Princeton: A Second-Class Power?

There's nothing quite like a Harvard- Princeton football game," we can reflect of the game tomorrow in the Stadium- 54th H-P clash since the series began in 1877.

"But on the other hand," somebody's going to answer "there's nothing better than a Harvard game."

This raises a rather touchy problem: To the Harvard and Yale games are most important; to Harvard and Yale, the Yale game is most important. So that leave Princeton? At little bit of cold, feeling that perhaps "three's a crowd."

Certainly Princeton deserves its membership in the "Big Three," that distinguished games eternal triangle whose members can't help being close, proud, and competitive. On the academic level, where it's school against standard, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are rightfully close and proud. And the athletic level, where it's school against school, the Big Three are outstandingly competitive.

But it has not been easy for Princeton to compete with two teams that hog the show "THE" game at the end of every football season. In football, unlike track or cross country, only two teams can play at a time. And when it's always Harvard and Yale in the Ivy League's extra-nostalgic season finale, wonders whether it's getting its full third of the Big Three prestige.

For over half a century the Harvard-Yale predominance has frustrated, and, at times infuriated Princetonians, whether they admit it or not.

Not too long ago they admitted it, and even something about it....

In 1926 when William J. Bingham '16 was appointed Harvard's first Director of Athletics, numerous changes were made in policy. On Oct. 18th, for example, the Athletic Committee decided that Harvard could make no guarantees to play any one really in football except Yale. There is no Ivy League then, and the Crimson felt obliged to nobody but Yale. Most of all, Harvard wanted to free its schedule so that it could play teams in other parts of the country.

In, which had helped form the important "Three Presidents' Agreement" on eligabilty in 1916 with Harvard and Yale--had a revised "Triangle Agreement" in 1923- took the Harvard decision as a shocking result. A short time later, thanks mainly to the Lampoon, Princetonians found an excuse off about it and protest directly to Harvard.

On the morning of the Princeton game on November 8, 1926, the Lampoon published football issue featuring a cartoon of two pigs wallowing in the mud with the caption, "Come, brother, let us root for dear old Princeton."

According to one report, "The Princeton stands reacted with sullen rebellion; it was into this mood that the 'Poon injected a fake Crimson extra at halftime. Headed BILL ROPER, PRINCETON COACH, DIES ON FIELD with the explanatory crossline HELD BREATH TOO LONG, the issue left Mrs. Roper in a dead faint and football relations between the schools with an eight-year gap."

While many people chuckled over the Lampoon's double-barrelled joke, others steamed. Among the latter was the Princeton Board of Athletic Control, which two days later voted unanimously to sever athletic relations with Harvard in all sports for an indefinite period of time.

A major contributing factor in the committee's decision was, unsurprisingly, Harvard's then-recent change in football scheduling. In his impatient letter to President Lowell, the chairman of the Princeton board concluded, "I may also add that Princeton, so far as she is concerned, would never accept the implications of the athletic policy recently adopted by the Harvard Committee set forth in their resolution of Oct. 18th."

Thus Princeton broke off all athletic relations with Harvard. It didn't matter that the Tigers had won the game, 12 to 0; their pride had been hurt.

RUST and dirt slowly buried the hatchet for the next eight years. Finally, in 1934, Princeton resumed play with Harvard in football and most other sports. But despite the obvious spirit of "let's be friends again," the Princetonian conscience could not easily forget the "Yale-only" implications of the Harvard Athletic Committee's decision and the excessive anti-Princeton ridiculing by the Lampoon. It would take much longer than eight years for those two wounds to heal, for they had injured Princeton where it hurt most--the Big Three relationship, in which it felt neglected.

As the Harvard-Princeton series picked up again, Princeton increased its desire for equality in the Big Three relationship. Many times since 1934 the Tigers have tried to get Harvard and Yale to alternate final games with them, but to no avail. Harvard and Yale welcomed Princeton back into the Big Three, but they refused to share their traditional get-together on the sacronsanct last Saturday of the season.

Princeton had never had a Percy Haughton or a Walter Camp, as did Harvard and Yale, but it found a memorable pair of coaches in "Fritz" Crisler and Charlie Caldwell in the 30's and 40's. And during this period, Tiger teams improved while Harvard slowly declined and fell into the Great Depression of 1949 and 1950, when it lost all but two of 17 games.

With better teams Princeton could more readily beat Harvard, beat Yale, and win the Big Three championships. These are the ways Princeton strengthens its self-respect.

AGAINST Harvard, the Tigers have done surprisingly well. In the 53-game series with the Crimson, Princeton has won 31, lost only 17, and tied five.

The Harvard-Princeton football series has not been as continuous as that of Harvard and Yale. In addition to the breach of 1926-35, there are gaps of 14 years (1896-1911) and six (1889-95) when Harvard and Princeton refused to schedule each other because of disagreements over rules in the early Inter-Collegiate Association.

Of course, as with Yale, there is no Princeton game listed for the 1885 season, the year President Eliot prohibited football at Harvard because of its brutality. Also, there are no games listed for the years during both World Wars, when the University placed all athletics on an informal basis.

Princeton was a pioneer in football. It participated in what is generally considered the most intercollegiate football game in America, soccer- like contest with Rutgers in 1869.

The Tigers have one of the best overall records against Ivy football teams, winning 198 games, losing 110, and tying 20.

They won the Ivy championship in 1957, the second year a round-robin football schedule was used in the League, formally organized in 1954. And with an undefeated Ivy games so far this year including the astounding 52-0 victory over Brown last week- they are threatening to win the title again.

To do it, they must knock off Harvard in what three weeks ago threatened to be a push-over but now has all the makings of a bone-shaking struggle. Still favored, the Tigers are expected to rely heavily on the passing talents of first-string tailback Greg Riley, whose best play is a soft ten-yarder over the middle to end Hank Large. The other tactic Princeton likes to employ is a classic singlewing reverse to wingback Dan Terpak--light, but fast and shifty. Between them, Terpak and Riley could give the Crimson a lot of trouble.

But with all the praise goes a little pity, for Princeton must play Dartmouth while Harvard plays Yale on the last day of the season