, who also happens to be the defending NCAA champion).
West Virginia has allowed four goals in those seven games. Princeton's Tyler Lussi, the top scorer in program history, has seven by herself in six games, tying her for third in Division I in goals per game.
On the field hockey side, Princeton was ranked 16th last week and then beat the No. 12 (Albany) and No. 10 (Delaware) teams in the country to vault to No. 10.
Princeton is 3-1 on the season, with its only loss to No. 3 North Carolina. After the trip to Charlottesville, Princeton will be back on Bedford Field for a game against No. 7 Maryland.
You can't accuse Princeton of ducking anyone.
As for the men's soccer team, the Tigers defeated previously unbeaten Rider 3-1 last night in a game that was scoreless at the half. The Broncs came into the game ranked 22nd nationally and having allowed just one goal in four games.
The game against BU will be the second this year to be broadcast live on ESPNU, after the women's win over Villanova.
And of course, after those Friday events comes the opening kickoff for Princeton football season. The Tigers will host Lafayette at 5 Saturday, after Community and Staff Day and before the evening ends with fireworks.
Classes starting. Huge games. Perfect weather.
It's a pretty good week around here.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Getting Oriented
Liz Colagiuri is Princeton's Deputy Dean of the College Faculty Athletics Rep.
TigerBlog, who has never met her, did know that. What he didn't know was that she had done ROTC in college (undergrad at Cornell) and that she spent five years on active duty in the U.S. Navy.
That impresses TigerBlog. He has incredible respect for anyone in the military.
He's always been amazed by the young men and women he sees at the service academies. They're giving up a lot of what most people would never dream of giving up for a college experience, and they're doing so because they wouldn't have it any other way.
TB would have benefited greatly from a time in the military when he was a kid. He knew it at the time, even though he never considered attending an academy or doing ROTC or enlisting on his own.
FatherBlog was in the army in the 1950s, between Korea and Vietnam. His uncles - Larry in Korea and Herbie in World War II - were war veterans.
TB saw first hand from MotherBlog the toll that the military can take from her time with the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Many of the people that MB introduced to TB were in wheelchairs, and they were there from their time in Vietnam. Or from other incidents in the military, where life-changing injury - or worse - is a part of every day life.
TigerBlog heard Colagiuri speak yesterday for the first time and learned about her time in the Navy when her bio was read. So first and foremost, a thank you to her for her service.
Colagiuri was speaking at Freshman Athlete Orientation, an annual event that welcomes the incoming class to Princeton Athletics. If you've been reading TigerBlog for awhile, you know what TigerBlog thinks of that event.
Apparently, Colagiuri is basically on the same page as TB.
During her talk, she mentioned her hope that perhaps there was a future Rhodes Scholar in the audience. Certainly it's a possibility: Princeton Athletics most recently produced a Rhodes Scholar last year.
What does TB think at that meeting each year?
Who will win the von Kienbusch Award and the Roper Trophy? Come a little less than four years from now, there will be winners of those awards - and they were sitting in the room with TB yesterday.
Classes start tomorrow at Princeton, which means that orientation is ending. TigerBlog was not an athlete at Penn, and he can state definitely that he remembers nothing about orientation. For that matter, he cannot even remember attending orientation.
Again, TigerBlog can tell you that Princeton does a much better job than his alma mater in establishing from Day 1 the loyalty to the institution that will last forever. Trust TB. There is nothing close to it at Penn.
And, also in the interest of fairness, TB had a really good experience in his years at Penn. It's just not the same as Princeton.
Yesterday was a big day of meetings from TB. By his count, there were five of them.
One of them was new staff orientation. Again, it was a big day for getting oriented.
This meeting was for new athletic staff, in this case the new assistant coaches primarily. It's mostly a time to go over policies and procedures from the various offices in the department - including the business office, the event management staff, the PVC, compliance and of course athletic communications.
TB has spoken at a lot of new staff orientations. He always says the same things - be careful about public statements, use great caution on social media, get to know your OAC contact, wear the Nike gear, stuff like that.
He also ad-libbed a little piece in the beginning.
Princeton, he told the room, is a place that has had incredible athletic success. In the history of the Ivy League, Princeton has won nearly 25 percent of all championships won. In the last 20 years, that number is 30 percent.
Princeton won 14 Ivy titles last year, marking the third time that Princeton has done so. Princeton also won 15, the all-time record, and has reached double figures 23 times, compared to nine for Harvard and none for any other school. For that matter, Princeton won 10 Ivy titles last year by women's teams alone, marking the first time a school had reached double figures in one gender.
TB went on, talking about Princeton's Directors' Cup finishes and other measures of athletic success. TB knows it all by heart. The people who have been at Princeton already know it. The new people should know it.
They should know what kind of history their new employer has. And, TB said, it's the work of everyone together throughout the department that makes it happen.
Of course, past performance is no guarantee of future success. TB cautioned the new coaches that the other schools in the league are not content to watch Princeton win year after year after year, and they are doing everything they can to change things.
Then he used the phrase he heard former Syracuse men's lacrosse coach Roy Simmons Jr. use basically every time he heard him speak: Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
TB is pretty sure it was Shakespeare, not Simmons, originally.
He should have used the line that he likes better - All glory is fleeting. TB isn't sure who said it first, but it's from the end of "Patton."
It's hard to say which is better, the end of "Patton" or the beginning of "Saturday Night Fever." You be the judge HERE and HERE. They're both great. It's a really, really tough choice.
Anyway, welcome to Princeton to the freshman athletes and the new coaches.
All glory may be fleeting, but it doesn't have to be fleeting any time soon.
TigerBlog, who has never met her, did know that. What he didn't know was that she had done ROTC in college (undergrad at Cornell) and that she spent five years on active duty in the U.S. Navy.
That impresses TigerBlog. He has incredible respect for anyone in the military.
He's always been amazed by the young men and women he sees at the service academies. They're giving up a lot of what most people would never dream of giving up for a college experience, and they're doing so because they wouldn't have it any other way.
TB would have benefited greatly from a time in the military when he was a kid. He knew it at the time, even though he never considered attending an academy or doing ROTC or enlisting on his own.
FatherBlog was in the army in the 1950s, between Korea and Vietnam. His uncles - Larry in Korea and Herbie in World War II - were war veterans.
TB saw first hand from MotherBlog the toll that the military can take from her time with the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Many of the people that MB introduced to TB were in wheelchairs, and they were there from their time in Vietnam. Or from other incidents in the military, where life-changing injury - or worse - is a part of every day life.
TigerBlog heard Colagiuri speak yesterday for the first time and learned about her time in the Navy when her bio was read. So first and foremost, a thank you to her for her service.
Colagiuri was speaking at Freshman Athlete Orientation, an annual event that welcomes the incoming class to Princeton Athletics. If you've been reading TigerBlog for awhile, you know what TigerBlog thinks of that event.
Apparently, Colagiuri is basically on the same page as TB.
During her talk, she mentioned her hope that perhaps there was a future Rhodes Scholar in the audience. Certainly it's a possibility: Princeton Athletics most recently produced a Rhodes Scholar last year.
What does TB think at that meeting each year?
Who will win the von Kienbusch Award and the Roper Trophy? Come a little less than four years from now, there will be winners of those awards - and they were sitting in the room with TB yesterday.
Classes start tomorrow at Princeton, which means that orientation is ending. TigerBlog was not an athlete at Penn, and he can state definitely that he remembers nothing about orientation. For that matter, he cannot even remember attending orientation.
Again, TigerBlog can tell you that Princeton does a much better job than his alma mater in establishing from Day 1 the loyalty to the institution that will last forever. Trust TB. There is nothing close to it at Penn.
And, also in the interest of fairness, TB had a really good experience in his years at Penn. It's just not the same as Princeton.
Yesterday was a big day of meetings from TB. By his count, there were five of them.
One of them was new staff orientation. Again, it was a big day for getting oriented.
This meeting was for new athletic staff, in this case the new assistant coaches primarily. It's mostly a time to go over policies and procedures from the various offices in the department - including the business office, the event management staff, the PVC, compliance and of course athletic communications.
TB has spoken at a lot of new staff orientations. He always says the same things - be careful about public statements, use great caution on social media, get to know your OAC contact, wear the Nike gear, stuff like that.
He also ad-libbed a little piece in the beginning.
Princeton, he told the room, is a place that has had incredible athletic success. In the history of the Ivy League, Princeton has won nearly 25 percent of all championships won. In the last 20 years, that number is 30 percent.
Princeton won 14 Ivy titles last year, marking the third time that Princeton has done so. Princeton also won 15, the all-time record, and has reached double figures 23 times, compared to nine for Harvard and none for any other school. For that matter, Princeton won 10 Ivy titles last year by women's teams alone, marking the first time a school had reached double figures in one gender.
TB went on, talking about Princeton's Directors' Cup finishes and other measures of athletic success. TB knows it all by heart. The people who have been at Princeton already know it. The new people should know it.
They should know what kind of history their new employer has. And, TB said, it's the work of everyone together throughout the department that makes it happen.
Of course, past performance is no guarantee of future success. TB cautioned the new coaches that the other schools in the league are not content to watch Princeton win year after year after year, and they are doing everything they can to change things.
Then he used the phrase he heard former Syracuse men's lacrosse coach Roy Simmons Jr. use basically every time he heard him speak: Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
TB is pretty sure it was Shakespeare, not Simmons, originally.
He should have used the line that he likes better - All glory is fleeting. TB isn't sure who said it first, but it's from the end of "Patton."
It's hard to say which is better, the end of "Patton" or the beginning of "Saturday Night Fever." You be the judge HERE and HERE. They're both great. It's a really, really tough choice.
Anyway, welcome to Princeton to the freshman athletes and the new coaches.
All glory may be fleeting, but it doesn't have to be fleeting any time soon.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Fifteen Years Later
TigerBlog was standing directly behind the Myslik Field goal Friday night as Tyler Lussi sliced between a pair of Temple defenders and redirected a bouncing ball into the back of the net.
It was a goal-scorers goal if ever there was one. It's the kind of goal that a player like Lussi can score when 99% of the players who have ever played soccer cannot.
It was a great weekend for the Princeton women. They came home and beat Temple 3-0 Friday, as Lussi scored twice, making her only the fifth player in the history of Ivy League women's soccer to reach the 50-goal mark for a career.
Her second goal, by the way, gave her 113 points for her career, giving her the two biggest records in Princeton soccer history - career goals (now 50) and career points (now 115 after two assists yesterday against Monmouth).
Princeton won yesterday too, defeating Monmouth 2-1 on sophomore Mimi Asom's goal with two minutes to go in the second OT. Asom, like Lussi, is a natural born scorer, and her game-winner saw her stop, change feet and rip it home for the win.
