TigerBlog was talking to a few people at the Princeton-Butler game Saturday night about that game, how it was essentially 25 on 25 full contact soccer. When TB thinks about it, he wonders what in the world it must have looked like.
Imagine it. Two teams of 25 each going after each other. It had to be total chaos, no?
The second football game was a week later at Princeton.
That game was Homecoming Day for Princeton that year. The alums came back in big numbers to see the new sensation. There was a parade before the game, and a Homecoming King and Queen were crowned to ride in the lead float with then-President James McCosh, who mentioned that one day there'd be a health center and a classroom that pretty much every Princeton student would have at least one class in during their four years named for him along what then was the parade route.
Actually, the last paragraph was a complete fabrication.
When was the first homecoming game? It depends whom you ask.
There is pretty much universal acknowledgement that Princeton-Rutgers was the first game, which makes this the 150th anniversary season for the sport. Everyone can agree on that.
As for the first Homecoming game? Here's a list of schools who claim to own it: Baylor, Illinois, Missouri, Southwestern University and Northern Illinois. All of these go back to the early 1900s.
This past weekend's two Princeton homecomings got TB thinking about the origins of what people consider when they think of Homecoming Games. Football. Alums. Tailgates. Parades. That sort of thing.
The two this weekend were of another variety, when old friends came back to visit.
The men's water polo team hosted Wagner and Navy this past weekend, winning both. The Tigers are ranked 14th nationally.
Navy, of course, is led by former longtime Princeton head coach Luis Nicolao. The team put together a pregame video recognizing the old coach.
Check out the pregame video we made for Luis and played for him prior to tonight's contest. Thank you for your time at Princeton Luis! pic.twitter.com/d2Pv0evgp0— Princeton Water Polo (@Pwaterpolo) September 22, 2019
Luis is one of the great characters who ever worked at Princeton. That's obvious from the video, which mentions 1) how he used to be Santa Claus every year at the holiday party and 2) how he once fell in the pool during a match.
The other homecoming was Sunday on Myslik Field, where Princeton defeated William & Mary in women's soccer 1-0. The W&M coach is now Julie Shackford, who, like Luis, was coached at Princeton for 20 years.
Shackford and Nicolao are by far the coaches with the most wins at Princeton in their sports. Between them, they had a Princeton combined record of 1,071-431-29. That's a lot of winning.
Both coaches took their Princeton teams regularly to the postseason, including to the NCAA Final Four. Both also coached Olympic medalists - Ashleigh Johnson won gold in water polo, and Diana Matheson won two bronzes in soccer.
And they were back this weekend.
TB never got a chance to see Luis. He did see Julie, whose daughter Kayleigh started for the Tribe in the game and whose son Keegan was in attendance.
So were a lot of her Princeton alums. When the game ended, it was non-stop hugs and photos, and TB presumes the same happened in DeNunzio Pool as well.
It can't be easy for a longtime coach to come back to Princeton and coach against the program that they helped build and had so much success with for so long. TB understands why certain coaches are so resistant to it.
On the other hand, it did make for a pretty special weekend for Princeton water polo and women's soccer.
And probably for a few additional pregame jitters for the returnees.
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