Allison Harding ’08, right, captain of the University equestrian team, rides her horse, Yogi, at Silver Dollar Stables in Cranbury. With about 30 members, the equestrian team is a club sport at Princeton.
Photo by Frank Wojciechowski
Insiders share tips about sports business
Two dozen professionals from the front offices of sports business joined more than 100 Princeton undergraduates at Robertson Hall Dec. 8 for the first Princeton Sports Symposium, a career day for sports enthusiasts sponsored by Career Services and the Princeton Varsity Club. Included in the afternoon’s panel discussions were two of professional basketball’s top agents: Marc Fleisher, who represented several of the NBA’s first European stars, including Vlade Divac and Sarunas Marciulionis; and Bill Duffy, whose clients include the Houston Rockets’ Yao Ming and the Phoenix Suns’ Steve Nash. Fleisher, who started his career in the music industry, said that to get a foot in the door as a sports agent, one has to have a niche. For some, the niche is being a friend of a top athlete; Fleisher noted that top agent Leigh Steinberg was a student when he met his first client, Cal quarterback Steve Bartkowski. But there are other niches, such as close relationships with college coaches, expert knowledge of a particular sport, or strong command of a foreign language. The language skills are particulary useful in the NBA, where players hail from 37 countries. With more recruits likely to come from African nations in the next 10 years, Duffy said, “The world is shrinking more and more.”
Princeton’s other Heisman winner
Fans of Princeton football have no trouble recalling the name of the 1951 Heisman Trophy recipient: Tigers halfback Dick Kazmaier ’52. Since Kazmaier, no Ivy League player has won college football’s top prize, which was presented to Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith last weekend. But one other Princetonian is included on the list of Heisman winners: Pete Dawkins *79. Dawkins, who won the award as a senior at West Point in 1958, earned his M.P.A. and Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson School and is now vice chairman of Citigroup’s global-wealth management group. In late October, Fortune magazine featured the multitalented Dawkins – a former Rhodes Scholar, brigadier general, and senatorial candidate – in a story about “cross-training” your brain. Of his wide range of experiences, Dawkins said: “They’re kind of reservoirs in your consciousness that you can reach back into for insights you’re applying to something totally dissimilar. I think the broader, the more of these reservoirs you have available, the more likely you can see through the fog.”
Basketball teams to complete 2006 Jadwin slate
Princeton men’s and women’s basketball will play their final home games of 2006 in a double-header at Jadwin Gym Dec. 16. The men’s team opens the action, hosting Marshall at 4 p.m. The Tigers (6-3) split their two games last week, edging Lehigh 44-43 Dec. 6 on a Marcus Schroeder ’10 free throw with no time remaining and losing 53-47 to Rutgers Dec. 9. The women play St. Francis (N.Y.) in the nightcap at 7 p.m. Princeton (4-6) routed Rider 74-45 Dec. 12. Four players scored 10 points or more, including Meg Cowher ’08, who leads the team with 16.8 points per game. The women’s team will not play again at Jadwin until its home opener against Columbia Jan. 12. Men’s basketball plays Rice at home Jan. 6.
More at PAW Online
Under the Ivy – Gregg Lange ’70 tells how, in the dark days of Christmas 1943, President Harold Dodds *14 sent to each of the 1,300 Princetonians serving in the military a gift “that transcends that time and desperate circumstance.”
On the Campus – Elyse Graham ’07 writes about election night at the Prince and fall practice with Princeton rowers.
A Moment With Greil Marcus – Read an extended version of PAW’s interview with the culture critic and visiting professor.