THE MICHIGAN DAILY
-SATUrIRfAY, OCT. 29, 1932
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Princeton Oldest Football College
In .
S.
Betty Gow, nursemaid in the home of Col. Charles A. Lindbergh,
returned to the United States after a summer in her native Scotlanl.
She is shown after arrival in New York being escorted to an automobile
which took her to the Morrow home in Englewood, N. J. She will take
care of baby John Morrow Lindbergh.
IGa me Came
Edl 4 II 82(
7I 11cMp~m Congre's'sO[ 1783
By WiL tAM G. FERRIS
In an educational sene Princeton
University is the fourth oldest college
in America. In a strictly football
sense it is the oldest. For it was on
the Nassau campus that American
football originally developed, and it
was Princeton, competing against
Rutgers, which played the first offi-
cially rcognized game of football.
Princeton history, romantic, fre-
quently sentimental, and sometimes
amusing, can hardly be told without
mentioning football. And all histories
of football must start with Prince-
ton.
Founded in 1747
Earliest Princeton history centers
at Elizabethtown, where the college-
then known as the College of New
Jersey-opened in 1747. Immediately
afterward it moved to Newark, and
there, in 1748, with the government
of the colony and other luminaries
watching,the first class graduated.
It contained six members.
The college soon moved to Prince-
ton, where on the 29th of July, 1754,
ground was broken for Nassau Hall,
the oldest and most famous of
Princeton buildings. It was named
Nassau Hall because of "the Honour
we retain, in this remote Part of
the Globe, to the immortal Memory
of the Glorious King William the 3d,
who was a Branch of the illustrious
House of NASSAU."
Life in those Princetonian days was
severe and unpretentious; not at all
the life of Princeton, or any other
American college, today. The college
laws strictly forbade the visiting of
'a tavern, beer house, or any place
of such kind." A student convicted
of "lying, profaneness, drunkenness,
theft, uncleanliness, playing at un-
lawful games (which included cards)
or other immoralities" was admon-
ished, whereupon he made a public
confession or was expelled.
Ate Plain Food
Food was plain, with a purposeful
avoidance of "luxurious dainties" and
"costly delicacies" which "could not
be looked for among the viands of
' a college where health and economy
are alone consulted i ;the furniture
of the table."
There was a spirit of protest
against such food. Peter Elmendorf
wrote home in1782, "We eat rye
bread, half dough and as black as it
I possibly can be, and oniony butter,
and sometimes dry bread and thick
coffee for breakfast, a little milk or
cider and bread, and sometimes
meagre chocolate, for supper, very in-
different dinners, such as lean tough
boiled fresh beef with dry potatoes;
and if this deserves to be called diet
for ravenous people let it be so styled,
'and not a table for collegians."
And yet not all students criticized
the harshness of those early years.
Philip Fithian, also writing home,
considered them, "exceedingly well
formed to check and restrain the vi-
cious, and to assist the studious, and
to countnance and encourage the vir-
Stuous."
Outlook Later Mellowed
Happily, the years mellowed Fith-
ian's outlook, and he later wrote
aboit the "foibles" which prevailed
at Princeton: "Strowing the entries
in the Night with greasy Feathers;
freezing the Bell; ringing at late
Hours of the Night; Picking from the
neighborhood now and then a plumb
fat Hen or Turkey for the private en-
tertainment of the Club 'instituted
for inventing and practising several
new kinds of mischief in a secret po-
lite Manner'; parading bad Women;
burning Curse-John (which was the
college out-house); Reconnoitering
house In the Town; and ogling Wom-
en with a Telescope."
In those early colonial days Prince-
ton was a hot-bed of sedition and
radicalism. Dr. Withersponn, presi-
dent of the college, openly advocated
a declaration of independence and
when the Revolutionary War had fi-
nally started he was honored by the
good tories of Great Britain, along
with General Washington and Gen-
eral Lee, by being hanged in effigy.
Nassait Hall Wrecked
The revolutionary battles centered
about New Jersey, and Princeton's
exercises of instruction were inter-
rupted by the presence first of one
and then of the other army. Nassau
Hall was wrecked by their clash and
occupancy and the library and phil-
osophical apparatus were scattered
and destroyed. Around and within
its walls surged one of the most crit-
ical battles of the war.
During those early years of the re-
public, Princeton, graduating an av-
erape annual class of nineteen, gave
to the nation's service 20 senators,
23 representatives, 13 governors, three
judges of the Supreme Court, one
Vice-President (Aaron Burr) and one
President. (James Madison).
Served As Capitol
In 1783 Congress, driven from Phil-
adelphia by a mutinous body of
troops, sought the seclusion of
Princeton, and from June 26th until
November 4th held its sessions in
Nassau Hall. Thus the famous build-
ing actually became for a time the
capitol of the nation.
Nassau Hall remains today the
center of Princeton tradition, of a
past proudly famed in the nation's
history. It is a symbol of the spirit
of the colonies, which made- them
see, dimly to be sure, a greater
Princeton and a country in the fu-
ture. And the Hall's traditions still
linger. On its steps, in the warm
spring evenings, the custom of Sen-
ior singing is continued; here, too,
the Seniors gather for their last class
photograph; and from the old belfry
at nine the curfew still rings out,
sounding the hour of rest-in vain.