For Asom, the game-winner gave her 15 for her career, leaving two questions: 1) can Lussi make a run at 68 goals, which is the Ivy record, and 2) can Asom make a run at whatever number Lussi finishes with?
Next up, Princeton, with a perfect 6-0-0 record, heads to Morgantown to take on West Virginia, ranked fourth nationally in a game Friday night. This should be a great one.
Women's soccer wasn't the only big winner this weekend. The field hockey team, for instance, won a pair of games at home against ranked teams, taking out No. 12 Albany 3-2 and No. 10 Delaware 4-2.
There were others. The men's water polo team, for instance, played four straight ranked opponents and went 2-2, and even an 18-9 loss to No. 1 UCLA came on a day when ESPNU televised again from DeNunzio Pool and showcased the Tiger program and campus.
Just as he did last Friday, though, TigerBlog doesn't want to dwell on Princeton Athletics today per se.
Last Friday, he wanted to write instead about the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert. You can read it HERE if you haven't already.
Today, he wants to write about something different. Something important.
The 15th anniversary of 9/11.
With the exception of 2010, when 9/11 fell on a Saturday, TigerBlog has written about the events of that awful day every September 11 since 2009. This year, 9/11 fell on a Sunday, yesterday, and now today is 9/12.
And that's what TB wants to write about.
TigerBlog can remember every detail of Sept. 11, 2001.
Miss TigerBlog was still at daycare at a babysitter on Route 27, a little north of town. TigerBlog Jr. was in nursery school, at the U-League Nursery School, across the parking lot from Jadwin Gym.
TigerBlog's routine was to head up to the babysitter and drop off MTB and then come back to campus, taking TBJ to his first school. That Tuesday in 2001 was the most crystal clear perfect sunny morning ever.
When TB was leaving the nursery school, the woman administrator there remarked that she had just heard that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. How, TB wondered, could that be possible?
He assumed it was a small plane that got lost or disoriented, but how was this possible on such a clear day?
By the time he got to Jadwin, he'd started to figure it out. It seemed impossible. A commercial plane had flown into the World Trade Center?
The first person he saw in the building was John Mack, who hadn't yet heard the news. Back then, the only TV around was in Caldwell Field House, and for the rest of the day, everyone basically crowded in there to see the news.
Princeton was supposed to play Lafayette in football that coming weekend, and the football game program was due to the printer. At that moment, there had been no conversation about cancelling the game, and so the program had to be finished, even if nobody's heart was in it.
TB's two most vivid memories of 9/11 are these. First, it was when he went back to pick up the kids. They were innocents, playing on swings and running around outside, oblivious to the fact that their world had forever changed.
Even more so, though, TB remembers walking outside, down to the end of the driveway, somewhere long after dark. He stood there, alone, in total silence, and looked up at the night sky. He saw stars, lots of them, but no airplanes. They'd all been grounded.
As he looked up, he was struck by the total serenity and peacefulness of the moment - and the utter uncertainty of what was going to come next. It had to be like the night of Dec. 7, 1941, wondering if there was another wave of an attack imminent, wondering what would come next.
TB has never in his life had a moment like that at any other time, under any other circumstance.
Then there was the next day. In contrast to the events of 9/11, TB has very little memory of exactly what happened on 9/12 of that year.
He knows he went to work, because he knows there was a football media luncheon. Roger Hughes was the Princeton coach back then, and he and two players spoke about how the day had unfolded for them, including an attempt to get word from the many Princeton football players who worked at or near Ground Zero.
TigerBlog also caught up on the phone with former captain Dan Swingos, who was in the second tower when the planes hit. His story was harrowing.
There was also the news that John Schroeder, a member of the 1992 NCAA champion men's lacrosse team, was one of the 3,000 who was killed that day.
Other than that, TB doesn't remember much about that day.
Was he scared? Angry? Confused? Probably all of those.
The entire country was. More than any time of TB's life, the time following 9/11 was the most unifying moment this country has had.
Now, it's 15 years later. You don't need TigerBlog to tell you how splintered the country is, and you also don't need him to tell you that it doesn't look like it's going to get any more unified in the near future.
Maybe that's because the one major attack on this country hasn't happened again, not to the scale of 9/11. That is a testament, by the way, to thousands of military and law enforcement personnel, from both political parties and from all kinds of religions and backgrounds.
Most people, like you and TigerBlog, have no idea how close this country came to having another 9/11, only to have it stopped in time.
They are owed a lot, by everyone.
As TigerBlog writes this, as he does every year, he goes back to that moment at the end of the driveway, that incredibly emotional moment when he looked up at the nighttime sky.
He looked up and saw a new world, or at least that the one he had known was forever changed. Would it ever change back? In five years? Ten?
Now it's been 15 years. Living under the constant threat of terrorism has become normal. Life has gone on. People have gone on with their lives. TBJ and MTB are no longer little kids, or kids at all, for that matter.
So 15 years later, here's remembering John Schroeder. And Eamon McEneaney, one of the greatest lacrosse players ever, who was part of Cornell's legendary teams in the 1970s, who also was killed that day.
And remembering everyone who died that day.
And marveling again at the first responders and their astonishing bravery.
And the country today? Yes. It's splintered, as much as it has ever been in TB's lifetime.
It's TigerBlog's fervent prayer that if it ever turns back around to one of unity, it's not because of another massive terrorist attack.
It was a goal-scorers goal if ever there was one. It's the kind of goal that a player like Lussi can score when 99% of the players who have ever played soccer cannot.
It was a great weekend for the Princeton women. They came home and beat Temple 3-0 Friday, as Lussi scored twice, making her only the fifth player in the history of Ivy League women's soccer to reach the 50-goal mark for a career.
Her second goal, by the way, gave her 113 points for her career, giving her the two biggest records in Princeton soccer history - career goals (now 50) and career points (now 115 after two assists yesterday against Monmouth).
Princeton won yesterday too, defeating Monmouth 2-1 on sophomore Mimi Asom's goal with two minutes to go in the second OT. Asom, like Lussi, is a natural born scorer, and her game-winner saw her stop, change feet and rip it home for the win.
For Asom, the game-winner gave her 15 for her career, leaving two questions: 1) can Lussi make a run at 68 goals, which is the Ivy record, and 2) can Asom make a run at whatever number Lussi finishes with?
Next up, Princeton, with a perfect 6-0-0 record, heads to Morgantown to take on West Virginia, ranked fourth nationally in a game Friday night. This should be a great one.
Women's soccer wasn't the only big winner this weekend. The field hockey team, for instance, won a pair of games at home against ranked teams, taking out No. 12 Albany 3-2 and No. 10 Delaware 4-2.
There were others. The men's water polo team, for instance, played four straight ranked opponents and went 2-2, and even an 18-9 loss to No. 1 UCLA came on a day when ESPNU televised again from DeNunzio Pool and showcased the Tiger program and campus.
Just as he did last Friday, though, TigerBlog doesn't want to dwell on Princeton Athletics today per se.
Last Friday, he wanted to write instead about the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert. You can read it HERE if you haven't already.
Today, he wants to write about something different. Something important.
The 15th anniversary of 9/11.
With the exception of 2010, when 9/11 fell on a Saturday, TigerBlog has written about the events of that awful day every September 11 since 2009. This year, 9/11 fell on a Sunday, yesterday, and now today is 9/12.
And that's what TB wants to write about.
TigerBlog can remember every detail of Sept. 11, 2001.
Miss TigerBlog was still at daycare at a babysitter on Route 27, a little north of town. TigerBlog Jr. was in nursery school, at the U-League Nursery School, across the parking lot from Jadwin Gym.
TigerBlog's routine was to head up to the babysitter and drop off MTB and then come back to campus, taking TBJ to his first school. That Tuesday in 2001 was the most crystal clear perfect sunny morning ever.
When TB was leaving the nursery school, the woman administrator there remarked that she had just heard that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. How, TB wondered, could that be possible?
He assumed it was a small plane that got lost or disoriented, but how was this possible on such a clear day?
By the time he got to Jadwin, he'd started to figure it out. It seemed impossible. A commercial plane had flown into the World Trade Center?
The first person he saw in the building was John Mack, who hadn't yet heard the news. Back then, the only TV around was in Caldwell Field House, and for the rest of the day, everyone basically crowded in there to see the news.
Princeton was supposed to play Lafayette in football that coming weekend, and the football game program was due to the printer. At that moment, there had been no conversation about cancelling the game, and so the program had to be finished, even if nobody's heart was in it.
TB's two most vivid memories of 9/11 are these. First, it was when he went back to pick up the kids. They were innocents, playing on swings and running around outside, oblivious to the fact that their world had forever changed.
Even more so, though, TB remembers walking outside, down to the end of the driveway, somewhere long after dark. He stood there, alone, in total silence, and looked up at the night sky. He saw stars, lots of them, but no airplanes. They'd all been grounded.
As he looked up, he was struck by the total serenity and peacefulness of the moment - and the utter uncertainty of what was going to come next. It had to be like the night of Dec. 7, 1941, wondering if there was another wave of an attack imminent, wondering what would come next.
TB has never in his life had a moment like that at any other time, under any other circumstance.
Then there was the next day. In contrast to the events of 9/11, TB has very little memory of exactly what happened on 9/12 of that year.
He knows he went to work, because he knows there was a football media luncheon. Roger Hughes was the Princeton coach back then, and he and two players spoke about how the day had unfolded for them, including an attempt to get word from the many Princeton football players who worked at or near Ground Zero.
TigerBlog also caught up on the phone with former captain Dan Swingos, who was in the second tower when the planes hit. His story was harrowing.
There was also the news that John Schroeder, a member of the 1992 NCAA champion men's lacrosse team, was one of the 3,000 who was killed that day.
Other than that, TB doesn't remember much about that day.
Was he scared? Angry? Confused? Probably all of those.
The entire country was. More than any time of TB's life, the time following 9/11 was the most unifying moment this country has had.
Now, it's 15 years later. You don't need TigerBlog to tell you how splintered the country is, and you also don't need him to tell you that it doesn't look like it's going to get any more unified in the near future.
Maybe that's because the one major attack on this country hasn't happened again, not to the scale of 9/11. That is a testament, by the way, to thousands of military and law enforcement personnel, from both political parties and from all kinds of religions and backgrounds.
Most people, like you and TigerBlog, have no idea how close this country came to having another 9/11, only to have it stopped in time.
They are owed a lot, by everyone.
As TigerBlog writes this, as he does every year, he goes back to that moment at the end of the driveway, that incredibly emotional moment when he looked up at the nighttime sky.
