Midmajority.com, according to its own wording, is "now in its sixth season. The Mid-Majority is a blog about the 24 smaller Division I college basketball conferences (and independents) by Kyle Whelliston and Damon Lewis."
Such a website would have been unthinkable not too long ago. Today? All it takes is some ambition and a niche subject matter, and you too can stumble upon something successful.
TigerBlog was fascinated by two stories he recently read on midmajority.com. Basically, Whelliston (whom TB has never met) has spent some time performing various tasks at college basketball games, including spending a night as an assistant sports information director and another night as part of the official stats crew.
The story about the official stats crew centers around his experience at the UMBC-Central Connecticut game. The person in charge of entering stats at Central Connecticut is Vinnie DiCarlo, who 15 years ago was an intern right here at HQ.
Whelliston calls DiCarlo a "stat legend," which is a moniker that can apply to so many different people all across the sports information landscape. Here at HQ, we often use the services of another "stat legend," Brian Solomon, whose full-time job is at Rider.
The piece does a good job of conveying what it's like to be entering stats during a game, and TigerBlog is okay with anything that gets any unheralded "stat legend" some publicity, especially when it's Vinnie.
TigerBlog found the other piece, about being an assistant SID for a night, to be less accurate a reflection of the profession. In some ways, it's spot on, but it's a bit out-of-date. Keeping stats and running a press area at games is an essential sports information function, but it's increasingly becoming less and less what sports information is all about.
To us here at HQ and to many across the landscape, the profession is changing 180 degrees, away from being a media relations-oriented job to being a media-outlet job. Of course, for regular TigerBlog readers, this isn't news.
There was another article that caught TB's eye, one that talked about the declining value of newspaper coverage to college athletic programs.
The idea is that a college's own website, such as goprincetontigers.com, is its own media entity - and oh by the way, one that can generate revenue. It directly contradicts what sports information has been for its entire existence; namely, an office that exists first and foremost to assist other media outlets in their coverage.
The result was a relationship where SIDs were often viewed as subservient to media members, a situation that led to several realities:
* media people became overly reliant on SIDs for minor tasks
* media people didn't really understand the perspective of the SID
* SIDs became increasingly frustrated with having to deal with media people to get the word out instead of being able to do it themselves
As soon as the web came along, it all changed. The world that Whelliston talks about is one where the SID's highest priority is still to the media, one where the SID needed great patience and absolutely ZERO ego to do the job well.
It's a world that takes TigerBlog to E level of Jadwin Gym, into the file cabinets that are entitled "former coaches/administrators." It's a four-drawer collection of people who once worked here, back in a time when everything was done on paper, which subsequently was shoved into file folders.
They trace a fascinating history of Princeton athletics. Drawer after drawer, file after file, filled with releases announcing the hiring of so-and-so or the resignation of so-and-so. There are head shots, almost all in black-and-white, which reveal their date via hairstyle.
And these releases, now on paper that is crinkled and yellowing, were subsequently mailed out to media outlets, who may or may not have used them.
TigerBlog's post about missing out on record-setting performances generated this comment:
"Congratulations on your longevity (is it a record or does Bill Stryker '50 have you beat??) and all of the good work. Looking forward to more in the new year. All the best to you and your colleagues."
The name Bill Stryker appears on a good number of the releases that are currently hanging out in the Del Boca Vista for releases, E level. Bill Stryker was a 1950 graduate of Princeton, and he became the sports information director here in 1958. He then spent the next 16 years as SID before having his title change to Director of Athletic Relations. Judging by what his responsibilities became, it would be the equivalent of being in charge of communications for Friends' groups (the fundraising arm of each team). He also was the PA announcer for football and hockey (and maybe basketball).
Stryker died in 1986 at the age of 59. As near as TigerBlog can figure it, he has spent the longest time with either the actual title or responsibilities of sports information director.
For years and years, athletic information was a function that was kept under the domain of the University's public information office. As near as TigerBlog can figure, the first actual SID was a man named Dan Coyle, a 1938 Princeton grad who would go on to become a major in World War II before returning to his alma mater. He spent 10 years with the title of SID before going on to spend an additional 25 years in other administrative posts at the University. Coyle died in 1973 at the age of 57.
Coyle's tenure as SID went from 1946-56, while Stryker came on board in 1958. When Stryker left, Princeton had three SIDs who would go on to be leaders in the field: Phil Langan (who recently passed away), John Humenik (who is now the executive director of CoSIDA) and then Steve Raczynski (who went from Princeton to Stanford).
That era was followed by some turnover, and there is a scathing column written by none other than Harvey Yavener in 1982 ripping Princeton for its sports information efforts. In April 1985 Chuck Yrigoyen took over, and he was SID until 1989, when he moved on to the Ivy League office. Today he is the commissioner of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
The Office of Athletic Communications turned over to Kurt Kehl in 1989, and he would stay until 2002. Today he is Vice President for Communications for the Washington Capitals. For Kehl's first five years at Princeton (during a glorious run of football, men's basketball and men's lacrosse success), the very capable No. 2 person was named Mark Panus, who would leave intercollegiate athletics after that.
The E-level file cabinets reveal the files of many who have worked in the OAC in the last 20 years, a group of highly capable people. Some have stayed in close touch with TigerBlog through the years; others have faded away. People like John Cornell. Mike Zulla. Tim Bennett (long-time assistant at Yale). Kris Pleimann. Emmy Zack. Laura Stange. Chuck Sullivan (now the head of communications at the Big East). Mike Jackman. Scott Lowe. The above-mentioned Vinnie DiCarlo. David Rosenfeld. Manish Mehta (now a writer for the Star-Ledger). Erin Melody. Michael Falk, who has been at Muhlenberg for nearly 20 years. Jenn Garrett. Matt Ciciarelli (congratulations on the birth of child No. 2). Jen Rynearson. Ben Solomon. Tom Milajecki. Melissa Lempke. Sophia Duck. Kim Milardo (she married former Princeton lacrosse player Owen Daly).
The current staff of Craig Sachson, Yariv Amir, Kristy McNeil and Andrew Borders has done an exceptional job, transitioning from the old era (publications, media relations) to the new (video, podcasting, multi-media). Princeton fans who go to goprincetontigers.com regularly are seeing their work about 90% of the time.
TB himself has had seven different titles while working here, and he is in his 16th year. How close is he to Stryker?
In terms of service time, pretty close. In terms of the job itself, the work that Stryker did and the work that TigerBlog does have basically no overlap.
Well, maybe some. PA at Princeton football, for one.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Going Bowling
The last three games of practically every season of practically every college sport are the national semifinals and championship game. Water polo, for whatever reason, clings to the long-obsolete third-place game, which is good, because Princeton defeated Loyola Marymount in the most recent one played.
The big exception to this is the highest level of the most popular college sport, football. At least until lacrosse passes it in the next 25-50 years or so.
In college football, the last three games of the year are this: Georgia Tech-Iowa tonight in the Orange Bowl, Central Michigan-Troy in the GMAC Bowl tomorrow and finally Alabama-Texas in the BCS championship game Thursday night. As an aside, it will stay the BCS championship game only if certain members of Congress don't pursue legislation to prevent it from being called that; those members of Congress who get behind the bill should save their time and just propose a resolution that says "we couldn't look sillier."
TigerBlog used to love to watch the New Year's Day bowl games, dating back to when there were just four of them: the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl. Over time, the schedule grew so that it was wall-to-wall football on New Year's Day, which was also good. If one game wasn't doing it for you, there were countless others to choose from.
Now it's all spread out, with no rhyme or reason to the schedule. Plus, with a BCS championship game, every other game is rendered completely meaningless. And TigerBlog objects to the fact that Alabama and Texas play for the "championship" simply because they were 1) ranked higher than Boise State, TCU and Cincinnati when the season began and 2) higher profile teams.
Another grip TB has with the system is that there are too many bowl games. Well, not too many in the sense that if the market supports having that many games, so be it. Still, TB counted eight teams who went into their bowl game at 6-6, which meant that they needed a win in the bowl game to avoid a losing season. Does this seem wrong to anyone?
College football has become the complete opposite of college basketball, and TB isn't sure which one is better. In college football, the regular season is everything and the postseason is basically nothing. In college basketball, the regular season (except in the Ivy League) means basically nothing and the postseason (conference tournaments and NCAA tournament) are everything.
A regular-season football game between, say, Florida and LSU is huge, whereas a regular-season basketball game between the two means nothing other than seeding for the conference tournament.
Anyway, TigerBlog has watched some of the bowl season, though not a ton. Among his thoughts:
* TB feels badly for the East Carolina kicker
* the Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka had the most ridiculous stats in history: 47 for 78 for 532 yards, four touchdowns and five interceptions; Northwestern ran a fake field goal in overtime and lost to Auburn 38-35 in the Outback Bowl, but how can anyone fault the Wildcats for going for the win there, especially with their No. 1 kicker hurt?
* Navy, whose new uniforms are the best in football, shredded Missouri for 385 rushing yards in a 35-13 win in the Texas Bowl; no team in college football is as much fun to watch as Navy
* Temple's reward for its great season and UCLA's reward for finishing .500 was to play in a freezing RFK Stadium in the EagleBank Bowl; it reminded TB of something that was overheard from a Stanford player at the first round of the NCAA field hockey tournament at a freezing, rainy Class of 1952 Stadium before Princeton defeated the Cardinal 4-0: "Our goal all year was to be in the NCAA tournament, and now that we're here, this is it?"
* TB isn't into hero worship, so he's never been real pro-Tim Tebow. Still, it's hard to argue with the performance he had in the Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati. And speaking of the Bearcats, yes, they got blasted, but TB isn't so sure that Cincinnati wouldn't have beaten either Texas or Alabama if they had 1) the chance and 2) their coach.
Then there was last night's Fiesta Bowl between undefeateds TCU and Boise State. First of all, the whole idea of having those two teams in the BCS was to see what they would do against a big-name school, not against each other. The reason Boise State's win over Oklahoma a few years ago was so great was because it was against OKLAHOMA.
This time, there were two Boise State defensive backs with Princeton connections. The first was cornerback Kyle Wilson, whose brother Gerry was a cornerback for the Tigers. Back in the first game ever played at Princeton Stadium, Gerry Wilson sealed Princeton's 6-0 win over Cornell with a late interception.
The second is Winston Venable, whose interception last night sealed the 17-10 Boise State win. His brother is obviously Will Venable, the All-Ivy basketball and baseball player who is now with the San Diego Padres.
