TigerBlog, being a history major back in the day (as well as something of a geek), sometimes uses a mind game of associating famous dates with who was the President of the United States at the time.
For instance, TB was recently in a meeting when someone referenced something from 1868. TB immediately asked who the President was (answer: Andrew Johnson).
When TigerBlog read Craig Sachson's piece on Jack Bales on goprincetontigers.com, the first thing that leaped out was his birthday. Jan. 5, 1911. Who was President, TB thought? William Howard Taft?
Jack Bales was born before Woodrow Wilson was elected President. He was born before the NFL or the NHL or the NBA or the Indianapolis 500. The World Series was less than a decade old when he was born.
The first World War was still three years away; it was closer to the Civil War than the Vietnam War.
In his lifetime, Jack Bales has lived through the evolution of society through radio, TV, computer, cell phone, car, airplane, rocket and everything else.
He was 16 the year Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs. He 18 when the stock market crashed. He was 28 when "Gone With The Wind" came out. He was 34 when World War II ended. He turned 50 before John Kennedy's inauguration. He was 61 when the Watergate break-in occurred. He was 69 for the "Miracle on Ice." He was 78 when Ronald Regan left office.
Today, he's 99. And, to be honest, he looks pretty good for 99.
When Jack Bales was born, it was impossible for anyone to have predicted that he would reach 99, let alone that when he was 99, he would sit down tell his story while something called a video camera recorded his words and captured his images and that this would then be available on something called a computer, which would connect to something called the internet.
If you want to see it, he's just a click away, over on goprincetontigers.com and goprincetontigers.tv.
What a life it's been for Jack Bales. He grew up in Ohio, but his dream was to play football at Michigan. Instead, he came to Princeton, and he was a member of Princeton's undefeated 1933 team.
Nineteen thirty-three, that is. One-nine-three-three. As in 77 years ago. His first varsity season was 1931, when Princeton went 1-7, improving to 2-2-3 the following season, Fritz Crisler's first as Princeton head coach. Bales himself was a 1932 All-America.
Bales was hurt for almost all of the 1933 season, but he did play against Yale in a 27-2 Princeton win, the first for the Tigers in the series since 1926. It ended the season at 8-0.
Watching the video of Bales, you see him and hear his words while also seeing pictures of him as a player, of his helmet, of an old football. His speaks in a soft, low, deep voice, but his memory is tremendous and his stories are awesome.
Watching him, you also realize that he's the last survivor of that team. Clearly someone has to be, and being that he's 99, it's not surprising that he's the last of the group. Still, why him? What was his secret? He looks like he took good care of himself, but is it just destiny? Luck?
Whatever the reason, Jack Bales is still here. He's seen so much in his time, way more than he was able to share on a video.
TigerBlog is a big fan of old movies. Often, when he's watching something from the 1940s or earlier, he feels like he's watching science fiction, something that isn't real, something from another world. He thinks of the people in the movie, who made the movie, and what life was like for them back then.
And then here's Jack Bales. Born in 1911. Still going strong in 2010.
He's done more than endure. He's been a constant in a 99-year stretch unlike any other in human history. If you were born in 1511 and were still alive in 1610, how much did you really see?
In the case of Jack Bales, he's seen it all, seen stuff that TigerBlog could only read about.
What a life he's had.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Joshua's Still Playing The Game
Al Trautwig lost TigerBlog when he uttered these words as the bell sounded for the final lap: "These will be the six most important miles some of these guys ever ski."
C'mon. Does that sound like fun to do, let alone watch? Of all the events in the Olympics, TigerBlog has always thought that cross country skiing has to be the least enjoyable to do. TB remembers a picture in Sports Illustrated from one of the Winter Olympics from a long time ago of a Finnish cross country skier at the finish line of a race, his beard covered in ice, a look of total exhaustion on his face.
Anyway, with six more miles to go in the cross country race and 30 minutes to go before the gold medal hockey game Sunday afternoon, TigerBlog started flipping the channels looking for something else to watch when he stumbled on one the more interesting movies he's ever seen: "War Games."
It was entertaining at the time it first came out, 1983, and it's even more fascinating now when viewed through what's happened with computers since.
For those who've never seen the movie, it stars Matthew Broderick as the high school loner goof-ball genius kid who is one of the first computer hackers, Ally Sheedy as the flaky cute girl who becomes interested in him, Dabney Coleman as the government computer genius chain smoker and the guy who played the astronaut in the TV show "Northern Exposure" as the general who can't stand Coleman and the whole computer idea.
The basic plot is that the military tries an exercise in which it orders a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union (if you lived through it, you understand; if you were too young, you don't quite get what it was like thinking that the Soviets were going to fire their nuclear weapons first), only the soldiers responsible are too scared to do it, so the missiles don't get fired. As a result, the military decides to take the humans out of the loop and replace them with computers, only they're not computers like we know them. They're giant machines that take up whole rooms and have lots of flashing lights and, in this case, the cool name of "WOPR," which stands for "War Operation Plan Response."
Broderick hacks into a computer that he thinks belongs to a toy company, only it's actually the government's computer that is controlling the nuclear missiles. He begins playing "global thermonuclear war," which he thinks is a game but in reality is actually starting the process of firing U.S. missiles.
Along the way, we meet the guy who wrote the computer programs who was supposedly killed but wasn't and who named the system for his son Joshua who actually was killed. As Broderick is being led away by federal agents (who, in contrast to those on, say, Criminal Minds, couldn't have been dumber), he screams back "Joshua's still playing the game," an oft-repeated comment through the years in many random situations.
Finally, as it appears that the whole world is going to be blown up, a remarkably calm Joshua's Father gently coaches Broderick into solving the problem without the least bit of panic. Northern Exposure general guy offers his own solution to the problem: "Can't you just unplug the thing?"
Watching the movie (or at least the last 20 minutes while some Scandinavian guys were skiing the most important six miles of their lives) for the first time in years, TigerBlog immediately thought of, well, TigerBlog - and goprincetontigers.com and goprinceontigers.tv and espn.com and itunes and everything else.
The movie was from 1983, and it meant to play off people's fears of nuclear war. Instead, it ended up being more about people's fear of what computers were going to do to the world, how they were going to take over and end the world.
The movie was 27 years ago. TigerBlog was in college then, and he was excited because he had an electric typewriter with a built-in correct ribbon. Word processors were in their infancy. Apple had not yet come out with the first Mac. Nobody had ever heard of Bill Gates. When you had mail, there was no "e" in front of it. This symbol: "." was pronounced "period" instead of "dot" almost all of the time.
The No. 1 way that people communicated was by telephones, which were plugged into walls, in many cases with rotary dials.
Going back 27 years before the movie, to 1956, much of communication was done the same way. Maybe it got a little faster by the 1970s and '80s, but it hardly had skyrocketed.
Today, nothing is the same as it was back then. Computers have completely taken over the world, and communication moves faster and faster all the time.
Ever find yourself without your cell phone for a day? Or without access to email for a day? It's almost paralyzing now. How many people don't go directly to a computer when they first get to work or don't have a computer at home?
The impact on Princeton athletics has been dramatic and well-covered here. We used to mail information out. Then it was fax. Now it's email and web and everything else. Printing is out; video and podcasting are in.
The entire structure of athletic communications has changed in a short time. TigerBlog used to writer media notes for lacrosse games (and other sports, when he covered those). Now, the lacrosse notes aren't media notes per se. The Princeton-Hofstra pregame notes were read by 700 people on goprincetontigers.com; maybe, what, 15 of them were media people? Should they be tailored for about 2% of the audience?
No. Whereas before it was about getting the notes to the media in the most objective fashion possible, now they are meant be entertaining for the people who read them as they talk about the team, because technology has enabled us to take the information directly to those people.
Oh, and it's not just about the written word. There's also the need to get video of a player or coach and get that on the site as well, because that's what the audience wants and because technology has made it so easy to do.
The NCAA used to have a form to be filled out by hand with statistical leaders. Now everything is done via an XML file. Shortly, those stats will be updated goal-by-goal or basket-by-basket or go in any number of other different ways.
And 27 years from now? TigerBlog can't even begin to imagine.
Yes, computers have changed everything. And will continue to do so.
This isn't exactly Earth-shattering news, and these are all topics that have been covered before. Every now and then, though, it's good to remember that it wasn't always this way and that being as current on technology is an obligation that communications people have.
Watching "War Games" again reminded TB of that. And, it's also really entertaining, even all these years later.
Or maybe it's just better than watching cross country skiing.
C'mon. Does that sound like fun to do, let alone watch? Of all the events in the Olympics, TigerBlog has always thought that cross country skiing has to be the least enjoyable to do. TB remembers a picture in Sports Illustrated from one of the Winter Olympics from a long time ago of a Finnish cross country skier at the finish line of a race, his beard covered in ice, a look of total exhaustion on his face.
Anyway, with six more miles to go in the cross country race and 30 minutes to go before the gold medal hockey game Sunday afternoon, TigerBlog started flipping the channels looking for something else to watch when he stumbled on one the more interesting movies he's ever seen: "War Games."
It was entertaining at the time it first came out, 1983, and it's even more fascinating now when viewed through what's happened with computers since.
For those who've never seen the movie, it stars Matthew Broderick as the high school loner goof-ball genius kid who is one of the first computer hackers, Ally Sheedy as the flaky cute girl who becomes interested in him, Dabney Coleman as the government computer genius chain smoker and the guy who played the astronaut in the TV show "Northern Exposure" as the general who can't stand Coleman and the whole computer idea.
