Football team of Princeton University
Princeton Tigers football
|
---|
|
|
First season
| 1869
|
---|
Athletic director
| John Mack
|
---|
Head coach
| Bob Surace
12th season, 73?47 (.608)
|
---|
Stadium
| Princeton Stadium
(capacity: 27,773)
|
---|
Field surface
| FieldTurf
|
---|
Location
| Princeton, New Jersey
|
---|
Conference
| Ivy League
|
---|
All-time record
| 862–421–51 (.665)
|
---|
Claimed national titles
| 28 (
1869
,
1870
,
1872
,
1873
,
1874
,
1875
,
1877
,
1878
,
1879
,
1880
,
1881
,
1884
,
1885
,
1886
,
1889
,
1893
,
1894
,
1896
,
1898
,
1899
,
1903
,
1906
,
1911
,
1920
,
1922
,
1933
,
1935
,
1950
)
|
---|
Conference titles
| 13 (
1957
,
1963
,
1964
,
1966
,
1969
,
1989
,
1992
,
1995
,
2006
,
2013
,
2016
,
2018
,
2021
)
|
---|
Rivalries
| Harvard
(
rivalry
)
Penn
(
rivalry
)
Rutgers
(
rivalry
)
Yale
(
rivalry
)
|
---|
Heisman winners
| Dick Kazmaier
? 1951
|
---|
Consensus All-Americans
| 93
|
---|
|
|
Colors
| Black and orange
[1]
|
---|
Fight song
| "Princeton Cannon Song"
|
---|
Marching band
| Princeton University Band
|
---|
Website
| GoPrincetonTigers.com
|
---|
The
Princeton Tigers football
program represents
Princeton University
and competes at the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA)
Division I Football Championship Subdivision
(FCS) level as a member of the
Ivy League
. Princeton's football program?along with the
football program
at nearby
Rutgers University
?began in 1869 with a contest that is often regarded as the beginnings of
American football
.
History
[
edit
]
Students from The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) traveled to
New Brunswick, New Jersey
on November 6, 1869, to play
Rutgers College
(now
Rutgers University
) in a game using a modified version of London's
Football Association
rules. The game inlayers on each side and the round ball could only be advanced by kicking it.
[2]
Rutgers won what has been called the first intercollegiate American football game 6?4. Taken literally, the Princeton/Rutgers game involved a 'foot' kicking a 'ball' (sort of like soccer), hence the term 'football' that gives rise to the Princeton/Rutgers match being considered as the first game of American 'football' between two American colleges. A closer rendition of the modern game of football would come six years later in a match between
Harvard
and
Tufts
where the ball could only be advanced by running or passing, but not kicking it. A week after the Princeton/Rutgers game, the Rutgers team traveled to
Princeton
for a rematch, which Princeton won 8–0.
Early history
[
edit
]
Due in part to their invention of the sport, the Tigers were one of the dominant forces in the early days of intercollegiate football, winning 22 of the first 40 national titles (1869?1909). As the sport transformed at the hands of figures like
Brown University
's
John Heisman
and
Yale's
Walter Camp
and more schools began competing, Princeton and the rest of the eventual
Ivy League
faded out of national championship contention. The Tigers won their last national championship in 1950 when
Dick Kazmaier
, the 1951
Heisman Trophy
winner, was a junior.
[3]
Formation of the Ivy League
[
edit
]
When Princeton joined
Brown
,
Columbia
,
Cornell
,
Harvard
, and
Yale
Universities,
Dartmouth College
, and the
University of Pennsylvania
in formally organizing the
Ivy League
athletic conference in 1955, conference rules prohibited post-season play in football. (Princeton never competed in the post-season.) The policy further insulated Princeton and the Ivy League from the national spotlight. Despite an undefeated season in 1964, Princeton was not among the top 10 teams in the season-ending
Associated Press
poll.
[4]
NCAA Division I subdivision split
[
edit
]
The
NCAA
split Division I
collegiate football
into two subdivisions in 1978, then called
I-A
for larger schools, and
I-AA
for the smaller ones. The NCAA had devised the split, in part, with the Ivy League in mind, but the conference did not move down for 4 seasons. Unable to play competitively against long-time rival Rutgers anymore, Princeton stopped scheduling them as a football opponent after 1980. Then in 1982 the NCAA created a rule that stated a program's average attendance must be at least 15,000 to qualify for I-A membership. This forced the conference's hand, as only some of the member schools met the attendance qualification. Choosing to stay together rather than stand their ground separately in the increasingly competitive I-A subdivision, the Ivy League moved down into I-AA starting with the 1982 season.
[5]
Despite often finishing its seasons ranked in the championship subdivision, Princeton cannot play in the
NCAA Division I Football Championship
per Ivy League rules.
Recent history
[
edit
]
Since the formation of the Ivy League, Princeton has achieved moderate success on the gridiron, with 11 Ivy League championships, three outright and eight shared, and 10 Big Three championships since 1955. In 2009, Princeton hired Bob Surace.
[6]
Surace was an All-Ivy league center at Princeton and graduated in 1990.
Before the start of the 2020 season, the Ivy League announced that no sports would be played until January 1, 2021, at the earliest, because of the
COVID-19 pandemic
.
[7]
As it turns out, in 2021 the Princeton Tigers did in fact play a full schedule.
Championships
[
edit
]
National championships
[
edit
]
Princeton has won 28 national championships from NCAA-designated major selectors.
