You may not have known Jack Platten, but if you went to a basketball game at Jadwin Gym, you certainly saw him wearing his well-worn white Princeton cap and beige coat or pushing his walker with tennis balls on the legs to the bleachers.
Platten sat near mid-court at Jadwin for every Princeton basketball game but two since the building was opened 40 years ago, accompanied by his wife Barbara before her death in 2004. The two were married for 64 years. After Barbara's passing, Mr. Platen was joined in his seat by his grandson.
A member of the Class of 1938, he loved Princeton sports dearly. For his 80th birthday, his family had the Princeton coaches and players sign a basketball for him, which is still proudly displayed on the table next to his television.
Last year's Penn/Princeton finale was Mr. Platten's last trip to Jadwin, as he became ill this summer and passed away on Tuesday at the age of 91. As his son Rob wrote in an email to me, "his 80 years of smoking finally caught up with him."
I first met Mr. Platten through this site and enjoyed the detailed, well-written and funny emails he would occasionally send me. He was a witty man, who often would poke light at his deteriorating physical state, yet somehow was still telling me about the tennis he found the ability to play.
Jadwin feels a little emptier without him.
Here's a memory of Butch Van Breda Kolff that Jack wrote in September of 2007.
Cheerio, Jack.
------
I’ve been one of Butch Van Breda Kolff’s friends and admirers since he returned to Princeton’s basketball team in 1946 and was a constant attendant at the post-game parties our local group of basketball fans had for the outstanding players, so I’ve read with interest all the articles in the papers about his career. Here are a few items that everyone appears to have missed:
I’ll start with my recollection of the party Butch and Florence hosted back in 1965 to “celebrate” the final four record. The party was in the basement recreation room of the Faculty Apartments down by the Lake and (incidentally) one of the other guests was a little guy from Butch’s Lafayette team by the name of Pete Carril. Butch told me that he was really teed off at the moment–first at Ken Fairman for not picking up the transportation expense for Florence to go to Portland with him and the team, and second at the University which had just the week before notified him of an increase in the rent for their apartment. I’ve always felt this was the beginning of the end for his Princeton connection.
Just a few years later, Jackie Kent Cook (millionaire owner of the Los Angeles Lakers) went after Butch to come and manage the Lakers (with Wilt Chamberlain as player). Most sports writers were baffled by this choice, but what they didn’t know at the time was that Cook was expecting that a professional soccer league was in the offing and he wanted to have a soccer team in Los Angeles, too. That made Butch a two-fer, since he had been captain of Princeton’s soccer team and had made the All-American list as a player. I haven’t seen any mention of this in the recent splurge of articles and obits for Butch.
Just a few more notes from my memory box. When I first played tennis with him in 1962, I was quickly aware that he was a left-handed athlete, something I didn’t recall of him when he was a hoops player here or on the Knicks He was a damn fine tennis player, and it was continuing fun for me to play with or against him in doubles during many summers at Barnegat Light, north of Harvey Cedars, where he had a cottage. The after-game beers were also pleasant.
While workers replaced the chipped three point line at Jadwin Gym, Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson and princetonbasketball.com editor Jon Solomon met on Friday morning to review the Tigers' games against Rutgers and Manhattan and to preview this weekend's trip to Central Connecticut State. The pair also discussed the health of two injured Tigers. This interview is 14:00+ in length.
Interviews with Coach Johnson appear on this site every week during the season.
CNN asks Georgetown coach John Thompson III about Barack Obama's cabinet.
Princeton recruit Jimmy Sherburne scored 25 points on 10-15 shooting as Whitefish Bay defeated Shawano.
Not basketball-related, but I know some of you enjoy learning about what I do outside of this site. Here's a preview of this year's 24-Hour Holiday Radio Show from Town Topics.
Around the Ivy League: Dartmouth (2-6) let a five point lead slip away in the final minute against Quinnipiac. Harvard (4-5) fell at Rice, 67-63.
Quinnipiac vs. Dartmouth - 7:00 pm ET
Harvard vs. Rice - 8:30 pm ET
I received sad news yesterday. Jack Platten, a fixture at Jadwin Gym, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 91. Jack used to tell me about how he had missed only two basketball games in the building's history before this season (one because of a blizzard and one for reasons I unfortunately can't remember) and not seeing him sitting to my left in the bleachers at Princeton home games is going to take some getting used to. If you knew Jack or have any memories you would like me to forward to his family, I would be happy to relay them.
Florida Atlantic vs. Denver - 9:00 pm ET
Seattle Pacific vs. Oregon State - 10:00 pm ET
If you were planning on heading to Jadwin tonight, please note that the Mercer/Princeton JV game has been cancelled. If it is rescheduled, we'll be sure to post about the new date.
On the heels of yesterday's 27 point performance, Princeton's Doug Davis was named Rookie of the Week in the latest Ivy Weekly Basketball Awards.
Davis has scored a total of 113 points after eight collegiate games.
Which got me thinking...
What is the Princeton record for most points in a season by a freshman?
The answer is Chris Young's 387 points, tallied over 30 games during the 1998-99 season.
