Notes from the Alumni Office - Saint Andrew's School Archive - St ...

• • • Mike Lilley '79"Tiger Lilley", as the Trenton Timescalls Mike Lilley '79, sees his final yearson the Princeton football team as acrusade. Mike and the other Princetonseniors mean to savor every moment ofthe season, particularly their Ivy games.Mike was quoted in early October assaying, "Part of it is a crusade; part of itis just fun. There is a feeling of destinyin a way." The 6'3'~ 207 pounder wenton to say, "Beating Yale last year after14 losses; beating Brown the first timein nine years ... I'm sure there hasn'tbeen a senior group here in a long timeas close-knit as this one, on and off thefiefd:'Mike entered St. Andrew's in the IIform after growing up abroad. In his VIform year he was all-state in footballand basketball as well as captain of thebaseball, basketball and football teams.During his senior year, he was alsovoted the most valuable player inbasketball and won the Alumni Awardin football.At commencement, Mike wasawarded the Baum English Prize, theHenry Prize for Athletics and th~Founder's Medal for the best academicrecord in his form. He graduatedmagna cum laude from St. Andrew's.Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Brownrecruited him, as did Delaware,Swarthmore and Amherst.With all this football on his mind,Mike still maintains a 3.8 average ininternational relations in the WoodrowWilson School at Princeton. He isapplying for a Rhodes Scholarship nextyear.About the AuthorELLEN WEXLER is a free-lance writerwho makes her Princeton Athletic Newsdebut with this article. Wexler is well knownfor her work as a television news writer. Shehas written for all of the major televisionnetworks and has been nominated for anumber of Emmies.Mike Lilley's reception against Delaware. It wasonly one o.ffour aerials that Lilley hauled in thatday. Opposite: Lilley at St. Andrew's where heplayed offensive end and defensive strong safety.BY ELLEN WEXLERReprintedfrom the October 16, 1980edition of"The Princeton Athletic News"with permission from the author, EllenWexler, and The Princeton UniversityOffice ofSports Information.The starting tight end of PrincetonUniversity's football team, Mike Lilley, is aman of distinction. As an athlete, hiscoaches praise him for his blend of speed,strength, agility, and "good hands". He likesto hit, they say, and "he's prepared, ahardworking, intelligent and completeplayer".As a student he's in the Woodrow WilsonSchool. Last year, he won the R. W. Van deVelde Prize for the outstanding student inhis policy conference. This year, he is asenior officer in a policy task force - one ofthe five seniors teaching twelve juniors theintricacies of the relationship betweenMainland China and Taiwan. He creditsProfessors Lynn White and RichardUllman as being strong, interestingteachers.In fact, it was the Woodrow WilsonSchool that lured Mike to Princeton awayfrom such suitors as Brown, Swarthmore,Amherst, Yale, and Harvard. Mike liked theway he was recruited here, he liked CoachPearman, the players he met, and most ofall, Princeton, the University.In the football program, his hometown islisted as Taipei, Taiwan. Since he was a veryyoung lad, he has lived in, in chronologicalorder, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, HongKong, Peking, and now Taiwan, where hisdad is the Director of the AmericanInstitute.One footnote to his life in Laos. Onemorning during breakfast, when Mike wasfive, the Communists staged a coup, anddropped a bomb on an army base 100 yardsfrom the Lilley's pad. Mike and his youngerbrother were put under the dining roomtable by their mother. Mike describes thefeeling of the explosion as a thud, a thump,a concussion to the head and body. Oh yes,Mike made it to kindergarten that morningand every morning after that.Even though Mr. Lilley went to Yale, heand Mrs. Lilley will be in the stands in NewHaven to see their son do himself proud forPrinceton on November 13th. And they arecoming down to Princeton for Mike's finalgame against Dartmouth. Mike is verypleased about their presence at the games.This past summer, Mike sweated out thetwin devils - heat and humidity - inTaiwan. He worked for the law firm of Leeand Li (pronounced the same but spelled4differently). In that office, he proofreadlegal material, worked on projects ontrademarks and patent problems. All of thiswas performed in English. Mike's fluency inChinese is best demonstrated at restaurantsand questions that start with "can you tellme the way to?"In early August, he returned to theUnited States, where at a teammate's housein cool, breezy Massachusetts, they workedout in preparation for football camp thatwould start later that month. Mike says it"was a first-rate camp, a camp in whicheverybody worked hard, and in which weworked together".Mike likes football, he likes histeammates, his closest friends are footballplayers, and he likes the shared achievementof winning. He believes Princeton will havea very, very good season if the players, mostcertainly including himself, achieve the rightbalance between high emotion andcontrolled discipline.Mike spends five hours a day with theduties and pleasures of football. When he'snot around the field, or in class, or in thelibrary, he's a fierce devotee of Diplomacy, aboard game, played with among others,Princeton's heralded shot-putter, AugieWolf. The game has elements of politicalmanuevering, hair-raising strategy,backstabbing, and any and all tactics shortof murder and mayhem. Mike representsItaly in this Pre-World War I playgroundgame.Mike reads a great deal of history, andwishes he had time for reading philosophy.When he can manage it, he gets into NewYork City where his older brother works.Also off the football field, Mike playsintense intramural basketball and softballgames. No team he was ever on has everlost. Mike doesn't like to lose.Back to football: He thinks Princetonfootball players make an importantcontribution to campus life. He admits thatat first he didn't understand CoachNavarro, but finds now that the Coach isalways there for him, that his door is alwaysopen, and that he has given him a "fairshot". Mike thinks that Princeton's passinggame is outstanding and that Coach KenBowman is an extraordinary teacher eventhough the two of them have "never had aparticularly smooth relationship". He saysthat this year football has meant more tohim than any other year.Mike is "conservative" politically. He hastwice worked for Vice President Bush'scampaign. In the spring of 1980, he andsome friends were driving down to Florida