Sports: December 11, 1996
GIANT KILLERS REACH NCAA TITLE GAME
Field hockey upsets two top-seeded teams in overtime, bows to Tar Heels in final
As she frantically sprawled across the turf in front of her net, freshman goalie Gia Fruscione didn't look focused or relaxed. Two attackers from Old Dominion were almost upon her, and they would score a game-winning goal if she didn't find a way to stop them. The Tigers' Cinderella run to the championship was at stake in the sudden-death-overtime period of their national-semifinal game at Boston College on November 23.
But surprisingly, Fruscione wasn't nervous. She says she can't allow herself to worry when she finds herself in such a situation. Instead she tells herself to "concentrate on the ball, deal with it, and just play defense." Whatever her approach, Fruscione's ability to perform under intense pressure makes her an incredible asset for her Tiger teammates, who all proved impervious to tension as Princeton (18-4 overall) strung together a series of upsets on its way to the national title game.
Once the Tiger goalie had committed herself to stopping the attacker with the ball, the Lady Monarch slipped a pass to her teammate, who was about four yards to her left, and who would have an unimpeded shot on goal. But perhaps because Fruscione came at her with calculated abandon, or perhaps because the goalie thrust her stick as far as she could between the two players, the pass ended up a bit out of position. The other attacker stretched out, corralled the ball, and ripped off a shot from just left of the net and from about 10 yards out. It banged off the goal six or seven inches outside of the left post, and Princeton coach Beth Bozman immediately called a timeout. ("We needed a little break," she said wryly after the game.)
About 65 seconds after the timeout ended, so did the game, and the field-hockey team and its several hundred fans began wildly celebrating the school's biggest field-hockey victory. Attacker Molly O'Malley '99 had fired a centering pass from the corner that bounced over a defender's stick and right to attacker Kirsty Hale '99, who shot it in. "She crossed the ball," said Hale, " . . . and it was like a cone drill we do every day in practice. . . . I didn't even think. [The ball] was there, and I put it in."
Princeton had defeated the tournament's second seed in overtime, 4-3, and had earned itself a spot in the championship game. The Tigers would face the tournament's top seed and defending champion North Carolina the next day. The Tar Heels (23-1 overall) had beaten Northeastern, 2-1, in the other semifinal.
Princeton had reached the Final Four in a no-less-dramatic fashion, beating number-three Iowa in overtime, 5-4, in a second-round match on November 16. In that game, O'Malley batted in the winning goal after a shot from star midfielder Amy MacFarlane '98 rebounded toward her. (The win was Bozman's 100th -her record is 100-45-6 in nine years at Princeton-and after that game she called it "the proudest moment of my coaching career.") In the first round, Princeton had beaten Boston University, 5-4, in regulation, on November 15. Three days earlier, the Tigers had overwhelmed Colgate, 7-1, in a tournament play-in game at 1952 Stadium.
Princeton's unprecedented postseason success came after an unprecedented third-straight Ivy League-championship and a third-straight season of undefeated league play.
Bozman said the win against Old Dominion "showed what got us here: heart and a great work ethic. . . . We believed in ourselves, and this win is a real testament to the team."
The Tigers needed to be confident, because the pollsters had ranked them 17th in the nation at season's end, and they had never risen above number 13 in the poll. "We didn't talk about the rankings, because we felt we were a legitimate contender" for the national title, said Bozman.
When Princeton played the Tar Heels in the championship game, the Tigers looked as legimate a contender as any team could be against the formidable North Carolina squad, which according to the Tar Heels' coach played its best game of the year. The fast and experienced squad ended up beating Princeton, 3-0.
North Carolina's defense and superlative passing generated frequent scoring opportunities, particularly when they "counterpunched," running the length of the field with Princeton defenders in pursuit. Princeton had a number of good chances to score early in the first half, but later in the game the Tar Heels clamped down and kept the Tigers out.
But MacFarlane, O'Malley, and Hale kept North Carolina nervous throughout the game with sprints toward the goal, and defenders Kathleen Kelly '98, Ann Marie Reich '99, and Christine Hunsicker '99 challenged the Tar Heels' attack with excellent and aggressive defense.
When the game ended, team cocaptain MacFarlane knelt dejectedly on the sideline, one hand covering her face. In a postgame press conference, cocaptain Kelly said quietly that "this year we knew we could play with the best." Bozman concurred and called the loss an "incredibly disappointing" end to "an incredible season." Princeton's disappointment was evident as the players accepted their second-place awards.