TigerBlog almost always roots for the siblings of Princeton athletes. He tried to think of some of the ones through the years, and he came up with a few, though there are certainly some he's missing (and many, many more examples of Princeton siblings who also played for Princeton):
* Danny Earl, Brian Earl's brother, who played basketball at Penn State. TB has never rooted against the Earl family
* Adam and Michael Doneger, both of whom played lacrosse at Hopkins and whose brother Jason is TigerBlog Jr.'s favorite Princeton lacrosse player of all-time.
* Andrew Berry, a Harvard defensive back whose brother Adam was a Princeton wide receiver. Like TB said, he almost always roots for Princeton siblings
* Kevin Shattenkirk of the Boston U men's hockey team and brother of former Princeton captain Keith Shattenkirk; TB rooted for the Terriers in the NCAA final last year, which they won, because of the connection
There are others as well, but TigerBlog today is all about the bowl season. Too bad there's nobody on Central Michigan and Troy whose brother or sister was a Princeton athlete. Then the GMAC Bowl would be even more exciting.
The big exception to this is the highest level of the most popular college sport, football. At least until lacrosse passes it in the next 25-50 years or so.
In college football, the last three games of the year are this: Georgia Tech-Iowa tonight in the Orange Bowl, Central Michigan-Troy in the GMAC Bowl tomorrow and finally Alabama-Texas in the BCS championship game Thursday night. As an aside, it will stay the BCS championship game only if certain members of Congress don't pursue legislation to prevent it from being called that; those members of Congress who get behind the bill should save their time and just propose a resolution that says "we couldn't look sillier."
TigerBlog used to love to watch the New Year's Day bowl games, dating back to when there were just four of them: the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl. Over time, the schedule grew so that it was wall-to-wall football on New Year's Day, which was also good. If one game wasn't doing it for you, there were countless others to choose from.
Now it's all spread out, with no rhyme or reason to the schedule. Plus, with a BCS championship game, every other game is rendered completely meaningless. And TigerBlog objects to the fact that Alabama and Texas play for the "championship" simply because they were 1) ranked higher than Boise State, TCU and Cincinnati when the season began and 2) higher profile teams.
Another grip TB has with the system is that there are too many bowl games. Well, not too many in the sense that if the market supports having that many games, so be it. Still, TB counted eight teams who went into their bowl game at 6-6, which meant that they needed a win in the bowl game to avoid a losing season. Does this seem wrong to anyone?
College football has become the complete opposite of college basketball, and TB isn't sure which one is better. In college football, the regular season is everything and the postseason is basically nothing. In college basketball, the regular season (except in the Ivy League) means basically nothing and the postseason (conference tournaments and NCAA tournament) are everything.
A regular-season football game between, say, Florida and LSU is huge, whereas a regular-season basketball game between the two means nothing other than seeding for the conference tournament.
Anyway, TigerBlog has watched some of the bowl season, though not a ton. Among his thoughts:
* TB feels badly for the East Carolina kicker
* the Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka had the most ridiculous stats in history: 47 for 78 for 532 yards, four touchdowns and five interceptions; Northwestern ran a fake field goal in overtime and lost to Auburn 38-35 in the Outback Bowl, but how can anyone fault the Wildcats for going for the win there, especially with their No. 1 kicker hurt?
* Navy, whose new uniforms are the best in football, shredded Missouri for 385 rushing yards in a 35-13 win in the Texas Bowl; no team in college football is as much fun to watch as Navy
* Temple's reward for its great season and UCLA's reward for finishing .500 was to play in a freezing RFK Stadium in the EagleBank Bowl; it reminded TB of something that was overheard from a Stanford player at the first round of the NCAA field hockey tournament at a freezing, rainy Class of 1952 Stadium before Princeton defeated the Cardinal 4-0: "Our goal all year was to be in the NCAA tournament, and now that we're here, this is it?"
* TB isn't into hero worship, so he's never been real pro-Tim Tebow. Still, it's hard to argue with the performance he had in the Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati. And speaking of the Bearcats, yes, they got blasted, but TB isn't so sure that Cincinnati wouldn't have beaten either Texas or Alabama if they had 1) the chance and 2) their coach.
Then there was last night's Fiesta Bowl between undefeateds TCU and Boise State. First of all, the whole idea of having those two teams in the BCS was to see what they would do against a big-name school, not against each other. The reason Boise State's win over Oklahoma a few years ago was so great was because it was against OKLAHOMA.
This time, there were two Boise State defensive backs with Princeton connections. The first was cornerback Kyle Wilson, whose brother Gerry was a cornerback for the Tigers. Back in the first game ever played at Princeton Stadium, Gerry Wilson sealed Princeton's 6-0 win over Cornell with a late interception.
The second is Winston Venable, whose interception last night sealed the 17-10 Boise State win. His brother is obviously Will Venable, the All-Ivy basketball and baseball player who is now with the San Diego Padres.
TigerBlog almost always roots for the siblings of Princeton athletes. He tried to think of some of the ones through the years, and he came up with a few, though there are certainly some he's missing (and many, many more examples of Princeton siblings who also played for Princeton):
* Danny Earl, Brian Earl's brother, who played basketball at Penn State. TB has never rooted against the Earl family
* Adam and Michael Doneger, both of whom played lacrosse at Hopkins and whose brother Jason is TigerBlog Jr.'s favorite Princeton lacrosse player of all-time.
* Andrew Berry, a Harvard defensive back whose brother Adam was a Princeton wide receiver. Like TB said, he almost always roots for Princeton siblings
* Kevin Shattenkirk of the Boston U men's hockey team and brother of former Princeton captain Keith Shattenkirk; TB rooted for the Terriers in the NCAA final last year, which they won, because of the connection
There are others as well, but TigerBlog today is all about the bowl season. Too bad there's nobody on Central Michigan and Troy whose brother or sister was a Princeton athlete. Then the GMAC Bowl would be even more exciting.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Records Are Made To Be Broken
Ferris Thomsen won 115 games as Princeton men's lacrosse coach between 1951 and 1970, which broke the old record of 74 wins, set by Al Nies from 1921-35.
Bill Tierney then came along in 1988 and won 238 games with the Tigers, which obviously broke Thomsen's record. Tierney's 116th win, the one that set the record, was a 9-7 win at Brown in 1998.
Why bring this up now? Because TigerBlog never realized it at the time.
TB took a look back at the 1998 men's lacrosse binder and saw that the game notes for Princeton-Brown talked about any number of items without ever mentioning that Tierney was tied for the career lead in victories by a men's lacrosse coach. The postevent release (that's what they were called back then; today it would simply be a "story") refers to how Princeton allowed three goals in the first five minutes and three more in the last 55, including none in the last 33:52, en route to a 9-6 win.
TigerBlog doesn't remember exactly when it dawned on him that Tierney must have set the school record for coaching wins at some point, but it was definitely years after the fact.
Switching record books, Alex Sierk graduated in 1999 as the all-time leader in points scored by a kicker at Princeton with 184. That record, by the way, has since been broken by Derek Javarone, who finished with 213.
Sierk's 184 points knocked the great Charlie Gogolak out of the top spot on the list after Gogolak had finished his career 30 years earlier with 170 points. Sierk would break that record in a 20-0 win over Columbia on Halloween in 1998, on a 26-yard field goal in the fourth quarter that provided the final points of the day.
Just as he had been at the Princeton-Brown lacrosse game that spring, TigerBlog was also at the football game at Columbia as well. And, just as he missed Tierney's record, TB missed Sierk's as well.
Record keeping is a primary function here at HQ, yet it's not always obvious when records are being set. To TB's credit, he's realized way more than he's missed, including the time Sydney Johnson made 11 straight three-pointers or the time Chris Massey scored a goal in 46 straight games or the time Monmouth's Rahsaan Johnson set the Jawdin Gym record with 40 points in a game or countless others.
Records that are single-game are often more obvious, since there's some idea that something special is happening as someone begins to accumulate huge numbers in a given statistical category.
Records that are career are more difficult, because the records are somewhat random. For instance, Bob Surace begins his Princeton football coaching career 89 wins off the school record (held by Bill Roper for 80 years now). 89? Is there a more random number?
Then there are the "trend" records. Those are nearly impossible to figure out unless really good record-keeping has been done from Day 1. For instance, when Rick Hielscher went 16 for 20 from the field against Dartmouth in 1995, TigerBlog tried to figure out the last time a Princeton player had made at least 16 field goals in a game or what the highest shooting percentage in a game was by a Princeton player with at least 20 attempts.
There used to be a guy whose name, TB believes, was Bill. He'd show up after each basketball season and ask for all of that season's box scores, and then he'd come back a few weeks later with handwritten updates of all Princeton men's basketball stat leaders. His work left HQ with three blue binders, stuffed with individual leaders, all-time results, game-by-game totals for every game in Princeton history - everything anyone could have asked for.
And then one year, Bill didn't show up. Haven't heard from him since. Still, his work has been an unbelievable resource, one that no other sport here has.
TigerBlog has often wished that he had a game-by-game goal-scoring accounting for lacrosse. Or similar information for any other sport.
Such information is essential to looking up "trend" records. Somebody a long time before TigerBlog started working here put together a good "Last Time It Happened" for football, but it doesn't exist for all sports.
The comments from the last TigerBlog entry about Gary Walters and his tenure as athletic director got TB wondering if he'd missed the time when Walters set the record for longest run by a Princeton AD.
Princeton has had four (or possibly six, depending on how you consider them) actual Directors of Athletics since the position was formalized in 1941. It wasn't until 1937 that the athletic department existed as a University entity; prior to that, it was an independent association with a separate board to oversee its functions. Going way back, there were no coaches, just team captains who ran each sport's show.
Asa Bushnell was the head of the last head of the board of the athletic association and the first person to oversee athletics when it became absorbed by the University, but his title was never actually "Director of Athletics."
The first person to hold that distinction was Ken Fairman, who served as actual Director of Athletics from 1941 through 1973, a 32-year tenure that was interrupted by Fairman's service in World War II (during which time Howard Stepp was acting AD).
Royce Flippen was AD from 1973-79 for the shortest tenure by an AD here, and the Robert Myslik took over from 1979 until Walters arrived in 1994 (TigerBlog and Walters started on the same day).
In other words, Walters is now second in terms of time as Princeton AD, but he's only about halfway to the record that Fairman has. Should Walters still be AD in 2026 and break Fairman's record, TigerBlog won't miss that one.
Bill Tierney then came along in 1988 and won 238 games with the Tigers, which obviously broke Thomsen's record. Tierney's 116th win, the one that set the record, was a 9-7 win at Brown in 1998.
Why bring this up now? Because TigerBlog never realized it at the time.