The basic plot is that the military tries an exercise in which it orders a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union (if you lived through it, you understand; if you were too young, you don't quite get what it was like thinking that the Soviets were going to fire their nuclear weapons first), only the soldiers responsible are too scared to do it, so the missiles don't get fired. As a result, the military decides to take the humans out of the loop and replace them with computers, only they're not computers like we know them. They're giant machines that take up whole rooms and have lots of flashing lights and, in this case, the cool name of "WOPR," which stands for "War Operation Plan Response."
Broderick hacks into a computer that he thinks belongs to a toy company, only it's actually the government's computer that is controlling the nuclear missiles. He begins playing "global thermonuclear war," which he thinks is a game but in reality is actually starting the process of firing U.S. missiles.
Along the way, we meet the guy who wrote the computer programs who was supposedly killed but wasn't and who named the system for his son Joshua who actually was killed. As Broderick is being led away by federal agents (who, in contrast to those on, say, Criminal Minds, couldn't have been dumber), he screams back "Joshua's still playing the game," an oft-repeated comment through the years in many random situations.
Finally, as it appears that the whole world is going to be blown up, a remarkably calm Joshua's Father gently coaches Broderick into solving the problem without the least bit of panic. Northern Exposure general guy offers his own solution to the problem: "Can't you just unplug the thing?"
Watching the movie (or at least the last 20 minutes while some Scandinavian guys were skiing the most important six miles of their lives) for the first time in years, TigerBlog immediately thought of, well, TigerBlog - and goprincetontigers.com and goprinceontigers.tv and espn.com and itunes and everything else.
The movie was from 1983, and it meant to play off people's fears of nuclear war. Instead, it ended up being more about people's fear of what computers were going to do to the world, how they were going to take over and end the world.
The movie was 27 years ago. TigerBlog was in college then, and he was excited because he had an electric typewriter with a built-in correct ribbon. Word processors were in their infancy. Apple had not yet come out with the first Mac. Nobody had ever heard of Bill Gates. When you had mail, there was no "e" in front of it. This symbol: "." was pronounced "period" instead of "dot" almost all of the time.
The No. 1 way that people communicated was by telephones, which were plugged into walls, in many cases with rotary dials.
Going back 27 years before the movie, to 1956, much of communication was done the same way. Maybe it got a little faster by the 1970s and '80s, but it hardly had skyrocketed.
Today, nothing is the same as it was back then. Computers have completely taken over the world, and communication moves faster and faster all the time.
Ever find yourself without your cell phone for a day? Or without access to email for a day? It's almost paralyzing now. How many people don't go directly to a computer when they first get to work or don't have a computer at home?
The impact on Princeton athletics has been dramatic and well-covered here. We used to mail information out. Then it was fax. Now it's email and web and everything else. Printing is out; video and podcasting are in.
The entire structure of athletic communications has changed in a short time. TigerBlog used to writer media notes for lacrosse games (and other sports, when he covered those). Now, the lacrosse notes aren't media notes per se. The Princeton-Hofstra pregame notes were read by 700 people on goprincetontigers.com; maybe, what, 15 of them were media people? Should they be tailored for about 2% of the audience?
No. Whereas before it was about getting the notes to the media in the most objective fashion possible, now they are meant be entertaining for the people who read them as they talk about the team, because technology has enabled us to take the information directly to those people.
Oh, and it's not just about the written word. There's also the need to get video of a player or coach and get that on the site as well, because that's what the audience wants and because technology has made it so easy to do.
The NCAA used to have a form to be filled out by hand with statistical leaders. Now everything is done via an XML file. Shortly, those stats will be updated goal-by-goal or basket-by-basket or go in any number of other different ways.
And 27 years from now? TigerBlog can't even begin to imagine.
Yes, computers have changed everything. And will continue to do so.
This isn't exactly Earth-shattering news, and these are all topics that have been covered before. Every now and then, though, it's good to remember that it wasn't always this way and that being as current on technology is an obligation that communications people have.
Watching "War Games" again reminded TB of that. And, it's also really entertaining, even all these years later.
Or maybe it's just better than watching cross country skiing.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Yo Buck
Back in TigerBlog's newspaper days, he got to know most of the Princeton head coaches and almost none of the assistant coaches and athletic administration and support staff. Even the people TB did get to know were the high-profile assistants, a Bill Carmody in men's basketball, for instance.
This is probably the same from the vantage point of a Princeton fan. You probably know who Sydney Johnson (men's basketball coach) is; you probably don't know who Jon Kurian (men's basketball travel coordinator, among other important tasks, such as commissioner of lunchtime basketball) is. You probably know who Chris Sailer is (women's lacrosse coach); you probably don't know who Karen Malec is (overseer of event management for Princeton athletics).
In many ways, that's how it should be. Back in the newspaper days, TigerBlog could pick up the paper and see his name in it most days and his picture in it several times per week. When he first came to work here at HQ, all of that vanished. Even now, as Princeton's websites have become our primary focus, goprincetontigers.com almost never features a byline with its dozens and dozens of stories per week; only feature stories are claimed by an author.
And, to let you in on a little secret, TigerBlog is not TigerBlog's real name. In short, to be part of an athletic department like Princeton's (or many others) means that for the most part, you are in the background at all times.
On the plus side, it means that the motivation for the non-coaching staff at Princeton isn't selfish (unless you count the money part, and even that isn't why people work here). No, people are attracted to working for Princeton's Department of Athletics because of other reasons, such as the ability to work in sports, the people, the University and of course, to help the athletes here have the best experience possible.
In other words, it means you usually have to check your ego at the door.
The person who epitomizes this the most, perhaps, is someone who doesn't even work at Princeton anymore, technically. And, it's likely that you don't know this name either: George Boccanfuso.
His story is a remarkable one. His father spent 47 years at Princeton working on the grounds and athletic facilities, and George himself worked here for 42 years before he retired in 1991.
So why was he having surgery (successful, everyone was glad to hear) this week after he fell on the scaffold at Jadwin Gym before a basketball game?
Because even though he is nearly 85 years old and even though he retired nearly 20 years ago, he still comes out every morning to make sure Jadwin is clean as a whistle. That's not an easy task, by the way, since the building is used all day, every day, by coaches, athletes, staff, pickup athletes, recreational athletes and just about anyone else.
And that's how he got hurt. Through the years, when TB has needed anything last minute at a basketball game, he's turned to Boccanfuso. A surge protector? An extension cord? No problem.
When the shot clock malfunctions, out comes Boccanfuso to fix it. He's out there with TigerBlog Jr. and his friend Matthew to be something of a ballboy at basketball games. He has probably walked hundreds of miles back and forth on that court, sweeping it.
Boccanfuso has known thousands of Princeton athletes and hundreds of Princeton coaches, and it's likely that his favorite of all of them was former men's basketball coach Pete Carril. When TB first came to Princeton and did his first men's basketball media guide, Carril insisted that Boccanfuso have his picture and bio in the book, even though he had already retired.
Now it's nearly 20 years later, and he's still at it. His work ethic can't help but be inspirational, the kind of work ethic that is more uncommon than common in this world today. He's funny. He's personable. And he's an early riser; TigerBlog often drives past him as TB pulls into the Jadwin parking lot and Boccanfuso is pulling out of it.
Many people call him "Georgie Buck," including TigerBlog. Carril just called him "Buck," and he often could be heard bellowing "Yo Buck" throughout the building.
Yo Buck. Get better real soon. The place isn't the same without you.
This is probably the same from the vantage point of a Princeton fan. You probably know who Sydney Johnson (men's basketball coach) is; you probably don't know who Jon Kurian (men's basketball travel coordinator, among other important tasks, such as commissioner of lunchtime basketball) is. You probably know who Chris Sailer is (women's lacrosse coach); you probably don't know who Karen Malec is (overseer of event management for Princeton athletics).
In many ways, that's how it should be. Back in the newspaper days, TigerBlog could pick up the paper and see his name in it most days and his picture in it several times per week. When he first came to work here at HQ, all of that vanished. Even now, as Princeton's websites have become our primary focus, goprincetontigers.com almost never features a byline with its dozens and dozens of stories per week; only feature stories are claimed by an author.
And, to let you in on a little secret, TigerBlog is not TigerBlog's real name. In short, to be part of an athletic department like Princeton's (or many others) means that for the most part, you are in the background at all times.
On the plus side, it means that the motivation for the non-coaching staff at Princeton isn't selfish (unless you count the money part, and even that isn't why people work here). No, people are attracted to working for Princeton's Department of Athletics because of other reasons, such as the ability to work in sports, the people, the University and of course, to help the athletes here have the best experience possible.
In other words, it means you usually have to check your ego at the door.
The person who epitomizes this the most, perhaps, is someone who doesn't even work at Princeton anymore, technically. And, it's likely that you don't know this name either: George Boccanfuso.
His story is a remarkable one. His father spent 47 years at Princeton working on the grounds and athletic facilities, and George himself worked here for 42 years before he retired in 1991.
So why was he having surgery (successful, everyone was glad to hear) this week after he fell on the scaffold at Jadwin Gym before a basketball game?
Because even though he is nearly 85 years old and even though he retired nearly 20 years ago, he still comes out every morning to make sure Jadwin is clean as a whistle. That's not an easy task, by the way, since the building is used all day, every day, by coaches, athletes, staff, pickup athletes, recreational athletes and just about anyone else.
And that's how he got hurt. Through the years, when TB has needed anything last minute at a basketball game, he's turned to Boccanfuso. A surge protector? An extension cord? No problem.
