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Web Exclusives:
Under the Ivy Nov. 16, 2005: ‘Football
is only a game … Nuts’ A couple of months ago my husband and I were invited to a tailgate party before a Princeton football game. Football fans ourselves, and parents to a 6-year-old rabid sports enthusiast, we accepted gladly. New friends, good food and drink, and a little football to go along with them — it had all the makings of a lovely afternoon. Except that this particular party had been scheduled for Oct. 8, before the Colgate game. Anyone living on the East Coast may remember that Saturday as the day the Rain King decided to end his boycott of New Jersey and moved in for a 10-day visit. The day’s precipitation fluctuated between a steady rain and a downpour – and the previously undefeated Tigers lost, 16-10. This recent experience – and let it be noted that the new friends, excellent food and drink, and thankfully warm temperatures still made for a lovely, if wet, afternoon – came to mind when I read an account of 1937’s Yale game, played at Princeton on a rainy, windy, miserable Saturday afternoon in November. On the whole, 1937 was a lousy year for Princeton football fans (and players and coaches). Undefeated national champions just two years earlier, the Tigers were suffering through a mediocre season. They had already lost to Harvard, Dartmouth, and Cornell, with wins coming only against non-conference opponents Virginia, Chicago, and Rutgers. And unfortunately for Old Nassau, Yale’s team of that year starred Heisman Trophy-winner-to-be Clint Frank as halfback (he would beat out Colorado’s Byron “Whizzer” White, future Supreme Court justice, for the honor). PAW reporter Frank Halsey ’12 did not try to sugarcoat the results of the match-up. “From start to finish we were outcharged by the Yale line, outrun by the Yale backs, and outpunted by the Yale kickers. About the loudest outburst of spontaneous applause from the Princeton stands came when, with the score 13-0 against us, Frank of Yale was tackled for a one-yard loss.” Sadly for Princeton fans, Frank was rarely stopped during any other part of the game; he scored four touchdowns en route to the 26-0 shutout. But the pleasure, at least for me, of reading about old-time and, yes, big-time Princeton football, is not in the win-loss columns but in the reporting of the games. You can’t beat a lead such as Halsey’s: “To lose to Yale, even by so one-sided a score as 26-0, is not a matter of any great cosmic significance. Sports should be enjoyed for themselves, regardless of winning or losing. After all, football is only a game … Nuts.” He goes on to say, “It would help a little if there were an aspect or two of the game over which Princetonians might enthuse, even if it were with the slightly phoney [sic] enthusiasm of a radio announcer naming his sponsor’s product, but there was just nothing at all.” The 1937 season gave Princetonians something to worry about, distracting them from the real-world events that truly were of cosmic significance. They could focus their frustrations on the gridiron, pretend that it mattered that Princeton lost to Yale and Harvard, rail about the seats they were given by Princeton’s athletic department (indeed, it was a constant complaint — more on that in the next column), and ride the coach out of town (the next season, Fritz Crisler would be leading the Michigan Wolverines). At the Princeton-Colgate game this year – where
there were no Heisman winners, though conceivably a future Supreme
Court justice could have been out there – the rain, the company,
and the game likewise provided a little respite. Halsey wrote in
1937, “The outcome was apparent right after the opening kickoff,
and from that point on there was nothing to do except relax and
enjoy it as much as possible, which was not at all.” I’d
have to differ with him there, and I wonder, if given the perspective
of nearly 70 years, he might not come around, too.
Jane Martin ’89 is PAW's former editor-in-chief. You can reach her at paw@princeton.edu
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