TB took a look back at the 1998 men's lacrosse binder and saw that the game notes for Princeton-Brown talked about any number of items without ever mentioning that Tierney was tied for the career lead in victories by a men's lacrosse coach. The postevent release (that's what they were called back then; today it would simply be a "story") refers to how Princeton allowed three goals in the first five minutes and three more in the last 55, including none in the last 33:52, en route to a 9-6 win.
TigerBlog doesn't remember exactly when it dawned on him that Tierney must have set the school record for coaching wins at some point, but it was definitely years after the fact.
Switching record books, Alex Sierk graduated in 1999 as the all-time leader in points scored by a kicker at Princeton with 184. That record, by the way, has since been broken by Derek Javarone, who finished with 213.
Sierk's 184 points knocked the great Charlie Gogolak out of the top spot on the list after Gogolak had finished his career 30 years earlier with 170 points. Sierk would break that record in a 20-0 win over Columbia on Halloween in 1998, on a 26-yard field goal in the fourth quarter that provided the final points of the day.
Just as he had been at the Princeton-Brown lacrosse game that spring, TigerBlog was also at the football game at Columbia as well. And, just as he missed Tierney's record, TB missed Sierk's as well.
Record keeping is a primary function here at HQ, yet it's not always obvious when records are being set. To TB's credit, he's realized way more than he's missed, including the time Sydney Johnson made 11 straight three-pointers or the time Chris Massey scored a goal in 46 straight games or the time Monmouth's Rahsaan Johnson set the Jawdin Gym record with 40 points in a game or countless others.
Records that are single-game are often more obvious, since there's some idea that something special is happening as someone begins to accumulate huge numbers in a given statistical category.
Records that are career are more difficult, because the records are somewhat random. For instance, Bob Surace begins his Princeton football coaching career 89 wins off the school record (held by Bill Roper for 80 years now). 89? Is there a more random number?
Then there are the "trend" records. Those are nearly impossible to figure out unless really good record-keeping has been done from Day 1. For instance, when Rick Hielscher went 16 for 20 from the field against Dartmouth in 1995, TigerBlog tried to figure out the last time a Princeton player had made at least 16 field goals in a game or what the highest shooting percentage in a game was by a Princeton player with at least 20 attempts.
There used to be a guy whose name, TB believes, was Bill. He'd show up after each basketball season and ask for all of that season's box scores, and then he'd come back a few weeks later with handwritten updates of all Princeton men's basketball stat leaders. His work left HQ with three blue binders, stuffed with individual leaders, all-time results, game-by-game totals for every game in Princeton history - everything anyone could have asked for.
And then one year, Bill didn't show up. Haven't heard from him since. Still, his work has been an unbelievable resource, one that no other sport here has.
TigerBlog has often wished that he had a game-by-game goal-scoring accounting for lacrosse. Or similar information for any other sport.
Such information is essential to looking up "trend" records. Somebody a long time before TigerBlog started working here put together a good "Last Time It Happened" for football, but it doesn't exist for all sports.
The comments from the last TigerBlog entry about Gary Walters and his tenure as athletic director got TB wondering if he'd missed the time when Walters set the record for longest run by a Princeton AD.
Princeton has had four (or possibly six, depending on how you consider them) actual Directors of Athletics since the position was formalized in 1941. It wasn't until 1937 that the athletic department existed as a University entity; prior to that, it was an independent association with a separate board to oversee its functions. Going way back, there were no coaches, just team captains who ran each sport's show.
Asa Bushnell was the head of the last head of the board of the athletic association and the first person to oversee athletics when it became absorbed by the University, but his title was never actually "Director of Athletics."
The first person to hold that distinction was Ken Fairman, who served as actual Director of Athletics from 1941 through 1973, a 32-year tenure that was interrupted by Fairman's service in World War II (during which time Howard Stepp was acting AD).
Royce Flippen was AD from 1973-79 for the shortest tenure by an AD here, and the Robert Myslik took over from 1979 until Walters arrived in 1994 (TigerBlog and Walters started on the same day).
In other words, Walters is now second in terms of time as Princeton AD, but he's only about halfway to the record that Fairman has. Should Walters still be AD in 2026 and break Fairman's record, TigerBlog won't miss that one.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Happy New Year
Go back exactly 10 years, to the last days of 1999. Think about how much different the world was.
The biggest worry most Americans had was whether or not computer software that was written years earlier would make things like ATMs and air traffic control go haywire when the year rolled to 2000. Y2K. Remember that?
How about Al Qaeda? How many Americans had heard of the terrorist organization as 1999 ended? Had to catch a flight 10 years ago today? How long before your departure time did you get to the airport? One hour? 45 minutes? If you took your shoes off as you went through the metal detector, someone would have said "yuck."
How about Barack Obama? Had you heard of him 10 years ago, when he was an Illinois state legislator? Or Sarah Palin? She was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, at the time.
Did you want to write a letter to the President of the United States? His name was Bill Clinton.
Had you ever heard of a hanging chad? Global warming? Did you care about health care reform? Steroids in baseball? Had you ever watched PTI? Seen a video on youtube? Listened to a podcast?
Blackberry? That was a flavor for water ice 10 years ago. Wanted to watch a movie 10 years ago? Well, you got in your car and went to the video store to rent a movie for your VCR. A GPS? You had to read a map or call for directions if you had to get someplace new.
When you said "I do," was your next thought: "I have to update my Facebook page?" Had you ever used the word "text" as a verb?
Were you a Tiger Woods fan? Did you find Chris Berman creative on ESPN? Think Tom Cruise seemed like he would be fun to hang out with? Did you root for A-Rod and the small market, underdog Seattle Mariners? Did you wonder if Peyton Manning could ever win the big one? Did you know he had a younger brother who was also a quarterback?
TigerBlog could go on like this all day, but you get the point. Actually, while we're on the subject, if you saw the letters "blog" used together, would you have had any idea what they meant?
It might not seem like a long time ago, but the last 10 years have been remarkable in terms of change. Of course, eras don't begin and end on Jan. 1 of years that end in zero, but they are a good barometer. For a decade that never really had a name ("the 80s, the 90s, the 00s?"), these have been extraordinary times.
Trickling all the way down to Princeton athletics, goprincetontigers.com has just finished its countdown of the Top 10 athletes, male and female, of the last decade.
The No. 1 choices were swimmer Alicia Aemisegger and squash player Yasser El Halaby, and TigerBlog believes that it's hard to argue with either selection.
What about the decade to come?
Going back those same 10 years, El Halaby was a secondary school student in Cairo, Egypt, and Aemisegger was a sixth-grader outside Philadelphia.
Of the 20 athletes (10 men, 10 women) on the two lists, only four (Tora Harris, Greg Parker, Lauren Simmons, Rachael Becker) had started their Princeton careers by Jan. 1, 2000.
In other words, the top Princeton athletes of the next decade can be anywhere now. They can be sixth-graders somewhere, or they can be athletes who have already started at Princeton (Niveen Rasheed? Katie Reinprecht? Tyler Fiorito and Chad Wiedmaier? Someone else?). Or anything in between.
And when it comes time to write that countdown, who will do it? TigerBlog? Someone else at HQ? What will they write it on? A computer? Something that's replaced the computer? How will you read it? The internet? Or will that no longer exist, replaced by something else faster and more efficient?
Trying to predict what's going to happen over the next 10 years is impossible. Just look back at the last 10 for proof of that.
As FatherBlog would say, that's the end of today's lecture.
With one closing remark:
Happy New Year to all.
The biggest worry most Americans had was whether or not computer software that was written years earlier would make things like ATMs and air traffic control go haywire when the year rolled to 2000. Y2K. Remember that?
How about Al Qaeda? How many Americans had heard of the terrorist organization as 1999 ended? Had to catch a flight 10 years ago today? How long before your departure time did you get to the airport? One hour? 45 minutes? If you took your shoes off as you went through the metal detector, someone would have said "yuck."
How about Barack Obama? Had you heard of him 10 years ago, when he was an Illinois state legislator? Or Sarah Palin? She was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, at the time.
Did you want to write a letter to the President of the United States? His name was Bill Clinton.
Had you ever heard of a hanging chad? Global warming? Did you care about health care reform? Steroids in baseball? Had you ever watched PTI? Seen a video on youtube? Listened to a podcast?
Blackberry? That was a flavor for water ice 10 years ago. Wanted to watch a movie 10 years ago? Well, you got in your car and went to the video store to rent a movie for your VCR. A GPS? You had to read a map or call for directions if you had to get someplace new.
When you said "I do," was your next thought: "I have to update my Facebook page?" Had you ever used the word "text" as a verb?
Were you a Tiger Woods fan? Did you find Chris Berman creative on ESPN? Think Tom Cruise seemed like he would be fun to hang out with? Did you root for A-Rod and the small market, underdog Seattle Mariners? Did you wonder if Peyton Manning could ever win the big one? Did you know he had a younger brother who was also a quarterback?
TigerBlog could go on like this all day, but you get the point. Actually, while we're on the subject, if you saw the letters "blog" used together, would you have had any idea what they meant?
It might not seem like a long time ago, but the last 10 years have been remarkable in terms of change. Of course, eras don't begin and end on Jan. 1 of years that end in zero, but they are a good barometer. For a decade that never really had a name ("the 80s, the 90s, the 00s?"), these have been extraordinary times.
Trickling all the way down to Princeton athletics, goprincetontigers.com has just finished its countdown of the Top 10 athletes, male and female, of the last decade.
The No. 1 choices were swimmer Alicia Aemisegger and squash player Yasser El Halaby, and TigerBlog believes that it's hard to argue with either selection.
What about the decade to come?
Going back those same 10 years, El Halaby was a secondary school student in Cairo, Egypt, and Aemisegger was a sixth-grader outside Philadelphia.
Of the 20 athletes (10 men, 10 women) on the two lists, only four (Tora Harris, Greg Parker, Lauren Simmons, Rachael Becker) had started their Princeton careers by Jan. 1, 2000.
In other words, the top Princeton athletes of the next decade can be anywhere now. They can be sixth-graders somewhere, or they can be athletes who have already started at Princeton (Niveen Rasheed? Katie Reinprecht? Tyler Fiorito and Chad Wiedmaier? Someone else?). Or anything in between.
And when it comes time to write that countdown, who will do it? TigerBlog? Someone else at HQ? What will they write it on? A computer? Something that's replaced the computer? How will you read it? The internet? Or will that no longer exist, replaced by something else faster and more efficient?
Trying to predict what's going to happen over the next 10 years is impossible. Just look back at the last 10 for proof of that.
As FatherBlog would say, that's the end of today's lecture.
