January 24, 2024
Princeton Athletics in the 21st Century
John Mack
Ford Family Director of Athletics, Princeton University
Princeton Athletics in the 21st Century
John Mack
Ford Family Director of Athletics, Princeton University
Henry Von Kohorn, introducer, and John Mack
Minutes of the 16th Meeting of the 82nd Year
President John Cotton called the meeting to order at 10:15 AM on January 24, 2024. Julia Elward Berry read the minutes for the previous week’s meeting. Guests (and their hosts) included Peter Farrell (Stephen Schreiber), Rob Toggweiler (Joe Mulrooney), Jim Farrin (Dick Scribner) and Edward Atkin (David Atkin), who were welcomed by the president. Fifty-five members attended the meeting in the Princeton Public Library.
Membership Chair Teri Lemishka announced an election of new members to be held next week, January 31, 2024.
Our next meeting is January 31, returning to the Friend Center, Princeton University. Our speakers will be Sarah Rasmussen and Martin Miller, Art Director and Executive Director, McCarter Theater, and their topic will be “Looking Back, Looking Forward – McCarter’s First 100 Years.”
Henry Von Kohorn introduced our speaker, John Mack, Ford Family Director of Athletics, Princeton University. Mr. Mack, Princeton Class of 2000 and former captain of the Princeton Track Team, was named to this post in August 2021. Following graduation from Princeton he worked as a collegiate athletics administrator at Princeton as well as with the Big Ten Conference and at Northwestern University. He spent the past decade in the legal field as a practicing lawyer.
Mr. Mack began by telling us that he saw his current role as his dream job. As a student of history, he appreciated the comprehensive education as well as the culture and values offered by Princeton University. Yet, having grown up in Michigan, his goal as a teen was to attend the University of Michigan on a track scholarship. After persistent phone calls from Princeton urging him to bring his track skills to NJ, he finally agreed to fly here with the intent to tell Princeton University “no” in person. He even came dressed in a U of Michigan jacket! But from the moment he walked onto campus he fell in love with it.
He described Princeton as a university designed to challenge and develop you in four years into a well-rounded person ready to go out into the world. Having lived that experience, himself is why he calls this his dream job. To appreciate his role completely one must understand that the scope of his job is well beyond his visibility in varsity athletics. Recreational sports, club sports, intramurals, health and wellness, fitness programs are all part of his responsibility and encompass not just 1100 varsity athletes, but all 5800 students on campus. Mr. Mack went on to describe his view of athletics as creating community, a community of teammates, a community of spectators. Setting up a path for Princeton athletics in the future begins with looking at where we’ve been and what we’ve done. Breaking his job down into three main components—people, places, and possibilities—he identified people being most important. Coaches and athletes alike must align with values and philosophies of the university where education is the most preeminent of those values, in a landscape where many US universities are willing to pay exorbitant sums to lure coaches. Princeton needs to be mindful of the lessons learned from previous Princeton athletics.
One of the biggest challenges working with athletes is the issue of mental health. Varsity athletes are on display to the public and their performances can be cheered or derided on TV, in social media, and in vicious in emails sent directly to them by fans. In addition to these social pressures, surveys tell us that incoming students’ biggest fears are for safety. In a world where school shootings have become all too common, how can universities protect their students? Trying to develop solutions to compensate for these issues, the biggest threat to all universities is a loss of institutional values and identity. We must remember who we are and what are the limits of what we are willing to do. Again, he reinforced the importance of education more than athletics at Princeton.
Two other challenges for Princeton and the Ivy League are NIL legislation and NCAA eligibility changes. In 2021, NIL legislation (Name, Image, and Likeness) gives student athletes the ability to profit financially from their names and athletic accomplishments. Paired with this the NCAA removed the requirement for athletes to sit out one year upon changing schools. These two events have elevated the role of money in college sports and threaten to make it more professionalized. All of this runs contrary to the philosophy of education and personal development at Princeton. And these new freedoms and financial offers create additional metal health pressures on students. To compete with alumni driven, big money universities, Princeton has had to develop opportunities for students to earn money and get jobs without violating institutional values. This professionalization of college athletes compounds the threat. This is not in line with the 150-year history of the Princeton athletic programs. As a partial solution, the athletic department has a half dozen full-time psychologists on staff and available to help athletes deal with these conflicts.