Young averaged 12.9 points for the Tigers that year as Princeton advanced to the third round of the NIT.
Davis is averaging 14.1 ppg, and if he continues to score at the same clip for the rest of this season, he will finish just short of Young's mark, with 381 points across 27 games.
Done with final exams, Northwestern welcomes the UMKC Kangaroos to Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Mercer (5-7) beat Fredrick 75-51.
Princeton recruit news - Ian Hummer scored 13 points as Gonzaga won the D.C. Classic Tournament. Gus Gabel is averaging 20 ppg for 5-2 Scottsdale Chaparral.
Around the Ivy League: Dartmouth (2-5) demolished Plymouth State, 96-47.
Despite playing in a gym located at the top of Manhattan College's steep campus, It was an uphill battle for Princeton against the homestanding Jaspers on Sunday afternoon.
The Tigers fell behind 14-6 early and although they made several pushes to pull within one possession throughout the game, could never catch Manhattan.
"We were chasing the game, and that really makes it hard to get back into it," said Princeton head coach Sydney Johnson after his team's 70-60 loss. "We did, and then a couple other times down the road we couldn't turn the corner and that's been our season right now."
Tiger freshman Doug Davis’ career-best 27 points on 10-18 shooting was outshined by Chris Smith’s 35. Smith, the younger brother of Denver Nugget J.R. Smith, made his first seven jump shots on his way to 18 first half points.
"We made it tough on ourselves [early] in the sense that we were a little slow to react to Chris," Johnson said.
Denver (2-6) topped the visiting South Dakota State Jackrabbits, 62-58.
Craig Robinson and Oregon State (2-4) had to sweat one out Saturday night. The Beavers beat Nebraska 64-63.
Princeton recruit Mack Darrow scored 20 in Barrington's loss to Rolling Meadows. Future Tiger Will Barrett had 14 points and 11 rebounds for Central Bucks South in a win over Pennridge.
Around the Ivy League: Harvard (4-4) lost 78-63 at George Washington.
princetonbasketball.com was founded on April 28th, 1998 in an attempt to provide fans of the Princeton Tigers and Ivy League basketball with the best on-line source for up-to-date news and information. We have since expanded to launch a companion site, Georgetown Basketball News.
As these sites have continued to grow we have increased our coverage to include additional teams with Princeton connections - the Richmond Spiders, Denver Pioneers, Oregon State Beavers, Fairfield Stags and Mercer County Community College Vikings - plus former Tigers playing professional baseball and basketball all over the world. This site is not directly affiliated with the Friends of Princeton Basketball, Princeton University or the Princeton athletic department.
Sun. 11/10 vs. Florida A&M
Sat. 11/16 at Butler
Wed. 11/20 vs. Lafayette
Sat. 11/23 at Rice
Tue. 11/26 vs. George Mason
Sat. 11/30 at Bucknell
Sat. 12/7 vs. FDU
Wed. 12/11 at Rutgers
Sat. 12/14 at Penn State
Fri. 12/20 vs. Portland*
Sat. 12/21 vs. Pacific*
Tue. 12/31 vs. Kent State
Sat. 1/4 at Liberty
Sat. 1/11 at Penn
Sun. 1/26 vs. Kean
Fri. 1/31 at Harvard
Sat. 2/1 at Dartmouth
Fri. 2/7 vs. Columbia
Sat. 2/8 vs. Cornell
Fri. 2/14 at Brown
Sat. 2/15 at Yale
Fri. 2/21 vs. Dartmouth
Sat. 2/22 vs. Harvard
Fri. 2/28 vs. Yale
Sat. 3/1 vs. Brown
Fri. 3/7 at Cornell
Sat. 3/8 at Columbia
Tue. 3/11 vs. Penn
2,503 - B. Bradley, 1962-65
1,625 - I. Hummer, 2009-13
1,550 - D. Davis, 2008-12
1,546 - K. Mueller, 1987-91
1,451 - P. Campbell, 1959-62
1,441 - C. Robinson, 1979-83
1,428 - B. Earl, 1995-99
1,365 - B. Scrabis, 1985-89
1,321 - G. Petrie, 1967-70
1,292 - H. Haabestad, 1952-55
1,277 - G. Lewullis, 1995-99
1,239 - B. Taylor, 1970-72
1,207 - S. Goodrich 1994-98
1,133 - F. Sowinski, 1975-78
1,130 - R. Hielscher, 1991-95
1,122 - C. Thomforde, 1966-69
1,099 - T. Manakas, 1970-73
1,090 - J. Wallace, 2001-05
1,088 - C. Belz, 1956-59
1,079 - B. Hauptfuhrer, 1973-76
1,076 - B. Roma, 1976-79
1,071 - C. Mooney, 1990-94
1,064 - A. Hyland, Jr., 1960-63
1,062 - L. Brangan, 1957-60
1,057 - A. Hill, 1973-76
1,054 - D. Mavraides, 2007-11
1,044 - S. Johnson, 1993-1997
1,031 - J. Hummer, 1967-70
1,010 - W. Venable, 2001-05