With one closing remark:
Happy New Year to all.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The Best Games Of The Decade
TigerBlog smiled when he saw that Northwestern was now ranked in the Top 25 in men's basketball. The Wildcats came in at No. 25 in the Associated Press poll this week, which marks the first time in nearly 41 years that the team has been nationally ranked.
The head coach of Northwestern is, of course, Bill Carmody, who coached Princeton for four amazing seasons after Pete Carril retired in 1996. Carmody was Carril's assistant for 14 years prior to that.
This year's Northwestern team was expected to struggle after losing its best player, Kevin Coble, to a season-ending injury before the first game. Despite that, Northwestern is now 10-1 and ranked 25th, though it does face the brutal Big Ten schedule that begins shortly.
Still, it's good to see Carmody is doing well. It also got TigerBlog to thinking about the 1999 Princeton-Penn game at the Palestra, the one where Princeton fell behind 29-3, then 33-9 at halftime and finally 40-13 at the first media timeout of the second half before rallying to win 50-49.
There were eight coaches in that game, four on each bench. Of those eight coaches, seven are now head coaches, with the other still on the staff of one of the others.
And three of those coaches are head coaches of teams ranked in this week's AP Top 25 while a fourth is in the "others receiving votes" category.
Penn was led by Fran Dunphy, obviously, during that game; Dunphy is now the head coach at Temple and is ranked 18th this week by the AP. Dave Duke, who was on Dunphy's staff at Penn for the 1999 game, is an assistant coach at Temple now.
Gil Jackson, another Penn assistant in 1999, is now the head coach at Howard.
The 1998-99 season was Steve Donahue's last as a Penn assistant before he became head coach at Cornell. Donahue has taken the Big Red to the last two NCAA tournaments and his team is currently receiving votes in the AP poll.
As for the Princeton staff, Carmody is now the head coach at Northwestern, and John Thompson is now the head coach at 13th-ranked Georgetown. Joe Scott is the head coach at Denver, who though not ranked is 9-4 overall, 2-0 in its league and ranked second nationally in both field goal percentage (52.6%, behind only Syracuse) and three-point field goal percentage (43.6%, behind only Columbia).
The fourth Princeton coach that year was Howard Levy, now the head coach at Mercer County College.
As for the comeback game at the Palestra, TigerBlog would rank that as the best game for a Princeton team in the 1990s. Actually, taking all historical significance away, TigerBlog would rank that as the greatest single game ever played in Princeton athletic history.
Clearly, TB is in overdrive mode when it comes to decade review stuff, so all of this got him to thinking about what the best games of this decade have been. The current countdown of the top Princeton athletes of the decade (tomorrow brings the No. 1 selections) was originally going to be accompanied by a list of the Top 10 games as well, but the decision was made just to focus on the atheltes.
As for the top games of this decade, there are many choices. TigerBlog originally was going to just mention his four favorite, but instead he decided to come up with a Top 10 off the top of his head.
The last time he did this was when he named the top athletes of the 1990s and realized he'd left out a bunch of deserving ones, so forgive him if he's overlooking something obvious. Anyway, here's TB's Top 10:
10. Men's water polo defeats St. Francis in overtime to reach the 2004 NCAA Final Four
9. Ryan Boyle's late heroics rally Princeton to a stunning overtime win over Maryland to reach the 2004 NCAA men's lacrosse Final Four
8. Zane Kalemba makes 27 saves to shut out Colgate in the 2008 ECAC semifinals; the game was scoreless into the third period, and many of Kalemba's saves were amazing
7. Theresa Sherry scores in overtime to give the women's lacrosse team its second-straight NCAA title with an 8-7 win over Virginia in 2003
6. Emily Behncke scores in the final minute of regulation and Esmeralda Negron scores in overtime to give Princeton a 2-1 women's soccer win over Harvard in 2004, ending a decade-long losing streak at home against the Crimson
5a and 5b. Jeff Terrell throws for 445 yards and rallies Princeton to a 34-31 win over Yale that leads to the 2006 Ivy League football championship one week after Rob Toresco flips the ball to Terrell after he is stopped short on a 4th-and-goal and has Terrell score the winning TD in the second overtime against Penn. Pat McGrath then made a tackle on a botched extra-point attempt to give Princeton the 31-30 win. These would be separate games, but it was sort of like one continuous eight-day period.
4. Nate Walton has nine points, eight rebounds, seven assists and six steals to lead Princeton past Penn on the final night of the 2001 men's basketball season to give the Tigers the Ivy League title in John Thompson's first season as head coach. Princeton went into the season without Carmody and Scott, who had left to become head coaches, and five players projected to start or play significant minutes, including Chris Young and Spencer Gloger
3. Emily Behncek and Esmeralda Negron have a goal and assist and Kristina Fontanez scores a goal as Princeton defeats Washington 3-1 to advance to the 2004 NCAA women's soccer Final Four as a capacity crowd jammed into Lourie-Love Field to watch. No other Ivy women's soccer team has ever reached the Final Four.
2. B.J. Prager's fourth goal comes with 41 seconds remaining in overtime and gives Princeton a 10-9 win over Syracuse for the 2001 NCAA championship. Syracuse had blasted Princeton three times in the previous 13 months, including in the 2000 NCAA final and in the 2001 regular season, and Princeton had squandered leads of 8-4 heading into the fourth quarter and 9-8 before Mike Powell scored with 16 seconds left to force overtime.
1. Trinity 5, Princeton 4 in the 2009 men's squash national final. Yes, Princeton lost that match, but it's impossible to understand how great an athletic event that was unless you were in Jadwin Gym that day. As TigerBlog has said, if squash had the same profile of basketball or football, there is no question that the 2009 Princeton-Trinity final would be regarded as the greatest college athletic event ever played.
Anyway, there's TB list. With apologies to the obvious ones he's forgotten.
The head coach of Northwestern is, of course, Bill Carmody, who coached Princeton for four amazing seasons after Pete Carril retired in 1996. Carmody was Carril's assistant for 14 years prior to that.
This year's Northwestern team was expected to struggle after losing its best player, Kevin Coble, to a season-ending injury before the first game. Despite that, Northwestern is now 10-1 and ranked 25th, though it does face the brutal Big Ten schedule that begins shortly.
Still, it's good to see Carmody is doing well. It also got TigerBlog to thinking about the 1999 Princeton-Penn game at the Palestra, the one where Princeton fell behind 29-3, then 33-9 at halftime and finally 40-13 at the first media timeout of the second half before rallying to win 50-49.
There were eight coaches in that game, four on each bench. Of those eight coaches, seven are now head coaches, with the other still on the staff of one of the others.
And three of those coaches are head coaches of teams ranked in this week's AP Top 25 while a fourth is in the "others receiving votes" category.
Penn was led by Fran Dunphy, obviously, during that game; Dunphy is now the head coach at Temple and is ranked 18th this week by the AP. Dave Duke, who was on Dunphy's staff at Penn for the 1999 game, is an assistant coach at Temple now.
Gil Jackson, another Penn assistant in 1999, is now the head coach at Howard.
The 1998-99 season was Steve Donahue's last as a Penn assistant before he became head coach at Cornell. Donahue has taken the Big Red to the last two NCAA tournaments and his team is currently receiving votes in the AP poll.
As for the Princeton staff, Carmody is now the head coach at Northwestern, and John Thompson is now the head coach at 13th-ranked Georgetown. Joe Scott is the head coach at Denver, who though not ranked is 9-4 overall, 2-0 in its league and ranked second nationally in both field goal percentage (52.6%, behind only Syracuse) and three-point field goal percentage (43.6%, behind only Columbia).
The fourth Princeton coach that year was Howard Levy, now the head coach at Mercer County College.
As for the comeback game at the Palestra, TigerBlog would rank that as the best game for a Princeton team in the 1990s. Actually, taking all historical significance away, TigerBlog would rank that as the greatest single game ever played in Princeton athletic history.
Clearly, TB is in overdrive mode when it comes to decade review stuff, so all of this got him to thinking about what the best games of this decade have been. The current countdown of the top Princeton athletes of the decade (tomorrow brings the No. 1 selections) was originally going to be accompanied by a list of the Top 10 games as well, but the decision was made just to focus on the atheltes.
As for the top games of this decade, there are many choices. TigerBlog originally was going to just mention his four favorite, but instead he decided to come up with a Top 10 off the top of his head.
The last time he did this was when he named the top athletes of the 1990s and realized he'd left out a bunch of deserving ones, so forgive him if he's overlooking something obvious. Anyway, here's TB's Top 10:
10. Men's water polo defeats St. Francis in overtime to reach the 2004 NCAA Final Four
9. Ryan Boyle's late heroics rally Princeton to a stunning overtime win over Maryland to reach the 2004 NCAA men's lacrosse Final Four
8. Zane Kalemba makes 27 saves to shut out Colgate in the 2008 ECAC semifinals; the game was scoreless into the third period, and many of Kalemba's saves were amazing
7. Theresa Sherry scores in overtime to give the women's lacrosse team its second-straight NCAA title with an 8-7 win over Virginia in 2003
6. Emily Behncke scores in the final minute of regulation and Esmeralda Negron scores in overtime to give Princeton a 2-1 women's soccer win over Harvard in 2004, ending a decade-long losing streak at home against the Crimson
5a and 5b. Jeff Terrell throws for 445 yards and rallies Princeton to a 34-31 win over Yale that leads to the 2006 Ivy League football championship one week after Rob Toresco flips the ball to Terrell after he is stopped short on a 4th-and-goal and has Terrell score the winning TD in the second overtime against Penn. Pat McGrath then made a tackle on a botched extra-point attempt to give Princeton the 31-30 win. These would be separate games, but it was sort of like one continuous eight-day period.
4. Nate Walton has nine points, eight rebounds, seven assists and six steals to lead Princeton past Penn on the final night of the 2001 men's basketball season to give the Tigers the Ivy League title in John Thompson's first season as head coach. Princeton went into the season without Carmody and Scott, who had left to become head coaches, and five players projected to start or play significant minutes, including Chris Young and Spencer Gloger
3. Emily Behncek and Esmeralda Negron have a goal and assist and Kristina Fontanez scores a goal as Princeton defeats Washington 3-1 to advance to the 2004 NCAA women's soccer Final Four as a capacity crowd jammed into Lourie-Love Field to watch. No other Ivy women's soccer team has ever reached the Final Four.
2. B.J. Prager's fourth goal comes with 41 seconds remaining in overtime and gives Princeton a 10-9 win over Syracuse for the 2001 NCAA championship. Syracuse had blasted Princeton three times in the previous 13 months, including in the 2000 NCAA final and in the 2001 regular season, and Princeton had squandered leads of 8-4 heading into the fourth quarter and 9-8 before Mike Powell scored with 16 seconds left to force overtime.
