The new track at Princeton High School was named after Bob James, president of the Friends of Princeton Athletics on Nov. 2.
New track at Princeton High School named after sports booster Bob James
By Scott Morgan
Whether Bob James, president of the Friends of Princeton Athletics (FOPA), has done anything of note for the Princeton School District’s athletic programs depends on whom you ask.
Ask someone connected to Princeton High School’s athletics department, and you’ll hear a treatise on everything James does to make Princeton sports valuable and relevant to the community.
Ask James himself, and he deflects the glory to the athletics department and to outgoing Princeton superintendent Judy Wilson.
Which is why the idea that the Princeton School District has named the high school track after him throws James so much. When Wilson, who is retiring at the end of this month, called him several weeks ago to tell him about the dedication, James was genuinely shocked.
Still, the dedication, which occurred at halftime during the PHS/Trenton Central football game on Nov. 2, was, he admitted, “a really nice ceremony.”
Okay, so James has a penchant for being low-key, he doesn’t like to talk about himself, and he wishes no attention would come his way for everything that makes Princeton athletics work. But the 1962 PHS graduate and former competitive runner has no trouble laying credit on the shoulders of people like PHS principal Gary Snyder or athletics director John Miranda.
James is proud, “not in-your-face proud, just very proud,” of the school’s athletes, the athletics department that saw eight coaches named coach of the year last year alone, and the work of everyone who makes sports in Princeton schools part of the triumvirate of well-rounded young people — athletics, arts and scholarship.
James gives most of the credit for Princeton’s athletic greatness to Wilson, whom he said “really understands the role athletics play” in the development of well-rounded students. Athletics, he said are as important to learning as the arts and, of course, academics. Wilson’s tireless efforts to get the school’s new athletic complex built, he said, is proof that the district values the kind of education sports can offer.
“Sports teach a lot of life lessons,” James said. “How to win and how to lose, and both lessons are important. How to win with class and how to lose with class. When you lose, you learn to just pick up and keep going.”
Sports also teach lessons in teamwork, James said. And the weight of this lesson seems to have stuck with him from his days as a young athlete through his career in the construction industry. James, now retired, sold roof and floor trusses to developers and builders. But the lesson continues in the way James deflects every attempt to keep any part of the Princeton athletics story — even the part about getting a track named for him — from being about him. “This is not about me,” he said, reiterating it numerous times.
Perhaps, the best illustration of his mindset is one of his favored quotes, “It’s good to see when people play for the name on the front of the uniform rather than the name on the back.”
James’ team, of course, is okay with giving him a bit more credit. Wilson, in a statement announcing the dedication of the track, referred to James as “the alumnus every superintendent dreams of working with — dedicated, energized and focused always on the student.”
She also said that James’s leadership of FOPA led to the new scoreboard at the football field, a defibrillator for athletic trainers, the championship banners that hang in the gymnasium, and scholarships for graduating senior athletes.
Miranda calls James “the link to our past” and “the keeper of our traditions.”
He also calls him “the glue between our current athletic teams, the community, former athletes, coaches and administrators.”
Though James said “I don’t do that much” as the president of FOPA, Miranda said James coordinates alumni class tours, helped start the PHS Hall of Fame and helps coordinate the school’s Hall of Fame banquets annually.
“Our players and coaches know that he supports all of our teams and players no matter how good they are,” Miranda said. “If you go to any of our games you will usually see a man with white hair and a beard with a Princeton shirt or jacket rooting for our teams.”
As for James’s place within the Princeton athletic community, school board president Tim Quinn once said “Bob James eats, drinks and breathes Princeton High School athletics.”
In a decade of attending games of all sports at PHS, James has become a regular fixture in the stands. And though he loves all the sports, he gravitates toward — naturally — track and field.
For about 10 years, James ran marathons competitively, once finishing the Boston Marathon in two hours, 46 minutes. “That’s why it was more of an honor to get the tracked named after me.”
Still, James insists the story of Princeton athletics is “not about me, or even about FOPA.” The story of Princeton athletics for him is the history itself. The high school was founded in 1928, and that year PHS won it’s first state championship — in cross-country, how fitting is that for a story about Bob James? Since then, he said, dozens of men and women have worked to preserve the legacy of Princeton’s formidable sports program.
James is a major figure in the PHS athletic Hall of Fame, which was founded in 2003 to honor athletes, coaches, and honorary contributors in the district.
“We have a huge history of athletic achievement,” he said. ” “It’s important for us to recognize and honor that tradition as well as to encourage our current students to build upon it.”
As much as it pains James to be in the limelight, he does admit that seeing his name attached to a prominent piece of the sports field gives him a warm feeling. “It’s good to know that future kids will know my name,” he said. “And it might inspire someone to get involved [in the program] in some way.”
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