He looked up and saw a new world, or at least that the one he had known was forever changed. Would it ever change back? In five years? Ten?
Now it's been 15 years. Living under the constant threat of terrorism has become normal. Life has gone on. People have gone on with their lives. TBJ and MTB are no longer little kids, or kids at all, for that matter.
So 15 years later, here's remembering John Schroeder. And Eamon McEneaney, one of the greatest lacrosse players ever, who was part of Cornell's legendary teams in the 1970s, who also was killed that day.
And remembering everyone who died that day.
And marveling again at the first responders and their astonishing bravery.
And the country today? Yes. It's splintered, as much as it has ever been in TB's lifetime.
It's TigerBlog's fervent prayer that if it ever turns back around to one of unity, it's not because of another massive terrorist attack.
Friday, September 9, 2016
The Best There's Ever Been
It's a busy weekend for Princeton Athletics.
There are six events today, six events tomorrow and four more on Sunday, including an ESPNU-televised men's water polo match against defending NCAA champ UCLA.
There's actually home water polo all weekend. There's also home field hockey today between Princeton and No. 12 Albany (at 4) and home women's soccer between unbeaten Princeton and Temple (at 7). You can watch field hockey, go get a nosh and come back for soccer.
In addition to water polo Sunday, there's also another home field hockey game against another ranked team, this time No. 10 Delaware. The head coach of the Blue Hens, by the way, is Rolf van de Kerkhof, the brother-in-law of TigerBlog's physical therapist Theresa.
Princeton and the rest of the Ivy League are a week away from opening day for football. The Tigers begin their season at home next Saturday at 5 against Lafayette. There will be fireworks after the game, which everyone loves.
TigerBlog is still getting used to the new composite schedule format on goprincetontigers.com, but he's starting to like it. He definitely likes the dots that tell you how many events there are on any given day.
So that's your Princeton Athletics update for now.
And so, for the rest of today, please indulge TigerBlog on a slightly different subject.
TB works in a department loaded with Bruce Springsteen fans. Any concert tour by the Boss has been well-attended by the Princeton athletic department, and tickets, setlists and concert memories are a constant source of conversation and have been for years. TB was at the show Wednesday and files this report:
It was already past midnight when the man with the mic exhorted his audience to "shout," and so shout they did. All 50,000 or so of them.
"You know you make me want to shout..." Over and over.
From TigerBlog's perch high above Citizens Bank Park, all he could do was shake his head and marvel at the scene below. How could he not? He was watching the best there's ever been.
If Bruce Springsteen had let them, they would have stayed there dancing, singing, laughing, partying until dawn.
Nobody - nobody anywhere ever - has put on a show quite like Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. It was true the first time TigerBlog saw them, back in the summer of 1981, and it was true Wednesday night, when Springsteen, two weeks shy of his 67th birthday, rocked the home of the Philadelphia Phillies for the amazing total of 34 songs, in a show that lasted for 4:10.
That's four hours and 10 minutes. By a man almost sixty-seven.
Like any other time TB has seen The Boss, the energy in the building was obvious from the time the house lights dimmed and the members of the band walked onto the stage. And then, there he was, center stage, to a huge crescendo of "BRUUUUUUUUUUCE."
Interestingly, the concert Wednesday night started a little slowly, and some of that energy faded a bit from the crowd. The band played some older songs, some that were pretty obscure older songs at that.
And then, on a dime, it all turned.
To TigerBlog, it was like watching an ace pitcher give up two in the first, one in the second and then not allow a hit the rest of the way. Or like watching Michael Jordan score two points in the first quarter, have eight at the half and then finish with 36.
When midnight struck, nobody remembered what the beginning was like. The band, and especially Springsteen, got stronger all night, and did so in incredible fashion.
Springsteen would finish a song, trade one guitar for another, and start on the next one. And the crowd screamed along with him on all of them.
TigerBlog's favorite songs from the night? "Incident On 57th Street," which runs into "Rosalita." "My Love Will Not Let You Down." "Thundercrack," a obscure song that Princeton water polo coach Luis Nicolao introduced to TigerBlog a few years ago. "No Surrender."
And there was the three-song sprint of "Because The Night," "The Rising" and "Badlands." This was as the hour got later and later and the band got better and better.
Had the show ended there, it would have been great. It was the subsequent seven-song encore that turned the concert into the epic that it became.
In fact, had that seven-song encore been the entire concert, it still might have been the best concert TB has ever seen.
In order, it went:
Streets of Philadelphia
Jungleland
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Shout
Bobby Jean
"Jungleland" was the best, especially the sax solo by Jake Cleamons, Clarence's nephew. It's hard to think of Clarence without thinking about the sax solo in "Jungleand," and TB would have to think that 1) it's the first big sax solo Jake ever learned and 2) it has to be emotional for him to play.
Maybe the best moment of the night was when Clarence and Dan Federici, the other original E Street Band member who has passed away, flashed on the video screens while Bruce sprinted around the outside of the floor seats, mingling with fans along the way, as he sang about the Big Man in "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out."
And then there was "Shout," which isn't even Bruce's song. It went on and on and on, and the crowd couldn't have loved it more. And just when it seemed like there was nothing left, the band went to "Bobby Jean" to end the night.
Why was this so special? There are a few reasons.
Springsteen doesn't have a soothing voice like Sinatra or an operatic voice like Freddie Mercury. He doesn't have a rhythmic voice like Bruno Mars or a frenzied voice like Steven Tyler.
The word TigerBlog would use to describe Springsteen's voice is "powerful." It overwhelms the stadium and it never lets up, hour after hour, show after show, year after year.
And nobody has the stage presence that The Boss does. He is the host of his concert and you are his guest. He is not a detached performer. He is talking directly to everyone in his audience.
Yeah. That's it. He's talking directly to you. And this is not just with his lyrics and their classic themes.
You know what TB means. Of blue-collar America. Of restlessness. Of faith. Of loyalty.
"Someday girl I don't know when, we're gonna get to that place where we really want to go and we'll walk in the sun, but til then tramps like us, baby we were born to run."
Or "we made a promise, we swore we'd always remember, no retreat baby, no surrender."
Or "I see you standing across the room watching me without a sound. I'm gonna push my way through that crowd and tear all your walls down. My love, love, love, love, will not let you down."
But it's more than that.
Most concerts have songs you like and songs you don't know and songs that have been popular.
For Bruce and the E Street Band, they're playing songs that are important to the people in the audience. They take those fans back to different times in their lives, reminding them of how these lyrics and melodies and the powerful voice who is singing helped them through those times.
It becomes less of a concert and more of a life experience. And that brings TigerBlog to one last point.
Like TigerBlog, there were many there last night who have been watching Bruce and the band in concert for decades.
Bruce will be 67 in two weeks. Gary W. Tallent is 66. Steven Van Zandt, Max Weinberg and Nils Lofgren are all 65.
The band began the current tour in January. It has taken them throughout the country and then to Europe before coming back here to finish up.
How many tours like this does this band have left? Any?
That's why nobody wanted the party to end the other night. Not the band. Not the audience.
This might just be the last chance, to entertain and to be entertained. To be taken back through the years, through the decades. To hear, once again, the songs that have mattered so much.
It's really possible that Wednesday night was the last time TigerBlog will see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert. It's also likely that it was the best concert TB has ever seen.
Those things are not unrelated.
Bruce walked onto the stage at 8 pm and said simply "Good Evening Philadelphia."
He walked at 12:10 am, having left no doubt, once again, that he is the best there has ever been.
There are six events today, six events tomorrow and four more on Sunday, including an ESPNU-televised men's water polo match against defending NCAA champ UCLA.
There's actually home water polo all weekend. There's also home field hockey today between Princeton and No. 12 Albany (at 4) and home women's soccer between unbeaten Princeton and Temple (at 7). You can watch field hockey, go get a nosh and come back for soccer.
In addition to water polo Sunday, there's also another home field hockey game against another ranked team, this time No. 10 Delaware. The head coach of the Blue Hens, by the way, is Rolf van de Kerkhof, the brother-in-law of TigerBlog's physical therapist Theresa.
Princeton and the rest of the Ivy League are a week away from opening day for football. The Tigers begin their season at home next Saturday at 5 against Lafayette. There will be fireworks after the game, which everyone loves.
TigerBlog is still getting used to the new composite schedule format on goprincetontigers.com, but he's starting to like it. He definitely likes the dots that tell you how many events there are on any given day.
So that's your Princeton Athletics update for now.
And so, for the rest of today, please indulge TigerBlog on a slightly different subject.
TB works in a department loaded with Bruce Springsteen fans. Any concert tour by the Boss has been well-attended by the Princeton athletic department, and tickets, setlists and concert memories are a constant source of conversation and have been for years. TB was at the show Wednesday and files this report:
It was already past midnight when the man with the mic exhorted his audience to "shout," and so shout they did. All 50,000 or so of them.
"You know you make me want to shout..." Over and over.
From TigerBlog's perch high above Citizens Bank Park, all he could do was shake his head and marvel at the scene below. How could he not? He was watching the best there's ever been.
If Bruce Springsteen had let them, they would have stayed there dancing, singing, laughing, partying until dawn.
Nobody - nobody anywhere ever - has put on a show quite like Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. It was true the first time TigerBlog saw them, back in the summer of 1981, and it was true Wednesday night, when Springsteen, two weeks shy of his 67th birthday, rocked the home of the Philadelphia Phillies for the amazing total of 34 songs, in a show that lasted for 4:10.
That's four hours and 10 minutes. By a man almost sixty-seven.
Like any other time TB has seen The Boss, the energy in the building was obvious from the time the house lights dimmed and the members of the band walked onto the stage. And then, there he was, center stage, to a huge crescendo of "BRUUUUUUUUUUCE."
Interestingly, the concert Wednesday night started a little slowly, and some of that energy faded a bit from the crowd. The band played some older songs, some that were pretty obscure older songs at that.
And then, on a dime, it all turned.
To TigerBlog, it was like watching an ace pitcher give up two in the first, one in the second and then not allow a hit the rest of the way. Or like watching Michael Jordan score two points in the first quarter, have eight at the half and then finish with 36.
When midnight struck, nobody remembered what the beginning was like. The band, and especially Springsteen, got stronger all night, and did so in incredible fashion.
Springsteen would finish a song, trade one guitar for another, and start on the next one. And the crowd screamed along with him on all of them.
TigerBlog's favorite songs from the night? "Incident On 57th Street," which runs into "Rosalita." "My Love Will Not Let You Down." "Thundercrack," a obscure song that Princeton water polo coach Luis Nicolao introduced to TigerBlog a few years ago. "No Surrender."