1. Trinity 5, Princeton 4 in the 2009 men's squash national final. Yes, Princeton lost that match, but it's impossible to understand how great an athletic event that was unless you were in Jadwin Gym that day. As TigerBlog has said, if squash had the same profile of basketball or football, there is no question that the 2009 Princeton-Trinity final would be regarded as the greatest college athletic event ever played.
Anyway, there's TB list. With apologies to the obvious ones he's forgotten.
Monday, December 28, 2009
You'll Shoot Your Eye Out
If TBS still had its "A Christmas Story" marathon going, then TigerBlog would still be watching it. TB isn't sure how many days it would take for him to turn the movie off, though he's pretty sure he wouldn't quite reach his limit until at least New Year's Day.
For those who haven't seen the movie, "A Christmas Story" follows the story of nine-year-old Indiana fourth-grader Ralphie Parker, who lives with his angelic mother, tortured father and strange little brother while attending school with his friends and two bullies. For the coming Christmas, all Ralphie wants is a Red Ryder BB gun, yet every adult with whom he comes in contact shrugs it off by saying "You'll shoot your eye out," something to which Ralphie has no comeback, other than to wonder "was there no end to this conspiracy of irrational prejudice against Red Ryder and his peacemaker?"
For those who are unaware, TBS shows the movie for 24 hours straight beginning at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve and continuing for 12 two-hour showings until 8 p.m. Christmas night. The first showing overalps as NBC shows "It's a Wonderful Life" Christmas Eve at 8 as well, which means that the first "A Christmas Story" ends just as George Bailey is getting himself into some bigtime self-awareness in Bedford Falls.
As an aside, TigerBlog can't help but choke back the tears when Harry Bailey leads the town in a toast by saying "to my big brother George, the richest man in town."
Meanwhile, back at "A Christmas Story," the movie is a bunch of somewhat related scenes that can be viewed in any order without losing the story, which makes it perfect for tuning in and out any time during the marathon. TigerBlog's favorite scenes are:
* the one where Ralphie curses "the queen mother of dirty words, F dash dash dash" and the subsequent explanation by Ralphie to himself of where he first heard it ("my father worked in profanity the way other artists worked in oils or clay") and then the reaction of Schwartz' mother when Ralphie pins it on his friend
* the scene at the end in the Chinese restaurant with the unfortunate duck
* the scene where they see Santa Claus at the mall
* the scenes with the leg lamp
It's a great family Christmas movie, and, sadly, another Christmas has come and gone, which means the marathon is on hold for another 12 months. TigerBlog has the movie on DVD, but it's not the same thing.
And so with Christmas behind us and the New Year's approaching, goprincetontigers.com continues its countdown of the top athletes of the decade.
We've reached the Top 3 on the list, which includes the No. 3 selections Ryan Boyle of men's lacrosse and Caroline Lind of women's rowing. These two are in some ways similar and in some ways completely different, depending on your take.
Boyle scored some huge goals in his career, especially in the 2004 NCAA quarterfinals, but he was mostly known (and still is, for that matter), as a feeder, a player who made those around him better.
Lind, on the other hand, competes in one of the great group sports of all, rowing. In many ways, it's difficult to separate the contribution of any one rower from the others, but at the same time, Lind, like Boyle, helped make those around her better.
Lind and Boyle also have gone on to considerable success beyond Princeton: Lind has an Olympic gold medal; Boyle has a World Championship and three professional championships.
There are only two left on each list, coming up tomorrow and Wednesday. TigerBlog thinks the remaining choices are obvious, or at least he did, until athletic director Gary Walters came in this morning and mentioned that a different athlete, one who did not make the goprincetontigers.com Top 10, would have been his No. 1 female.
"That's what makes horse races," he said.
Or, as Ralphie's dad would have said: "fragile? 'Frah-gee-lee.' Must be Italian."
That, by the way, has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but TigerBlog always thinks it's hysterical.
For those who haven't seen the movie, "A Christmas Story" follows the story of nine-year-old Indiana fourth-grader Ralphie Parker, who lives with his angelic mother, tortured father and strange little brother while attending school with his friends and two bullies. For the coming Christmas, all Ralphie wants is a Red Ryder BB gun, yet every adult with whom he comes in contact shrugs it off by saying "You'll shoot your eye out," something to which Ralphie has no comeback, other than to wonder "was there no end to this conspiracy of irrational prejudice against Red Ryder and his peacemaker?"
For those who are unaware, TBS shows the movie for 24 hours straight beginning at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve and continuing for 12 two-hour showings until 8 p.m. Christmas night. The first showing overalps as NBC shows "It's a Wonderful Life" Christmas Eve at 8 as well, which means that the first "A Christmas Story" ends just as George Bailey is getting himself into some bigtime self-awareness in Bedford Falls.
As an aside, TigerBlog can't help but choke back the tears when Harry Bailey leads the town in a toast by saying "to my big brother George, the richest man in town."
Meanwhile, back at "A Christmas Story," the movie is a bunch of somewhat related scenes that can be viewed in any order without losing the story, which makes it perfect for tuning in and out any time during the marathon. TigerBlog's favorite scenes are:
* the one where Ralphie curses "the queen mother of dirty words, F dash dash dash" and the subsequent explanation by Ralphie to himself of where he first heard it ("my father worked in profanity the way other artists worked in oils or clay") and then the reaction of Schwartz' mother when Ralphie pins it on his friend
* the scene at the end in the Chinese restaurant with the unfortunate duck
* the scene where they see Santa Claus at the mall
* the scenes with the leg lamp
It's a great family Christmas movie, and, sadly, another Christmas has come and gone, which means the marathon is on hold for another 12 months. TigerBlog has the movie on DVD, but it's not the same thing.
And so with Christmas behind us and the New Year's approaching, goprincetontigers.com continues its countdown of the top athletes of the decade.
We've reached the Top 3 on the list, which includes the No. 3 selections Ryan Boyle of men's lacrosse and Caroline Lind of women's rowing. These two are in some ways similar and in some ways completely different, depending on your take.
Boyle scored some huge goals in his career, especially in the 2004 NCAA quarterfinals, but he was mostly known (and still is, for that matter), as a feeder, a player who made those around him better.
Lind, on the other hand, competes in one of the great group sports of all, rowing. In many ways, it's difficult to separate the contribution of any one rower from the others, but at the same time, Lind, like Boyle, helped make those around her better.
Lind and Boyle also have gone on to considerable success beyond Princeton: Lind has an Olympic gold medal; Boyle has a World Championship and three professional championships.
There are only two left on each list, coming up tomorrow and Wednesday. TigerBlog thinks the remaining choices are obvious, or at least he did, until athletic director Gary Walters came in this morning and mentioned that a different athlete, one who did not make the goprincetontigers.com Top 10, would have been his No. 1 female.
"That's what makes horse races," he said.
Or, as Ralphie's dad would have said: "fragile? 'Frah-gee-lee.' Must be Italian."
That, by the way, has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but TigerBlog always thinks it's hysterical.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Welcome Back, Bob Surace
TigerBlog first started covering Princeton athletics back in the fall of 1989. Since then, he's been around literally thousands of Princeton athletes, first as a sportswriter and then in his time working here.
One of the very first Princeton athletes TB ever met was Bob Surace, who was the center on the 1989 football team that won the Ivy League championship. TB covered Princeton football during that season, and he has always remembered that he wrote a feature about Surace.
It's possible, in fact, that Surace was the first Princeton athlete about whom TB ever wrote a feature story. As the years have gone by and Surace's name has come up, TigerBlog always remembered talking to him so many years earlier and being impressed by him. It's the reaction that TB has seen hundreds of times since from other sportswriters after they interact with Princeton athletes.
Thinking back now, TigerBlog can't remember if he's spoken to Surace since his playing days, until late this morning, that is, when TB walked into Gary Walters' office to talk to Surace, the new head football coach here.
It's been more than 20 years since Surace wore his No. 64 jersey for the Tigers, en route to being a three-year starter at center and a first-team All-Ivy League selection. If TigerBlog passed him on the street, he's not sure he would have known who he was.
TigerBlog said congratulations, got a quote for the release and then started to say "I don't know if you remember me, but ..."
Surace cut TB off and said "you wrote for one of the Trenton papers. You wrote a story about me. Not too many people write about offensive linemen."
As far as TigerBlog is concerned, Surace is off to a good start.
TigerBlog met the media in Jadwin Gym and said all the right things, said them in the right way. Again, his voice is soft, but he is purposeful at the same time.
His comments suggested someone not wedded to one way of coaching, one offensive or defensive philosophy. He saw only one Princeton game on TV last year, the win over Yale, and talked positively about what he was watching. He spoke about building a staff and getting to work.
What about the job in front of him? Well, Princeton's new head football coach is obviously an alum, the first Princeton alum to be the head football coach since Bob Casciola from 1973-77, which makes him the only player in the last 50 years to go on to be head coach. Pretty much everyone who coached at football during the first 100 or so years of the sport was a Princeton alum, with notable exceptions Fritz Crisler (Chicago) and Dick Colman (Middlebury).
In addition, Surace's resume includes head coaching experience at Western Connecticut, a Division III school he led to an 18-3 record in 2000 and 2001. He also took Western Connecticut to the Division III playoffs in ’01 and won a game for the first time in school history.
He has spent the last nine seasons as an assistant coach with the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals. The team has been dealing with a great deal this year, success (first place in the AFC North and seemingly headed to the playoffs) and tragedy (the death of wide receiver Chris Henry and the death of the wife of another assistant coach).
Surace's father was a high school football coach, at Millville High in South Jersey. His wife Lisa (then Tanners) was a four-time letterwinner in soccer at Princeton.
All in all, it appears to be a nearly perfect background for a head coach at Princeton.
TigerBlog asked Surace for a quote for his release, and the new coach answered in a very soft voice. "I'm so excited about coming back to a place that is so special," he began.
TB has written dozens of releases about new head coaches, and the alums always start off with words like that. They have a different view of Princeton, looking back on the experience they had and wanting to recreate that for the players who come here to play for them.
The lead story on goprincetontigers.com is now the story announcing Surace's hiring. The second story is the one that names Jeff Terrell as the No. 4 male athlete of the decade at Princeton.
There's a certain irony there, honoring the greatest player to play here in the last decade as the announcement of the new coach for the new decade is made.
Terrell represents the pinnacle of what Princeton football can be, a player who led a championship team, who delivered highlight reel plays, who put fannies in the seats, as they say.
TigerBlog welcomes Bob Surace back as the new head football coach at Princeton.
