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Web Exclusives:
Under the Ivy November
6, 2002: Princeton 16, Brown 14. Princeton 14, Colgate 10. It's been a long time since football games with scores that close went Princeton's way, but this fall cannon-armed junior quarterback David Splithoff and his teammates are playing with a little something extra: magic. Although Splithoff is surrounded by talented players on both sides of the ball, you can't help but feel that he's the one casting the spells. After all, in his first collegiate start, as a freshman, in 2000, he went 13 for 17 for 289 yards and three touchdowns, rushed for another 48 yards, and captained the Tigers to a 55-28 trouncing of Brown — the first time Princeton had scored more than 50 points since 1991. The thrill of following a charmed team with a special player has me thinking back to the ancient days of college football, when my alma maters were perennially in the running for the national championship. (My master's degree is from the University of Chicago, which is the answer to What university has the highest winning percentage against Notre Dame? Impress your friends.) According to a great Web site http://www.princeton.edu/football/pfball.html on Princeton football history, the Tigers went undefeated and won national championships in 1893, 1903, 1906, 1911, 1920, 1922, 1933, and 1935, behind names such as Cap Wister '08, Stan Keck '22, Don Lourie '21, Pink Baker '22, Art Lane '34, and Pepper Constable '36. In the early 1950s, of course, Dick Kazmaier '52 worked the magic, notably in the fall of 1951. Following an undefeated, national championship year in 1950, the Tigers hoped only for a decent showing. "We are certainly not going much farther before our current victory string of 13 is snapped," wrote season previewer Donald C. Stuart Jr. '35. No one was happier than Stuart when Princeton defied all expectations and continued unbeaten, winning the Lambert Trophy as best team in the East. In the waning days of Princeton's reign as a gridiron powerhouse — no longer were the Tigers competing for national honors — the team conjured up one last mystical season: 1964. In his PAW preview that year, Stuart, who had obviously learned caution since 1951, wrote tepidly, "This season, the calibre of the holdover strength is such that the Orange and Black seems sure of finishing among the top four and, in all probability, of remaining in the running for first place [in the league] through the climactic games in November." But in his player analysis he noted, "Cosmo Iacavazzi — is already the best player at fullback in Princeton history. He'll play both ways as long as they'll let him, and he'll do it to perfection." Sure enough, behind the strength of Iacavazzi, the team ran the table in the Ivy League, including a sweetly vengeful 37-7 win over Dartmouth in Hanover (who had beaten the Tigers by one the previous year), a 14-0 triumph over Brown in which Iacavazzi accounted for all but 48 of Princeton's rushing yards (he had 178), and a season-capping 17-12 victory over Cornell. Student PAW reporter A. Franklin Burgess '65 described the final win this way: "It was probably not the best game Princeton played — But with a perfect season, who needs a perfect game?" These days Tiger fans don't hope for a perfect season (well, maybe
just a bit). All we ask for is a little magic in the autumn air.
Jane Martin ’89 is PAW's former editor-in-chief. You can reach her at paw@princeton.edu
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