And there was the three-song sprint of "Because The Night," "The Rising" and "Badlands." This was as the hour got later and later and the band got better and better.
Had the show ended there, it would have been great. It was the subsequent seven-song encore that turned the concert into the epic that it became.
In fact, had that seven-song encore been the entire concert, it still might have been the best concert TB has ever seen.
In order, it went:
Streets of Philadelphia
Jungleland
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Shout
Bobby Jean
"Jungleland" was the best, especially the sax solo by Jake Cleamons, Clarence's nephew. It's hard to think of Clarence without thinking about the sax solo in "Jungleand," and TB would have to think that 1) it's the first big sax solo Jake ever learned and 2) it has to be emotional for him to play.
Maybe the best moment of the night was when Clarence and Dan Federici, the other original E Street Band member who has passed away, flashed on the video screens while Bruce sprinted around the outside of the floor seats, mingling with fans along the way, as he sang about the Big Man in "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out."
And then there was "Shout," which isn't even Bruce's song. It went on and on and on, and the crowd couldn't have loved it more. And just when it seemed like there was nothing left, the band went to "Bobby Jean" to end the night.
Why was this so special? There are a few reasons.
Springsteen doesn't have a soothing voice like Sinatra or an operatic voice like Freddie Mercury. He doesn't have a rhythmic voice like Bruno Mars or a frenzied voice like Steven Tyler.
The word TigerBlog would use to describe Springsteen's voice is "powerful." It overwhelms the stadium and it never lets up, hour after hour, show after show, year after year.
And nobody has the stage presence that The Boss does. He is the host of his concert and you are his guest. He is not a detached performer. He is talking directly to everyone in his audience.
Yeah. That's it. He's talking directly to you. And this is not just with his lyrics and their classic themes.
You know what TB means. Of blue-collar America. Of restlessness. Of faith. Of loyalty.
"Someday girl I don't know when, we're gonna get to that place where we really want to go and we'll walk in the sun, but til then tramps like us, baby we were born to run."
Or "we made a promise, we swore we'd always remember, no retreat baby, no surrender."
Or "I see you standing across the room watching me without a sound. I'm gonna push my way through that crowd and tear all your walls down. My love, love, love, love, will not let you down."
But it's more than that.
Most concerts have songs you like and songs you don't know and songs that have been popular.
For Bruce and the E Street Band, they're playing songs that are important to the people in the audience. They take those fans back to different times in their lives, reminding them of how these lyrics and melodies and the powerful voice who is singing helped them through those times.
It becomes less of a concert and more of a life experience. And that brings TigerBlog to one last point.
Like TigerBlog, there were many there last night who have been watching Bruce and the band in concert for decades.
Bruce will be 67 in two weeks. Gary W. Tallent is 66. Steven Van Zandt, Max Weinberg and Nils Lofgren are all 65.
The band began the current tour in January. It has taken them throughout the country and then to Europe before coming back here to finish up.
How many tours like this does this band have left? Any?
That's why nobody wanted the party to end the other night. Not the band. Not the audience.
This might just be the last chance, to entertain and to be entertained. To be taken back through the years, through the decades. To hear, once again, the songs that have mattered so much.
It's really possible that Wednesday night was the last time TigerBlog will see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert. It's also likely that it was the best concert TB has ever seen.
Those things are not unrelated.
Bruce walked onto the stage at 8 pm and said simply "Good Evening Philadelphia."
He walked at 12:10 am, having left no doubt, once again, that he is the best there has ever been.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
That'll Be $116.42
So here's a story that TigerBlog is pretty sure his former boss Gary Walters will like.
TigerBlog Jr. has been driving his father's old car for a few years now. As you read this, that car has right around 199,300 miles on it.
As you can guess, it's somewhat beaten up.
Oh, and it's also a mess. That's what you get when you add together a college guy and lacrosse equipment and Wawa hoagie wrappers and empty water bottles.
The car itself still runs really well. Before this car, the most miles TB had ever put on a car was 155,000, on his old minivan, which he traded in for this car. As he understands it, his old minivan ended up as a taxi somewhere in the Caribbean. There are worse retirements for a minivan.
Meanwhile, back at this car, TB is pretty sure it'll get the remaining 700 miles to get to 200,000.
Then it'll be the fight coming between TBJ and Miss TigerBlog over who will get to drive it. MTB is three weeks into having her permit, and she's actually a pretty good driver already. In fact, she drove TB to the field hockey game Sunday, for her first drive from her house to Princeton.
One thing that concerns TB about his daughter as a driver, though, is that her sense of direction is, in a word, horrific. As she and TB drive around, he is constantly stunned by how little she has paid attention to her surroundings, leading to these kinds of conversations:
TB: Why are you turning left?
MTB: I'm going home.
TB: It's to the right.
MTB: It is?
TB: You've lived here your entire life.
Her sense of direction is so bad, TigerBlog half expects her to shoot the ball at the wrong goal in one of her field hockey or lacrosse games.
What does this have to do with Gary Walters? TB is getting to that.
TigerBlog Jr. worked this past summer as a counselor at the Campus Rec day camp at Dillon Gym, a camp he and his sister spent a lot of summers at as campers way back when. In fact, there can't be too many people who have gone to that camp more than TBJ, who was there for five summers as a camper, two or three as a senior camper, one as a CIT and now one as a counselor.
Anyway, one day TBJ returned from work to say that he'd been cut off on the Alexander Road bridge and that his sideview mirror had hit the guardrail. It cracked a little, he said.
Yes, a little. And by a little, he meant, into about 10 separate little mirrors, all of which faced into the car itself, as opposed to, oh, the lane on the right.
Anyway, TigerBlog took the car to Ron, the official car-fixer of the Office of Athletic Communications, to get it fixed. And while it was there, Ron changed the oil and did some other minor maintenance.
TigerBlog told Ron there was no rush on the car, since he was driving his other one and TBJ is at school. Eventually, a few days later, Ron called to say the car was done.
How much was the bill? This is the part that Gary will like.
Ron said it was "$116.42."
Now, do you ever find yourself in a situation where you hear some numbers and they immediately spark some memory? That's what happened when Ron told TB the price.
Was it someone's phone number? A zip code? As it turns out, it's neither.
Then it dawned on TigerBlog.
Princeton defeated Dartmouth 116-42 in the 1967 regular season, when Gary was the senior point guard. It was the first meeting between the teams that year. The second one had a much different score, one that, as TB thinks, would have been a better bill for the car.
In fact, Princeton would score 86 fewer points in the second game - which actually was at Dillon Gym, while the first was in Hanover. Oh, don't worry. Princeton still won fairly easily.
In fact, Dartmouth sat on the ball in that game to keep the score down. Back then, there was no shot clock.
So even though Princeton would score only 30 points in the game, the Tigers still won 30-16. Yeah, it would have been better to pay $30.16.
The 116 points Princeton scored in the first game are the second most Princeton has ever scored in a basketball game, behind the 118 against Wichita State in the 1965 NCAA consolation game.
In all, Princeton has reached 100 points in a men's basketball game 14 times, two of which came last year, after not having done so since 1971. TigerBlog would hardly be shocked to see the team get there again this year.
Anyway, TB has to go get the car. And leave a check.
Oh, and there are two home men's events tonight.
There's water polo against Wagner at 6:30 and there a men's soccer game against St. John's at 7.
And they're both free.
TigerBlog Jr. has been driving his father's old car for a few years now. As you read this, that car has right around 199,300 miles on it.
As you can guess, it's somewhat beaten up.
Oh, and it's also a mess. That's what you get when you add together a college guy and lacrosse equipment and Wawa hoagie wrappers and empty water bottles.
The car itself still runs really well. Before this car, the most miles TB had ever put on a car was 155,000, on his old minivan, which he traded in for this car. As he understands it, his old minivan ended up as a taxi somewhere in the Caribbean. There are worse retirements for a minivan.
Meanwhile, back at this car, TB is pretty sure it'll get the remaining 700 miles to get to 200,000.
Then it'll be the fight coming between TBJ and Miss TigerBlog over who will get to drive it. MTB is three weeks into having her permit, and she's actually a pretty good driver already. In fact, she drove TB to the field hockey game Sunday, for her first drive from her house to Princeton.
One thing that concerns TB about his daughter as a driver, though, is that her sense of direction is, in a word, horrific. As she and TB drive around, he is constantly stunned by how little she has paid attention to her surroundings, leading to these kinds of conversations:
TB: Why are you turning left?
MTB: I'm going home.
TB: It's to the right.
MTB: It is?
TB: You've lived here your entire life.
Her sense of direction is so bad, TigerBlog half expects her to shoot the ball at the wrong goal in one of her field hockey or lacrosse games.
What does this have to do with Gary Walters? TB is getting to that.
TigerBlog Jr. worked this past summer as a counselor at the Campus Rec day camp at Dillon Gym, a camp he and his sister spent a lot of summers at as campers way back when. In fact, there can't be too many people who have gone to that camp more than TBJ, who was there for five summers as a camper, two or three as a senior camper, one as a CIT and now one as a counselor.
Anyway, one day TBJ returned from work to say that he'd been cut off on the Alexander Road bridge and that his sideview mirror had hit the guardrail. It cracked a little, he said.
Yes, a little. And by a little, he meant, into about 10 separate little mirrors, all of which faced into the car itself, as opposed to, oh, the lane on the right.
Anyway, TigerBlog took the car to Ron, the official car-fixer of the Office of Athletic Communications, to get it fixed. And while it was there, Ron changed the oil and did some other minor maintenance.
TigerBlog told Ron there was no rush on the car, since he was driving his other one and TBJ is at school. Eventually, a few days later, Ron called to say the car was done.
How much was the bill? This is the part that Gary will like.
Ron said it was "$116.42."
Now, do you ever find yourself in a situation where you hear some numbers and they immediately spark some memory? That's what happened when Ron told TB the price.
Was it someone's phone number? A zip code? As it turns out, it's neither.
Then it dawned on TigerBlog.
Princeton defeated Dartmouth 116-42 in the 1967 regular season, when Gary was the senior point guard. It was the first meeting between the teams that year. The second one had a much different score, one that, as TB thinks, would have been a better bill for the car.
In fact, Princeton would score 86 fewer points in the second game - which actually was at Dillon Gym, while the first was in Hanover. Oh, don't worry. Princeton still won fairly easily.
In fact, Dartmouth sat on the ball in that game to keep the score down. Back then, there was no shot clock.
So even though Princeton would score only 30 points in the game, the Tigers still won 30-16. Yeah, it would have been better to pay $30.16.
The 116 points Princeton scored in the first game are the second most Princeton has ever scored in a basketball game, behind the 118 against Wichita State in the 1965 NCAA consolation game.