But this team has no seniors and has served notice that Princeton is one of the elite programs in the nation. Most important, the Tigers know they have what it takes to win a national championship. With their talent, desire, and top-quality coaching, they could very well do it next year.
-Paul Hagar '91
HARRIERS GUT IT OUT FOR SECOND AT HEPS
The ritual is as old, it seems, as running itself. One by one, on a finger-numbing afternoon on the first day of November at New York's Van Cortlandt Park, runners filed through the finish chute at the 58th Heptagonal Cross Country Championship (comprising the Ivy League schools and Navy). While coaches scrambled to tabulate team scores, the disordered procession moved in fits and starts. Most runners, tired but steady, walked out of the chute unimpeded. Others who were less fortunate stopped and, with remarkable chivalry, waited in line to vomit in a green trash drum.
But on a day when both Princeton teams finished second-the men in frustration, the women with optimism-the main concern was the health of the school's best cross-country runner. Jim Colling '98, the men's team captain who had led the race near the halfway point but then faded to 11th, had not made it out of the chute. Doubled over, his arms flopped like a marionette's over two teammates' shoulders, Colling was struggling to stand, much less walk.
A week before, in anticipation of Heptagonals, Colling had sat in his dorm room and discussed his expectation for the race: run till exhaustion. "We've been saving this pocket of juice for the big ones," he said. He had been conserving some energy for the season's concluding meets: Heptagonals, Harvard-Yale-Princeton (which both the Princeton men's and women's teams won), IC4As, and the October 5 Disney World Classic in Orlando, Florida, where Colling burst onto the national scene by placing third.
"There wasn't too much left at H-Y-Ps," said Colling, who won the individual crown. "Everyone's going for it, and nobody's going to give up." True to his word, Colling ran the first mile at Heps in 4:30, a blistering pace, while teammate Robbie Howell '98 followed close behind. But after building a 10-meter lead on the field, Colling's tank, fueled by the single PowerBar he had eaten in the morning, emptied too soon. His vision blurred, his form tightened. Other runners began to pass. Later, after using supplemental oxygen to revive, Colling, looking wan and spookily white, spoke in a whisper: "I didn't think I was going to finish that race."
The fact that he did shows the significance of Heps to Colling and the team. All season long they had keyed on November 1 as the most important date on their schedule, the day they would depart from the tracks of recent Princeton cross-country teams, which, injured and underachieving, never won the awards to go with their talent. This fall had been different. Entering the meet, the Tigers had defeated every team they had faced save one (top 10-ranked North Carolina State), and although Brown was ranked 18th in the country, Princeton's first Heps cross-country title on the men's side since 1984 seemed a strong possibility.
But athletes-especially college athletes-are not machines. Indeed, Howell (who led Princeton by placing fifth individually) confessed that he was so nervous on the starting line he nearly started crying. "The emotion in the 30 minutes before that race is incredible," men's coach Mike Brady said. As a result, predicting cross-country results in particular is a blessedly inexact science. Consider Navy's five-point victory over Princeton. Who would have forecast a win by Navy? Not a single spectator at the venerable park. But a one-two performance by Midshipmen Jonathan Clemens and John Mentzer and strong finishes by Navy's fourth and fifth runners forced Princeton to settle for being best in the Ivy League, but runners-up at Heptagonals.
Brady called the second-place finish "a breakthrough" for a team that had hoped to qualify for the NCAA Championship-an 11th-place finish at IC4As (on November 16) means that won't happen this year-and which returns all its top runners in 1997. Yet the Tigers, to a man, were hoping this would be their year to win a big meet.
The Princeton women pulled a minor surprise of their own, edging Brown by four points to earn second place. Their unexpectedly strong finish was due to the efforts of four runners who, like a former governor from Arkansas, were in the final stages of their last campaign. The four seniors-Katie Talarico, Tanya Baker, Sarah Beth Lassiter, and Kelly Dobson-overcame a sluggish start and their own ambivalence toward cross-country (they prefer the track) to make decisive moves in the Van Cortlandt back country and in the final stretch before the finish line.
