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Basketball Men's basketball Princeton's
basketball team is perhaps the best-known team within the Ivy League. Its most notable upset was the 1996 defeat of defending NCAA champion
UCLA in the tournament's opening round, Carril's final collegiate victory. In 1989, the team almost became the only #16 seed to win, losing to Georgetown 50–49. During that 29-year span, Pete Carril won thirteen Ivy League championships
Women's basketball Princeton's varsity women's basketball program is the strongest in the Ivy League, carrying on the tradition of the men's championship basketball program. The team had an especially good season in
2015, with a 31–0 record, a national NCAA Division 1 ranking among the top 25 teams, and entering the field of 32 teams remaining in the
2015 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament.
Football The
football team competes in the Football Championship Subdivision of NCAA Division I with the rest of the Ivy League. As of 2021, Princeton claims 28 national football championships, which would make it the most of any school, although the NCAA only recognizes 15 of the wins. Twenty-one former players have been inducted into the
College Football Hall of Fame. The first
football game played between teams representing American colleges was an unfamiliar ancestor of today's
college football because it was played under
soccer-style London Football Association rules. The game, between Rutgers College (now
Rutgers University) and the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), took place on November 6, 1869, at College Field (now the site of the College Avenue Gymnasium at Rutgers University) in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rutgers won by a score of six "runs" to Princeton's four. The
1869 game between Rutgers and Princeton is notable because it is the first documented game of any sport called "football" between two American colleges. It is also noteworthy because it occurred two years before a codified rugby game would be played in England. The Princeton/Rutgers game was significantly different from American rules football today but, nonetheless, it was the first inter-collegiate football contest in the United States. Another similar game took place between
Rutgers and
Columbia University in 1870 and a third notable game took place between
Tufts University and
Harvard University in 1875. The popularity of intercollegiate competition in football would spread throughout the country shortly thereafter. Princeton's football helmets are also the basis for
Michigan Wolverines football team's famed winged helmets, as introduced by
Fritz Crisler, the coach at Princeton before he was hired as the coach of the
University of Michigan.
Sprint In addition to the varsity Tigers, Princeton, like a number of other Ivy League schools, also fielded a
sprint football squad for players 172 pounds and lighter from 1934 to 2015. The lightweight Tigers won at least a share of the league title eight times, five of those being from between 1937 and 1942. Their last championship, split with the
Army Cadets, came in 1989. The Tigers sprint squad collapsed in 1999, which began a losing streak that spanned parts of 17 seasons and 106 games (a collegiate football record), including at least four forfeits; by the end of the 2015 season, Princeton's athletics department determined that the addition of several schools whose sole football team was a sprint squad (and thus were teams that could get all of the best players at their respective schools) and the loss of most of the Ivy League schools, along with the inability of Princeton to recruit more and better players for the team without compromising its other athletic programs or its academic standards, meant that the team would likely be hopelessly outmatched and that this would pose a safety hazard for the players they could recruit. This conclusion led Princeton to drop sprint football in April 2016.
Golf Men's golf The men's golf team have won 12
national championships, and they have won the Ivy League title 26 times. They have had seven NCAA individual champions: Louis Bayard, Jr. (1987), Percy Pyne (1899), Frank Reinhart (1903), Albert Seckel (1909), Simpson Dean (1921) and
George Dunlap (1930 and 1931).
Women's golf The women's golf team was founded as a club sport in 1978, coached by Betty Whelan. A group called "Friends of Women's Golf" began fundraising immediately, and the group began lobbying for inclusion as a varsity sport. After ten years of being denied varsity status by the university, representatives from the team contacted the
ACLU asking for assistance and raising the possibility of a lawsuit under the protections of
Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. In 1991, the university committed to supporting a varsity women's golf program. After becoming a varsity team, women's golf too the Northeast championships in 1995, and Mary Moan won the first Ivy League individual championship in 1997. The team won its first Ivy League title in 1999.
Ice hockey Men's ice hockey Princeton University had an ice hockey team organized already during the 1894–95 season, when the school still went by the name of College of New Jersey. On March 3, 1895 the university ice hockey team faced a
Baltimore aggregation at the
North Avenue Ice Palace in Baltimore,
Maryland and won by a score of 5–0. The players on the 1895 team were Chester Derr, John Brooks, Howard Colby, James Blair, Frederick Allen, Ralph Hoagland and
Art Wheeler.