When the shot clock malfunctions, out comes Boccanfuso to fix it. He's out there with TigerBlog Jr. and his friend Matthew to be something of a ballboy at basketball games. He has probably walked hundreds of miles back and forth on that court, sweeping it.
Boccanfuso has known thousands of Princeton athletes and hundreds of Princeton coaches, and it's likely that his favorite of all of them was former men's basketball coach Pete Carril. When TB first came to Princeton and did his first men's basketball media guide, Carril insisted that Boccanfuso have his picture and bio in the book, even though he had already retired.
Now it's nearly 20 years later, and he's still at it. His work ethic can't help but be inspirational, the kind of work ethic that is more uncommon than common in this world today. He's funny. He's personable. And he's an early riser; TigerBlog often drives past him as TB pulls into the Jadwin parking lot and Boccanfuso is pulling out of it.
Many people call him "Georgie Buck," including TigerBlog. Carril just called him "Buck," and he often could be heard bellowing "Yo Buck" throughout the building.
Yo Buck. Get better real soon. The place isn't the same without you.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Candid Camera
TigerBlog is a big fan of the ESPN show "Pardon the Interruption."
It's a pretty good format, with quick discussions of many topics, rather than beating two or three topics to death. The hosts (usually Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser, when he's not out for two weeks for a suspension that is the result of something that ESPN essentially is going out of its way to try to get its people to say, just not about their own on-air women (but that's another story), are very smart, interact well and are funny without forcing it (no easy task on ESPN).
The other thing about PTI is that you never know what's going to turn up there. A few weeks ago, it was a discussion of Ivy League men's basketball, for instance.
And then there was last week, when the sport of squash made it onto PTI. For a sport like squash to be thrust in to the spotlight, unfortunately, you know it has to be for something bad or something completely amazing. If not, why would it be on?
In this case, it was for something bad. By now, it's probable that you've seen the video on any number of outlets of the national team championship match between Trinity and Yale and how it ended.
In case you missed it, the short version is that Trinity's No. 1 player, Baset Chaudhry went a bit overboard in his postmatch taunting of Yale's Kenneth Chan. Well, a lot overboard. Did Chan do something in an earlier game to provoke Chaudhry? There's video of that too.
The result of all this was that Chaudhry, the two-time defending national champ, and Chan voluntarily withdrew from this weekend's individual championships, and the Men's College Squash Association Executive Committee issued a statement in support of those two decisions.
In the interest of full disclosure, Princeton men's coach Bob Callahan is the chair of the committee.
The issue today isn't whether or not the right outcome was reached. Nor is it about whether or not college squash needs to address the problem of having the players officiate matches, something unique - and in TigerBlog's opinion, difficult to understand - to the sport.
Instead, it's about the fact that had this been not that long ago, the pressure on Trinity and Yale to address the situation would have been a fraction of what it was. Why?
Video.
Everything today is on video. It's everywhere. It's on someone's cell phone. It's on a video camera that is barely visible in your hand. Everyone has a camera, and everyone is using it.
This creates new problems for every aspect of society, including college athletics, athletes and athletic departments. You can go to youtube and search for virtually anything and find some video of someone caught doing something.
And the last thing you want that search to turn up is one of your athletes doing something that makes the school, the program, the coach, the athlete and everyone else look bad.
What can you do about it? Nothing. Incidents in sports have been happening since sports first were played. TigerBlog has read dozens of stories about unruly fan behavior at Princeton events in the 1800s, let alone the last two centuries.
Had there been youtube back then, who knows what might have turned up.
Princeton spends a great deal of time and effort in providing its athletes with guidance in terms of the value of sportsmanship, representing the University properly, understanding consequences of bad behavior and many other issues. The best way to deal with having something bad happen is to prevent it in the first place.
It's not easy being a college athlete. You're usually 18-22 years old. You can perform athletically on a high level. You're representing the University in a very public way. It's easy to see what grade - the score - each contest is getting.
And you're doing all this out in front of a crowd who is there largely because of the entertainment value. Often, the crowd, especially on the road, begins the taunting early and is relentless.
In many ways, it's amazing that there aren't issues like the squash one to deal with every day and not just every now and then. With all of the pressure building up at these events, it's just a matter of time until something boils over.
And when it does, someone will be there with camera in hand to catch it.
And ultimately, it'll end up everywhere. Hopefully, it won't happen to a Princeton athlete or coach.
After all, you'd rather be on PTI for making an 80-foot shot or scoring a ridiculous goal than for taunting a kid from Yale.
It's a pretty good format, with quick discussions of many topics, rather than beating two or three topics to death. The hosts (usually Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser, when he's not out for two weeks for a suspension that is the result of something that ESPN essentially is going out of its way to try to get its people to say, just not about their own on-air women (but that's another story), are very smart, interact well and are funny without forcing it (no easy task on ESPN).
The other thing about PTI is that you never know what's going to turn up there. A few weeks ago, it was a discussion of Ivy League men's basketball, for instance.
And then there was last week, when the sport of squash made it onto PTI. For a sport like squash to be thrust in to the spotlight, unfortunately, you know it has to be for something bad or something completely amazing. If not, why would it be on?
In this case, it was for something bad. By now, it's probable that you've seen the video on any number of outlets of the national team championship match between Trinity and Yale and how it ended.
In case you missed it, the short version is that Trinity's No. 1 player, Baset Chaudhry went a bit overboard in his postmatch taunting of Yale's Kenneth Chan. Well, a lot overboard. Did Chan do something in an earlier game to provoke Chaudhry? There's video of that too.
The result of all this was that Chaudhry, the two-time defending national champ, and Chan voluntarily withdrew from this weekend's individual championships, and the Men's College Squash Association Executive Committee issued a statement in support of those two decisions.
In the interest of full disclosure, Princeton men's coach Bob Callahan is the chair of the committee.
The issue today isn't whether or not the right outcome was reached. Nor is it about whether or not college squash needs to address the problem of having the players officiate matches, something unique - and in TigerBlog's opinion, difficult to understand - to the sport.
Instead, it's about the fact that had this been not that long ago, the pressure on Trinity and Yale to address the situation would have been a fraction of what it was. Why?
Video.
Everything today is on video. It's everywhere. It's on someone's cell phone. It's on a video camera that is barely visible in your hand. Everyone has a camera, and everyone is using it.
This creates new problems for every aspect of society, including college athletics, athletes and athletic departments. You can go to youtube and search for virtually anything and find some video of someone caught doing something.
And the last thing you want that search to turn up is one of your athletes doing something that makes the school, the program, the coach, the athlete and everyone else look bad.
What can you do about it? Nothing. Incidents in sports have been happening since sports first were played. TigerBlog has read dozens of stories about unruly fan behavior at Princeton events in the 1800s, let alone the last two centuries.
Had there been youtube back then, who knows what might have turned up.
Princeton spends a great deal of time and effort in providing its athletes with guidance in terms of the value of sportsmanship, representing the University properly, understanding consequences of bad behavior and many other issues. The best way to deal with having something bad happen is to prevent it in the first place.
It's not easy being a college athlete. You're usually 18-22 years old. You can perform athletically on a high level. You're representing the University in a very public way. It's easy to see what grade - the score - each contest is getting.
And you're doing all this out in front of a crowd who is there largely because of the entertainment value. Often, the crowd, especially on the road, begins the taunting early and is relentless.
In many ways, it's amazing that there aren't issues like the squash one to deal with every day and not just every now and then. With all of the pressure building up at these events, it's just a matter of time until something boils over.
And when it does, someone will be there with camera in hand to catch it.
And ultimately, it'll end up everywhere. Hopefully, it won't happen to a Princeton athlete or coach.
After all, you'd rather be on PTI for making an 80-foot shot or scoring a ridiculous goal than for taunting a kid from Yale.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Five In 19
Okay, everyone, repeat after TigerBlog: "While the 2010 Olympic men's hockey final was a great game, it was not in the same universe as the 1980 U.S. win."
TB couldn't take it anymore. National heroes? National pride? In yesterday's game? No way.
Canada's overtime win over the U.S. was an exciting game, filled with drama and huge swings in emotion. It was also great to see professionals playing so hard on teams filled with guys they'll be playing against and against guys they'll be playing with starting tonight. As sporting events go, you couldn't have asked for much more.
Still, to hear the studio commentators gush over this game - TB believes Jeremy Roenick was near tears - was ridiculous. One called it "the most anticipated hockey game of all time."
Sorry, but unless you're at least 40, you missed out on the 1980 "Miracle on Ice." And, as such, you should know that no sporting event will ever be able to recapture that magic, not only as sport itself but also in context of the international events of the day.
This game was American pros and Canadian pros. That game was American college kids and Soviet pros. Not Russians. Soviets. All while Americans were being held hostage in Iran and American national pride was at perhaps an all-time low. The hockey gold medal began to reverse that tide and helped propel Ronald Reagan into the Presidency nine months later.
And, if you're an American living in Pittsburgh who is a huge hockey fan, can you be that upset that Sidney Crosby scored the game-winning goal?
And, if you're a Princeton sports fan, how could you be upset about anything that happened this weekend?
Princeton did something amazing this past weekend. In a span of 19 hours beginning Saturday night, Princeton teams combined to win five Ivy League championships. Five Ivy championships in 19 hours.
It's a ridiculous achievement. Five teams - 192 total athletes - who won Ivy League titles this weekend.
It started with the women's swimming and diving team, who wrapped up the program's ninth league championship in 11 years Saturday night. Then, on Sunday, both indoor track and field teams and both fencing teams won their league titles.
