Well before there was princetonbasketball.com, there was The 14 Club, one of this site's biggest influences. The 14 Club was a couple from Princeton who traveled to Princeton games from coast to coast (I remember seeing holding a banner on TV when the Tigers played at #1 UNLV), printed the original Seniors on a Stick, hoarded NCAA Tournament tickets for fellow fans and worked tirelessly to support the orange and black.
As if the above wasn't enough, starting in 1990 they self-published an annual bound "Recruiting Wrap-Up" full of photocopied articles about the incoming freshman class with additional pieces they had culled regarding the next season's Princeton schedule and other news of interest. Pre-Internet, this was the best/only way to know about the incoming freshman class.
I recently uncovered their first book, and wanted to share some bullet points based on stories that are almost two decades old.
-In an April 17, 1990 Harvey Yavener column from the Trenton Times, Exeter Academy center Ben Gerig is hinted at by Pete Carril as having the most upside of any members of his recruiting class. The Town Topics said Gerig "could be the heir apparent to Kit Mueller." Gerig earned just one varsity letter at Princeton before leaving the team.
-I did not remember that Bill Carmody had been a candidate for the Columbia head coaching position and that Carril was pushing Carmody for this job. Carmody would eventually remove his name from consideration and take over as head coach of the Tigers six years later.
-When Chris Mooney committed to Princeton, it was described as a "special coup," with Carril comparing Mooney to Frank Sowinski.
-After Mooney pledged to the Tigers, New Jersey guards Mike Brennan and Chris Yetman followed. Brennan chose Princeton over Fairfield and Davidson.
-Carril is quoted as saying he wanted this recruiting class to be good because it might be the last one he assembled for Princeton. Needless to say, there were five more Tiger classes before Carril retired.
-Yetman was the final member of this five player class to commit.
-Town Topics lists a sixth member of the class I know nothing about, a 6'7" player named Chris Davidson from Orlando, Florida. Is this same person that end up playing volleyball at Princeton?
The AP named Yetman second team all-state and Brennan third team all-state in New Jersey.
-Mooney is quoted as a senior in high school as saying "points are the most overrated thing in basketball." A Philadelphia Daily News article's lede states Mooney hopes to be an English teacher or a basketball coach after he graduates college. That dream appears to have worked out just fine...
-The last page of the "Recruiting Wrap-Up" is a reprint of a photograph from the Town Topics taken at the final home game of the 1989-90 season, a thorough 73-46 pounding of Columbia. It shows Carril lifting the left arm of his lone senior, Matt Lapin, after Lapin came out for the final time. Carril is the referee, Lapin the victorious prize fighter. It is one of my favorite Princeton basketball pictures of all time and I've reproduced the reproduction below.
