<p>I'm from a small town in Texas where football is the most important thing ever, think Friday Night Lights type town but bigger. I love this environment, and I love footbal, so my question is what is the attitude of Priceton-ites toward football games? Is there a lot of spirit, or is it not that big of a deal on campus? Also, do students get tickets free?</p>
<p>football is not that big of a deal, particularly since princeton has been so mediocre for so long. still, there's tailgating if you want it. and students get in free by flashing their PUID's at the gate.</p>
<p>A very nice, new little stadium to replace moldy Palmer Stadium. but they have yet to do what's necessary to put the kind of decent teams on the field that they had in years past. The pending increase in the class size may facilitate stronger recruiting.</p>
<p>Princeton has lost to Harvard
9 years in a row and (I think) 3 years in a row to Yale. These are the games that count, and there is rumbling among the older alumni, who remember the glory days. Last fall, the student paper even called for the firing of the football coach (who is the highest-paid football coach in the Ivies, despite his losing record.</p>
<p>There are signs that an effort to break out of the losing spiral may be made. A new "Director of Football Operations" or some such has just been hired.</p>
<p>Many at Priceton are so depressed about the state of the football program, that they've taken to desperate, black humor.</p>
<p>For example there was this "Top 10" list in the Daily Princetonian in January:</p>
<p>"Top 10 Ways to Improve Princeton football</p>
<pre><code>10. Botched field goals worth 4 points.
Boosters.
Bribes.
Real tackling dummies instead of clown punching bags.
A greater sense of urgency when playing for the Sawhorse Dollar.
Find a better trophy to play for.
One week camping retreat with sprint football team to share success stories.
Add a scantily clad Dance Team.
No Friday precept.
Cut the program."
</code></pre>
<p>Princeton, given its green lawns and milder climate, has always been a great place to go watch tennis games. In the last year, girl's lacrosse and soccer were great. But football, never was a big deal there. One more thing - watching crew down on Carnegie Lake. The weather in Princeton is just that much warmer than New England that spring is longer and lots of outdoor stuff happens in the last couple months of school.</p>
<p>That weather talk is reaching a bit, (the average median temperature differs by about 1 degree between Cambridge and Princeton, and I have actually seen equally green grass in Harvard Stadium and the Class of 1952 Stadium in Princeton!) but I will make alllowances because Alumother, admittedly, knows little or nothing about sports.</p>
<p>Princeton - contrary to what she has said - has a long and noble football tradition, and was even a national champion on a number of occasions in the distant past.</p>
<p>The problem is, their football program has been in a long slide - having lost to Harvard for 9 years in a row, for example.</p>
<p>There is always the possibility that they will come back. To this end, they have abandoned their long-standing ban on transfers to take a quarterback from another school in an effort to stop the bleeding.</p>
<p>Great link Byerly, let it be known that Harvard recruited an entente of substandard kids for football for the '09 class. I've never understood why people are so infatuated with kids they don't even know throw balls in a field.</p>
<p>Many people, including Sarah_McC, the OP, like watching football.</p>
<p>speaking of knowing little or nothing about sports, byerly: princeton's class of 1952 stadium has an artificial - not a "green grass" - surface. at least you're right about princeton's "long and noble football tradition" - having played in the very first college football game ever against rutgers in 1869 - although "a number of occasions" probably doesn't do justice to princeton's 28 national championships - most among all division I-A schools. even with the recent struggles against harvard, princeton still holds a 50-40-7 all-time edge over the crimson. and princeton's "transfer" QB, i'll remind you again, had to start as an academic freshman at PU. i ask you: if your credits don't transfer, are you really a transfer?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Better check some of your numbers in the prior post. You must have been rushed. You've corrected one error, but not the other.</p></li>
<li><p>I've had to call to your attention on earlier occasions to the error on the Princeton site in claiming a "national championship" in 1950.</p></li>
<li><p>Most of Princeton's "championships" - if the truth be known - came back in the era before the forward pass, when the ball was round, there were 20 men on a side, and Harvard frequently refused to play them because President Eliot thought they used improper tactics!</p></li>
<li><p>That said, perhaps the "non-transfer transfer" quarterback will make the difference, and lead the downtrodden Tigers back to respectability. I doubt it will happen during the college career of Sarah_McC, however, so that if she wants to watch winning football, I suggest she look farther North, to New Haven, perhaps, or Providence, or Ithaca or - better yet - Cambridge.</p></li>