After the race, which Dartmouth won, women's coach Peter Farrell emerged from his aerie in the hills and found to his delight that Lassiter had passed three Brown runners in the last 400 meters to give Princeton the margin for second. The comeback was particularly satisfying for the Tigers, who had somnambulated through their opening meets and through the first mile of the race at Heptagonals.
"I was worried, because by the mile mark we were out of it," Farrell said. "You just don't go out that slow. But everyone made big, bold moves in the hills."
Talarico, who took sixth place in New York, said that for four years, Farrell urged the team to treat cross country like any other team sport. But according to Talarico, a 3,000-meter specialist during track season, cross country has a distinguishing quality: "It hurts a lot."
The women came in 10th at the ECAC Championships on November 16.
-Grant Wahl '96
Grant Wahl is a reporter for Sports Illustrated who lives in New York City.
FOOTBALL BEATS YALE, BUT FALLS TO PENN AND DARTMOUTH
Crumbling Palmer Stadium managed to hold together for one more football game on November 23. Unfortunately, in front of a crowd of 16,461 that included some of the most notable Tiger players ever to put on a uniform, the football team didn't.
Heisman Trophy-winner Dick Kazmaier '52, two-time all-America fullback Cosmo Iacavazzi '65, Ivy League single-game-passing record-holder Bob Holly '82, all-America defensive back Dean Cain '88, and hundreds of other former players watched from the sidelines as Princeton was crushed by Ivy League champion Dartmouth, 24-0.
A 27-24 win over Brown the previous week had clinched the league title for the Big Green, but the visitors from New Hampshire were playing for an undefeated season. In earning it, they dropped Princeton to a season-ending 3-7 mark (2-5 Ivy). Princeton had managed a 17-13 win over Yale a week earlier, but a 10-6 loss to Penn on November 9 had already assured the Tigers a losing season.
The story of the game was a familiar one for Tiger fans: the defense hung tough, but the offense floundered through four quarters of ineffectiveness. The 461st game in Palmer started off with Princeton's Damani Leech '97 fumbling the opening kickoff return, giving Dartmouth the ball on the 28. The Big Green went for the touchdown on the first play, but a pass to the end zone was dropped.
Two plays later, linebacker Jamie Toddings '98 forced a fumble in the backfield, so Dartmouth punted from the 32.
The Tiger offense saluted the legions of former players in the stands on its first play. After lining up in their usual set, the running backs suddenly shifted into the legendary "single wing" that Princeton used so successfully from 1945 into the 1960s. The snap went directly to tailback Gerald Giurato '00, who gained five yards. The possession ended in a punt, as would 11 more Tiger possessions on the afternoon.
If there is a silver lining to the offensive performance-and you have to look hard-it is in the opportunity it gave punter Matt Evans '99. Coming into the game with 70 punts on the year, Evans finished with a single-year school record 82. His average of 40.7 yards per boot is also a single-season record.
Dartmouth took the ball on its own 26 and launched into a clock-eating drive that was stopped short when captain Jimmie Archie '97 broke up a pass in the end zone. Dartmouth settled for the field goal, and led 3-0.
The Princeton defense would not allow Dartmouth to score again until the third quarter. The offense though, was not so stingy. Taking the ball at its own 49 with 4:56 in the half, Princeton sent split end Kevin Duffy '97 on his once-per-game reverse, gaining 17 yards. After two running plays from the Dartmouth 34 gained only a single yard, quarterback Brett Budzinski '97 threw a pass into the flat, which Dartmouth strong safety Lloyd Lee snatched and returned 70 yards for a touchdown. The PAT gave Dartmouth a 10-0 lead.
Early in the third quarter, Dartmouth's senior quarterback John Aljancic stung the Tiger defense with a 32-yard touchdown pass to tight end Pete Oberle, and the score went to 17-0.
The Princeton offense-though emotionally buoyed by the return of captain and running back Marc Washington '97, who has been out with a knee injury suffered against Columbia in October-could not contend with the Dartmouth defense. Washington, who had 33 yards on seven carries, was the team's leading rusher.
Coach Steve Tosches put in quarterback John Burnham '99 in the third quarter. In his fourth play, Burnham threw an interception to Lee, giving the Dartmouth junior a school-record seven picks on the season.
The Big Green scored one more time, on a 46-yard shovel pass in the fourth quarter, and a celebration penalty set up a kickoff from the Dartmouth 20. Two successive penalties on the kickoff pushed the Big Green back to its 10-yard line, and Duffy returned the ball to the Dartmouth 39.
