Princeton Tigers

The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 31 varsity sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, six in men's lacrosse, three in women's lacrosse, and eight in men's golf. Princeton's men's and women's crews have also won numerous national rowing championships. The field hockey team made history in 2012 as the first Ivy League team to win the Division I NCAA Championship in field hockey.

Teams

 * Men's Sports: | Baseball | Basketball | Crew - Heavyweight | Crew - Lightweight | Cross Country | Fencing | Football | Golf | Hockey | Lacrosse | Rugby | Soccer | Sprint Football | Squash | Swimming & Diving | Tennis | Track & Field | Volleyball | Water Polo | Wrestling
 * Women's Sports: | Basketball | Crew - Lightweight | Crew - Open | Cross Country | Fencing | Field Hockey | Golf | Hockey | Lacrosse | Rugby | Soccer | Softball | Squash | Swimming & Diving | Tennis | Track & Field | Volleyball | Water Polo

Men's basketball
Princeton's basketball team is perhaps the best-known team within the Ivy League. It is nicknamed the "perennial giant killer," a nickname that it acquired during Pete Carril's coaching career from 1967–1996. 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, after leading 29–21 at the half. During that 29-year span, Pete Carril won thirteen Ivy League championships and received eleven NCAA berths and two NIT bids. Princeton placed third in the 1965 NCAA Tournament and won the NIT championship in 1975. The deliberate "Princeton offense" is a legacy of his coaching career. It is employed by a number of other collegiate basketball teams.

From 1992–2001, a nine-year span, the men's basketball team entered the NCAA tournament four times. Notably, the Ivy League has never had an at-large entry in the NCAA tournament. For the last half-century, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania have traditionally battled for men's basketball dominance in the Ivy League; Princeton had its first losing season in 50 years of Ivy League basketball in 2005. Princeton tied the record for fewest points in a Division I game since the 3-point line started in 1986–87 when they scored 21 points in a loss against Monmouth University on December 14, 2005.

Crew
Rowing was introduced to Princeton in 1870 by a handful of undergraduates who bought two old boats with their own funds and formed an impromptu "navy" on the Delaware and Raritan Canal. 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.

Men's heavyweight crew

 * National Collegiate Rowing Championship: 2345

Men's lightweight crew

 * See also: Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) and Goldthwait Cup

Main article under construction: Princeton Tigers Men's Lightweight Crew

Women's open crew

 * See also: Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC)

Football


The football team has competed since 1869 and played in the first game against Rutgers University. They have won 24 national championships when the school competed in what is now known as the FBS. 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.

Though Princeton is no longer a part of Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, the Tigers have the most overall national championships of any team in major college football history with 24 consensus and non-consensus national championships dating all the way back to their first one, shared with Rutgers, in 1869.

Since 1901, however, they have 4 consensus national championships, which ranks as tied for 11th all time.

Princeton's football helmets are also the basis for Michigan Wolverines football'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.

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.

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 thirteen Ivy League titles (1992, 1993, 1995–2004, 2006) and six national titles (1992, 1994, 1996–1998, 2001).

Women's lacrosse
The Princeton Tigers women's lacrosse team has enjoyed much success, winning 3 NCAA championships, tied for 3rd place with Virginia in the number of NCAA championships won.They won NCAA division 1 titles in 1994, 2002, and 2003. Their record in the NCAA tournament finals is 3-4.

Men's Rugby
Ivy League Champions in 2004, 1979, 1977, 1973, 1971 and 1969.

Women's Rugby
National champions in 1995 and 1996. Princeton women advanced to the Final Four in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005. 32 Princeton women have been named All-Americans.

Men's soccer
Before the NCAA began its tournament in 1951, the annual national champion was declared by the Intercollegiate Association Football League (IAFL) — from 1911 to 1926 — and then the Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association (ISFA), from 1927 to 1958. From 1911 to 1958, Princeton won seven national championships.

Women's soccer
In 2004, the women's soccer team went to the Final Four in the NCAA tournament. It became the only Ivy League team (men's or women's) to do so in a 64-team tournament.

Squash
Princeton's men's and women's squash teams have earned a strong reputation during the past decade.

Men's squash
The men have won the Ivy League championship from 2006–2008 and have placed second nationally in five of the past seven championships. On February 19, the Tigers defeated the Trinity Bantams in a 5-4 thriller. The Bantams had won the past 13 National Championship and up until a few weeks prior to the Championship, had won 252 matches straight (before falling to Yale 5-4). The Tigers were undefeated in the Ivy League in 2012 and won the Ivy League championship. They were also the winner of the Sloane Sportsmanship award.

Men's swimming and diving
The men have won the Ivy League Championships from 2009-2013. They are coached by the fearless leader C. Rob Orr.

Women's swimming and diving
Led by Twitter celebrity, Rolls Boyce, the women have dominated the past decade.

Women's track and field
Princeton's women's track & field team has also enjoyed great success under Head Coach Peter Farrell.

Women's volleyball
The Princeton women's volleyball team has won thirteen Ivy League titles and, in 1998, its men's volleyball team became the first non-scholarship school to make the NCAA Final Four in 25 years.

Facilities

 * See footnote

The stadium is Princeton University Stadium, which replaced Palmer Stadium. Baseball is played at Bill Clarke Field. Basketball is played at Jadwin Gymnasium. Ice hockey is played at Baker Rink. Soccer is played at Roberts Stadium. Lacrosse is played at Class of 1952 Stadium. The men's and women's volleyball teams and the wrestling team compete at Dillon Gymnasium. All crews train at Shea Rowing Center and compete on Lake Carnegie. The Rugby Team plays at Rickerson Field on West Windsor Fields.

2000-2009
1. Matty Bowman
 * See footnote