<li><p>You have candidly told the OP that football is "not that much of a big deal" at Princeton, primarily because the team has been so bad for so long. I give you credit in this respect, for not trying, as Alumother does, to change the subject, urging poor Sarah to forget football, and to develop a taste for tennis or women's soccer as spectator sports!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Alumother admittedly knows little to nothing about sports - not quite true but I will let it stand. However, Alumother is enormously sophisticated with regards to climate and its effects on happiness. Median temperature isn't the issue. The issue is average high and low daily temperatures between March and early June.</p>
<p>Here they are:</p>
<p>March: Cambridge 46-31 Princeton 50-31
April: Cambridge 56-41 Princeton 61-39
May: Cambridge 67-50 Princeton 72-49
June: Cambridge 77-59 Princeton 80-58</p>
<p>I never remotely said Sarah ought to forget football. I just put it out there that if what you want is a group activity conducive to festivities and fellow feeling, those exist at Princeton, in a climate that is just al ittle milder.</p>
<p>So it sound like you need to dress more warmly if you go out at night in Princeton, eh?</p>
<p>Perhaps the wider temperature range has something to do with pollution in New Jersey affecting the climate. Being trapped halfway between New Yor City and Philadelphia has its downside when it comes to air quality. As a Cali person, you certainly know about smog, etc.</p>
<p>You are ridiculous. Smog in the Bay Area is not so bad. Princeton is in a non-urban area, smog is nothing compared to having cars drive by you all day in a city.</p>
<p>And as for the weather, the increased temperature gaps is because Spring is notoriously fickle when it arrives. Just doesn't get to New England until later.</p>
<p>The temperatures I post above are the data behind the magnolias the bloom in the spring in Princeton, the lawns that are green by April (still dead dirt in Cambridge), and the days at the end of the school year when everyone sunbathes on the hill by the tennis courts.</p>
<p>Hmmm. I was at Fenway on opening day in early April and the lawn looked pretty green to me! Had to mow my own lawn that morning, too!</p>
<p>And in the fall, there is plenty of green grass in HARVARD STADIUM, even as Princeton has, sadly found it expedient to install a plastic rug on top of the dead dirt in Class of 1952 stadium.</p>
<p>But then, its not fair to mention football again, I know. You were out sunbathing on the hill by the tennis courts .... not that they're <em>grass</em> courts, mind you!</p>
<p>Byerly's at it again, this time over football?</p>
<p>I thought you were so insistent on pushing cross-admit data that football didn't matter? And your red bolding of Harvard is infinitely ridiculous. And you claim to have no bias, no boosterism? Think again. </p>
<p>Like it or not, Byerly, you can't argue with the fact that Princeton still owns the overall record against Harvard. And I'm sure Harvard's football dominance will not last forever especially with the recent emphasis on improving the Tiger program. </p>
<p>If you really want to get into it, Byerly, look at this:
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/sports/scores105/105063/20050304NCAABPRINCETON-0nr.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.usatoday.com/sports/scores105/105063/20050304NCAABPRINCETON-0nr.htm</a></p>
<p>That's certainly an ouchie. Basketball > football. </p>
<p>And Princeton STILL finished AHEAD of Harvard in the latest Director's Cup finish, though still far behind Stanford's 11 straight championships, of course.</p>
<p>And I was in Cambridge early in April and it was brown on Harvard Yard's ostensible lawns. Maybe it's just Harvard.</p>
<p>Crimson equals all-time league mark to highlight amazing year</p>
<p>As they entered the Grand Finals of their respective races Sunday, Harvard's men's heavyweight and men's lightweight crews found themselves not only in position to gain supremacy in the Eastern rowing circles, but with a chance to make Harvard history as well.</p>
<p>And after the lightweights emerged first in a photo finish, and the Crimson heavyweights followed with a narrow victory, history was indeed made.</p>
<p>The championships in men's lightweight rowing and men's heavyweight rowing gave Harvard its 13th and 14th Ivy League titles of the 2004-05 academic year. </p>
<p>The list of champions in 2004-05 was as impressive in its breath as its number. Seven men's teams and seven women's teams won Ivy championships. Three titles came in the fall, seven in the winter and four in the spring. The champions included perennial winners (men's squash won its 37th title) and first-time titlists (women's volleyball and women's fencing won their first championships). Six teams went undefeated in regular season league play.</p>
<p>Harvard's teams amassed a combined record of 122-48-3 against Ivy League opponents (71.4 percent). Cornell was second in the league with eight championships while Princeton was third with five. Columbia, Yale and Dartmouth won three titles each while Penn had two and Brown one.</p>
<p>Harvard's accomplishments in 2004-05 go beyond the Ivy championship picture, however. Teams that compete outside the Ivy League umbrella enjoyed banner years as well, as women's sailing captured the New England championship and men's volleyball won an EIVA division title.</p>
<p>Harvard also enjoyed across-the-board success on the national level. Three teams (women's ice hockey, men's squash, women's squash) played in the final games of their respective national championship tournaments, while fifteen teams sent representatives to NCAA championships. A 16th NCAA tournament team could be named tomorrow when the women's rowing selections are announced.