The winter, of course, isn't over, and Princeton has a chance for two more league titles in the next week-plus as the men's swimming and diving team looks to repeat last year's title and the women's basketball team looks to close out its marvelous run this winter.
The men's swimming and diving team hosts the Ivy League championships at DeNunzio Pool beginning Thursday.
The women's basketball team takes a two-game lead into the final three games, a trip to Dartmouth (Friday) and Harvard (Saturday) before a home game against Penn next Tuesday. The women would have to lose all three and have Harvard win all three of its games (Penn, Princeton, Dartmouth) for the Tigers not to get at least a share of the title; the magic number is two for the outright title and NCAA berth.
But that's for the future. Let's get back to this past weekend.
Trying to get some historical perspective, let's go back to the eight league schools and their Ivy title totals for the last 10 academic years. That's eight schools x 10 years, for a total of 80 academic years.
Of those 80 academic years, a total of 46 ended up in fewer than five Ivy titles for the year. Another 12 ended up with exactly five. Factor out Princeton, and that's 70 years, with 46 having fewer than five for the year and 11 having five.
That's for a whole year. Not a season. And certainly not a 19-hour stretch.
Heading into the weekend, the 2009-10 academic year had Harvard in the lead with three Ivy League titles, while Princeton, Cornell and Penn had two each. Now, Princeton has seven, while Cornell (added men's basketball) and Harvard have three each (Yale joined the group with two by winning men's hockey).
Princeton had a 4.5-point lead over Harvard in the unofficial Ivy League all-sports points standings prior to the weekend. Today, with those five sports (plus men's hockey) added in, Princeton's lead stands at 24 points over Harvard and 36.5 points over third place Penn and Cornell. Should that lead hold up, it would be the 24th straight year that Princeton will have won.
TigerBlog often thinks of Princeton's sustained athletic success as remarkable and at the same time cautionary. It is not Princeton's birthright to win every year. It takes a strong commitment, especially from the coaches and athletes who make it happen.
And, don't forget, every other school in the league knows full well what Princeton has done, this past weekend and for the last 23+ years. And, TigerBlog suspects, they don't like it very much.
But that's for another time. Today is all about a remarkable weekend.
As TB was writing, an assistant coach stopped in the doorway and asked if five Ivy titles is a record for a weekend.
TigerBlog can't really look that up, but he's going to assume it is. And whether it is or not, it's still a great Monday to be a Princeton fan.
TB couldn't take it anymore. National heroes? National pride? In yesterday's game? No way.
Canada's overtime win over the U.S. was an exciting game, filled with drama and huge swings in emotion. It was also great to see professionals playing so hard on teams filled with guys they'll be playing against and against guys they'll be playing with starting tonight. As sporting events go, you couldn't have asked for much more.
Still, to hear the studio commentators gush over this game - TB believes Jeremy Roenick was near tears - was ridiculous. One called it "the most anticipated hockey game of all time."
Sorry, but unless you're at least 40, you missed out on the 1980 "Miracle on Ice." And, as such, you should know that no sporting event will ever be able to recapture that magic, not only as sport itself but also in context of the international events of the day.
This game was American pros and Canadian pros. That game was American college kids and Soviet pros. Not Russians. Soviets. All while Americans were being held hostage in Iran and American national pride was at perhaps an all-time low. The hockey gold medal began to reverse that tide and helped propel Ronald Reagan into the Presidency nine months later.
And, if you're an American living in Pittsburgh who is a huge hockey fan, can you be that upset that Sidney Crosby scored the game-winning goal?
And, if you're a Princeton sports fan, how could you be upset about anything that happened this weekend?
Princeton did something amazing this past weekend. In a span of 19 hours beginning Saturday night, Princeton teams combined to win five Ivy League championships. Five Ivy championships in 19 hours.
It's a ridiculous achievement. Five teams - 192 total athletes - who won Ivy League titles this weekend.
It started with the women's swimming and diving team, who wrapped up the program's ninth league championship in 11 years Saturday night. Then, on Sunday, both indoor track and field teams and both fencing teams won their league titles.
The winter, of course, isn't over, and Princeton has a chance for two more league titles in the next week-plus as the men's swimming and diving team looks to repeat last year's title and the women's basketball team looks to close out its marvelous run this winter.
The men's swimming and diving team hosts the Ivy League championships at DeNunzio Pool beginning Thursday.
The women's basketball team takes a two-game lead into the final three games, a trip to Dartmouth (Friday) and Harvard (Saturday) before a home game against Penn next Tuesday. The women would have to lose all three and have Harvard win all three of its games (Penn, Princeton, Dartmouth) for the Tigers not to get at least a share of the title; the magic number is two for the outright title and NCAA berth.
But that's for the future. Let's get back to this past weekend.
Trying to get some historical perspective, let's go back to the eight league schools and their Ivy title totals for the last 10 academic years. That's eight schools x 10 years, for a total of 80 academic years.
Of those 80 academic years, a total of 46 ended up in fewer than five Ivy titles for the year. Another 12 ended up with exactly five. Factor out Princeton, and that's 70 years, with 46 having fewer than five for the year and 11 having five.
That's for a whole year. Not a season. And certainly not a 19-hour stretch.
Heading into the weekend, the 2009-10 academic year had Harvard in the lead with three Ivy League titles, while Princeton, Cornell and Penn had two each. Now, Princeton has seven, while Cornell (added men's basketball) and Harvard have three each (Yale joined the group with two by winning men's hockey).
Princeton had a 4.5-point lead over Harvard in the unofficial Ivy League all-sports points standings prior to the weekend. Today, with those five sports (plus men's hockey) added in, Princeton's lead stands at 24 points over Harvard and 36.5 points over third place Penn and Cornell. Should that lead hold up, it would be the 24th straight year that Princeton will have won.
TigerBlog often thinks of Princeton's sustained athletic success as remarkable and at the same time cautionary. It is not Princeton's birthright to win every year. It takes a strong commitment, especially from the coaches and athletes who make it happen.
And, don't forget, every other school in the league knows full well what Princeton has done, this past weekend and for the last 23+ years. And, TigerBlog suspects, they don't like it very much.
But that's for another time. Today is all about a remarkable weekend.
As TB was writing, an assistant coach stopped in the doorway and asked if five Ivy titles is a record for a weekend.
TigerBlog can't really look that up, but he's going to assume it is. And whether it is or not, it's still a great Monday to be a Princeton fan.
Friday, February 26, 2010
And The Head Coach Of The Tigers Is Chris Bates
The first thing TigerBlog did this morning was check the web to see if the snow had impacted the work schedule. And, of course, the main Princeton site said the University was closed to "non-essential personnel."
TigerBlog has never been offended by being referred to as "non-essential," even after all this time. He's pretty sure it's not a reflection on his work or anything like that.
This most recent storm brought nearly eight inches to the Princeton area. That total exceeds all of last year's total - and is not even 20% of this year's ridiculous amount of snowfall. If anything, the fact that eight inches of snow fell here and the result was more inconvenient than paralysis shows you how quickly people adapt.
TigerBlog is pretty sure that it has now snowed the week before the first home men's lacrosse game for four straight years. Each year, the first game has featured pictures with huge snow drifts behind the playing field, as opposed to, say, bright sunshine and stands filled with people wearing shorts, like it's supposed to be with a "spring" sport.
As an aside, TB has always been a bigger fan of the idea of having it be cold for the beginning of the year than hot in the preseason and freezing by the end.
But, though the month is still February, lacrosse season begins tomorrow for Princeton, with the women at Johns Hopkins and the men at home at noon against Hofstra. While it may seem early to be playing lacrosse, consider that while Princeton faces off with Hofstra tomorrow in the season opener for both, North Carolina has already played four games. Four games?.
Of course, the 2010 season is the first for Chris Bates as Princeton head coach. Bates, as everyone knows, has taken over for Bill Tierney after Tierney left to become the head coach at Denver following last season after a 22-year run at Princeton that included six NCAA championships and 14 Ivy titles.
TigerBlog spent an hour with Bates last week for a feature story about the new coach's Princeton debut. It was an interesting discussion, as TB learned so much about Bates that he didn't know. And we're not talking resume or biography here.
TigerBlog would like to think, at least, that he knows just about everything about Tierney and about Pete Carril. Their stories are so familiar:
* Tierney's father drove a Rheingold beer truck; Carril's worked for 40 years in the steel mill in Bethlehem and never missed a day
* Tierney played football and baseball until he got to college, when he was introduced to lacrosse; Carril grew up poor and used basketball as a way to have a different job than his father
* Tierney told his first recruiting class that they were going to win a national championship; Carril was a teacher and high school basketball coach for years before he ever got to coach in college
TB could go on and on about either, and it's because he has spent decades observing each man, one (Tierney) as he built his legacy and the other (Carril) as he put the finishing touches on his.
Bates? He is a brand-new subject for TigerBlog.
Sure, TB has known him since he was hired last June, but it's only now, as lacrosse season approaches, that TB has really gotten to see what he's all about.
What strikes TB most is how comfortable Bates is with everything around him. You want to talk about a difficult task? Here's a new coach, replacing arguably the greatest coach in the sport's history. He's doing it minus the eight seniors who graduated last year, all of whom were either three or four year contributors. Perhaps his best player this year (defenseman Chad Wiedmaier, a preseason All-America) is out for at least the first half of the season with a knee injury.
Yet anytime TB talks to Bates, the new coach seems so comfortable with what he's doing, with how he's doing, that he can't help but notice.
