No. 3: Yasser El Halaby '06

When you're talking about the greatest athletes of all time at Princeton, it's often someone from way back. From back when Princeton won national football titles, back before nearly anyone can remember.

Not this one.

People who had no idea what squash was came to see him play because they simply knew they had to bear witness.

He was the number one player in the world for his age since he had been 12 years old. When he came to Princeton, he retained that title through all four years of collegiate squash.

He won the NCAA individual title in his sport for four straight years — something no one had ever done before.

He is Yasser El Halaby '06, squash player extraordinaire.

"To work with the number one player in the world, that's kind of a coach's dream," men's squash head coach Bob Callahan said.

A dream, indeed. Though ink hardly does justice to his myriad titles and accomplishments — not even the trophies do, really — one gets a better picture by breaking down what El Halaby did to set himself apart from others on the court.

Callahan identified four key athletic abilities that made El Halaby the icon of squash greatness he has become for so many aspiring players.

El Halaby's touch was unparalleled when it came to hitting the ball and making shots. In particular, his drop shot "may have been one of the best in the world," Callahan said.

Another factor was his speed; though squash is played in a 32 by 21 foot box, being able to move about the court to reach the ball in all locations is essential. Unsurprisingly, El Halaby excelled at moving his feet and keeping good tactical positions.

Great athletes have vision — the ability to remember an opponent's tendencies and know what to do before the opponent even knows what he is going to do. El Halaby was no exception in his shot selection.

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Finally, El Halaby's tremendous experience playing squash made him a formidable student of the game.

All those facets hint at his greatness, but then there are the stories that really tell you what kind of athlete we're talking about.

His freshman year, El Halaby found himself staring down the NCAA intercollegiate individual championship match in the spring after advancing all the way to be one of two players left. But the day before he was to head up to Trinity for the match, he came down with a bad flu and quickly ran up a 104 degree fever.

You can imagine how the story goes from here.

"Part of the reason why no one's ever won it four times in a row before is because not only do you have to be good, [but] you [also] have to be a little lucky," Callahan said. "Lucky meaning not only you have to be good, but you've got to be healthy that weekend [and] you've got to not have a down match."

Not El Halaby, though.

He lost the first two games of the five-game match quickly, and it looked as though it just wouldn't be his weekend.

In the third game, though, two points away from losing, El Halaby came back to win the game and stave off a sweep. The other player cracked, and El Halaby easily took the fourth game.

By Sunday morning, with his opponent rattled, El Halaby won the fifth game to take the championship. And for the first time in collegiate squash history, he would go on to win the next three, too.

Amazingly, those individual titles weren't necessarily the most important of his accomplishments.

"He cared deeply about the team," Callahan said. "Many times, he said, 'I don't care about individuals — I just want to win the national [team] title.' "

"To be honest, being on a team is so much fun," El Halaby said. "I'm now kind of watching out for myself [instead of] people watching out for me [as] I was watching out for them."

Off the court, El Halaby was a remarkable student at Princeton. Though he initially signed up to be a politics major, he decided to switch into the philosophy department midway through his junior year. That meant he had to write a total of three junior papers, but to El Halaby, it was well worth it.

That intellectual curiosity is a natural part of El Halaby's personality; as Callahan pointed out, squash players who want to be the best typically can't afford to spend time in college not training and competing nonstop. Though El Halaby is now in Cairo training to be a professional, he says that he looked into the possibility of getting a master's degree but decided against it for the time being.

"I decided I shouldn't rush into it," El Halaby said. "I should take it easy [and just] play some squash."

With the potential to be not just one of the best athletes ever to attend Princeton, but also to now become one of the greatest squash players in the world, El Halaby is hardly taking anything easy.