Additional negative impacts identified by Mr. Mack included the loss of relationship development for a student who repeatedly changes schools chasing athletic scholarships. Recent decisions to consolidate college athletic conferences have forced extensive cross-country travel and lost classroom time for student athletes.
In conclusion he defended the Ivy League model and the way it supports the overall developmental opportunity for students by sticking to the value of education over sports success in the development of a complete educational experience.
Respectfully submitted,
Larry Hans
Membership Chair Teri Lemishka announced an election of new members to be held next week, January 31, 2024.
Our next meeting is January 31, returning to the Friend Center, Princeton University. Our speakers will be Sarah Rasmussen and Martin Miller, Art Director and Executive Director, McCarter Theater, and their topic will be “Looking Back, Looking Forward – McCarter’s First 100 Years.”
Henry Von Kohorn introduced our speaker, John Mack, Ford Family Director of Athletics, Princeton University. Mr. Mack, Princeton Class of 2000 and former captain of the Princeton Track Team, was named to this post in August 2021. Following graduation from Princeton he worked as a collegiate athletics administrator at Princeton as well as with the Big Ten Conference and at Northwestern University. He spent the past decade in the legal field as a practicing lawyer.
Mr. Mack began by telling us that he saw his current role as his dream job. As a student of history, he appreciated the comprehensive education as well as the culture and values offered by Princeton University. Yet, having grown up in Michigan, his goal as a teen was to attend the University of Michigan on a track scholarship. After persistent phone calls from Princeton urging him to bring his track skills to NJ, he finally agreed to fly here with the intent to tell Princeton University “no” in person. He even came dressed in a U of Michigan jacket! But from the moment he walked onto campus he fell in love with it.
He described Princeton as a university designed to challenge and develop you in four years into a well-rounded person ready to go out into the world. Having lived that experience, himself is why he calls this his dream job. To appreciate his role completely one must understand that the scope of his job is well beyond his visibility in varsity athletics. Recreational sports, club sports, intramurals, health and wellness, fitness programs are all part of his responsibility and encompass not just 1100 varsity athletes, but all 5800 students on campus. Mr. Mack went on to describe his view of athletics as creating community, a community of teammates, a community of spectators. Setting up a path for Princeton athletics in the future begins with looking at where we’ve been and what we’ve done. Breaking his job down into three main components—people, places, and possibilities—he identified people being most important. Coaches and athletes alike must align with values and philosophies of the university where education is the most preeminent of those values, in a landscape where many US universities are willing to pay exorbitant sums to lure coaches. Princeton needs to be mindful of the lessons learned from previous Princeton athletics.
One of the biggest challenges working with athletes is the issue of mental health. Varsity athletes are on display to the public and their performances can be cheered or derided on TV, in social media, and in vicious in emails sent directly to them by fans. In addition to these social pressures, surveys tell us that incoming students’ biggest fears are for safety. In a world where school shootings have become all too common, how can universities protect their students? Trying to develop solutions to compensate for these issues, the biggest threat to all universities is a loss of institutional values and identity. We must remember who we are and what are the limits of what we are willing to do. Again, he reinforced the importance of education more than athletics at Princeton.
Two other challenges for Princeton and the Ivy League are NIL legislation and NCAA eligibility changes. In 2021, NIL legislation (Name, Image, and Likeness) gives student athletes the ability to profit financially from their names and athletic accomplishments. Paired with this the NCAA removed the requirement for athletes to sit out one year upon changing schools. These two events have elevated the role of money in college sports and threaten to make it more professionalized. All of this runs contrary to the philosophy of education and personal development at Princeton. And these new freedoms and financial offers create additional metal health pressures on students. To compete with alumni driven, big money universities, Princeton has had to develop opportunities for students to earn money and get jobs without violating institutional values. This professionalization of college athletes compounds the threat. This is not in line with the 150-year history of the Princeton athletic programs. As a partial solution, the athletic department has a half dozen full-time psychologists on staff and available to help athletes deal with these conflicts.
Additional negative impacts identified by Mr. Mack included the loss of relationship development for a student who repeatedly changes schools chasing athletic scholarships. Recent decisions to consolidate college athletic conferences have forced extensive cross-country travel and lost classroom time for student athletes.
In conclusion he defended the Ivy League model and the way it supports the overall developmental opportunity for students by sticking to the value of education over sports success in the development of a complete educational experience.
Respectfully submitted,
Larry Hans