TB wishes him more than his share of Jeff Terrells in his career.
One of the very first Princeton athletes TB ever met was Bob Surace, who was the center on the 1989 football team that won the Ivy League championship. TB covered Princeton football during that season, and he has always remembered that he wrote a feature about Surace.
It's possible, in fact, that Surace was the first Princeton athlete about whom TB ever wrote a feature story. As the years have gone by and Surace's name has come up, TigerBlog always remembered talking to him so many years earlier and being impressed by him. It's the reaction that TB has seen hundreds of times since from other sportswriters after they interact with Princeton athletes.
Thinking back now, TigerBlog can't remember if he's spoken to Surace since his playing days, until late this morning, that is, when TB walked into Gary Walters' office to talk to Surace, the new head football coach here.
It's been more than 20 years since Surace wore his No. 64 jersey for the Tigers, en route to being a three-year starter at center and a first-team All-Ivy League selection. If TigerBlog passed him on the street, he's not sure he would have known who he was.
TigerBlog said congratulations, got a quote for the release and then started to say "I don't know if you remember me, but ..."
Surace cut TB off and said "you wrote for one of the Trenton papers. You wrote a story about me. Not too many people write about offensive linemen."
As far as TigerBlog is concerned, Surace is off to a good start.
TigerBlog met the media in Jadwin Gym and said all the right things, said them in the right way. Again, his voice is soft, but he is purposeful at the same time.
His comments suggested someone not wedded to one way of coaching, one offensive or defensive philosophy. He saw only one Princeton game on TV last year, the win over Yale, and talked positively about what he was watching. He spoke about building a staff and getting to work.
What about the job in front of him? Well, Princeton's new head football coach is obviously an alum, the first Princeton alum to be the head football coach since Bob Casciola from 1973-77, which makes him the only player in the last 50 years to go on to be head coach. Pretty much everyone who coached at football during the first 100 or so years of the sport was a Princeton alum, with notable exceptions Fritz Crisler (Chicago) and Dick Colman (Middlebury).
In addition, Surace's resume includes head coaching experience at Western Connecticut, a Division III school he led to an 18-3 record in 2000 and 2001. He also took Western Connecticut to the Division III playoffs in ’01 and won a game for the first time in school history.
He has spent the last nine seasons as an assistant coach with the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals. The team has been dealing with a great deal this year, success (first place in the AFC North and seemingly headed to the playoffs) and tragedy (the death of wide receiver Chris Henry and the death of the wife of another assistant coach).
Surace's father was a high school football coach, at Millville High in South Jersey. His wife Lisa (then Tanners) was a four-time letterwinner in soccer at Princeton.
All in all, it appears to be a nearly perfect background for a head coach at Princeton.
TigerBlog asked Surace for a quote for his release, and the new coach answered in a very soft voice. "I'm so excited about coming back to a place that is so special," he began.
TB has written dozens of releases about new head coaches, and the alums always start off with words like that. They have a different view of Princeton, looking back on the experience they had and wanting to recreate that for the players who come here to play for them.
The lead story on goprincetontigers.com is now the story announcing Surace's hiring. The second story is the one that names Jeff Terrell as the No. 4 male athlete of the decade at Princeton.
There's a certain irony there, honoring the greatest player to play here in the last decade as the announcement of the new coach for the new decade is made.
Terrell represents the pinnacle of what Princeton football can be, a player who led a championship team, who delivered highlight reel plays, who put fannies in the seats, as they say.
TigerBlog welcomes Bob Surace back as the new head football coach at Princeton.
TB wishes him more than his share of Jeff Terrells in his career.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
TB Loves The ’90s
The No. 5 athletes of the decade in the goprincetontigers.com countdown are Will Venable of basketball and baseball and Theresa Sherry of lacrosse and soccer.
The remaining schedule has the No. 4 picks announced tomorrow and then the top 3 rolled out in the beginning of next week, with the No. 1 selections on Dec. 30.
Both of the No. 5 picks are currently "working" in California, as Venable is an outfielder with the San Diego Padres and Sherry is the head women's lacrosse coach at Cal. TigerBlog remembers Venable for being unstoppable in basketball, especially against the better teams, and for some monstrous home runs that he launched.
TB remembers Sherry for the clutch goal she scored in overtime to win the 2003 NCAA championship in the Carrier Dome against Virginia and how she would sing the national anthem before home games in both sports.
Last week, TigerBlog asked the question of who would be the Princeton athletics Coach of the Decade, and some of the comments posted indicate that TB's choice of men's hockey coach Guy Gadowsky wasn't agreed with universally.
Today's question is a variation of the "decade review" theme: Who would have been the Top 10 athletes of the 1990s?
TB did this using the same rules as the ones for this countdown. An athlete had to play at least two years in the 1990s, unless it was an active athlete in 1999, who then had to play three years in the 1990s.
What TB found when he looked back was somewhat surprising. In fact, it might just be that the 1990s produced more great athletes at Princeton than any other decade.
Let's start with the women.
TB's Top 10:
1. Amy E. MacFarlane (field hockey/lacrosse)
2. Lisa Rebane (field hockey/lacrosse)
3. Cristi Samaras (lacrosse)
4. Jen Babik (field hockey/softball)
5. Mollie Marcoux (soccer/ice hockey)
6. Nicole Harrison (track and field)
7. Grace Cornelius (swimming)
8. Kirsty Hale (field hockey)
9. Mandy Pfeiffer (hockey/softball)
10. Kim Simons (field hockey/lacrosse)
What leaps out at you from this list? How about six two-sport athletes? This, in TigerBlog's mind, speaks to how different the culture was for female athletes when the college athletes of the 1990s were little girls. With fewer opportunities, the better athletes were able to take up spots on multiple teams growing up. Today, the pressure is to specialize at a very early age, and the long-normal double of field hockey and lacrosse is something that happens less and less.
As for the list itself, it's a pretty strong group with some of the greatest female athletes in Princeton history. MacFarlane, the No. 1 selection, was one of the best field hockey players in the world, and she remains (for the next two years at least) the only field hockey player ever to be a four-time first-team All-Ivy pick.
And the others? Babik was a Rhodes' Scholar. Rebane was the Ivy League field hockey Player of the Year - and was a better lacrosse player (she was Ivy Player of the Year in that sport too). Samaras destroyed the women's lacrosse record book. Marcoux and Pfeiffer could play any sport. Harrison and Cornelius were All-Americas.
And the men? That's where it gets outrageous.
Apologies to great athletes like Ugonna Ikpeowo (track), Chris Massey (lacrosse), Dennis Norman (football/track), Justin Tortolani (lacrosse), Darrell Oliveira (football), Mitch Henderson (basketball), Gabe Lewullis (basketball), Peter Yik (squash), Josh Sims (lacrosse), Reed Cordish (tennis), James Mastaglio (basketball) and many others who didn't quite make the final cut.
So how about these 10?:
Chris Young (basketball/baseball)
Bill Burke (track)
David Patterson (football)
Jon Hess (lacrosse)
David Morrow (lacrosse)
John Mack (track)
Jesse Marsch (soccer)
Michael Lerch (football)
Joe Thieman (soccer)
Sydney Johnson (basketball)
Pretty good group, no? Well, then consider this fact: None of those 10 are in the actual Top 10.
For the Top 10, TigerBlog came up with this:
1. Jesse Hubbard (lacrosse)
2. Kit Mueller (basketball)
3. Keith Elias (football)
4. Kevin Lowe (lacrosse)
5. Steve Goodrich (basketball)
6. Chris Ahrens (crew)
7. Scott Bacigalupo (lacrosse)
8. Brian Earl (basketball)
9. Sean Jackson (basketball)
10. Jeff Halpern (hockey)
How ridiculous is that?
The remaining schedule has the No. 4 picks announced tomorrow and then the top 3 rolled out in the beginning of next week, with the No. 1 selections on Dec. 30.
Both of the No. 5 picks are currently "working" in California, as Venable is an outfielder with the San Diego Padres and Sherry is the head women's lacrosse coach at Cal. TigerBlog remembers Venable for being unstoppable in basketball, especially against the better teams, and for some monstrous home runs that he launched.
TB remembers Sherry for the clutch goal she scored in overtime to win the 2003 NCAA championship in the Carrier Dome against Virginia and how she would sing the national anthem before home games in both sports.
Last week, TigerBlog asked the question of who would be the Princeton athletics Coach of the Decade, and some of the comments posted indicate that TB's choice of men's hockey coach Guy Gadowsky wasn't agreed with universally.
Today's question is a variation of the "decade review" theme: Who would have been the Top 10 athletes of the 1990s?
TB did this using the same rules as the ones for this countdown. An athlete had to play at least two years in the 1990s, unless it was an active athlete in 1999, who then had to play three years in the 1990s.
What TB found when he looked back was somewhat surprising. In fact, it might just be that the 1990s produced more great athletes at Princeton than any other decade.
Let's start with the women.
TB's Top 10:
1. Amy E. MacFarlane (field hockey/lacrosse)
2. Lisa Rebane (field hockey/lacrosse)
3. Cristi Samaras (lacrosse)
4. Jen Babik (field hockey/softball)
5. Mollie Marcoux (soccer/ice hockey)
6. Nicole Harrison (track and field)
7. Grace Cornelius (swimming)
8. Kirsty Hale (field hockey)
9. Mandy Pfeiffer (hockey/softball)
10. Kim Simons (field hockey/lacrosse)
What leaps out at you from this list? How about six two-sport athletes? This, in TigerBlog's mind, speaks to how different the culture was for female athletes when the college athletes of the 1990s were little girls. With fewer opportunities, the better athletes were able to take up spots on multiple teams growing up. Today, the pressure is to specialize at a very early age, and the long-normal double of field hockey and lacrosse is something that happens less and less.
As for the list itself, it's a pretty strong group with some of the greatest female athletes in Princeton history. MacFarlane, the No. 1 selection, was one of the best field hockey players in the world, and she remains (for the next two years at least) the only field hockey player ever to be a four-time first-team All-Ivy pick.
And the others? Babik was a Rhodes' Scholar. Rebane was the Ivy League field hockey Player of the Year - and was a better lacrosse player (she was Ivy Player of the Year in that sport too). Samaras destroyed the women's lacrosse record book. Marcoux and Pfeiffer could play any sport. Harrison and Cornelius were All-Americas.
And the men? That's where it gets outrageous.
Apologies to great athletes like Ugonna Ikpeowo (track), Chris Massey (lacrosse), Dennis Norman (football/track), Justin Tortolani (lacrosse), Darrell Oliveira (football), Mitch Henderson (basketball), Gabe Lewullis (basketball), Peter Yik (squash), Josh Sims (lacrosse), Reed Cordish (tennis), James Mastaglio (basketball) and many others who didn't quite make the final cut.