At the same time, there's a huge adjustment - for everyone. Players, especially, but even people like TigerBlog who've been around the program for a long time.
TB and Tierney had, over time, developed a rapport, a way of doing business. Chris Bates has his own way of doing the same things. Really simple things, by the way.
For instance, Tierney never wanted a box score at halftime. TigerBlog asked Bates, and he said he'd like one. Like TB said, really simple things, and lots of them.
It's the big picture, though, where Bates has really impressed TB, especially the hour he came in and talked.
It was like your old friend came back after all those years, just to kick around the old times and share some laughs. It seemed so effortless on his part, again, so comfortable.
And yet, it has to be hard for Bates, at least on some level. It can't be easy to follow the legend, and it has to be really hard to deal with the legend's disciples. And yet he's doing it with what seems to be ease.
It'll be different tomorrow to see Bates as the head coach, to hear his name called over the PA as the head coach of the Tigers, to see what his sideline demeanor will be, to see what a gameday with Chris Bates is like.
Much like the snow, though, that transitional period will melt away, and it'll just be Princeton lacrosse, trying to win another Ivy League title and get back to the NCAA tournament.
Just with a different front man. TigerBlog doesn't know him well yet, but he's getting there. On the eve of his first game as head coach, Chris Bates is already off to a great start.
TigerBlog has never been offended by being referred to as "non-essential," even after all this time. He's pretty sure it's not a reflection on his work or anything like that.
This most recent storm brought nearly eight inches to the Princeton area. That total exceeds all of last year's total - and is not even 20% of this year's ridiculous amount of snowfall. If anything, the fact that eight inches of snow fell here and the result was more inconvenient than paralysis shows you how quickly people adapt.
TigerBlog is pretty sure that it has now snowed the week before the first home men's lacrosse game for four straight years. Each year, the first game has featured pictures with huge snow drifts behind the playing field, as opposed to, say, bright sunshine and stands filled with people wearing shorts, like it's supposed to be with a "spring" sport.
As an aside, TB has always been a bigger fan of the idea of having it be cold for the beginning of the year than hot in the preseason and freezing by the end.
But, though the month is still February, lacrosse season begins tomorrow for Princeton, with the women at Johns Hopkins and the men at home at noon against Hofstra. While it may seem early to be playing lacrosse, consider that while Princeton faces off with Hofstra tomorrow in the season opener for both, North Carolina has already played four games. Four games?.
Of course, the 2010 season is the first for Chris Bates as Princeton head coach. Bates, as everyone knows, has taken over for Bill Tierney after Tierney left to become the head coach at Denver following last season after a 22-year run at Princeton that included six NCAA championships and 14 Ivy titles.
TigerBlog spent an hour with Bates last week for a feature story about the new coach's Princeton debut. It was an interesting discussion, as TB learned so much about Bates that he didn't know. And we're not talking resume or biography here.
TigerBlog would like to think, at least, that he knows just about everything about Tierney and about Pete Carril. Their stories are so familiar:
* Tierney's father drove a Rheingold beer truck; Carril's worked for 40 years in the steel mill in Bethlehem and never missed a day
* Tierney played football and baseball until he got to college, when he was introduced to lacrosse; Carril grew up poor and used basketball as a way to have a different job than his father
* Tierney told his first recruiting class that they were going to win a national championship; Carril was a teacher and high school basketball coach for years before he ever got to coach in college
TB could go on and on about either, and it's because he has spent decades observing each man, one (Tierney) as he built his legacy and the other (Carril) as he put the finishing touches on his.
Bates? He is a brand-new subject for TigerBlog.
Sure, TB has known him since he was hired last June, but it's only now, as lacrosse season approaches, that TB has really gotten to see what he's all about.
What strikes TB most is how comfortable Bates is with everything around him. You want to talk about a difficult task? Here's a new coach, replacing arguably the greatest coach in the sport's history. He's doing it minus the eight seniors who graduated last year, all of whom were either three or four year contributors. Perhaps his best player this year (defenseman Chad Wiedmaier, a preseason All-America) is out for at least the first half of the season with a knee injury.
Yet anytime TB talks to Bates, the new coach seems so comfortable with what he's doing, with how he's doing, that he can't help but notice.
At the same time, there's a huge adjustment - for everyone. Players, especially, but even people like TigerBlog who've been around the program for a long time.
TB and Tierney had, over time, developed a rapport, a way of doing business. Chris Bates has his own way of doing the same things. Really simple things, by the way.
For instance, Tierney never wanted a box score at halftime. TigerBlog asked Bates, and he said he'd like one. Like TB said, really simple things, and lots of them.
It's the big picture, though, where Bates has really impressed TB, especially the hour he came in and talked.
It was like your old friend came back after all those years, just to kick around the old times and share some laughs. It seemed so effortless on his part, again, so comfortable.
And yet, it has to be hard for Bates, at least on some level. It can't be easy to follow the legend, and it has to be really hard to deal with the legend's disciples. And yet he's doing it with what seems to be ease.
It'll be different tomorrow to see Bates as the head coach, to hear his name called over the PA as the head coach of the Tigers, to see what his sideline demeanor will be, to see what a gameday with Chris Bates is like.
Much like the snow, though, that transitional period will melt away, and it'll just be Princeton lacrosse, trying to win another Ivy League title and get back to the NCAA tournament.
Just with a different front man. TigerBlog doesn't know him well yet, but he's getting there. On the eve of his first game as head coach, Chris Bates is already off to a great start.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Boys And Girls
Assuming the snow stops falling at some point, TigerBlog and Little Miss TigerBlog will be heading to the annual Father-Daughter Dance at her school tomorrow night.
Princeton's women's basketball team hosts Columbia Saturday night, and another annual event, National Girls and Women in Sports Day, will be held at Jadwin Gym prior. If you are the parent of a little girl, then Saturday at Jadwin is an absolute must for both of you.
The first event will be TB and LMTB's fifth Father-Daughter Dance. The first four have featured little girls all dressed up, dancing to pop and hip-hop music while their fathers awkwardly either joined in or stood off to the side. In many ways, for the fathers, it was a throwback to going to dances when they were kids.
This was in contrast to Mother-Son Sports Night, at which mothers and sons would play simple games with little competitions. Despite being called "Sports Night," there was nothing overly athletic about it.
After each of the four, TigerBlog pointed out to school officials that he was appalled by the messages that were being sent. The school was telling the boys that they were to be athletes and the girls that they were not to be athletes. Worse, the girls were being told to express themselves through their clothes, their appearance and their bodies (in this case, through dancing).
By the way, we're talking K-5th grade here.
TigerBlog has seen first-hand the issues that growing boys and girls deal with, and they are radically different. Much of it has to do with thousands of years of the roles that males and females have played in various societies.
Even more, though, is what these kids are taught from Day 1. And, to be honest, parents play right into it in some ways, with the various toys that are bought for babies and toddlers to the points of emphasis in the early development of the likes and dislikes of children.
TigerBlog Jr., for instance, had a lacrosse stick, a football, a whiffle ball bat, a baseball glove and all the other stuff by the time he was two. Today? He can't wait for the start of lacrosse season, both for his team and for Princeton.
Little Miss TigerBlog, on the other hand, had mostly dolls and stuffed animals in her first two years. When it came time for relatives to buy birthday gifts, it was always something sports related for TBJ and something art-related for LMTB. TBJ had birthday parties at a Trenton Thunder game, a Major League Lacrosse game, that sort of thing. LMTB had birthdays at places like "Build-a-Bear."
Yes, she was signed up to play soccer like every other kids in kindergarten, but TBJ took to youth sports like a fish to water, whereas LMTB has been slower to get there.
Did TB influence that? He used to think that way. Now? He's not as sure.
TBJ is reaching the age where kids are starting to focus on what they do best and what they enjoy most, whether it's boys or girls and whether it's sports, music, art, video games or anything else. For TBJ, it's a mix of lacrosse, football, bassoon, saxophone, video games, skiing. Those six make up his favorite things to do; TigerBlog never did any of those six.
And LMTB has started to love playing sports, especially basketball. At the same time, she is still into art and stuffed animals and music.
In other words, maybe these two - and all kids - are going to reach what their interests are, despite the best efforts of their parents to try to get them to do one activity or be a certain way.
Now, getting there involves dodging the constant bombardment of messaging that comes from every direction, and that is apparently much harder.
Kids - boys and girls - can't turn on the TV or read a magazine or go to the web without being blasted by imagery.
What's it saying? Boys need to be tough, athletic, good-looking, insensitive, almost bullyish. Girls need to have the right hair, the right makeup, the right body, the right clothes, the right guy.
For kids, it's inescapable, at least from mass media. So it shouldn't be confirmed by the school, that boys are to have a "sport night" and girls are to have a "dance."
Finally, though, it appears that some progress has been made. This year's theme is the Winter Olympics, so hopefully it will be different than in years past.
And if not, there's always Saturday night at Jadwin. As TB said before, no little girl who could be there should miss it.
In the one hour of the sports fair, girls of any age - but particularly in the 7-13 range - will be exposed to better role models, better images, better definitions of self-worth, than they will in an entire year of mass media.
The event features several Princeton women's teams, who give basic pointers and offer general participation opportunities in their sports. For one hour, the girls (with some boys there) get to see women who are being judged by their ability, by their intelligence, by their competitiveness, by their desire to set high goals for themselves - and not by their bodies or their appearance.
On top of everything else, they'll have a great time while they're there.