In all, Princeton has reached 100 points in a men's basketball game 14 times, two of which came last year, after not having done so since 1971. TigerBlog would hardly be shocked to see the team get there again this year.
Anyway, TB has to go get the car. And leave a check.
Oh, and there are two home men's events tonight.
There's water polo against Wagner at 6:30 and there a men's soccer game against St. John's at 7.
And they're both free.
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Happy New Year
If ever a day deserved to be New Year's Day, it's the Tuesday after Labor Day.
That would be yesterday, by the way.
Think about it. For the most part, yesterday was Day 1 of school in a lot of places. It was the first day of the holiday weekend that unofficially marks the end of summer. Pretty much all vacations have ended.
It also feels a little different than last week, like the page has been completely turned on one year and a new one has just started. You know, like New Year's Day.
Maybe it's more the nature of working in college athletics. Maybe if you work someplace where your fiscal year ends on June 30 or if there is no change in seasons, then your version of New Year's Day is something different.
No other time feels more like the start of a new year to TigerBlog than this time. Hey, maybe it's because his people have their New Year at this time of year. He just thought of that.
The first day of the New Year featured the first event meeting of the 2016-17 academic year.
Ah, the event meeting. It's every Tuesday, and has been every Tuesday for as long as TigerBlog has been working here.
In fact, he told this story back in 2009, in an entry about how he was confused as to why networks insist on showing Jerry Jones so much during Cowboys games. In fact, TigerBlog still doesn't get it.
You can read it HERE. It's not bad.
The part that TB wants to quote is this:
TB remembers one his first meetings, when Hank Towns, the longtime equipment manager, was complaining that Pete Carril's practices were running long. It led to this exchange:
Hank: "Pete's practices are running forever, almost until 8."
Administrator: "That late? Where are the players eating dinner. The clubs stop serving before that."
Hank: "Who cares about their dinner? Let them eat at McDonald's. I'm worried about my dinner."
Way back when, the event meeting was in the conference room on the Jadwin balcony. It would be problematic to hold it there these days, because 1) there are way more people at the event meeting now and 2) the conference room on the balcony was turned in office space more than 20 years ago. While TB understood the need for the new offices, that conference room was the best lunch room Jadwn has ever known.
Actually, one of the first or second event meetings TB attended in his time here featured this exchange, about game programs at a women's soccer game at Lourie-Love Field. The issue was that there was no place to actually put the programs, which were left in a small box on the wooden bleachers:
Gary Walters: I couldn't find a program at the women's soccer game.
Someone else: Yeah, I couldn't find one either.
Pretty much everyone else: Yeah, I couldn't find one either.
One last person: Yeah, and there weren't enough of them.
Finally, TigerBlog spoke. "If," he said, "nobody could find them, how did you know there weren't enough?"
Think about it.
The first event meeting of 2016-17 was memorable mostly for how hot it was in the D level conference room, which has hosted the meeting for years now.
If New Year's Day was yesterday, then instead of college football TigerBlog watched seven of the eight episodes of "The Night Of" on HBO (he watched the finale last night). It was okay. Pretty good idea for a story. Just didn't need to be eight episodes. It would have made a really good two-hour movie, actually.
As for New Year's Eve, TigerBlog was at the Princeton field hockey game, where the Tigers defeated Bucknell 5-2 to give Carla Tagliente her first win as Princeton head coach. She's now 65-44 in her head coaching career after coming to Princeton from UMass.
Princeton had five goals from five different players, which is always a good sign. The Tigers dominated the game, outshooting Bucknell 24-6, and only a 17-save effort from Emily Finn kept the game as close as it was.
If you've never seen Princeton field hockey, you should. It's an extremely fast game.
You'll have plenty of chances in the next few weeks to see the Tigers, who are ranked 16th this week after the win over Bucknell and a 2-1 loss to North Carolina, who reached the NCAA final a year ago.
Starting Friday, Princeton will play four games in 11 days, all four of which are against teams currently ranked ahead of the Tigers, with three of the four at home.
It starts with a game against No. 12 Albany Friday at 4 on Bedford Field. Then it's home with No. 10 Delaware Sunday at 1, at No. 11 Virginia the following Friday and then home with No. 7 Maryland on Sept. 20.
After that it's the Ivy opener against Dartmouth. Princeton has won an astonishing 20 of the last 21 Ivy League championships.
Finally, TigerBlog would like to wish a happy birthday to his Office of Athletic Communications colleague Craig Sachson, who is the big Four-Oh today.
If you read this blog, then odds are strong that you've also read a lot of stuff that Craig has written on goprincetontigers.com. Or seen his videos or listened to his podcasts.
There can't be too many people in this business who produce more content by themselves. And it's high quality content.
Maybe more than anyone, Craig buys into what Princeton Athletics are all about, with the equal emphasis of all sports and the equal mix of on-field success and the off-field educational impact that playing sports here has. Don't believe TB? Ask any of the coaches with whom Craig works.
Or, if you like, you can ask the starting quarterback on the football team and the No. 8 player on the squash teams. Craig values their experiences equally.
So happy birthday to Craig.
Hey, he's been doing this for more than one-third of his life now.
That would be yesterday, by the way.
Think about it. For the most part, yesterday was Day 1 of school in a lot of places. It was the first day of the holiday weekend that unofficially marks the end of summer. Pretty much all vacations have ended.
It also feels a little different than last week, like the page has been completely turned on one year and a new one has just started. You know, like New Year's Day.
Maybe it's more the nature of working in college athletics. Maybe if you work someplace where your fiscal year ends on June 30 or if there is no change in seasons, then your version of New Year's Day is something different.
No other time feels more like the start of a new year to TigerBlog than this time. Hey, maybe it's because his people have their New Year at this time of year. He just thought of that.
The first day of the New Year featured the first event meeting of the 2016-17 academic year.
Ah, the event meeting. It's every Tuesday, and has been every Tuesday for as long as TigerBlog has been working here.
In fact, he told this story back in 2009, in an entry about how he was confused as to why networks insist on showing Jerry Jones so much during Cowboys games. In fact, TigerBlog still doesn't get it.
You can read it HERE. It's not bad.
The part that TB wants to quote is this:
TB remembers one his first meetings, when Hank Towns, the longtime equipment manager, was complaining that Pete Carril's practices were running long. It led to this exchange:
Hank: "Pete's practices are running forever, almost until 8."
Administrator: "That late? Where are the players eating dinner. The clubs stop serving before that."
Hank: "Who cares about their dinner? Let them eat at McDonald's. I'm worried about my dinner."
Way back when, the event meeting was in the conference room on the Jadwin balcony. It would be problematic to hold it there these days, because 1) there are way more people at the event meeting now and 2) the conference room on the balcony was turned in office space more than 20 years ago. While TB understood the need for the new offices, that conference room was the best lunch room Jadwn has ever known.
Actually, one of the first or second event meetings TB attended in his time here featured this exchange, about game programs at a women's soccer game at Lourie-Love Field. The issue was that there was no place to actually put the programs, which were left in a small box on the wooden bleachers:
Gary Walters: I couldn't find a program at the women's soccer game.
Someone else: Yeah, I couldn't find one either.
Pretty much everyone else: Yeah, I couldn't find one either.
One last person: Yeah, and there weren't enough of them.
Finally, TigerBlog spoke. "If," he said, "nobody could find them, how did you know there weren't enough?"
Think about it.
The first event meeting of 2016-17 was memorable mostly for how hot it was in the D level conference room, which has hosted the meeting for years now.
If New Year's Day was yesterday, then instead of college football TigerBlog watched seven of the eight episodes of "The Night Of" on HBO (he watched the finale last night). It was okay. Pretty good idea for a story. Just didn't need to be eight episodes. It would have made a really good two-hour movie, actually.
As for New Year's Eve, TigerBlog was at the Princeton field hockey game, where the Tigers defeated Bucknell 5-2 to give Carla Tagliente her first win as Princeton head coach. She's now 65-44 in her head coaching career after coming to Princeton from UMass.
Princeton had five goals from five different players, which is always a good sign. The Tigers dominated the game, outshooting Bucknell 24-6, and only a 17-save effort from Emily Finn kept the game as close as it was.
If you've never seen Princeton field hockey, you should. It's an extremely fast game.
You'll have plenty of chances in the next few weeks to see the Tigers, who are ranked 16th this week after the win over Bucknell and a 2-1 loss to North Carolina, who reached the NCAA final a year ago.
Starting Friday, Princeton will play four games in 11 days, all four of which are against teams currently ranked ahead of the Tigers, with three of the four at home.
It starts with a game against No. 12 Albany Friday at 4 on Bedford Field. Then it's home with No. 10 Delaware Sunday at 1, at No. 11 Virginia the following Friday and then home with No. 7 Maryland on Sept. 20.
After that it's the Ivy opener against Dartmouth. Princeton has won an astonishing 20 of the last 21 Ivy League championships.
Finally, TigerBlog would like to wish a happy birthday to his Office of Athletic Communications colleague Craig Sachson, who is the big Four-Oh today.
If you read this blog, then odds are strong that you've also read a lot of stuff that Craig has written on goprincetontigers.com. Or seen his videos or listened to his podcasts.
There can't be too many people in this business who produce more content by themselves. And it's high quality content.
Maybe more than anyone, Craig buys into what Princeton Athletics are all about, with the equal emphasis of all sports and the equal mix of on-field success and the off-field educational impact that playing sports here has. Don't believe TB? Ask any of the coaches with whom Craig works.
Or, if you like, you can ask the starting quarterback on the football team and the No. 8 player on the squash teams. Craig values their experiences equally.
So happy birthday to Craig.
Hey, he's been doing this for more than one-third of his life now.
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
The Magic Number Of 48
It's possible that the best ending to a Princeton athletic event for the 2016-17 athletic year may have happened before Labor Day.
Come June, it's going to be hard to beat what happened Friday night when the women's soccer team played at Delaware.
Yeah, yeah. It was Game 3 of the season. No championship was on the line. It wasn't even a league game.
Still, Princeton did do something remarkable.
The Tigers and Blue Hens were scoreless until five minutes remained, when Delaware scored what figured to be the lone goal of the night. It certainly looked that way with four minutes left, three minutes left, two minutes left, one minute left, 30 seconds left.
Ah, but not so fast.
Junior Vanessa Gregoire, a first-team All-Ivy League selection a year ago, took the ball just outside the box as time was winding down and lifted one into the top left corner to tie it with just five seconds left. Her goal was a thing of beauty.
If you don't believe TigerBlog, you can see the highlight HERE.
That same clip continues a few seconds later with another beautiful goal, this time the game-winner by Tyler Lussi, with 2:57 left in the first OT.