Began Football in 1820
Football, in the form of an English
game known as "ballown" came to
Princeton as early as 1820. But it
was not until 1867 that an All-Col-
lege team was formed, and defeated
the team of Princeton Seminary. It
was not much like present day foot-
ball. But, apparently, it was good fun
even then, for two years later Prince-
ton and Rutgers engaged in the first
intercollegiate football game in his-
tory. The game was played at Rut-
gers, under Rutgers rules, and Rut-
gers won. A few days later Rutgers
came to Princeton, where the game
was played under Princeton rules and
Princeton won.
The game progressed slowly. Yet in
1871, Princeton, still in the vanguard,
organized a football association,
drawing up an elaborate set of rules;
which was something the early game
appears to have needed.
In 1873 Princeton, Yale, Columbia
and Rutgers met in New York City
in order to form a uniform set of
rules. During the same autumn Yale
and Princeton played for the first
time, and Princeton was victorious.
There were certain difficulties at-
tendant to the game. First, it was
delayed an hour and a half before
someone found the ball. Then, in the
middle of the contest, the ball burst,
causing another delay. The spectators
went down to Joe's for a couple of
beers while the referees and players
sewed the ball together.
Five All-Americans in 1889
When Walter Camp picked the
first All-American team in 1889
Princeton was still at the head of
the football peak. Princeton had five
men on that team, while Yale and
Harvard both had three. Princeton
had three All-Americans in 1890, four
in 1891, two in 1892, four in 1893,
and continued to place from one to
four men until 1900. Then, for the
first time, she had none.
That is the history in back of every
Princeton football team. It is a his-
tory which has developed for more
than 100 years, swelling with anec-
dotes, with conquests, with remem-
brances, with all of those things
which make football, genuine college
football, so eminently worthwhile.
Princeton is not a mug-hunter. She
does not play front page football.
With her the game is a sport, not a
semi-professional racket instigated to
increase the college's fame, enroll-
ment, and bankroll. Perhaps that is
why so many people not associated
with Nassau want to see the tiger
regain, as she is now attempting to
do, her lost position iu the football
jungle.
Apart From World
The years have brought interna-
tional renown to Princeton, but the
college still remains somewhat apart
from the busy world, lazily resting in
the beautiful, rolling New Jersey
country. There are few colleges so
ideally situated, and few colleges so
conscious of their situation. It is the
same town of Princeton which once
saw the American and British troops
war against one another in the fa-
mous battle of Princeton. It is the
same college which gave so many of
its sons to the developing govern-
ment. It is the same Nassau Hall
which once served as the actual cap-
itol of the United States. One can-
not walk, a yard in Princeton with-
out touching American history.
"Lives by Comradeship"
"Princeton," Woodrow Wilson once
wrote, "lives and grows by comrade-
ship and community of thought; that
constitutes its charm; binds the spir-
its of its sons to it with a devotion at
once ideal and touched with passion;
takes hold of the imagination even
of the casual visitor, if he have the
good fortune to see a little way be-
neath the surface; dominates its
growth and progress; determines its
future. The most careless and
thoughtless undergraduate breathes
and is governed by it. It is the genius
of the place."
During the fiscal year ending last
September 1, Iowa State College ani-
mal husbandry experts judged live-
stock at 68 county, state and national
shows.
Davis &cOhlinger
PROMPT PRINTERS
DIAL 8132
109-111 E. Washington St.
Second Floor
Methodists In Lead, With.
Presbyterian, Catholic,
Episcopal Groups Next
Methodists, Presbyterians, Cath-
olics, and Episcopalians are the lead-
ers in student membership, accord-
ing to the results of a religious cen-
sus made public yesterday. Nearly 2,-
000 students named no preference at
all.
Methodists led the list with 1,045
members. There were 814 Presbyter-
ians, 666 Catholics, 593 Episcopalians,
472 Congregationalists, and 411 Jew-
ish members. A total of 29 faiths are
represented. Other memberships are:
Lutherans, 309; Baptists, 261; Chris-
tian Disciples, 108; Reformed, 97;
Evangelicals, 75; Christian Scientists,
54; and Orthodox, 31.
Twenty members each registered
for Protestant and Union Federated
churches; while there were 14 Breth-
ren, 12 Friends. 9 Mormons, 7 each of
Swedenborgians, A.M.E., and Juda-
ists; and 2 each of Mohammedan,
Moravian, Adventist, Free Methodist,
Mennonite and Nazarene.
The Presbyterian church takes sec-
ond place when preferences are add-
ed to the actual members. In this col-
umn, the Methodists have 1,362; the
Presbyterians, 994; Episcopalians,
732; Catholics, 703; and Jewish, 626.
Large prefernces were indicated for
the Protestant, Unitarian and Chris-
tian Science churches.
.
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r
lowing sucn prouctions to continue,
Professor Nicoll declared, "and pro- hindered the development of the dra-
posed to Parliament an act which ma, permitted Fielding to devote
would place all theatrical produc- himself to his novels, and made pos-
tions under the supervision of the sible the collection by the govern-
lord chamberlain. ment of all plays written during that
"This restriction, while it seriously period.
t . t ft
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