So much of society is out to send them the wrong messages. National Girls and Women in Sports Day could be the single best thing that Princeton Athletics does, if for no other reason than that it is screaming out that there is another way and that this way is worth it for little girls everywhere.
Princeton's women's basketball team hosts Columbia Saturday night, and another annual event, National Girls and Women in Sports Day, will be held at Jadwin Gym prior. If you are the parent of a little girl, then Saturday at Jadwin is an absolute must for both of you.
The first event will be TB and LMTB's fifth Father-Daughter Dance. The first four have featured little girls all dressed up, dancing to pop and hip-hop music while their fathers awkwardly either joined in or stood off to the side. In many ways, for the fathers, it was a throwback to going to dances when they were kids.
This was in contrast to Mother-Son Sports Night, at which mothers and sons would play simple games with little competitions. Despite being called "Sports Night," there was nothing overly athletic about it.
After each of the four, TigerBlog pointed out to school officials that he was appalled by the messages that were being sent. The school was telling the boys that they were to be athletes and the girls that they were not to be athletes. Worse, the girls were being told to express themselves through their clothes, their appearance and their bodies (in this case, through dancing).
By the way, we're talking K-5th grade here.
TigerBlog has seen first-hand the issues that growing boys and girls deal with, and they are radically different. Much of it has to do with thousands of years of the roles that males and females have played in various societies.
Even more, though, is what these kids are taught from Day 1. And, to be honest, parents play right into it in some ways, with the various toys that are bought for babies and toddlers to the points of emphasis in the early development of the likes and dislikes of children.
TigerBlog Jr., for instance, had a lacrosse stick, a football, a whiffle ball bat, a baseball glove and all the other stuff by the time he was two. Today? He can't wait for the start of lacrosse season, both for his team and for Princeton.
Little Miss TigerBlog, on the other hand, had mostly dolls and stuffed animals in her first two years. When it came time for relatives to buy birthday gifts, it was always something sports related for TBJ and something art-related for LMTB. TBJ had birthday parties at a Trenton Thunder game, a Major League Lacrosse game, that sort of thing. LMTB had birthdays at places like "Build-a-Bear."
Yes, she was signed up to play soccer like every other kids in kindergarten, but TBJ took to youth sports like a fish to water, whereas LMTB has been slower to get there.
Did TB influence that? He used to think that way. Now? He's not as sure.
TBJ is reaching the age where kids are starting to focus on what they do best and what they enjoy most, whether it's boys or girls and whether it's sports, music, art, video games or anything else. For TBJ, it's a mix of lacrosse, football, bassoon, saxophone, video games, skiing. Those six make up his favorite things to do; TigerBlog never did any of those six.
And LMTB has started to love playing sports, especially basketball. At the same time, she is still into art and stuffed animals and music.
In other words, maybe these two - and all kids - are going to reach what their interests are, despite the best efforts of their parents to try to get them to do one activity or be a certain way.
Now, getting there involves dodging the constant bombardment of messaging that comes from every direction, and that is apparently much harder.
Kids - boys and girls - can't turn on the TV or read a magazine or go to the web without being blasted by imagery.
What's it saying? Boys need to be tough, athletic, good-looking, insensitive, almost bullyish. Girls need to have the right hair, the right makeup, the right body, the right clothes, the right guy.
For kids, it's inescapable, at least from mass media. So it shouldn't be confirmed by the school, that boys are to have a "sport night" and girls are to have a "dance."
Finally, though, it appears that some progress has been made. This year's theme is the Winter Olympics, so hopefully it will be different than in years past.
And if not, there's always Saturday night at Jadwin. As TB said before, no little girl who could be there should miss it.
In the one hour of the sports fair, girls of any age - but particularly in the 7-13 range - will be exposed to better role models, better images, better definitions of self-worth, than they will in an entire year of mass media.
The event features several Princeton women's teams, who give basic pointers and offer general participation opportunities in their sports. For one hour, the girls (with some boys there) get to see women who are being judged by their ability, by their intelligence, by their competitiveness, by their desire to set high goals for themselves - and not by their bodies or their appearance.
On top of everything else, they'll have a great time while they're there.
So much of society is out to send them the wrong messages. National Girls and Women in Sports Day could be the single best thing that Princeton Athletics does, if for no other reason than that it is screaming out that there is another way and that this way is worth it for little girls everywhere.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Are You Kidding?
Bill Carmody, the former men's basketball coach, used to carry a newspaper clip around, and for all TigerBlog knows, he's continued to do so during his 11 years at Northwestern.
The clip was basically a quote from former New York Yankees outfielder that said, basically, "I don't worry about things I can't control because I can't control them, and I don't worry about things I have control over, because I have them under control."
TigerBlog sort of likes to think the same way. For the most part, TB is good at rolling with the punches, and he usually doesn't get too worried about things he can't control.
Still, enough is enough, and TB wasn't too happy to read the weather forecast for the area Thursday into Friday.
In case you didn't go to the link, it includes words and phrases like "snow hurricane" and "74 mph winds" and "a powerful storm of historic proportions."
C'mon already. The area has already been wiped out three times by blizzards, and even the rain the came in the last 24 hours couldn't get rid of even half of the existing snow. There is going to be snow on the ground into April.
But it's still February, at least through this weekend, and even if Princeton lacrosse season begins Saturday, the month and the weather still scream winter.
And, as winter winds down, it's a pretty big weekend coming up for Princeton teams.
* Women's basketball
The Princeton women are currently receiving votes in the national polls and are actually ahead of North Carolina. And why not? The Tigers are 21-2 and 9-0 in the Ivy League, and eight of their nine Ivy wins have come by at least 19 points (with the other by 11).
The Ivy race is essentially down to two teams, Princeton and Harvard, who is 7-2 in the league. In fact, a Princeton win Friday night against Cornell (1-9 in the league) would mathematically eliminate every other team other than Harvard.
Still, it's not all smooth sailing to the finish line for the Tigers. Among Princeton's final five opponents are Columbia (15-9 overall, the only team besides Princeton and Harvard with a winning record) and the trip to Dartmouth (the defending champ) and Harvard (the challenger). Should Princeton get its first NCAA tournament bid, it's going to earn it.
Princeton's game against Columbia Saturday is part of National Girls and Women in Sports Day, with the always-popular sports fair scheduled to start at 4:30.
* Men's basketball
Princeton is 7-2 in the Ivy League (16-7 overall), while Cornell is 9-1 (23-4 overall) and Harvard is 7-3 in the league (18-6 overall). The math still exists for all three to reach 20 wins, which would be a first in Ivy history.
The other math is also simple as Princeton is at Cornell Friday night. A Tiger win would leave the teams tied in the loss column; a Cornell win puts the Big Red two games clear of the field.
* Fencing
The Ivy League fencing champions are determined by two round-robin events on consecutive weekends. The first was last Sunday at Cornell; the champions will be crowned this Sunday at Penn.
Princeton is undefeated on the men's and women's side, while the only other unbeaten is Columbia's women.
Because Cornell and Dartmouth do not have men's teams, then Princeton would win at least a share of the league title with a split of its two matches Sunday (against Harvard and Columbia). The Princeton and Columbia women meet in the first match Sunday (11 a.m.).
* Women's swimming and diving
The Ivy League championships are being held at Harvard this weekend. To give you an idea of the favorites, Princeton has won eight of the last 10 championships, while Harvard has won the other two, including last year's.
* Track and field
The men's and women's indoor Heps are being held at Dartmouth; TigerBlog once attended the event at Dartmouth and was impressed with spaghetti and sauce. Cornell is the defending champ for the men's and women's sides, and the Big Red women have won seven of the last eight years. Princeton's women did beat the Big Red outdoors last spring.
* Men's hockey
The Princeton men enter the last weekend of the regular season in ninth place in the ECAC standings. Should they come out of the last weekend ninth or lower, then Princeton would be on the road for the first round of the playoffs.
Princeton trails eighth-place Harvard by one points and seventh-place Quinnipiac by two and can mathematically finish anywhere from seventh to 11th. The Tigers host Yale Friday and Brown Saturday; Quinnipiac plays the same two teams, while Harvard is at St. Lawrence/Clarkson.
* Women's hockey
The women's schedule is one week ahead of the men's, and unlike the men, only the top eight teams make the playoffs. The Princeton women finished sixth, and they are are third-place Harvard.
* Men's volleyball
Princeton hosts defending NCAA runner-up and perennial EIVA champion Penn State Friday and then St. Francis Saturday at Dillon Gym.
And hey, if all that's not enough, then there is always the men's Ivy swimming and diving championships next weekend at DeNunzio Pool.
And you can also see men's tennis and women's water polo on campus this weekend.
Of course, there's also the men's lacrosse game, Saturday at noon against Hofstra in Chris Bates' first game as Tiger head coach.
TigerBlog could write a lot more about that - and will.
The clip was basically a quote from former New York Yankees outfielder that said, basically, "I don't worry about things I can't control because I can't control them, and I don't worry about things I have control over, because I have them under control."
TigerBlog sort of likes to think the same way. For the most part, TB is good at rolling with the punches, and he usually doesn't get too worried about things he can't control.
Still, enough is enough, and TB wasn't too happy to read the weather forecast for the area Thursday into Friday.
In case you didn't go to the link, it includes words and phrases like "snow hurricane" and "74 mph winds" and "a powerful storm of historic proportions."
C'mon already. The area has already been wiped out three times by blizzards, and even the rain the came in the last 24 hours couldn't get rid of even half of the existing snow. There is going to be snow on the ground into April.
