Princeton University Athletics
Thursday TigerBlog - Stayin' Alive
April 23, 2026 | Tiger Blog
The photo was a mere 40 or so years before he dominated the Brooklyn disco scene. Oh wait. Was that a different Tony Manero?
The one pictured here is the Tony Manero (born April 4, 1905) who won the 1936 U.S. Open at the famed Baltusrol Country Club in Springfield, about an hour north of Princeton. The one in this video (born Feb. 18, 1954) is a different Tony Manero:
Maybe they're related? Or maybe one is fictional.
Stayin' Alive. Stayin' Alive.
Still the greatest intro to any movie ever.
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Speaking of Baltusrol, it will host the Ivy League men's and women's golf tournaments this weekend, beginning tomorrow and running through Sunday.
Do you know what year Princeton won its men's golf first league championship? Hint — it was before Tony Manero won at Baltusrol. In fact, it goes back to 1928, when the Tigers won the Eastern Intercollegiate Championship.
Do you know when Princeton won its most recent league championship? That was last year, when the Tigers won the title and Richard Fantinelli was the medalist, for the second time.
Will this year break the recent pattern of the last six seasons? The Ivy champ has been Yale, Princeton, Yale, Princeton, Yale and Princeton.
The official Ivy League championship for men was first awarded in 1975. Since then, Princeton has won 23, well ahead of second-place Yale's 12.
As for the women, Princeton also won last year. The Tigers enter this year's tournament tied with Harvard for the most Ivy championships, with eight apiece, one ahead of Yale.
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The Penn Relays began in 1895 as an offshoot of a relay race between teams from Princeton and Penn and they're still going strong today. If you're a track and field fan, or even just a sports fan in general, you need to go to Franklin Field one of these years.
Or this year, since the relay carnival is underway and running through Saturday. There are no Ivy League titles at stake, though there are Championships of America to be won.
Beyond that, there is the spectacle itself that is the Penn Relays, where thousands of athletes converge on Franklin Field, which finds itself nearly full, as if the Eagles were playing there in the 1960s again.
It's a continuous schedule of race after race, with high school students at one moment and Olympians the next. As TigerBlog said, it's definitely worth the pilgrimage.
Princeton's men and women will be well-represented in West Philadelphia.
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Need someone to root for today? How about the Northwestern women's tennis team.
The Widcats take on Maryland today at 2 in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament. Why root for Northwestern? Is this a Carla Berube thing? No, but that's not a bad reason.
Princeton and Maryland are among the teams sitting on the NCAA at-large bubble right now. A Maryland loss would definitely help Princeton's cause.
The selections for the men (who appear to be comfortably above the bubble but you never know) and women will be Monday afternoon.
Go Wildcats.
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The Princeton baseball team has three games this weekend at Dartmouth and then three more at home against Harvard next weekend as the Ivy League regular season comes to a close. The Tigers enter this weekend in a logjam of teams chasing Ivy tournament spots.
Right now, Yale and Brown are sort of tied (Yale is 11-4; Brown is 10-4) for first, followed by 9-6 Penn. Going from there, the other five teams in the league enter the weekend separated by only two games.
Princeton is very much in the mix at 6-9, tied with Dartmouth, a half-game back of Harvard and Columbia, a game ahead of Cornell. Clearly every game is huge.
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Speaking of Brown, TigerBlog was on the Bears' website yesterday and was greeted by a giant picture of an old friend.
Mitch Dalton, who spent five seasons as an assistant with the Princeton men's swimming and diving team, has been named the head women's coach at Brown. Mitch heads to Providence after being the associate head coach at Texas for six years and five years at USA Swimming since leaving Princeton.
TB sends congrats and wishes him the best — except when competing against Princeton of course.