[8]
[9]
: 110?112
Although they do not compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, they maintain claims to titles won at the highest level at the time, with retroactive championships for the 19th century, in which Princeton was declared champion for 20 different seasons in a 30-year span from 1869 to 1899. All except the last title were won in the era prior to the Associated Press poll selecting champions starting in
1936
, with the final national championship claim coming from a different poll than the Associated Press. On some occasions, Princeton shared a championships with other teams, with as many as four other teams claiming a championship for certain years, such as 1922, when six teams were given a title in some form with only one tie separating the five unbeaten teams including Princeton. Princeton claims all 28 titles.
[10]
Season
|
Coach
|
Selector
|
Record
|
1869
|
No coach
|
Billingsley Report
,
National Championship Foundation
,
Parke Davis
|
1?1
|
1870
|
Billingsley Report, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
|
1?0
|
1872
|
Billingsley Report, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
|
1?0
|
1873
|
Billingsley Report, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
|
1?0
|
1874
|
Billingsley Report, Parke Davis
|
2?0
|
1875
|
Billingsley Report, Parke Davis
|
2?0
|
1877
|
Billingsley Report, Parke Davis
|
2?0?1
|
1878
|
Billingsley Report, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
|
6?0
|
1879
|
Billingsley Report, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
|
4?0?1
|
1880
|
National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
|
4?0?1
|
1881
|
Billingsley Report, Parke Davis
|
7?0?2
|
1884
|
Billingsley Report, Parke Davis
|
9?0?1
|
1885
|
Billingsley Report,
Helms Athletic Foundation
,
Houlgate System
, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
|
9?0
|
1886
|
Billingsley Report, Parke Davis
|
7?0?1
|
1889
|
Billingsley Report, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
|
10?0
|
1893
|
Billingsley Report, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation
|
11?0
|
1894
|
Houlgate
|
8?2
|
1896
|
Franklin Morse
|
Billingsley Report, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
|
10?0?1
|
1898
|
No coach
|
Parke Davis
|
11?0?1
|
1899
|
Billingsley, Parke Davis
|
12?1
|
1903
|
Art Hillebrand
|
Billingsley, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
|
11?0
|
1906
|
Bill Roper
|
Helms, National Championship Foundation
|
9?0?1
|
1911
|
Billingsley MOV, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
|
8?0?2
|
1920
|
Boand System
, Parke Davis
|
6?0?1
|
1922
|
Boand,
College Football Researchers Association
, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis,
Sagarin-ELO)
|
8?0
|
1933
|
Fritz Crisler
|
Parke Davis
|
9?0
|
1935
|
Dunkel System
|
9?0
|
1950
|
Charlie Caldwell
|
Boand,
Poling System
|
9?0
|
Conference championships
[
edit
]
Princeton has won 12 conference championships, with four outright and eight shared.
† Co-championship
Rivalries
[
edit
]
Harvard
[
edit
]
Princeton leads the series with
Harvard
55?48?7.
Penn
[
edit
]
Rutgers
[
edit
]
Princeton has an historical rivalry with
Rutgers
(1869?1980).
[11]
Yale
[
edit
]
Stadium and facilities
[
edit
]
Palmer Stadium
[
edit
]
In 1914, Princeton built
Palmer Stadium
, the third college football stadium ever built and what was the second oldest standing college stadium until its demolition in 1996. Palmer Stadium was modeled after the Greek Olympic stadium and seated 45,750 spectators. In the 1990s the university decided to demolish it for a new stadium rather than undertake a long and expensive renovation process, as
Harvard
had with
its stadium
in 1984.
Princeton Stadium
[
edit
]
During the construction of the new stadium, the Tigers played a season of nine away games, plus a homecoming game against
Yale
at
Giants Stadium
in 1997.
Princeton Stadium
opened on September 19, 1998, and seats 27,773. After eight years of natural grass fields,
FieldTurf
artificial playing surface was installed for the 2006 football season and the field was named "Powers Field" in honor of William C. Powers, Princeton class of 1979, who was an All-Ivy punter for the Tigers and donated $10 million to the football program that year.
Practice facilities
[
edit
]
The Finney-Campbell practice fields to the east of Princeton University Stadium have been outfitted with FieldTurf. They consist of nearly 1,600 square feet (150 m
2
) of playing surface, with two full football fields and lines for men's and women's
lacrosse
.
Future non-conference opponents
[
edit
]
Announced schedules as of May 24, 2024.
[12]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Logo & Brand Assets | Princeton University Office of Communications"
. Retrieved
September 25,
2018
.
- ^
Elliott, Len.
One Hundred Years of Princeton Footballeton University
. Princeton, NJ. p. 3.
- ^
Princeton Office of Athletic Communications,
Princeton Football Media Guide 2009
- ^
"College Football Poll.com"
.
www.collegefootballpoll.com
. Archived from
the original
on June 30, 2007.
- ^
Mark F. Bernstein,
Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession
- ^
"Bob Surace '90 named new head football coach"
. Retrieved
April 3,
2018
.
- ^
West, Jenna.
"Ivy League to Postpone Fall Athletics, No Date Set for Return"
.
Sports Illustrated
. Retrieved
July 8,
2020
.
- ^
Christopher J. Walsh (2007).
Who's #1?: 100-Plus Years of Controversial National Champions in College Football
. Taylor Trade Pub. p. 126.
ISBN
978-1-58979-337-8
.
- ^
2017 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records
(PDF)
. The National Collegiate Athletic Association. July 2017
. Retrieved
July 31,
2017
.
- ^
"Princeton Football National Championships"
.
Go Princeton Tigers
. Princeton University
. Retrieved
February 3,
2018
.
- ^
White, JR, Gordon S. (January 22, 1979).
"Princeton-Rutgers to end football rivalry"
.
The Day
. New London, CT
. Retrieved
September 13,
2015
.
- ^
"Princeton Tigers Football Future Schedules"
. FBSchedules.com
. Retrieved
May 24,
2024
.
External links
[
edit
]
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