Gregoire would also score again Sunday in the win over Howard that left Princeton at 4-0-0 on the young season.
Lussi scored two more goals in the game against Howard, giving her five on the season and giving her the magic number of 48 for her career.
What's so magical about it? Nobody who has ever played soccer at Princeton, male or female, has ever gotten there before.
The previous record at Princeton was 47, set in 2004 by Esmeralda Negron. Her 47th goal came in the NCAA quarterfinals and helped advance Princeton to the Final Four that year.
In fact, in the entire history of soccer at Princeton, only five players have ever reached 40 goals in a career - Lussi, Negron and Linda deBoer, who scored 41 before graduating in 1985, on the women's side and Steven Davidson (41, graduated in 1969) and Yuri Fishman (40, graduated in 1984).
For the women, deBoer's record stood for nine years. Negron's stood for 12. Davidson has had the men's record for 47 years now.
There are a lot of records at Princeton that have stood for a long time. Kevin Lowe has been the all-time leading scorer in men's lacrosse sine 1994. Crista Samaras has been the all-time leading scorer in women's lacrosse since 1999.
Sandi Bittler Leland has held the record for points in women's basketball since 1990. Of course, the men's record goes back even further, to Bill Bradley in 1965.
Negron still has the school record for points in a career with 112 - for now. Lussi is three back (two points for a goal, one for an assist in soccer) at 109.
How many goals can Lussi put up before the season ends?
The next big milestone is 50 goals, which only four Ivy League women's soccer players have ever reached. The all-time league record is 68, held by Harvard's Kelly Landry, from the 1980s. Can Lussi get that many? That would be asking a lot.
Lussi and Negron are similar players.
Both are lefties. Both have an incredible ability to turn nothing into something. Any ball in the box is a potential goal. Neither is the power shooter that Diana Matheson or Mimi Asom are, but Lussi and Negron just have the innate ability to put the ball into the net.
Princeton is home Friday night against Temple at 7. The Tigers won't be home again this month after that. In a scheduling oddity, Princeton will have played two home games in August and one in September.
The men will play four home games in September, including Thursday night, against St. John's.
The Ivy League opener for the women's team is Sept. 24 at Yale.
Princeton won the league championship last year with a 6-0-1 Ivy record and the defeated Boston College in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Lussi and Asom - who figures to make her own serious run at whatever number Lussi puts up - each scored twice in that game.
There's a long way to go between now and a possible return to the NCAA tournament for Princeton. Still, four games into the season, it's a good time to marvel at Tyler Lussi and her accomplishment.
It takes a special player to stand alone at the top of the record book at any sport at Princeton. To have scored more goals than any other player ever to play a sport at Princeton is extraordinary.
And that would be at the perfect word to describe Lussi's career at Princeton.
Extraordinary.
Come June, it's going to be hard to beat what happened Friday night when the women's soccer team played at Delaware.
Yeah, yeah. It was Game 3 of the season. No championship was on the line. It wasn't even a league game.
Still, Princeton did do something remarkable.
The Tigers and Blue Hens were scoreless until five minutes remained, when Delaware scored what figured to be the lone goal of the night. It certainly looked that way with four minutes left, three minutes left, two minutes left, one minute left, 30 seconds left.
Ah, but not so fast.
Junior Vanessa Gregoire, a first-team All-Ivy League selection a year ago, took the ball just outside the box as time was winding down and lifted one into the top left corner to tie it with just five seconds left. Her goal was a thing of beauty.
If you don't believe TigerBlog, you can see the highlight HERE.
That same clip continues a few seconds later with another beautiful goal, this time the game-winner by Tyler Lussi, with 2:57 left in the first OT.
Gregoire would also score again Sunday in the win over Howard that left Princeton at 4-0-0 on the young season.
Lussi scored two more goals in the game against Howard, giving her five on the season and giving her the magic number of 48 for her career.
What's so magical about it? Nobody who has ever played soccer at Princeton, male or female, has ever gotten there before.
The previous record at Princeton was 47, set in 2004 by Esmeralda Negron. Her 47th goal came in the NCAA quarterfinals and helped advance Princeton to the Final Four that year.
In fact, in the entire history of soccer at Princeton, only five players have ever reached 40 goals in a career - Lussi, Negron and Linda deBoer, who scored 41 before graduating in 1985, on the women's side and Steven Davidson (41, graduated in 1969) and Yuri Fishman (40, graduated in 1984).
For the women, deBoer's record stood for nine years. Negron's stood for 12. Davidson has had the men's record for 47 years now.
There are a lot of records at Princeton that have stood for a long time. Kevin Lowe has been the all-time leading scorer in men's lacrosse sine 1994. Crista Samaras has been the all-time leading scorer in women's lacrosse since 1999.
Sandi Bittler Leland has held the record for points in women's basketball since 1990. Of course, the men's record goes back even further, to Bill Bradley in 1965.
Negron still has the school record for points in a career with 112 - for now. Lussi is three back (two points for a goal, one for an assist in soccer) at 109.
How many goals can Lussi put up before the season ends?
The next big milestone is 50 goals, which only four Ivy League women's soccer players have ever reached. The all-time league record is 68, held by Harvard's Kelly Landry, from the 1980s. Can Lussi get that many? That would be asking a lot.
Lussi and Negron are similar players.
Both are lefties. Both have an incredible ability to turn nothing into something. Any ball in the box is a potential goal. Neither is the power shooter that Diana Matheson or Mimi Asom are, but Lussi and Negron just have the innate ability to put the ball into the net.
Princeton is home Friday night against Temple at 7. The Tigers won't be home again this month after that. In a scheduling oddity, Princeton will have played two home games in August and one in September.
The men will play four home games in September, including Thursday night, against St. John's.
The Ivy League opener for the women's team is Sept. 24 at Yale.
Princeton won the league championship last year with a 6-0-1 Ivy record and the defeated Boston College in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Lussi and Asom - who figures to make her own serious run at whatever number Lussi puts up - each scored twice in that game.
There's a long way to go between now and a possible return to the NCAA tournament for Princeton. Still, four games into the season, it's a good time to marvel at Tyler Lussi and her accomplishment.
It takes a special player to stand alone at the top of the record book at any sport at Princeton. To have scored more goals than any other player ever to play a sport at Princeton is extraordinary.
And that would be at the perfect word to describe Lussi's career at Princeton.
Extraordinary.
Friday, September 2, 2016
RIP The Waco Kid
The news that Gene Wilder had passed away left TigerBlog a bit saddened.
Back in his days at the newspaper, before the internet, he used to his breaking news on the AP wire. He worked then with a guy named Tony Persichilli, and any time the death of someone famous came across the wire, he'd simply shrug and say "that's someone else I never met who died." In fact, the only time he showed any emotion was when the woman who played Aunt Bea on "The Andy Griffith Show" died.
The last time TigerBlog spoke to Tony Perch, as he was known, was when he called the newspaper a few years after beginning work at Princeton. What's new, TB asked him. The response? TB can still hear Tony's voice as he said "What's new? Nothing. I'm still sitting in the same chair I was sitting in the day you left. And I'm probably wearing the same shirt."
Tony passed away in 2012, at the age of 59. TigerBlog thought about both of those little anecdotes when he heard the news. He was quite a character, Tony Perch, and a good man.
These days, it's usually a bad sign for older stars who have been out of the public spotlight for awhile to be trending on Twitter. It usually means something bad has happened to them.
Such was the case with Gene Wilder. When TB saw he was trending on Twitter, he figured that the end had come.
Gene Wilder was always one of TigerBlog's favorite actors. He wasn't quite a Hall-of-Famer, but you could be pretty sure that whatever he was in was going to be pretty good.
And in some cases great.
Wilder made three great movies, TB would say. Two are obvious. The other isn't as much.
The one that isn't obvious is "The Silver Streak," a movie TigerBlog saw in the movies when it was released in 1976. It paired Wilder with the brilliant Richard Pryor, had Jill Clayburgh as the love interest, and pieced together some hilarious scenes over the course of a fluffy little plot about murder and international fraud aboard a train.
Pryor is the one who gets the frantic laughs. Wilder is the one who gets the subtle, understated ones. Between them, they made for a great comedy team for the four movies they did together.
The two that were clearly great included "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." TigerBlog is almost certain he saw it at Camp Toledo on movie night in 1971 or so. Either that or his grandmother took him to see it. But he's going with Camp Toledo.
Wilder played the title role in "Willy Wonka" and did so pretty much perfectly. You've seen it. You don't need TigerBlog to explain it to you.
The other one that is obviously great is one TigerBlog would consider among the five funniest movies of all time - "Blazing Saddles." If you haven't seen this one, then make sure you do. It's Mel Brooks at his best, with Wilder and Cleavon Little at theirs.
Wilder plays The Waco Kid, a gunslinger with lightning fast hands who has become a drunk. Little is the new sheriff. It's insanely funny, with humor that is sophisticated and slapstick at the same time. And not exactly PC, but that's the point of the humor. It's all subtle.
There were other movies with Wilder that TB really liked, including the incredibly obscure but very funny "Hanky Panky," in which the female lead is Gilda Radner, who would go on to be Wilder's third of four wives before she died of ovarian cancer in 1989. TigerBlog probably found out about it from Tony Perch off the AP wire.
So RIP Gene Wilder. And thanks for the laughs.
Wilder passed away Monday, which was Aug. 29. TigerBlog again would like to say how shocked he is by how quickly the summer has zoomed by.
Is it really September already? Miss TigerBlog had the first day of school yesterday. TigerBlog Jr. is finishing Week 1 of classes, and he said that he has one class, a politics class, in which everyone in the class but him - the professor and all of the other students - are women.
As you probably know by now, TBJ goes to Sacred Heart University. The Pioneers open their football season tomorrow at Stetson, which is coached by former Princeton coach Roger Hughes.
Princeton football is two weeks away from opening day. This, though, is the first fairly busy weekend of the Princeton Athletic year.
The first two events of 2016-17 were last weekend, when the women's soccer team swept Fordham and Villanova. Princeton plays two more women's soccer games this weekend, but this time there are four other Princeton teams who jump in.
Only one of them is at home, and TB will get back to them shortly.
The women's soccer team is at Delaware tonight and Howard Sunday. The big story there, other than the on-field results, is whether or not this will be the weekend that Tyler Lussi breaks Esmeralda Negron's school goals-scoring record.
Lussi has 45 for her career. Negron had 47. No other player, male or female, has ever had more.
There's more than just Lussi's chase for the record, and you can read about it HERE.