The men's heavyweight crew moreover, won in its third straight national championship, while The women's sailing team won the North American championship as well.</p>
<p>Harvard's 2004-05 Ivy League Champions</p>
<p>Baseball (26-15, 15-5 Ivy)</p>
<p>Eighteenth Ivy title for NCAA tournament-bound Crimson</p>
<p>Women's Basketball (20-8, 12-2 Ivy)</p>
<p>Won share of ninth Ivy title in regular-season finale</p>
<p>Men's Heavyweight Crew (6-0)</p>
<p>Won 24th title and third straight at Eastern Sprints</p>
<p>Men's Lightweight Crew (10-1)</p>
<p>Photo finish at Eastern Sprints gave crew its 23rd Ivy title</p>
<p>Men's Fencing (6-1, 3-1 Ivy)</p>
<p>Team won third Ivy title and first since 1977</p>
<p>Women's Fencing (9-0, 5-0 Ivy)</p>
<p>Team won first Ivy title in program history</p>
<p>Field Hockey (11-7, 6-1 Ivy)</p>
<p>Harvard's second Ivy title and first since 1990</p>
<p>Football (10-0, 7-0 Ivy)</p>
<p>Eleventh Ivy title; First 10-0 season since 1901 team went 12-0</p>
<p>Women's Ice Hockey (26-7-3, 8-1-1 Ivy)</p>
<p>Team won sixth title on its way to NCAA championship game</p>
<p>Men's Squash (11-2, 6-0 Ivy)</p>
<p>Team won its school record 37th Ivy championship</p>
<p>Men's Swimming & Diving (8-0)</p>
<p>Team won 20th Ivy title at EISL championships</p>
<p>Women's Swimming & Diving (10-0)</p>
<p>Eighth Ivy title and first since 1996 for Crimson</p>
<p>Women's Tennis (19-6, 7-0 Ivy)</p>
<p>Team won 16th Ivy title and is currently in NCAA round of 16</p>
<p>Women's Volleyball (15-10, 10-4 Ivy)</p>
<p>Team gained a share of its first Ivy title</p>
<p>and </p>
<p>If I can read charts right (I did well on my standardized tests, so I hope so), Princeton outranks Harvard in sports that matter. So much for Ivy League championships. </p>
<p>I quote from the latter site: "Princeton's finish left the Tigers the top non-scholarship school for the 10th time in the 11 years of the Cup." Ouch ouch ouch. You see, the sports performances that matter are ones where Ivy League can beat ones outside of the Ivy League, most of whom offer scholarships. Beating on a bunch of poorly funded programs like Brown and Columbia means nothing, Byerly. Princeton water polo & women's soccer proved they could win nationwide. </p>
<p>You omit all the sports that Harvard was crushed in, like men's basketball. Nice PR.</p>
<p>I don't even know why I'm defending Princeton athletics, but I do know that you overtstate Harvard's greatness. The good ol' Harvard motto "Veritas," right Byerly? Let's not abuse it.</p>
<p>I just realised why I rarely venture out of the 09 forum anymore... please excuse me while I go stab my forehead with a chopstick while sawing off my toes with a butter knife.</p>
<p>Also, OP: I will TOTALLY go to football games with you if you are looking for someone. I'm not insane about football, but I can't help but love it.</p>