So how about these 10?:
Chris Young (basketball/baseball)
Bill Burke (track)
David Patterson (football)
Jon Hess (lacrosse)
David Morrow (lacrosse)
John Mack (track)
Jesse Marsch (soccer)
Michael Lerch (football)
Joe Thieman (soccer)
Sydney Johnson (basketball)
Pretty good group, no? Well, then consider this fact: None of those 10 are in the actual Top 10.
For the Top 10, TigerBlog came up with this:
1. Jesse Hubbard (lacrosse)
2. Kit Mueller (basketball)
3. Keith Elias (football)
4. Kevin Lowe (lacrosse)
5. Steve Goodrich (basketball)
6. Chris Ahrens (crew)
7. Scott Bacigalupo (lacrosse)
8. Brian Earl (basketball)
9. Sean Jackson (basketball)
10. Jeff Halpern (hockey)
How ridiculous is that?
Monday, December 21, 2009
Let It Snow
TigerBlog hates snow. He much prefers the beach, with a chair, a book, some sunscreen and a few snacks to bundling up and heading out to shovel snow.
Is there anything worse than shoveling snow? Seriously. Laundry? No problem. Supermarket? Dishes? Fine. Shoveling snow? No way.
As a kid, TigerBlog would shovel the driveway to basically the width of MotherBlog's car and no more. He remembers one time when he was in high school and it snowed, and for some reason TB wasn't able to shovel (those details are fuzzy). MotherBlog had to pay a kid who lived down the street to shovel, and he dug out the entire driveway, which included a little extra part that went off at a 45 degree angle. His own house? Shoveled to the width of the family car.
Of course, the mere mention of snow sends people into a panic over basics such as milk, which leads to jammed supermarkets, like the McCaffery's was Saturday.
TigerBlog has also never understood the logic of "I love to ski" when talking about how much they like snow. How does the fact that it snowed here help anyone ski? As an aside, TigerBlog has gone skiing once in his life, and that was enough for him.
And snow here it did over the weekend, more than a foot in the town of Princeton. And shovel TigerBlog did, all the while being aware of the fact in a few days, the beautiful white scene around the area will be replaced by slush and mud that will bring more of a brown Christmas than a white Christmas to most.
So, as the region continues to dig out from a snowfall that was about 10 times last winter's total combined, a few thoughts:
* The snow forced the men's basketball team to turn around from Phiadelphia Airport and postponed yesterday's game at Maine, a game that will be rescheduled. The last time Princeton had a basketball game snowed out was in 1994, when the Friday night/Saturday night trip to Yale/Brown became a Saturday/Sunday trip to Brown/Yale. TigerBlog was on the bus for that trip, which was memorable mostly because of how long it took to crawl up 95 after the blizzard. TigerBlog also remembers taking a box score from the Penn-Yale game to Pete Carril's hotel room, knocking on the door that was clearly labeled "no smoking" and getting bowled over by the cigar smoke when Carril answered the door.
* TigerBlog has always hated to use lacrosse pictures that have snow visible on the sideline in the background.
* TigerBlog watched some of the Rutgers bowl game Saturday night, and the whole system of postseason FBS football is bizarre. There's one game that has been designated as the championship game and there are another 30+ that mean nothing. There is, of course, no possible justification for designated Alabama and Texas as more deserving than TCU or Boise State or especially Cincinnati to play for the national title, other than subjectivity. The fact that the regular season means so much is good (as opposed to college basketball, where it means next to nothin), but it's a system so obviously flawed that everyone knows it. On the flip side is Ivy League football, which TigerBlog loves. 10 weeks. 10 games. No off weeks. It has such a great rhythm to it.
* It's easy to root for Richmond in basketball, and it was great to see the Spiders knock off Florida Saturday night. Richmond's coach is Chris Mooney, about whom TigerBlog once wrote a feature story that began with this line: "Is Chris Mooney too good to be true?" Mooney, a 1994 Princeton grad, started every game of his career and finished with 1,071 career points in 107 career games. He reached 1,000 one night at Yale in what happened to be the 100th game of his career, and TB sort of got used to the idea that Mooney would score exactly 10 points every game. Mooney is an extraordinarily soft-spoken man, but he has a deep, burning competitive fire; his team is now 8-3.
* TigerBlog didn't realize that women's basketball had its own bracketology on ESPN.com. TB doesn't really like bracketology as a concept, because there's no accountability for the picks. Still, TB does acknowledge that people love to read the updates each week, and in many ways, it confirms that people are much more interested in what comes next rather than a story about the last game. Anyway, the current women's basketball picks have Princeton as a No. 14 seed taking on No. 3 LSU in the first round, and that was before Princeton won at Houston yesterday. Yes, there is a long, long way to go between now and the women's selections, and Princeton has never played in the NCAA women's tournament. Still, it was nice to see some recognition for the big early season success the Tigers have had. And Niveen Rasheed (24 points, 14 rebounds against Houston) seems to be the real deal.
* Mike Colley won the Doyle Smith Award as the person who has done the most to promote the sport of lacrosse, and the honor was presented at the USILA convention last week. Sadly, it was presented to Colley's mother and not to Colley, who passed away last summer at the age of 46. Colley was the lacrosse sport information contact at Virginia, and he actually replaced Smith, for whom the award is named, when Smith passed away several years ago after a long battle with Parkinson's. Smith was the first person to write the rules of keeping stats for lacrosse many years ago, and TigerBlog knew Smith well. There have been few kinder, more caring people who have ever lived than Doyle Smith. TB was part of a committee two summers ago to update Smith's work, and Colley was part of that group. Sports like lacrosse have their own small, close-knit groups that work together all the time, and TB worked closely with Colley for a long time as well, and he was another kind, caring person. It's hard to imagine a coming lacrosse season without him. Hopefully the award, voted on by the college coaches, was a sign to his mother about what the lacrosse world thought of her son.
* TigerBlog first met Corey Zucker in the third grade, he recalls. One of five kids (four brothers and a sister) who have been a second family to TigerBlog, Corey has been by TB every step of the way since, oh, 1970 or so. TigerBlog could write volumes on the Zucker family (and maybe will some day), but for now, the focus is on the next generation of Zuckers. TigerBlog remembers clearly the day Jonathan Zucker (Corey's oldest son) was born (Princeton played Yale in basketball that day as well). Last week came the news that Jonathan had been accepted early decision to Cornell, which disappointed TigerBlog, as he is now a huge archrival of Princeton's. Still, TB can't help but say congratulations to the whole family Zucker family and wish Jonathan the best in Ithaca. Just not during lacrosse season - or any time the Big Red plays Princeton.
Is there anything worse than shoveling snow? Seriously. Laundry? No problem. Supermarket? Dishes? Fine. Shoveling snow? No way.
As a kid, TigerBlog would shovel the driveway to basically the width of MotherBlog's car and no more. He remembers one time when he was in high school and it snowed, and for some reason TB wasn't able to shovel (those details are fuzzy). MotherBlog had to pay a kid who lived down the street to shovel, and he dug out the entire driveway, which included a little extra part that went off at a 45 degree angle. His own house? Shoveled to the width of the family car.
Of course, the mere mention of snow sends people into a panic over basics such as milk, which leads to jammed supermarkets, like the McCaffery's was Saturday.
TigerBlog has also never understood the logic of "I love to ski" when talking about how much they like snow. How does the fact that it snowed here help anyone ski? As an aside, TigerBlog has gone skiing once in his life, and that was enough for him.
And snow here it did over the weekend, more than a foot in the town of Princeton. And shovel TigerBlog did, all the while being aware of the fact in a few days, the beautiful white scene around the area will be replaced by slush and mud that will bring more of a brown Christmas than a white Christmas to most.
So, as the region continues to dig out from a snowfall that was about 10 times last winter's total combined, a few thoughts:
* The snow forced the men's basketball team to turn around from Phiadelphia Airport and postponed yesterday's game at Maine, a game that will be rescheduled. The last time Princeton had a basketball game snowed out was in 1994, when the Friday night/Saturday night trip to Yale/Brown became a Saturday/Sunday trip to Brown/Yale. TigerBlog was on the bus for that trip, which was memorable mostly because of how long it took to crawl up 95 after the blizzard. TigerBlog also remembers taking a box score from the Penn-Yale game to Pete Carril's hotel room, knocking on the door that was clearly labeled "no smoking" and getting bowled over by the cigar smoke when Carril answered the door.
* TigerBlog has always hated to use lacrosse pictures that have snow visible on the sideline in the background.
* TigerBlog watched some of the Rutgers bowl game Saturday night, and the whole system of postseason FBS football is bizarre. There's one game that has been designated as the championship game and there are another 30+ that mean nothing. There is, of course, no possible justification for designated Alabama and Texas as more deserving than TCU or Boise State or especially Cincinnati to play for the national title, other than subjectivity. The fact that the regular season means so much is good (as opposed to college basketball, where it means next to nothin), but it's a system so obviously flawed that everyone knows it. On the flip side is Ivy League football, which TigerBlog loves. 10 weeks. 10 games. No off weeks. It has such a great rhythm to it.
* It's easy to root for Richmond in basketball, and it was great to see the Spiders knock off Florida Saturday night. Richmond's coach is Chris Mooney, about whom TigerBlog once wrote a feature story that began with this line: "Is Chris Mooney too good to be true?" Mooney, a 1994 Princeton grad, started every game of his career and finished with 1,071 career points in 107 career games. He reached 1,000 one night at Yale in what happened to be the 100th game of his career, and TB sort of got used to the idea that Mooney would score exactly 10 points every game. Mooney is an extraordinarily soft-spoken man, but he has a deep, burning competitive fire; his team is now 8-3.
* TigerBlog didn't realize that women's basketball had its own bracketology on ESPN.com. TB doesn't really like bracketology as a concept, because there's no accountability for the picks. Still, TB does acknowledge that people love to read the updates each week, and in many ways, it confirms that people are much more interested in what comes next rather than a story about the last game. Anyway, the current women's basketball picks have Princeton as a No. 14 seed taking on No. 3 LSU in the first round, and that was before Princeton won at Houston yesterday. Yes, there is a long, long way to go between now and the women's selections, and Princeton has never played in the NCAA women's tournament. Still, it was nice to see some recognition for the big early season success the Tigers have had. And Niveen Rasheed (24 points, 14 rebounds against Houston) seems to be the real deal.
