Thirty years ago on Feb. 24, 1995, former men’s basketball Head Coach Pete Carril did the unthinkable. He became the only coach in NCAA history to win 500 games without athletic scholarships.
“Pete Carril deserves every bit of praise and congratulations coming his way after 500 victories, but knowing that winning isn’t everything, I think we can all admire even more the way he’s touched thousands and thousands of lives over the years,” former President Bill Clinton said of Carril at the time.
On that Friday night in Ithaca, the Tigers beat Cornell 64–54. Christopher Doyal ’96 and captain Rick Hielscher ’95 led the way for the Tigers with 17 points apiece as Carril became one of 16 coaches to get to 500 collegiate wins.
“For his 500th win, you’ll always have to remember me being the high scorer on the team,” Doyal told The Daily Princetonian. “He can never get away from that.”
“500 doesn’t actually mean that much to me, to be honest with you,” Carril said at the time.
After the score was tied at 21, the Tigers used a 10–2 run to take an eight-point lead to the locker room. The Tigers never looked back as they won their sixth straight and moved into second place in the Ivy standings.
Present-day Head Coach Mitch Henderson ’98 — then just a first-year — scored 14 points, grabbed four rebounds, and dished out three assists.
“I don’t think any of us actually realized it was his 500th win till after the game,” Doyal told the ‘Prince.’ “He didn’t care for records whatsoever. He just cared about winning. That was like any other game for us.”
Hielscher shared similar feelings in a recent interview with the ‘Prince.’
“He would do the opposite, he would kind of play it down and not want to talk about it,” Hielscher said. “I don’t remember really hearing much about it, other than maybe reading something about it in the press the day after the game.”
Hielscher became the second Tiger at the time to bank at least 1,000 points, 400 rebounds, and 200 assists in a career.
1995 was otherwise a frustrating year for the Orange and Black, as the Penn Quakers won their third consecutive Ivy championship. Penn was led by Jerome Allen and Matt Maloney, who both went on to play in the NBA.
“No matter what we did, they had the answer for us,” Hielscher said. “We just happened to be in the league when there was a really phenomenal Penn team.”
Carril was as old-school as they come. Hielscher came in with five other members as part of the Class of 1995. By the end of his sophomore year, he was the only one who had not quit the team.
“He was incredibly hard on us,” Hielscher said. “He was definitely a perfectionist, but he was tough … Most guys didn’t keep playing.”
Hayk Yengibaryan is an associate News editor, senior Sports writer, and Education Director for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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