Great race: ‘Today’ vs. (blindfolded) Tigers

PHOTO: IAN S. CAHIR/OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS

It may not have been “a battle of epic proportions,” as one participant described it, but video crews kept busy when the four hosts of NBC’s Today show challenged Princeton crew members to race on Lake Carnegie.

In a segment of the show that aired May 10, Matt Lauer (in photo at right greeting crew members), Al Roker, Ann Curry, and Natalie Morales first were schooled in technique and team-building by crew members Jason Kopelman ’14 and Kelly Pierce ’12.

Then it was time for the competition. To give the visitors a fighting chance, the Princeton crew would row with “a slight handicap” – each rower would be blindfolded and have one arm tied behind his back. Aided by four Princeton “ringers,” the Today hosts won the first race.

But the broadcasters were on their own for the second race against the blindfolded Tiger rowers. In Lauer’s words: “We got killed.”