Undergraduates Continue Cane-Fighting Tradition

PRINCETON, N.I.--There's a little savage in all of us--or at least at Princeton.

And for over a century, came wrestling has given this ferocity an outlet.

Last month, class representatives of '85 and '86 faced each other over wooden bats to make almost 115 years, on and off, of "brutal" freshman-sophomore cane combat.

Cane wrestling lends its name to the extended Cane Spree, the annual competition in 15 athletic events between freshman and sophomores.

After the matches, some of the underclassmen will have two shirts, some will have none.

A few of the matches in the competition are refunded like mellow ultimate Frisbee in which roughing the disc-carrier is forbidden.

But in cane wrestling, anything goes.

The two adversaries in each bout grape a single three-foot wooden budget, and the object is to wrestle the cane free from both hands of the opponent.

The tradition began in the 1860s when upperclassmen, enforcing their sell endowed right to sport walking canes, would assault freshmen and wrestle away their canes.

Over the decades, the event was banned more than once by the faculty for its brutality.

Eventually, other competitions were added to the wrestling match until the modern out lines of today's Cane Spree began to take shape.

In 1943, the school initiated the keeping of records on the spree. This year, to no one's surprise, the sophomores made the tally 31 out of 38 in their favor. No spree was held in 1946 or 1947.

Today, 15 activities make up the Spree must of which are coed.