Travel Blog Mens Hockey – Day Three To Princeton

Day Three of our journey to Princeton

At least there’s a game to look forward to tonight! I went to the rink for the first time today to get set up for the broadcast. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve called a game from an endzone. My left and rights for the zone closest to me could be off for a while. This vantage point will take some getting used to!

The Hobey Baker Rink was built in 1921…about ten years after Hobart enrolled here. The rink was renovated in 1985, and the “concourses” were added.

There are six rows of seats all the way around the rink, and then a balcony was also added in the last major renovation. It’s a cold rink…and a loud rink. During pregame skate this morning, anytime a puck hit the glass or the boards behind the net, it kinda sounded like a cannon going off. The acoustics of the Sanford Center “swallow up” more of those kinds of sounds.

There is an area to honor Hobey Baker

And also a plaque to commemorate the renovations in 1985.

After the pregame skate, Tom Serratore, Travis Winter, Video Coordinator Logan Davis and I walked back to the hotel. Tom got a two hour tour from Princeton’s coach yesterday. Tom gave us a short version on the way back.

Every building on campus has a cafeteria with a full-time cook, and a person that lives in the building. EVERY BUILDING ON CAMPUS! The thought is that someone may be studying in that building, and might get hungry.

Several office buildings have stars next to the individual office window. Those windows with stars commemorate an office where a former professor or student used to live or work. Those stars signify that the former resident of that room was killed in service to the Armed Forces.

Tom Serratore also took us into Nassau Hall. For a four month time frame, that building was our Nation’s Capital Building. Fear of attack from the British prompted the move to Washington DC. Inside that building is still the original brick floor that was used when the building first opened in 1759. I wouldn’t recommend any high heels on that floor. The brick is miraculously well preserved…but it’s been there for 260 years!

Also in the entry to Nassau Hall, are commemorative plaques with the names of all former Princeton students or staff that were killed in wars throughout the years.

The history of this campus is unreal!

Tom also told me a story about the archways I showed you yesterday. If you watch any student walk through the archway, they only use the gates on the outside. JFK was a student here for one semester. He got sick, and was taken through the middle gate on the ambulance. He never returned to campus. Once he recovered, he enrolled at Harvard.

As the legend goes, students don’t walk through the middle gate, or they won’t be here for four full years…just like JFK.

Enjoy the game tonight!

Other pics from the rink follow…


from the stairs to the press box


Hallway from BSU Locker Room. People were sure smaller back in 1921!


A view from the seats


Six rows of bleachers…not a bad seat in the house!