In a drive mercifully extended by a roughing-the-passer penalty, Princeton saw its best chance to score all afternoon disappear. Burnham threw three passes from the Dartmouth 17. The first led a wide-open Alex House '97 two steps out of bounds on the left side. The second was dropped in the end zone by Duffy on a hit that flipped him in midair. The third was intercepted, and the game was all but over.
Commenting on the end of a dismal season, Tosches said, "The couple of victories we had were something we could build on. Sure, there's a lot of frustration and a lot of bitterness and that's not good for anybody, but we just have to regroup and rebuild."
In Bulldog coach Carm Cozza's last game at the Yale Bowl on November 16, the captains of all 32 of his Eli squads were on hand to watch Princeton win, 17-13. A grim-looking Cozza said he was "embarrassed" by the game and made it plain he had hoped for a better sendoff. "We played hard, but we certainly didn't play well. It's just sad. I have to have a party tonight, of all times. I dread it."
Actually, the game was a statistically even contest that, but for a dropped touchdown pass in the second quarter, might have ended in an Eli victory. Each team had 40 rushing attempts, with Princeton gaining 75 yards and Yale 76. The Tigers had a slight advantage in the air, gaining 147 yards to the Elis' 119. A display of offense firepower it was not.
With 4:18 remaining in the half the Tigers finally mounted a nice drive. Starting from his own 35, Budzinski hit Mike Clifford '98 on an out pass, and the big fullback surged through a tackle to gain seven yards. The next play was a 26-yard toss to Duffy that put the Tigers on the Yale 32. Two plays later, Giurato took the ball to the 15 on a nice run off left tackle. The Bulldogs gave Princeton a little help, as a pass-interference call in the end zone put the Tigers on the two with four shots at the touchdown. Clifford made good on the second down, and Alex Sierk '99 nailed the extra point.
A Giurato fumble early in the third quarter gave the Elis the ball at the Tiger 18 and set up Yale's first touchdown. Yale quarterback Blake Kendall found split end Heath Ackley at the nine, and three plays later tailback Jabbar Craigwell went over from the six, leaving grasping tacklers in his wake. The PAT failed, leaving Princeton with a 7-6 advantage.
Budzinski led the Tigers into Yale territory on the next possession, but the drive stalled at the 26. Tosches sent Sierk on to attempt a 43-yard field goal. "There was a little wind coming in, but that's not that long a kick," said the sophomore, whose career long is 45 yards. The ball squeaked over the crossbar to put Princeton ahead, 10-6.
The Elis returned the kickoff to the 43, then drove hard for the goal, running off four first downs and reaching the five-yard line before the Tiger defense stopped them. Defensive tackle Mark Whaling '98 burst through the line on second and seven, chasing down Kendall for a loss of 21 yards. On the next play, a pass from the 26, Archie made a leaping interception at the goal line.
With Yale stuck at fourth and six on its own 40, a Princeton defensive lapse gave the Elis new life. A roughing-the-kicker call on the punt gave Yale a first down at the Tiger 45. On the next play, Kendall threw to Clint Rodriguez, who took the ball over his left shoulder at the five-yard line and raced in for the score. A successfull PAT put Cozza's squad ahead, 13-10.
The ball went right back to Yale on a first-down interception throw by Budzinski, but three plays later, linebacker Tim Greene '98 picked off Kendall, giving Princeton the ball at the Yale 40. A punt buried Yale on the one-yard line, and four plays later the ball was back in Princeton's hands at the Eli 41, with 8:51 to play.
Budzinski went on a tear, completing four straight passes, the last being a six-yard toss to Duffy that put the Tigers on the one. Two plays later, Clifford made a successful dive for the score. Sierk's third kick through the uprights put Princeton on top to stay, 17-13.
On Yale's first play after the kickoff, Craigwell escaped up the right sideline for 39 yards, but consecutive sacks by defensive end Griff King '98 and strong safety Bret Marshall '98 forced the Elis to punt. Yale would get the ball once more, with 48 seconds remaining, but was unable to mount a threat.
Hobbled by injuries to key players, the Pennsylvania offense was forced to appear in Palmer Stadium in a very simplified form. But they still had tailback Jasen Scott, and the Quakers used him. Scott carried the ball on 45 of Penn's 76 plays from scrimmage, gaining 155 total yards.