The men's soccer team opens its season tomorrow night at West Virginia, who is ranked 24th nationally after a 1-0 win over No. 10 Georgetown and a 2-0 loss to No. 14 Seattle. More than the record and the ranking, maybe the biggest advantage for the Mountaineers is that they have played two games, while Princeton is playing its first.
You can watch the men's soccer game for free HERE.
The men's water polo team, ranked 11th in the preseason, opens this weekend at Navy. The Tigers will be home next week, including a game against No. 1 UCLA, the two-time defending NCAA champ, Sunday the 11th at noon on ESPNU.
If you want the water polo preview, it's HERE.
The women's volleyball team is also playing this weekend, with its opener in California. When last we left the women's volleyball team, it was staging a wild rally to get a share of the 2015 Ivy League championship.
More on women's volleyball? It's HERE.
The only team on campus this weekend is the field hockey team, who plays No. 1 North Carolina today at 4 and then Bucknell Sunday at 1.
The big story for Princeton, other than the chance to knock off the defending champ, is that it's the debut weekend for Carla Tagliente as Princeton head coach.
You can read about it HERE.
And that's your weekend in Princeton Athletics.
Back in his days at the newspaper, before the internet, he used to his breaking news on the AP wire. He worked then with a guy named Tony Persichilli, and any time the death of someone famous came across the wire, he'd simply shrug and say "that's someone else I never met who died." In fact, the only time he showed any emotion was when the woman who played Aunt Bea on "The Andy Griffith Show" died.
The last time TigerBlog spoke to Tony Perch, as he was known, was when he called the newspaper a few years after beginning work at Princeton. What's new, TB asked him. The response? TB can still hear Tony's voice as he said "What's new? Nothing. I'm still sitting in the same chair I was sitting in the day you left. And I'm probably wearing the same shirt."
Tony passed away in 2012, at the age of 59. TigerBlog thought about both of those little anecdotes when he heard the news. He was quite a character, Tony Perch, and a good man.
These days, it's usually a bad sign for older stars who have been out of the public spotlight for awhile to be trending on Twitter. It usually means something bad has happened to them.
Such was the case with Gene Wilder. When TB saw he was trending on Twitter, he figured that the end had come.
Gene Wilder was always one of TigerBlog's favorite actors. He wasn't quite a Hall-of-Famer, but you could be pretty sure that whatever he was in was going to be pretty good.
And in some cases great.
Wilder made three great movies, TB would say. Two are obvious. The other isn't as much.
The one that isn't obvious is "The Silver Streak," a movie TigerBlog saw in the movies when it was released in 1976. It paired Wilder with the brilliant Richard Pryor, had Jill Clayburgh as the love interest, and pieced together some hilarious scenes over the course of a fluffy little plot about murder and international fraud aboard a train.
Pryor is the one who gets the frantic laughs. Wilder is the one who gets the subtle, understated ones. Between them, they made for a great comedy team for the four movies they did together.
The two that were clearly great included "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." TigerBlog is almost certain he saw it at Camp Toledo on movie night in 1971 or so. Either that or his grandmother took him to see it. But he's going with Camp Toledo.
Wilder played the title role in "Willy Wonka" and did so pretty much perfectly. You've seen it. You don't need TigerBlog to explain it to you.
The other one that is obviously great is one TigerBlog would consider among the five funniest movies of all time - "Blazing Saddles." If you haven't seen this one, then make sure you do. It's Mel Brooks at his best, with Wilder and Cleavon Little at theirs.
Wilder plays The Waco Kid, a gunslinger with lightning fast hands who has become a drunk. Little is the new sheriff. It's insanely funny, with humor that is sophisticated and slapstick at the same time. And not exactly PC, but that's the point of the humor. It's all subtle.
There were other movies with Wilder that TB really liked, including the incredibly obscure but very funny "Hanky Panky," in which the female lead is Gilda Radner, who would go on to be Wilder's third of four wives before she died of ovarian cancer in 1989. TigerBlog probably found out about it from Tony Perch off the AP wire.
So RIP Gene Wilder. And thanks for the laughs.
Wilder passed away Monday, which was Aug. 29. TigerBlog again would like to say how shocked he is by how quickly the summer has zoomed by.
Is it really September already? Miss TigerBlog had the first day of school yesterday. TigerBlog Jr. is finishing Week 1 of classes, and he said that he has one class, a politics class, in which everyone in the class but him - the professor and all of the other students - are women.
As you probably know by now, TBJ goes to Sacred Heart University. The Pioneers open their football season tomorrow at Stetson, which is coached by former Princeton coach Roger Hughes.
Princeton football is two weeks away from opening day. This, though, is the first fairly busy weekend of the Princeton Athletic year.
The first two events of 2016-17 were last weekend, when the women's soccer team swept Fordham and Villanova. Princeton plays two more women's soccer games this weekend, but this time there are four other Princeton teams who jump in.
Only one of them is at home, and TB will get back to them shortly.
The women's soccer team is at Delaware tonight and Howard Sunday. The big story there, other than the on-field results, is whether or not this will be the weekend that Tyler Lussi breaks Esmeralda Negron's school goals-scoring record.
Lussi has 45 for her career. Negron had 47. No other player, male or female, has ever had more.
There's more than just Lussi's chase for the record, and you can read about it HERE.
The men's soccer team opens its season tomorrow night at West Virginia, who is ranked 24th nationally after a 1-0 win over No. 10 Georgetown and a 2-0 loss to No. 14 Seattle. More than the record and the ranking, maybe the biggest advantage for the Mountaineers is that they have played two games, while Princeton is playing its first.
You can watch the men's soccer game for free HERE.
The men's water polo team, ranked 11th in the preseason, opens this weekend at Navy. The Tigers will be home next week, including a game against No. 1 UCLA, the two-time defending NCAA champ, Sunday the 11th at noon on ESPNU.
If you want the water polo preview, it's HERE.
The women's volleyball team is also playing this weekend, with its opener in California. When last we left the women's volleyball team, it was staging a wild rally to get a share of the 2015 Ivy League championship.
More on women's volleyball? It's HERE.
The only team on campus this weekend is the field hockey team, who plays No. 1 North Carolina today at 4 and then Bucknell Sunday at 1.
The big story for Princeton, other than the chance to knock off the defending champ, is that it's the debut weekend for Carla Tagliente as Princeton head coach.
You can read about it HERE.
And that's your weekend in Princeton Athletics.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Answering John Mack
Perhaps you remember John Mack?
He's moving closer to the front of the line at the P-Rade every year. While TigerBlog wouldn't call him one of the old guard quite yet, hey, the clock continues to tick.
Mack, a member of the Class of 2000, was a 10-time Heps champion in track and field and a Roper Trophy winner. Now he's a lawyer in Michigan.
At one point, Mack could run the 400 in less than 47 seconds. At some point a few years ago, TB and Mack had this actual conversation:
TB: If you started to run the 400, how far would you get in 47 seconds?
Mack: I'd be about 100 yards down the track clutching my hamstring.
In the world of Princeton Athletic alums, there are the ones that TigerBlog likes, the ones he really likes - and there's John Mack. If he's not in his own class, as Bum Phillips once said: "It doesn't take long to take the attendance."
Maybe it's because he's the only person on Earth who can say that he was a student worker in the Office of Athletic Communications, an employee of the Department of Athletics and a babysitter for TigerBlog Jr. and Miss TigerBlog back when they were really, really, really little.
Mack texted TigerBlog two things yesterday.
The first was that TB "has always been one of the cool field hockey moms to me."
That was a reference to yesterday, when TB talked about the five women with whom he shares a text message chain that started when the six of them agreed to drive to MTB's high school field hockey team's preseason team bonding event in the Poconos last week.
As an aside, TB forgot to mention yesterday that the chain has continued through to this week. Since returning from the Poconos, TigerBlog has learned all sorts of valuable things about the other CFHMs. You know, like Mandy painted the windows in her family room Saturday, Kathleen was up early walking her dog in the park, Jean is the one you want in your trench when it comes time to fight authority - and they all seem to drink a lot of coffee.
And the second thing John Mack texted TB yesterday?
"What is the most disappointing loss by a Princeton team since you've been there and the most surprising win, taken from a perspective of expectations before the game started (excluding the UCLA win in hoops).
Now that's the kind of question TB loves. And they're both tough ones. Here's the caveat - It has to be a game TigerBlog actually attended.
Okay, let's take the first one first.
The most disappointed TB has ever been after a Princeton loss? That's easy. That was the 1998 second-round NCAA men's basketball loss to Michigan State, a team that would win the NCAA title two years later starting four of the same players who went against Princeton.
But that's not what John Mack is saying, TB believes. He's talking about a loss in a game that Princeton was supposed to win, and that game doesn't really fit that profile.
TigerBlog has long thought that there are some games where one team is clearly the favorite but the game never plays out that way. Oh, sometimes the favorite still wins, but it's not easy. Those games have a weird feel to them early on, like you can tell that that particular day is going to be a little different. TB thinks these are the kinds of games John Mack is talking about.
TB thought about the 1995 football loss to Yale when the Tigers were 8-0-0, but that isn't really it because 1) even though Yale came in at 2-6, the Bulldogs got their quarterback Chris Hetherington back for that game, and he would be the difference in the game and would go on to play nearly a decade in the NFL and 2) Princeton would win the outright Ivy title the next week anyway.
He thought about the 1991 NCAA men's lacrosse quarterfinal loss to Towson, 14-13 in triple overtime at Palmer Stadium. TB thought after that one that maybe that might have been Princeton's best chance it would ever have to win an NCAA title, being the second seed and all. That was disappointing - until Princeton won the championship the next year and then won five more after that.
He thought about a bunch of games in a bunch of sports. Fortunately, Princeton wins a lot more than it loses, so there really haven't been that many of these kinds of games.
Then he thought of one. It was from 1999, a men's basketball game at Yale. The Tigers came into the game 15-5 overall and 7-0 in the Ivy League. Yale was 4-16, 1-7. Final score? Yale 60, Princeton 58 in double overtime.
You might remember what had happened four days earlier more than you remember this game. That game four days earlier was the 50-49 win over Penn in which Princeton had trailed 40-13 with 15 minutes left.
The Yale game was one of those games TB talked about before, where it just didn't feel right from the start. TigerBlog remembers getting to the hotel at Brown a few hours later and seeing Brian Earl (he had 21 points while going all 50 minutes) in the hallway outside his room, and they both looked at each other and simply shrugged, neither saying a word.
So yes, that's the game TB would go with for that part of the question.
For the second part? Remember, the UCLA basketball game doesn't count.
TB came up with four.
