By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
Pete Carril, the men’s basketball coach who led Princeton University through four decades of sporting success, will be forever honored for his achievements in February when the Princeton athletic department bestows his namesake on the game floor at Jadwin Gym.
The game floor will officially become Carril Court at a ceremony scheduled for the Feb. 21 matchup between the university and Dartmouth in honor of the Hall of Fame coach who won more than 500 games and took Princeton basketball to 13 Ivy League championships during his time at Princeton from 1966 to 1996.
”This is a fitting tribute to a coach who had as much to influence the sport of basketball as anyone in the late 20th century,” said Gary Walters, the university’s athletic director.
Mr. Walters played under Mr. Carril as a high school player in Reading and again during the coach’s first years at Princeton University.
”He has (left) an indelible mark on everyone who has played for him,” Mr. Walters said.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Carril, now 78, lost only 261 games to his 514 wins, compiling a .658 winning percentage. During that time, the university participated in 11 NCAA tournaments and two NIT tournaments, including an NIT championship in 1975.
One of Mr. Carril’s most memorable moments at Princeton came in his final year as coach when his team upset a defending champion UCLA team 43-41 after scoring the winning basket with only four seconds to play.
That amazing moment came after Princeton defeated Penn in a one-game playoff that secured Princeton’s entrance into the tournament on the very same night Mr. Carril announced his intention to retire at the conclusion of the season.
Mr. Carril, a native of Bethlehem, Pa., played basketball at Bethlehem’s Liberty High School and was an all-state selection in 1948. In college, he played at Lafayette University in Easton, Pa., where he played under future Princeton coach Butch Von Breda Kolff.
After a stint in the army, Mr. Carril began his coaching career, spending time coaching high school ball in Pennsylvania before landing the head coach’s position at Lehigh University. He took over the position at Princeton in 1967 when Mr. Kolff left to become head coach of the NBA’s storied Los Angeles Lakers.
During his time at Princeton, Mr. Carril coached eight Ivy League Player of the Year selections in addition to 33 first-team All-Ivy selections. He also developed a special type of offensive strategy known as the “Princeton Offense,” which relies heavily on movement and passing along with plays known as back-door cuts.
A back-door cut followed by a flurry of passes typical of the “Princeton Offense” led to the winning basket in Princeton’s 1996 defeat of UCLA.
The “Princeton Offense” lives on with many college programs like the Hoyas of Georgetown University, coached by former Princeton head coach John Thompson. Mr. Thompson is one of five former Carril players who now coach NCAA Division I teams.
”Coach brought to the players who played for him in Jadwin Gym an unwavering commitment to the value of hard work and dedication to something larger than anyone single person,” said Mr. Thompson during an interview with the university athletic department.
In 1998, two years after retirement, Mr. Carril was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