With 3.4 yards per carry, Scott did not set the world on fire, and neither did the Penn offense. Princeton's defense, sparked by defensive end Dale Bartley '97 with nine tackles and one sack, held the Quakers to 285 yards total offense, and with only 10 points, kept them well under their 25-point season average.
"I think it was their defensive line that won the game for them," said Tosches afterwards. And he was right. Penn's senior tackles Tom Foley and Mitch Marrow steamrolled the freshmen and sophomores on the Tiger line, holding Princeton to 49 total yards on the ground and forcing Budzinski to rush his passes.
Penn drove into Princeton territory on its third possession, and on three plays from the 14-yard line, could not advance. Leech nearly picked off a second-down pass in the end zone, and Penn settled for a field goal.
Princeton began the second quarter by holding off a Penn advance to the Tiger eight-yard line. Bartley forced a third-down fumble that was recovered by Whaling. Leech, who had dropped two near-interceptions, finally got a pick in the third quarter, stepping in front of a hurried Tom MacLeod pass at the Princeton 25 and returning it 20 yards. Princeton seemed briefly energized, but a penalty helped stop the drive at the 31. Tosches elected to go for the first down on fourth and three, but Budzinski tripped on a lineman's leg and fell down in the backfield.
Penn capitalized, scoring on a 26-yard run up the middle by Scott. The extra point made the score 10-0. The Tiger offense punted on its next try, but the defense held and got the ball back to the offense with 13:46 remaining. Budzinski connected on a 33-yard pass to senior Kevin Duffy at the Penn 14, and three plays later found Ben Gill '97 on a five-yard pass to the Penn four. Stuck at fourth and one on the four, Budzinski got the first down on a keeper and scored on a run to the right two yards later. The extra-point attempt by Ben Mulinix '99 failed, leaving the score at 10-6.
Archie tipped a pass on Penn's next possession, and cornerback Tom Silva '98 intercepted it, getting to the Quaker 41. Handed a chance to take the lead, the offense simply couldn't do the job. After starting the possession with a false-start penalty, the Tigers ran three plays and punted again. The defense held, but Budzinski was intercepted on Princeton's next possession. The Quakers ran the clock down to 21 seconds before Princeton got the ball back on the 50-yard line. Two plays from scrimmage left them four yards behind the spot where they had started, and the clock ran out.
-Rob Garver
MEN'S BASKETBALL SETS SIGHTS ON AN IVY LEAGUE TITLE
In one of his first acts as Princeton's new men's basketball coach, Bill Carmody met Brian Earl '99 for lunch in April. The visit was more than a social call. Only a month before, Princeton had upset UCLA in the NCAA tournament, and yet Earl-a freshman who was the team's No. 2 scorer-had suffered through one of the worst weeks of his life. Passes bounced off his hands and rolled out of bounds. Flat shots ricocheted off the rim like stones off water. And all the while, Pete Carril continued to yell. With the team in the national spotlight, Earl sat on the bench.
By the time Carmody and Earl met in April, Earl had obtained permission from the Princeton athletics department to speak with other schools about transferring. Carmody knew this, of course, and without appearing too anxious (he waited until two weeks after the request was signed), he wanted to discuss Earl's uncertain future at Princeton.
The two had lunch at the Princeton Shopping Center, a mile away from campus, where they could talk privately. And there, for nearly two hours, their discussion shifted between basketball and school and family. "I wasn't going to re-recruit him," Carmody says. "I had recruited him when he was in high school, and I thought this was his decision to make."
But Carmody couldn't resist a tiny bit of salesmanship. He told Earl that if things had not changed-meaning if Carril had not retired-transferring would have been a wise move. Carril had retired, however, and now Carmody wanted to make something clear. "Brian," he began, and here he looked Earl straight in the eye. "Things are going to change." In August, Earl, heeding those words, decided to return to Princeton.
So where were all those changes during the team's season-opening 59-49 loss to Indiana Nov. 20? Not on the court, where Princeton once again acted the part of Lucy tearing away the football from an oncoming Charlie Brown. The No. 22 Hoosiers knew the backdoor was coming; they just couldn't do anything about it. Until they lost their shooting touch in the final 10 minutes, the Tigers stayed even by employing picturesque backcuts, surprisingly strong rebounding, and steady three-point shooting to send Indiana coach Bob Knight into a slow smolder.