The first is the 2000 NCAA men's lacrosse semifinal against Virginia. Princeton was a huge underdog against the Cavs, who had beaten Princeton 15-8 during the regular season. Princeton was also down three in the fourth quarter before Trevor Tierney made a huge one-on-one stop after the shooter made about 100 fakes on the doorstep, and back came Princeton, tying it and then winning it 12-11 on Brendan Tierney's late goal. There was a great picture of Brendan Tierney in the New York Times the next day; the framed picture of it still hangs in the Tierney house.
So that's one.
No. 2 would be the championship game of the First Bank Classic at Marquette in 1996-97. This would be men's basketball, by the way. TigerBlog thought there was no way Princeton was going to win this one. Marquette went to the second round of the NCAA tournament the year before and would go back in 1997 as well. It was in Milwaukee. With Marquette's refs. Marquette was led by Chris Crawford, who would play seven years in the NBA.
As for the refs, there are some funny stories. First, Princeton head coach Bill Carmody said to one of the officials "hey, fouls are 10-0 this half," to which the ref replied "as soon as they commit one I'll call it." Good response.
Then there was the end of the game. Princeton had a two-point lead. Centers Steve Goodrich and Jesse Rosenfeld had both fouled out, leaving Sydney Johnson to play center for the Tigers. Princeton was trying to hold on in the final minute. But Marquette hadn't committed many fouls that half, so they had foul maybe five or six more times to send Princeton to the line. It led to "inbound, foul, repeat" as precious time ran off the clock. Then, when the next foul would send Princeton to the line, the Tigers went with a 50-foot backdoor pass off the sideline out of bounds. TB is pretty sure it went Mitch Henderson to James Mastaglio. Layup. Game over.
So that's two.
The next two rise above those two though. Both were in the NCAA tournament.
One was the 2004 NCAA quarterfinal women's soccer game between Princeton and Washington. Yes, the Tigers were the home team and the higher seed (Princeton seven; Washington 15). Still, TB thought maybe the Tigers' dream season had gone as far asit was going to go, probably because the Huskies had wins over teams like Stanford and USC and hadn't allowed a goal in five games. Or maybe it was because the idea of getting to the NCAA Final Four in women's soccer seemed impossible.
Princeton scored first. Washington tied it. 1-1 at the half. Then Esmeralda Negron and Kristina Fontanez scored in the first 10 minutes of the second half, and Princeton was in total control. The last 20 minutes or so were a party for Princeton and the overflow crowed at old Lourie-Love Field.
It remains the only time an Ivy League team has reached the women's soccer Final Four.
And the other game? The 2001 NCAA men's lacrosse championship game against Syracuse.
Princeton had lost to Syracuse in the 2000 regular season, 2000 NCAA final and 2001 regular season by a combined 43-19. None of those three games were ever competitive. There was no reason to suspect the 2001 final would be either.
The championship game was different. Princeton took it to Syracuse early and led 5-3 at the half, 8-4 after three. Then Syracuse tied it in what seemed like a minute. Princeton went up 9-8. Syracuse tied it with 16 seconds left. Off to OT the game went.
Syracuse had all the momentum, but it didn't matter. The Tigers got a stop. Ryan Boyle got the ball behind the goal. B.J. Prager finished it, 10-9 Princeton.
Is TB forgetting anything obvious?
Oh, and John Mack? TB apologizes for not getting back to you.
He's moving closer to the front of the line at the P-Rade every year. While TigerBlog wouldn't call him one of the old guard quite yet, hey, the clock continues to tick.
Mack, a member of the Class of 2000, was a 10-time Heps champion in track and field and a Roper Trophy winner. Now he's a lawyer in Michigan.
At one point, Mack could run the 400 in less than 47 seconds. At some point a few years ago, TB and Mack had this actual conversation:
TB: If you started to run the 400, how far would you get in 47 seconds?
Mack: I'd be about 100 yards down the track clutching my hamstring.
In the world of Princeton Athletic alums, there are the ones that TigerBlog likes, the ones he really likes - and there's John Mack. If he's not in his own class, as Bum Phillips once said: "It doesn't take long to take the attendance."
Maybe it's because he's the only person on Earth who can say that he was a student worker in the Office of Athletic Communications, an employee of the Department of Athletics and a babysitter for TigerBlog Jr. and Miss TigerBlog back when they were really, really, really little.
Mack texted TigerBlog two things yesterday.
The first was that TB "has always been one of the cool field hockey moms to me."
That was a reference to yesterday, when TB talked about the five women with whom he shares a text message chain that started when the six of them agreed to drive to MTB's high school field hockey team's preseason team bonding event in the Poconos last week.
As an aside, TB forgot to mention yesterday that the chain has continued through to this week. Since returning from the Poconos, TigerBlog has learned all sorts of valuable things about the other CFHMs. You know, like Mandy painted the windows in her family room Saturday, Kathleen was up early walking her dog in the park, Jean is the one you want in your trench when it comes time to fight authority - and they all seem to drink a lot of coffee.
And the second thing John Mack texted TB yesterday?
"What is the most disappointing loss by a Princeton team since you've been there and the most surprising win, taken from a perspective of expectations before the game started (excluding the UCLA win in hoops).
Now that's the kind of question TB loves. And they're both tough ones. Here's the caveat - It has to be a game TigerBlog actually attended.
Okay, let's take the first one first.
The most disappointed TB has ever been after a Princeton loss? That's easy. That was the 1998 second-round NCAA men's basketball loss to Michigan State, a team that would win the NCAA title two years later starting four of the same players who went against Princeton.
But that's not what John Mack is saying, TB believes. He's talking about a loss in a game that Princeton was supposed to win, and that game doesn't really fit that profile.
TigerBlog has long thought that there are some games where one team is clearly the favorite but the game never plays out that way. Oh, sometimes the favorite still wins, but it's not easy. Those games have a weird feel to them early on, like you can tell that that particular day is going to be a little different. TB thinks these are the kinds of games John Mack is talking about.
TB thought about the 1995 football loss to Yale when the Tigers were 8-0-0, but that isn't really it because 1) even though Yale came in at 2-6, the Bulldogs got their quarterback Chris Hetherington back for that game, and he would be the difference in the game and would go on to play nearly a decade in the NFL and 2) Princeton would win the outright Ivy title the next week anyway.
He thought about the 1991 NCAA men's lacrosse quarterfinal loss to Towson, 14-13 in triple overtime at Palmer Stadium. TB thought after that one that maybe that might have been Princeton's best chance it would ever have to win an NCAA title, being the second seed and all. That was disappointing - until Princeton won the championship the next year and then won five more after that.
He thought about a bunch of games in a bunch of sports. Fortunately, Princeton wins a lot more than it loses, so there really haven't been that many of these kinds of games.
Then he thought of one. It was from 1999, a men's basketball game at Yale. The Tigers came into the game 15-5 overall and 7-0 in the Ivy League. Yale was 4-16, 1-7. Final score? Yale 60, Princeton 58 in double overtime.
You might remember what had happened four days earlier more than you remember this game. That game four days earlier was the 50-49 win over Penn in which Princeton had trailed 40-13 with 15 minutes left.
The Yale game was one of those games TB talked about before, where it just didn't feel right from the start. TigerBlog remembers getting to the hotel at Brown a few hours later and seeing Brian Earl (he had 21 points while going all 50 minutes) in the hallway outside his room, and they both looked at each other and simply shrugged, neither saying a word.
So yes, that's the game TB would go with for that part of the question.
For the second part? Remember, the UCLA basketball game doesn't count.
TB came up with four.
The first is the 2000 NCAA men's lacrosse semifinal against Virginia. Princeton was a huge underdog against the Cavs, who had beaten Princeton 15-8 during the regular season. Princeton was also down three in the fourth quarter before Trevor Tierney made a huge one-on-one stop after the shooter made about 100 fakes on the doorstep, and back came Princeton, tying it and then winning it 12-11 on Brendan Tierney's late goal. There was a great picture of Brendan Tierney in the New York Times the next day; the framed picture of it still hangs in the Tierney house.
So that's one.
No. 2 would be the championship game of the First Bank Classic at Marquette in 1996-97. This would be men's basketball, by the way. TigerBlog thought there was no way Princeton was going to win this one. Marquette went to the second round of the NCAA tournament the year before and would go back in 1997 as well. It was in Milwaukee. With Marquette's refs. Marquette was led by Chris Crawford, who would play seven years in the NBA.
As for the refs, there are some funny stories. First, Princeton head coach Bill Carmody said to one of the officials "hey, fouls are 10-0 this half," to which the ref replied "as soon as they commit one I'll call it." Good response.
Then there was the end of the game. Princeton had a two-point lead. Centers Steve Goodrich and Jesse Rosenfeld had both fouled out, leaving Sydney Johnson to play center for the Tigers. Princeton was trying to hold on in the final minute. But Marquette hadn't committed many fouls that half, so they had foul maybe five or six more times to send Princeton to the line. It led to "inbound, foul, repeat" as precious time ran off the clock. Then, when the next foul would send Princeton to the line, the Tigers went with a 50-foot backdoor pass off the sideline out of bounds. TB is pretty sure it went Mitch Henderson to James Mastaglio. Layup. Game over.
So that's two.
The next two rise above those two though. Both were in the NCAA tournament.
One was the 2004 NCAA quarterfinal women's soccer game between Princeton and Washington. Yes, the Tigers were the home team and the higher seed (Princeton seven; Washington 15). Still, TB thought maybe the Tigers' dream season had gone as far asit was going to go, probably because the Huskies had wins over teams like Stanford and USC and hadn't allowed a goal in five games. Or maybe it was because the idea of getting to the NCAA Final Four in women's soccer seemed impossible.
Princeton scored first. Washington tied it. 1-1 at the half. Then Esmeralda Negron and Kristina Fontanez scored in the first 10 minutes of the second half, and Princeton was in total control. The last 20 minutes or so were a party for Princeton and the overflow crowed at old Lourie-Love Field.
It remains the only time an Ivy League team has reached the women's soccer Final Four.
And the other game? The 2001 NCAA men's lacrosse championship game against Syracuse.
Princeton had lost to Syracuse in the 2000 regular season, 2000 NCAA final and 2001 regular season by a combined 43-19. None of those three games were ever competitive. There was no reason to suspect the 2001 final would be either.
The championship game was different. Princeton took it to Syracuse early and led 5-3 at the half, 8-4 after three. Then Syracuse tied it in what seemed like a minute. Princeton went up 9-8. Syracuse tied it with 16 seconds left. Off to OT the game went.
Syracuse had all the momentum, but it didn't matter. The Tigers got a stop. Ryan Boyle got the ball behind the goal. B.J. Prager finished it, 10-9 Princeton.
Is TB forgetting anything obvious?
Oh, and John Mack? TB apologizes for not getting back to you.
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