Women's ice hockey On November 24, 1979, the Princeton Tigers played their first varsity game against the University of Pennsylvania. They play at the Hobey Baker Memorial Rink. In the 2019–2020 season, they won their first ECAC championship, defeating #1 ranked Cornell by a score of 3–2 in overtime.
Lacrosse Men's lacrosse The university's men's
lacrosse team has enjoyed significant success since the early 1990s and is widely recognized as a perennial powerhouse in the Division I ranks. The team has won 27
Ivy League titles
Women's lacrosse The Princeton Tigers women's lacrosse team has won 3 NCAA championships. The construction of
Lake Carnegie in 1906 enabled the sport to expand and laid the foundation for today's rowing program at Princeton. More recently, an $8 million upgrade and expansion of the existing boathouse in 2000 formed
Shea Rowing Center, one of the finest rowing facilities in the country. With 150 athletes, 60 rowing shells, and 12 coaches, trainers, and boat riggers, crew is the largest varsity sport at Princeton, and one of the most successful. In recent years, from 2000 through 2010, Princeton varsity crews (both men's and women's) won a total of 14
Eastern Sprints,
IRA (national), and
NCAA championships, as well as two international events at
Henley Royal Regatta. The Princeton boathouse is often a summer base for U.S. national teams in training, and many Princeton rowers and coaches have gone on to compete at the World Rowing Championships and the Olympics.
Rugby Men's rugby Princeton has a long tradition in the game of rugby in the US, having played
Rutgers University in 1869
the first United States intercollegiate game, which, according to
U.S. Soccer, used rules that resembled
rugby union and
association football and had little resemblance to gridiron
American football Princeton rugby was reorganized in 1931 under the leadership of Monte Barak, Hugh Sloan H.F. Langenberg, and coach John Boardman Whitton. It has been playing continuously ever since. Over 5,000 people attended the inaugural Harvard - Princeton game in 1931. The men's rugby team was Ivy League champions in 2004, 1979, 1977, 1973, 1971 and 1969.
Women's rugby The women's rugby team was national champions in 1995 and 1996. Princeton women advanced to the Final Four in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005. 35 Princeton women have been named All-Americans.
Soccer Men's soccer Princeton's soccer roots trace to the
first de facto college football game held in
1869 v
Rutgers University, with rules based on
The Football Association) is considered the first "not official" collegiate soccer match and the birth of the sport in the United States. The team is one of the oldest active soccer clubs in the United States, playing their first official match in November 1906. The team has won ten
Ivy League and eight
ICSFA tournaments.
Softball Princeton's softball team appeared in the
Women's College World Series in 1995 and 1996.
Squash Men's squash The men have won 18 Ivy League championships.
Swimming and Diving Men's swimming and diving The men have a long history of success in the Ivy League, winning the Ivy League title 30 times.
Track and field Women's track and field Princeton's women's track & field team experienced success under coach Peter Farrell, winning a combined 18 Ivy League titles for its outdoor and indoor team. The Tigers have the honor of being one of only two teams since the formation of the EIVA in 1988 to win the EIVA championship and advance to the
NCAA Men's National Collegiate Volleyball Championship, with every other title having been won by the
Penn State Nittany Lions. The Tigers bested the Nittany Lions in the 1998 EIVA semifinals, and they then went on to beat
Rutgers-Newark; as a result, they won the 1998 EIVA championship and gained a spot in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers have had three players earn All-American honors – Marin Gjaja '91, Derek Devens '98 and Cody Kessel '14.
Wrestling The Princeton Tiger
Wrestling team was started in 1905. The Princeton wrestling team competes in Dillon Gym.
Jadwin Gym has served host to five previous
EIWA Championships (1969, 1979, 1981, 1987 and 2012), as well as both the 1975 and 1981 NCAA Wrestling Championships. The current head coach is
Joe Dubuque. Princeton has two national champions to its credit: Bradley Glass in 1951 and Pat Glory in 2023. ==Championships==