But it's still February, at least through this weekend, and even if Princeton lacrosse season begins Saturday, the month and the weather still scream winter.
And, as winter winds down, it's a pretty big weekend coming up for Princeton teams.
* Women's basketball
The Princeton women are currently receiving votes in the national polls and are actually ahead of North Carolina. And why not? The Tigers are 21-2 and 9-0 in the Ivy League, and eight of their nine Ivy wins have come by at least 19 points (with the other by 11).
The Ivy race is essentially down to two teams, Princeton and Harvard, who is 7-2 in the league. In fact, a Princeton win Friday night against Cornell (1-9 in the league) would mathematically eliminate every other team other than Harvard.
Still, it's not all smooth sailing to the finish line for the Tigers. Among Princeton's final five opponents are Columbia (15-9 overall, the only team besides Princeton and Harvard with a winning record) and the trip to Dartmouth (the defending champ) and Harvard (the challenger). Should Princeton get its first NCAA tournament bid, it's going to earn it.
Princeton's game against Columbia Saturday is part of National Girls and Women in Sports Day, with the always-popular sports fair scheduled to start at 4:30.
* Men's basketball
Princeton is 7-2 in the Ivy League (16-7 overall), while Cornell is 9-1 (23-4 overall) and Harvard is 7-3 in the league (18-6 overall). The math still exists for all three to reach 20 wins, which would be a first in Ivy history.
The other math is also simple as Princeton is at Cornell Friday night. A Tiger win would leave the teams tied in the loss column; a Cornell win puts the Big Red two games clear of the field.
* Fencing
The Ivy League fencing champions are determined by two round-robin events on consecutive weekends. The first was last Sunday at Cornell; the champions will be crowned this Sunday at Penn.
Princeton is undefeated on the men's and women's side, while the only other unbeaten is Columbia's women.
Because Cornell and Dartmouth do not have men's teams, then Princeton would win at least a share of the league title with a split of its two matches Sunday (against Harvard and Columbia). The Princeton and Columbia women meet in the first match Sunday (11 a.m.).
* Women's swimming and diving
The Ivy League championships are being held at Harvard this weekend. To give you an idea of the favorites, Princeton has won eight of the last 10 championships, while Harvard has won the other two, including last year's.
* Track and field
The men's and women's indoor Heps are being held at Dartmouth; TigerBlog once attended the event at Dartmouth and was impressed with spaghetti and sauce. Cornell is the defending champ for the men's and women's sides, and the Big Red women have won seven of the last eight years. Princeton's women did beat the Big Red outdoors last spring.
* Men's hockey
The Princeton men enter the last weekend of the regular season in ninth place in the ECAC standings. Should they come out of the last weekend ninth or lower, then Princeton would be on the road for the first round of the playoffs.
Princeton trails eighth-place Harvard by one points and seventh-place Quinnipiac by two and can mathematically finish anywhere from seventh to 11th. The Tigers host Yale Friday and Brown Saturday; Quinnipiac plays the same two teams, while Harvard is at St. Lawrence/Clarkson.
* Women's hockey
The women's schedule is one week ahead of the men's, and unlike the men, only the top eight teams make the playoffs. The Princeton women finished sixth, and they are are third-place Harvard.
* Men's volleyball
Princeton hosts defending NCAA runner-up and perennial EIVA champion Penn State Friday and then St. Francis Saturday at Dillon Gym.
And hey, if all that's not enough, then there is always the men's Ivy swimming and diving championships next weekend at DeNunzio Pool.
And you can also see men's tennis and women's water polo on campus this weekend.
Of course, there's also the men's lacrosse game, Saturday at noon against Hofstra in Chris Bates' first game as Tiger head coach.
TigerBlog could write a lot more about that - and will.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
On The Fence
TigerBlog is often asked by non-lacrosse fans if teams ever pull their goalies when they're down at the end, like they do in hockey. The answer is: sort of.
Lacrosse goalies come out and try to double-team the ball and force turnovers late in games when their team is down. At the same time, you can't achieve an offensive advantage like you can when you pull your goalie in hockey, because you have to keep four players on defense and three on offense at all times. If you sent an extra offensive player across midfield, it'd be offsides, change of possession.
TB considers himself to know a great deal about the rules of lacrosse, and other sports, especially football, basketball and baseball. At one time, TB was a high school baseball umpire; had he stayed in the newspaper business and had several afternoons free, he'd still be doing it.
As an aside, it is TB's contention that there are a ton of professional athletes who don't know all the rules of their sport, and situations in which highly paid pros obviously don't know how to play a particular moment because they don't know the rules comes up all the time.
It doesn't seem like soccer has that many rules. Field hockey does have a lot of rules, many of which are somewhat complicated, but TB learned them a long time ago from Beth Bozman, the former Princeton coach.
Some sports are relatively easy to figure out. Track and field, cross country, swimming, rowing - hey, whoever wins wins. Squash? Hit it above the red line into the other box on the serve, and keep it off the tin. Water polo? Anything goes under the water.
The points system in wrestling is fairly straightforward. Tennis couldn't be easier to figure out, once you give up trying to figure out why it goes love-15-30-40. Volleyball is a bit challenging at first, but the scoring is basic.
Golf has very complex rules that TB doesn't know that well, but it's a somewhat straightforward game.
And then there's fencing, a sport that TigerBlog knows almost nothing about. About all that TB knows is that there are three weapons (epee, sabre, foil; they all have very unique features to them), that during a match each team has three fencers compete in each of the three weapons for a total of 27 bouts and that the first team to 14 points will win.
Another thing he knows about fencing is that Princeton had a pretty good weekend last week.
Both the men and the women went 3-0 in the league after beating Yale, Brown and Penn in Ithaca last Sunday. The men are the only unbeaten in the league; the Princeton and Columbia women are both 3-0, and they will meet this coming Sunday at 11 a.m. as part of the final day of Ivy competition at Penn.
TB watched the video of the clinching point Princeton had against Yale from last Sunday, and he honestly can't figure out what was happening. Either way, it made the final score 14-13.
TigerBlog ventured down to the fencing room yesterday to congratulate head coach Zoltan Dudas, who is in charge of the men's and women's teams. Along the way, TB figured he could learn a little more about the sport.
TB and Dudas go back a few years, when Dudas asked TB to play squash with him. TB happily accepted, only to have Dudas tear his Achilles tendon on the first point, an injury that sent the coach to surgery and about a year of recovery. These days, TB mostly sees Dudas and his assistants, Hristo Hristov and Szilvia Voros, when they come up to the mailroom next to HQ to make coffee.
Anyway, TB's conversation with Dudas yesterday was in the fencing room, located on C level of Jadwin next to the Zanfrini Room. It features fencing strips across the long room, which features numerous pictures on the wall of past fencing greats and great fencing moments. There is a huge picture of Michel Sebastiani, the longtime Princeton coach, on the wall next to Dudas' office.
Dudas is Hungarian, and he was introduced to the sport when he was seven. Proudly, Dudas pointed out to TB that Hungary has won more Olympic medals in fencing than in any other sport. It ranks up there in Hungary with water polo and team handball as the most popular sports.
Dudas came to this country 10 years ago to coach, and he ended up at Notre Dame as an assistant before succeeding Sebastiani at Princeton.
Unlike years past, Princeton's roster is comprised of recruited fencers rather than sprinkled with walk-ons. Dudas said that fencers come to excel at one of three weapons somewhat randomly, as most clubs where young fencers are first exposed to the sport don't offer all three.
An amiable sort, Dudas appears to have forgiven TB for taking out his Achilles. These days, he's coming off one big weekend and heading towards another, with a pair of Ivy League titles to be decided.
But that was still six days away when TB went to visit Dudas yesterday afternoon. His fencing room was quiet, the coach was happy to talk about his sport with a novice, one who might not know too much about fencing, but one who knows that good things are happening in the sport at Princeton.
Lacrosse goalies come out and try to double-team the ball and force turnovers late in games when their team is down. At the same time, you can't achieve an offensive advantage like you can when you pull your goalie in hockey, because you have to keep four players on defense and three on offense at all times. If you sent an extra offensive player across midfield, it'd be offsides, change of possession.
TB considers himself to know a great deal about the rules of lacrosse, and other sports, especially football, basketball and baseball. At one time, TB was a high school baseball umpire; had he stayed in the newspaper business and had several afternoons free, he'd still be doing it.
As an aside, it is TB's contention that there are a ton of professional athletes who don't know all the rules of their sport, and situations in which highly paid pros obviously don't know how to play a particular moment because they don't know the rules comes up all the time.
It doesn't seem like soccer has that many rules. Field hockey does have a lot of rules, many of which are somewhat complicated, but TB learned them a long time ago from Beth Bozman, the former Princeton coach.
Some sports are relatively easy to figure out. Track and field, cross country, swimming, rowing - hey, whoever wins wins. Squash? Hit it above the red line into the other box on the serve, and keep it off the tin. Water polo? Anything goes under the water.
The points system in wrestling is fairly straightforward. Tennis couldn't be easier to figure out, once you give up trying to figure out why it goes love-15-30-40. Volleyball is a bit challenging at first, but the scoring is basic.
Golf has very complex rules that TB doesn't know that well, but it's a somewhat straightforward game.
And then there's fencing, a sport that TigerBlog knows almost nothing about. About all that TB knows is that there are three weapons (epee, sabre, foil; they all have very unique features to them), that during a match each team has three fencers compete in each of the three weapons for a total of 27 bouts and that the first team to 14 points will win.