"It's been a successful formula, so we'd be crazy to throw it out the window," Carmody says. "Some people have asked me, 'Are you going to use Pete's stuff or your stuff?' But I've been here for 14 years, so I've contributed to some of that. And I believed in a lot of it, or I wouldn't have stayed."
Carmody walks a fine line between stasis and change. Indeed, he could very well be the Mikhail Gorbachev of Princeton basketball. Like Gorbachev, Carmody came to power after years of service in an all-powerful Politburo (he was a 14-year assistant to Carril). Like Gorbachev, Carmody holds fast to the system's core beliefs (stifling defense and a patient offense). And, like Gorbachev, Carmody is slowly introducing glasnost to a group of all-too-eager recipients.
Princeton, in the past a halfcourt defensive team, will occasionally show a full-court press this season. "We'll get after some people," says three-year captain Sydney Johnson '97, practically salivating at the idea. "Maybe not Indiana or North Carolina [the Tigers play the Tar Heels Dec. 22 in Jadwin Gym], but we'll push the pace against a lot of teams."
What's more, the Tigers will no longer disdain painfully open shots in the interests of using all 35 seconds of the shot clock. "If we have the shot, Coach Carmody wants us to shoot," Earl says. "And that's going to help a lot more in the confidence with shooting that you didn't see last year."
But the fundamental change for Princeton under Carmody will be one of demeanor. "The way I go about things, the way I deal with players is different from Pete," Carmody explains. Says Johnson: "In this kind of system you're still called on to be perfect every day. But there's less yelling with Coach Carmody. And to be honest, it's a lot more upbeat."
Last month, a reporter asked Carmody if he could watch the team practice. "Sure," he said, "but you might get bored. All we're doing is good fundamental basketball." With that Carmody made a fist and playfully hit the shoulder of forward Darren Hite '97. And therein lies the change. Pete Carril never punched shoulders. Not playfully, at least.
For the first time in four years, the Tigers enter the season as the favorite in the Ivy League, and the reason is experience. With Johnson, Earl, and Mitch Henderson '98, Princeton has the best backcourt in the league. Johnson, known primarily for his defense, may provide more of an offensive threat this season after junking his ugly push shot in favor of a more conventional jump shot.
Steve Goodrich '98 returns up front after being named all-Ivy League a year ago. After an inconsistent freshman season, the 6'7" Goodrich raised his game on both ends of the floor in 1995-96. Not only can he score from both inside and outside, but he also has a deft passing touch, which is crucial for the hub of the Princeton offense. "There's a certain maturity in Steve knowing not to foul, to stay in the game and know his importance to the team," Carmody says. "You could see it at the end of last year. The shots that he always missed as a freshman were bouncing in."
The Tigers lost top rebounder Chris Doyal '96 to graduation, and the team's lack of height is its biggest concern. Gabe Lewullis '99, the hero of the UCLA game, will start, but three players-Jamie Mastaglio '98, Mason Rocca '00, and Nate Walton '00 (the son of NBA great Bill Walton)-will compete for playing time. The 6'4" Mastaglio certainly deserves to play (Princeton was 13-1 a year ago when he started), but Rocca and Walton, both 6'7" , must mature as the season progresses if Princeton is to control the backboards.
As usual, the Ivy season will be brutal, especially the road games. "You have to win on the road-that's the main thing," says Carmody. "And in every conference, all over the country, winning on the road is impossible."
The coach is exaggerating, of course. And being a pessimist. At Princeton, some things never change.
-Grant Wahl '96
REMEMBERING THE HISTORIC PENN UPSET OF 1946
Before many younger fans can understand what happened when Princeton beat Penn in 1946 for one of its greatest victories, they will have to understand some other things. Back then, it was conceivable that an Ivy League football team could be ranked third in the nation, as Penn was that year. Back then, 72,000 people-20,000 more than the total number that the Tigers drew to Palmer Stadium in the five home games of their 1995 championship season-crowded into Franklin Field, in Philadelphia, for the game. Back then, says Ken Keuffel '46, a member of the team, it was simply a different time. "Football was very important to the community and to the school," he remembers. "It's hard for people to realize that now."