* Mike Colley won the Doyle Smith Award as the person who has done the most to promote the sport of lacrosse, and the honor was presented at the USILA convention last week. Sadly, it was presented to Colley's mother and not to Colley, who passed away last summer at the age of 46. Colley was the lacrosse sport information contact at Virginia, and he actually replaced Smith, for whom the award is named, when Smith passed away several years ago after a long battle with Parkinson's. Smith was the first person to write the rules of keeping stats for lacrosse many years ago, and TigerBlog knew Smith well. There have been few kinder, more caring people who have ever lived than Doyle Smith. TB was part of a committee two summers ago to update Smith's work, and Colley was part of that group. Sports like lacrosse have their own small, close-knit groups that work together all the time, and TB worked closely with Colley for a long time as well, and he was another kind, caring person. It's hard to imagine a coming lacrosse season without him. Hopefully the award, voted on by the college coaches, was a sign to his mother about what the lacrosse world thought of her son.
* TigerBlog first met Corey Zucker in the third grade, he recalls. One of five kids (four brothers and a sister) who have been a second family to TigerBlog, Corey has been by TB every step of the way since, oh, 1970 or so. TigerBlog could write volumes on the Zucker family (and maybe will some day), but for now, the focus is on the next generation of Zuckers. TigerBlog remembers clearly the day Jonathan Zucker (Corey's oldest son) was born (Princeton played Yale in basketball that day as well). Last week came the news that Jonathan had been accepted early decision to Cornell, which disappointed TigerBlog, as he is now a huge archrival of Princeton's. Still, TB can't help but say congratulations to the whole family Zucker family and wish Jonathan the best in Ithaca. Just not during lacrosse season - or any time the Big Red plays Princeton.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Coach Of The Decade
GoPrincetonTigers.com is currently counting down the Top 10 male and female Tiger athletes of the decade. Today's posting was the No. 7 athletes, current senior Liz Costello of cross country and track on the women's side and Greg Parker ’03 of the wrestling team.
The next three in the countdown will be released next week, and the final three will be released the week after, ending with the No. 1 selections on Dec. 30.
It's been a fun project to do, and judging by the page view numbers, it's been well-received. TigerBlog has certainly gotten feedback from those at HQ who all have an opinion. Even one disgruntled alum called to complain that he was ineligible because he only competed for one year (okay, he wasn't quite disgruntled, just joking around, and at least he read the fine print).
The whole thing got TB thinking about a different question: If you were going to select a Princeton Coach of the Decade, who would it be?
TigerBlog didn't set any limits to who his selection for top coach would be other than it had to be someone who coached at Princeton this decade. Before considering who deserved the honor, TB went back and checked to see how many coaches who were the head coach of their sport on Jan. 1, 2000, are still the head coach today.
TB didn't really have any preconceived notions about it, other than it seems like there's been some turnover through the years. Somewhat surprisingly, he found out that 16 head coaches (eight men's teams, nine women's teams - Luis Nicolao of water polo coaches both) have been here the entire decade. It seemed like a lot to TigerBlog, but that's not the point.
So who was the Coach of the Decade around here? That was the next part that got TigerBlog thinking. It could be just about anyone.
Between Jan. 1, 2000, and the end of the 2009 fall season, Princeton teams combined to win 117 Ivy League titles, 42 more than the next-highest school. Princeton teams won 13 national championships, and 13 athletes won individual national championships.
None of this happened accidentally. It's a tribute to the coaching staff as much as anything.
So where to start? There are a lot of good choices:
* Kristen Holmes-Winn has been the field hockey coach for seven seasons and won six Ivy titles. She also took Princeton to the 2009 NCAA Final Four, and with her team of mostly freshmen and sophomores, Tiger field hockey is positioned well for a serious NCAA title run in the near future.
* Bob Callahan won seven Ivy squash championships and reached five national finals. Princeton players won six individual championships this decade.
* Julie Shackford won five Ivy League women's soccer championships and reached six NCAA tournaments. Her 2004 team became the first women's soccer team in league history to reach the NCAA Final Four, and she was the Division I Coach of the Year. She also broke the record for career wins at Princeton by a men's or women's soccer coach.
* John Thompson won three Ivy League championships in four seasons as men's basketball head coach. He took the Tigers to two NCAA tournaments and one NIT.
* Bill Tierney won one NCAA championship, played in three NCAA finals and reached the Final Four four times in men's lacrosse. His last 10 Princeton teams won seven Ivy League titles and played in eight NCAA tournaments.
* Peter Farrell won six Ivy titles, including four in cross country, where he built the women's team into one of the five best in the country out of more than 340 teams.
* Nicolao went to two NCAA Final Fours.
* Gail Ramsay won three national Howe Cup championships and two Ivy League titles.
* Greg Hughes was a head coach for one year, but he made it count, putting together a dominant lightweight men's crew that won the national championship.
* Lori Dauphiny won four Ivy League women's open rowing championships, and her 2006 team was probably the greatest first varsity 8 boat in women's collegiate rowing history.
* Rob Orr won six Ivy swimming and diving championships.
* Scott Bradley (edited version, TB apologizes for initially forgetting Bradley) won five Ivy championships and advanced to five NCAA tournaments, winning two games while there. Bradley had eight 20-win seasons and produced 14 draft choices, of whom three are currently in the Major Leagues.
* Susan Teeter won eight Ivy swimming and diving championships and has had Princeton consistently ranked in the Top 25 nationally.
All of them are excellent choices. You could even make a case for wrestling coach Chris Ayres, who has Princeton moving down the path towards becoming highly competitive after years of struggling.
Still, if TigerBlog had to choose, he'd come up with these two, one male and one female:
Chris Sailer won two NCAA women's lacrosse championships, played in three championship games and reached the NCAA tournament all 10 years. Her teams also won five Ivy League championships, and Sailer herself made the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Guy Gadowsky inherited a men's hockey team that was 8-50-4 in the two years prior to his arrival. He equaled that win total his first season and then took the program to where it had never been before: to consecutive NCAA tournaments. Princeton won the 2008 Ivy League and ECAC championships and reached the ECAC final four again in 2009, and Gadowsky's teams have been consistently ranked nationally while sending an army of players to the professional ranks.
If TB had to pick the No. 1 Coach of the Decade at Princeton, he'd go with Gadowsky.
Hey, this was fun. Maybe next, TigerBlog can rank Princeton's top SIDs of the decade.
The next three in the countdown will be released next week, and the final three will be released the week after, ending with the No. 1 selections on Dec. 30.
It's been a fun project to do, and judging by the page view numbers, it's been well-received. TigerBlog has certainly gotten feedback from those at HQ who all have an opinion. Even one disgruntled alum called to complain that he was ineligible because he only competed for one year (okay, he wasn't quite disgruntled, just joking around, and at least he read the fine print).
The whole thing got TB thinking about a different question: If you were going to select a Princeton Coach of the Decade, who would it be?
TigerBlog didn't set any limits to who his selection for top coach would be other than it had to be someone who coached at Princeton this decade. Before considering who deserved the honor, TB went back and checked to see how many coaches who were the head coach of their sport on Jan. 1, 2000, are still the head coach today.
TB didn't really have any preconceived notions about it, other than it seems like there's been some turnover through the years. Somewhat surprisingly, he found out that 16 head coaches (eight men's teams, nine women's teams - Luis Nicolao of water polo coaches both) have been here the entire decade. It seemed like a lot to TigerBlog, but that's not the point.
So who was the Coach of the Decade around here? That was the next part that got TigerBlog thinking. It could be just about anyone.
Between Jan. 1, 2000, and the end of the 2009 fall season, Princeton teams combined to win 117 Ivy League titles, 42 more than the next-highest school. Princeton teams won 13 national championships, and 13 athletes won individual national championships.
None of this happened accidentally. It's a tribute to the coaching staff as much as anything.
So where to start? There are a lot of good choices:
* Kristen Holmes-Winn has been the field hockey coach for seven seasons and won six Ivy titles. She also took Princeton to the 2009 NCAA Final Four, and with her team of mostly freshmen and sophomores, Tiger field hockey is positioned well for a serious NCAA title run in the near future.
* Bob Callahan won seven Ivy squash championships and reached five national finals. Princeton players won six individual championships this decade.
* Julie Shackford won five Ivy League women's soccer championships and reached six NCAA tournaments. Her 2004 team became the first women's soccer team in league history to reach the NCAA Final Four, and she was the Division I Coach of the Year. She also broke the record for career wins at Princeton by a men's or women's soccer coach.
* John Thompson won three Ivy League championships in four seasons as men's basketball head coach. He took the Tigers to two NCAA tournaments and one NIT.
* Bill Tierney won one NCAA championship, played in three NCAA finals and reached the Final Four four times in men's lacrosse. His last 10 Princeton teams won seven Ivy League titles and played in eight NCAA tournaments.
* Peter Farrell won six Ivy titles, including four in cross country, where he built the women's team into one of the five best in the country out of more than 340 teams.
* Nicolao went to two NCAA Final Fours.
* Gail Ramsay won three national Howe Cup championships and two Ivy League titles.
* Greg Hughes was a head coach for one year, but he made it count, putting together a dominant lightweight men's crew that won the national championship.
* Lori Dauphiny won four Ivy League women's open rowing championships, and her 2006 team was probably the greatest first varsity 8 boat in women's collegiate rowing history.
* Rob Orr won six Ivy swimming and diving championships.
* Scott Bradley (edited version, TB apologizes for initially forgetting Bradley) won five Ivy championships and advanced to five NCAA tournaments, winning two games while there. Bradley had eight 20-win seasons and produced 14 draft choices, of whom three are currently in the Major Leagues.
* Susan Teeter won eight Ivy swimming and diving championships and has had Princeton consistently ranked in the Top 25 nationally.
All of them are excellent choices. You could even make a case for wrestling coach Chris Ayres, who has Princeton moving down the path towards becoming highly competitive after years of struggling.
Still, if TigerBlog had to choose, he'd come up with these two, one male and one female:
Chris Sailer won two NCAA women's lacrosse championships, played in three championship games and reached the NCAA tournament all 10 years. Her teams also won five Ivy League championships, and Sailer herself made the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Guy Gadowsky inherited a men's hockey team that was 8-50-4 in the two years prior to his arrival. He equaled that win total his first season and then took the program to where it had never been before: to consecutive NCAA tournaments. Princeton won the 2008 Ivy League and ECAC championships and reached the ECAC final four again in 2009, and Gadowsky's teams have been consistently ranked nationally while sending an army of players to the professional ranks.
If TB had to pick the No. 1 Coach of the Decade at Princeton, he'd go with Gadowsky.
Hey, this was fun. Maybe next, TigerBlog can rank Princeton's top SIDs of the decade.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
