A
Tradition of Princeton University
The Tiger emerged as a symbol
of Princeton, ironically, not very long after
Woodrow Wilson's class, at its graduation in 1879,
gave the College a pair of lions to guard the
main entrance to Nassau Hall. The growing use
of the tiger-rather than the lion-as Princeton's totem has been ascribed by Princetonians
of that period to two things: the College cheer,
which, like other cheers of that time, contained
a ``tiger'' as a rallying word; and the growing
use of orange and black as the college colors.
In 1882 the senior class issued a humor magazine
called The Princeton Tiger, depicting on its title
page a lively tiger cub being born beneath the
legend Volume I, Number 1. This tiger's influence
was short-lived, however, since after only nine
issues no other issue appeared until 1890 when
another generation brought forth a second Volume
I, Number 1. Meanwhile, football players of the
early 1880s were wearing broad orange and black
stripes on their stockings and on their jerseys,
and sometimes on stocking caps. Watching their
movements in the waning light of late autumn afternoons,
sportswriters began to call them tigers.
The tiger soon began to appear in Princeton
songs, beginning with ``The Orange and the Black,''
written in the late 1880s by Clarence Mitchell
1889:
"Although Yale has always favored
The violet's dark hue,
And the many sons of Harvard
To the crimson rose are true,
We will own the lilies slender,
Nor honor shall they lack,
While the tiger stands defender
Of the Orange and the Black." |