Another thing he knows about fencing is that Princeton had a pretty good weekend last week.
Both the men and the women went 3-0 in the league after beating Yale, Brown and Penn in Ithaca last Sunday. The men are the only unbeaten in the league; the Princeton and Columbia women are both 3-0, and they will meet this coming Sunday at 11 a.m. as part of the final day of Ivy competition at Penn.
TB watched the video of the clinching point Princeton had against Yale from last Sunday, and he honestly can't figure out what was happening. Either way, it made the final score 14-13.
TigerBlog ventured down to the fencing room yesterday to congratulate head coach Zoltan Dudas, who is in charge of the men's and women's teams. Along the way, TB figured he could learn a little more about the sport.
TB and Dudas go back a few years, when Dudas asked TB to play squash with him. TB happily accepted, only to have Dudas tear his Achilles tendon on the first point, an injury that sent the coach to surgery and about a year of recovery. These days, TB mostly sees Dudas and his assistants, Hristo Hristov and Szilvia Voros, when they come up to the mailroom next to HQ to make coffee.
Anyway, TB's conversation with Dudas yesterday was in the fencing room, located on C level of Jadwin next to the Zanfrini Room. It features fencing strips across the long room, which features numerous pictures on the wall of past fencing greats and great fencing moments. There is a huge picture of Michel Sebastiani, the longtime Princeton coach, on the wall next to Dudas' office.
Dudas is Hungarian, and he was introduced to the sport when he was seven. Proudly, Dudas pointed out to TB that Hungary has won more Olympic medals in fencing than in any other sport. It ranks up there in Hungary with water polo and team handball as the most popular sports.
Dudas came to this country 10 years ago to coach, and he ended up at Notre Dame as an assistant before succeeding Sebastiani at Princeton.
Unlike years past, Princeton's roster is comprised of recruited fencers rather than sprinkled with walk-ons. Dudas said that fencers come to excel at one of three weapons somewhat randomly, as most clubs where young fencers are first exposed to the sport don't offer all three.
An amiable sort, Dudas appears to have forgiven TB for taking out his Achilles. These days, he's coming off one big weekend and heading towards another, with a pair of Ivy League titles to be decided.
But that was still six days away when TB went to visit Dudas yesterday afternoon. His fencing room was quiet, the coach was happy to talk about his sport with a novice, one who might not know too much about fencing, but one who knows that good things are happening in the sport at Princeton.
Monday, February 22, 2010
A Good Problem To Have
A few years back, Dartmouth had a track star named Mustafa Abdur-Rahim, who was an All-America decathlete. TigerBlog is pretty sure he had a twin brother who was on the track team as well.
Anyway, these two guys were at every Princeton-at-Dartmouth men's basketball game during their four years, and, TB assumes, pretty much every Dartmouth game they could get to.
The student section at Dartmouth was (is?) right behind where TB would set up for radio, and these two were relentless in how they were on the Princeton guys during the game. They were also at a distance of about two feet from TB, and almost everything they would yell would get picked up by the radio.
At the end of the fourth year of this, TB turned around as the final buzzer sounded and told Abdur-Rahim that he admired what a great fan he was and how no matter what he yelled, he never crossed the line into anything inappropriate. Abdur-Rahim gave TigerBlog a big hug and said "it's all good." That was six years ago.
With the recent upswing in the men's basketball program here, there has been a corresponding rise in student attendance. The last two weekends especially saw great student turnout, this on the heels of a few years of having almost no student support for men's basketball.
This leads to a dual issue for the athletic administration. First, it's clear that having the students at the game enhances the atmosphere, makes it tougher on the opponent, brings the building to life.
On the other hand, because so much of our marketing effort is aimed at families with children - and because we have a belief in basic dignity and civility - it's important that we be diligent when student behavior crosses the line.
The problem is, how do you define that? And who defines it?
If you asked 10 people what pregame music they'd like to hear at Jadwin Gym, you'd get 10 different answers. TigerBlog would be fine if the soundtrack of Bruce Springsteen's "Live In Cleveland" was the sole pregame sound; others might cringe at the thought.
The same is true with acceptable behavior. Yes, some stuff is obvious. Profanity. Things that disrupt the game. Close interaction with the opposing team personnel and players. Inappropriate signs in the stands.
But society today isn't like society of 20 years ago, 40 years ago. So much of American culture today includes acceptable amounts of what can be summed up as taunting that it's hard to escape it.
It's everywhere, especially in the mass media. TV rewards taunting by putting the taunters (players, fans, anyone) on the screen over and over again. How many times does a football game go to commercial not with the replay of the big play just before the break but instead with a super slo-mo of someone taunting someone?
It's in video games, written into the computer script deliberately. It's at youth sports. It's done in good fun in backyard games all the time.
So what about at Jadwin Gym? It's hard to say.
The chant of "Bull----" that can be heard on bad calls, questionable calls and even any call that goes against the home team happens everywhere, and it has come up at Jadwin. This does not go hand-in-hand with a philosophy of creating a family-friendly atmosphere, but it's also not easy to go up to a large group of students and tell them to knock it off.
Princeton has been lucky that the students have done a good job of policing themselves in this area. The same is true with other profane chants.
So what did we have the last two weekends at Jadwin? Students dressed in wacky outfits. Students who surged forward out of the student section to stand near the edge of the court. Students who ran around the court (Friday night to inspire the wave, which TigerBlog could do without).
What's okay? What's not?
Princeton very much wants to have students at games, and it's not easy to get them there. How many Princeton students who otherwise would have attended the games this weekend were instead competing for their own teams?
At a big state school with, say, 30,000 students, getting 10% of the student body there means 3,000 students in attendance. At Princeton it means fewer than 500.
Princeton does a great deal to promote to the students, with offerings of free admission, sometimes free food, the best seats and other perks. Too much supervision from the athletic department and too many attempts to limit the good time would turn the students off and send them away.
And there is no denying how much the students help the game atmosphere. They just need to keep it clean, and the athletic administration has to figure out a way to manage the situation that fits the right balance.
Of course, having to keep an eye on a huge group of students at games is a pretty good problem to have.
Anyway, these two guys were at every Princeton-at-Dartmouth men's basketball game during their four years, and, TB assumes, pretty much every Dartmouth game they could get to.
The student section at Dartmouth was (is?) right behind where TB would set up for radio, and these two were relentless in how they were on the Princeton guys during the game. They were also at a distance of about two feet from TB, and almost everything they would yell would get picked up by the radio.
At the end of the fourth year of this, TB turned around as the final buzzer sounded and told Abdur-Rahim that he admired what a great fan he was and how no matter what he yelled, he never crossed the line into anything inappropriate. Abdur-Rahim gave TigerBlog a big hug and said "it's all good." That was six years ago.
With the recent upswing in the men's basketball program here, there has been a corresponding rise in student attendance. The last two weekends especially saw great student turnout, this on the heels of a few years of having almost no student support for men's basketball.
This leads to a dual issue for the athletic administration. First, it's clear that having the students at the game enhances the atmosphere, makes it tougher on the opponent, brings the building to life.
On the other hand, because so much of our marketing effort is aimed at families with children - and because we have a belief in basic dignity and civility - it's important that we be diligent when student behavior crosses the line.
The problem is, how do you define that? And who defines it?
If you asked 10 people what pregame music they'd like to hear at Jadwin Gym, you'd get 10 different answers. TigerBlog would be fine if the soundtrack of Bruce Springsteen's "Live In Cleveland" was the sole pregame sound; others might cringe at the thought.
The same is true with acceptable behavior. Yes, some stuff is obvious. Profanity. Things that disrupt the game. Close interaction with the opposing team personnel and players. Inappropriate signs in the stands.
But society today isn't like society of 20 years ago, 40 years ago. So much of American culture today includes acceptable amounts of what can be summed up as taunting that it's hard to escape it.
It's everywhere, especially in the mass media. TV rewards taunting by putting the taunters (players, fans, anyone) on the screen over and over again. How many times does a football game go to commercial not with the replay of the big play just before the break but instead with a super slo-mo of someone taunting someone?
It's in video games, written into the computer script deliberately. It's at youth sports. It's done in good fun in backyard games all the time.
So what about at Jadwin Gym? It's hard to say.
The chant of "Bull----" that can be heard on bad calls, questionable calls and even any call that goes against the home team happens everywhere, and it has come up at Jadwin. This does not go hand-in-hand with a philosophy of creating a family-friendly atmosphere, but it's also not easy to go up to a large group of students and tell them to knock it off.
Princeton has been lucky that the students have done a good job of policing themselves in this area. The same is true with other profane chants.
So what did we have the last two weekends at Jadwin? Students dressed in wacky outfits. Students who surged forward out of the student section to stand near the edge of the court. Students who ran around the court (Friday night to inspire the wave, which TigerBlog could do without).
What's okay? What's not?
Princeton very much wants to have students at games, and it's not easy to get them there. How many Princeton students who otherwise would have attended the games this weekend were instead competing for their own teams?
At a big state school with, say, 30,000 students, getting 10% of the student body there means 3,000 students in attendance. At Princeton it means fewer than 500.
Princeton does a great deal to promote to the students, with offerings of free admission, sometimes free food, the best seats and other perks. Too much supervision from the athletic department and too many attempts to limit the good time would turn the students off and send them away.
And there is no denying how much the students help the game atmosphere. They just need to keep it clean, and the athletic administration has to figure out a way to manage the situation that fits the right balance.
Of course, having to keep an eye on a huge group of students at games is a pretty good problem to have.
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