Memories Of Palmer

Princeton entered late October of 1995 as one of two undefeated football teams in the Ivy League. Remember the other?

Your hint is that they played on Oct. 28 that year, and both were 3-0 in the Ivy League. Your other hint is that it was no contest, a 44-14 Princeton win.

The answer is Columbia, which came to Princeton that day nearly 16 years ago for a showdown for first place in the league. It didn't go particularly well for the Lions.

As TigerBlog recalls, the Lions quarterback was named Mike Cavanaugh. During the 1994 season, Columbia rotated quarterbacks, often play by play, as Cavanaugh ran the wishbone one play and then moved to tailback for the next play, when a different QB (whose name TB doesn't remember) came in for passing situations.

In 1995, Cavanaugh was the only Columbia quarterback, and he was exciting to watch. He could run and throw, and he was a big-play threat on every down.

What TB mostly remembers from the 1995 game was that Cavanaugh broke his leg in the middle of it, which led to a headline in the New York Daily News that read:

"Title Hopes, Quarterback Left Mangled In New Jersey"

Princeton and Columbia meet again tomorrow, in the Ivy opener for both. Kickoff on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium is at 6.

For some reason, when TB thinks back on all the Princeton football games he's seen, that one against Columbia in 1995 really stands out, maybe because of the headline. Or maybe because it was a big step on the road to the outright Ivy title that the team won that year.

Back in 1995, Princeton still played in Palmer Stadium, which has become a venerated place in Princeton University history, and for good reason. There are few buildings in this campuses history that had the historic significance as Palmer Stadium.

It was built in 1914, taking four months and costing $300,000. It was built on the spot it was and with an open end zone because it gave fans an unobstructed view of the lake, something that today is blocked by the closed end of the new stadium, not to mention the track, Jadwin Gym, Faculty Road and a bunch of trees.

TigerBlog has seen millions of pictures of Palmer Stadium from back in the 1920s or 1930s, when the building was packed and there were almost no cars in the parking lot, only horses.

By 1995, Palmer wasn't quite the same place it had been in its glory days.

The stadium was made of concrete, just before people figured out that concrete expanded and contracted with the weather over time, and so there were cracks in the stadium almost from the start.

By 1995, it was a place that was crumbling, and orange and black netting had to be put up to support the structure and catch the falling rocks.

There was a side road that led under the stands on the side where the press box was, and TB used to pull his car underneath to unload whatever needed to be brought up for that game. Every time he parked, he wondered if the stadium would come crashing down on top of his car.

There was no elevator to the press box, so everything had to be carried up. This included the copy machine before the season (and brought back down after the season), and TB remembers an epic near-blows confrontation between student workers Brad Sonneborn and Marcus Hurley on one occasion.

The press box itself was completely exposed to the elements, except for a wooden roof that leaked. On a fall day when it might be sunny and chilly, those in the press box got no benefit of the sunshine, which made it seem even colder.

The TV and radio booths were one level up, so TB had to run stats or out of town scores or bagged lunches up a flight of wooden stairs to get there. There was no ladies' room, only a men's room, on the press box.

The guest box was next to the press box, and TB isn't quite sure who sat in there or why.

The rest of the stadium was a vast expanse of whitish/grayish concrete bleachers, with numbers painted on them. The distance between one row and the next was pretty big, and it wasn't all that comfortable to either sit on the concrete without any back support or to lean back onto the row behind you.

There were no locker rooms, showers or other amenities in the stadium. There was definitely no video board.

All in all, it wasn't the most comfortable stadium ever constructed. Nor was it the most beautiful.

What it was was home for the Tigers for 83 years, and it saw national champions, Ivy champions, record-setting performances, All-Americas, Hall-of-Fame players and coaches, future pros and one Heisman Trophy winner.

TigerBlog wasn't all that upset to see its demolition back in 1997.

Still, he thinks of it rather fondly when he remembers back to his time there.

Of course, that all changes the first time it's cold and wet and he can simply close the window in the PA booth in Princeton Stadium.

Well, maybe it doesn't change completely.