Princeton came into the contest with a humble 2-2 record. Penn, at 4-0, was a 28-point favorite. With the vast home crowd primed for a slaughter, the first quarter began as expected. Penn drove to the Princeton eight-yard line and scored on a reverse. The extra point stayed just inside the bar, and the score was 7-0.
But then came the first of a series of unexpected events. On two successive kickoff tries, Penn kicked the ball out of bounds, which by the rules of the day gave Princeton the ball on the Quaker 40-yard line. Five plays later, quarterback Dick West '48 sent a wobbly pass into the end zone, which star halfback Ernie Ransome '47 snatched from the defender's hands for a touchdown. Ransome kicked the extra point, tying the score, but suffered an injury that knocked him out of the game. The Quakers answered with a six-play, 80-yard drive, and the score stood at 14-7 when the first quarter ended.
In the second quarter, a "quick-kick" by the Quakers-intended to catch the Tigers off guard-instead put them back in the game. Guard Thomas Cleveland '49 blocked the kick, and the ball sailed high into the air. Ed Mead '49, a Princeton end, grabbed it at the 30 and weaved through a dazed Quaker squad for a touchdown. Keuffel came in to try the extra point in place of Ransome, but the kick was blocked. It bounced past several players before West scooped it up, looked downfield, and looped a pass to Mead in the end zone for a what was then a one-point conversion. Amazingly, the score was 14-14 at halftime.
What did coach Charlie Caldwell '25 say to his players during halftime? "Damn little," says Keuffel, laughing. "There was no fire-eating pep talk. Charlie wasn't that kind of coach. What was there to say? We were playing above our expectations. It was 'Just keep going.' "
Somehow, they did. The Tiger offense held the ball through most of the second half, running 44 plays to Penn's 17. With less than two minutes remaining, and the ball sitting on the Penn 12-yard line, it was clear that a field goal would probably win the game. Caldwell stood on the sidelines, gaping in amazement. "He was sort of shell-shocked by the end of the game," recalls Keuffel. "It was like the Fates had taken it out of his hands."
Though Keuffel had already had one extra-point try blocked and a field-goal attempt fall short, he told Caldwell not to worry as he ran onto the field. With John Eastham '49 holding, Keuffel punched it up and through. The score stood at 17-14 when time ran out. Princeton had won.
-Rob Garver
Rob Garver is an editor at Town Topics.
SCOREBOARD
Men's Basketball
(0-1 overall; 0-0 Ivy)
Indiana 59, Princeton 49
Women's Basketball
(0-1 overall; 0-0 Ivy)
Georgetown 83,
Princeton 62
Men's Cross Country
(2-0 overall; 2-0 Ivy)
IC4A-11th
Women's Cross Country
(2-0 overall; 2-0 Ivy)
ECAC Champs.-10th
Field Hockey *
(18-4 overall; 6-0 Ivy)
Princeton 7, Colgate 1
Princeton 5, Boston Univ. 4
Princeton 5, Iowa 4 (OT)
Princeton 4,
Old Dominion 3 (OT)
North Carolina 3,
Princeton 0
* Ivy League Champions
Football
(3-7 overall; 2-5 Ivy)
Penn 10, Princeton 6
Princeton 17, Yale 13
Dartmouth 24, Princeton 0
Lightweight Football
(0-6 overall; 0-4 ELFL)
Penn 46, Princeton 14
Men's Ice Hockey
(4-2-1 overall; 3-2-1 ECAC)
Princeton 3, Air Force 1
Clarkson 5, Princeton 2
Princeton 4, St. Lawrence 3
Princeton 3, Brown 3
Princeton 6, Harvard 2
Princeton 4, Colgate 3
Cornell 3, Princeton 1
Women's Ice Hockey
(3-4 overall; 1-0 Ivy; 2-2
ECAC)
Princeton 4,
Augsburg 3 (OT)
New Hampshire 4,
Princeton 1
Harvard 4, Princeton 2
Princeton 8, Harvard 2
Northeastern 5, Princeton 2
Princeton 4, Colby 3
New Hampshire 9,
Princeton 1
Men's Soccer
(6-8-3 overall; 1-4-2 Ivy)
Princeton 5, Penn 1
Yale 4, Princeton 0
Women's Soccer
(7-8-2 overall; 2-3-2 Ivy)
Princeton 4, Penn 2
Women's Volleyball
(14-11 overall; 5-2 Ivy)
Princeton Tourn.-1st
Ivy Tourn.-4th