The Show Must Go On

Of all of the traditions at Princeton, TigerBlog's absolute favorite is the P-Rade.

It happens on the Saturday of Reunions, when the classes - led by the old guard - march through the heart of the campus in a sea of orange and black love and loyalty. It is a spectacle of such warmth and joy that even someone like TB - a Penn alum - can't help but get into the spirit.

The P-Rade has great history to it. This is from the Princeton Reunions website:

The P-rade officially began in the late 1890s, but it is actually the merged product of earlier traditions. Beginning in the Civil War era, alumni formally processed to Commencement Day dinner meetings. Then in 1888, Princeton and Yale University began scheduling one of their baseball games at Princeton on the Saturday before Commencement. Since this coincided with class dinners, alumni attendance was high and many classes formally marched to the game at University Field (located at the corner of Prospect Avenue and Olden Street). In October 1896, when the newly renamed Princeton University celebrated its sesquicentennial (150th anniversary), 800 Princeton undergraduates and 2,000 alumni took part in a mile-long procession through the campus and town; most carried an orange torch or lantern, and many classes wore coordinated costumes. Stimulated by the grandeur and organization of this parade, in 1897 all returning classes first joined to march in order to the baseball game. By 1906, a written description of the annual event said, “The Alumni Pee-rade on Saturday afternoon was quite as spectacular as usual; the bands, banners, transparencies, uniforms and vaudeville features encircling University Field with color and noise.”

If you want to read the whole entry, click HERE.

TB never misses a P-Rade. He hopes that in another 27 or so years, he'll be able to see his daughter walk in her 25th Reunion P-Rade. That's a sweet thought.

Because he loves the P-Rade so much, TB will be watching tomorrow at 2 for the P-Rade online. He's not 100 percent sure what exactly it's going to entail, but it will make him think about what the actual P-Rade experience is.

The P-Rade comes on the final day of Reunions. The event would have begun last night, and the campus today would be jammed with people back to celebrate. Here's a good hint: Park near the Grad College.

Jadwin Gym especially would be rocking today, with basketball alumni games and BBQs and alums from basically every sport around.

The Friday fun always comes after the Gary Walters ’67 Princeton Varsity Club Awards Banquet, which is always on the Thursday night of Reunions. The banquet is the result of months of planning and execution, and the day after always seems like the calm after the storm.

Everything is different this spring, of course. Still, the show must go on.

And so it did, last night, as scheduled. This time it was a video version, one that required a much different kind of planning.

Until two years ago, the banquet was held outside, as opposed to its new location in Jadwin Gym. In any of those years, a weather forecast like the one from last night would have been the source of great consternation.

The online banquet still served as the source for the announcement of the top departmental awards. The winners of the Art Lane Award for outstanding service to sport and society by an undergrad were Chris Davis of the baseball team and Grace Baylis of the field hockey team. The winner of the 1916 Cup for the top academic standing was Hadley Wilhoite of the track and field team. 

And then there were the winners of the top senior athlete awards, the von Kienbusch for the women and the Roper for the men. The 2020 winners are three of the greatest athletes Princeton has ever seen, and all three will be forever linked by what they accomplished here. And also for what might have been.

Bella Alarie, the all-time leading scorer in Princeton women's basketball history, won the von Kienbusch Award. The Roper Trophy was shared by Michael Sowers, the all-time leading scorer in Princeton men's lacrosse history, and Matthew Kolodzik, the wrestler who came back from what was supposed to be a year off to train for the Olympics to compete against Cornell - and help the Tigers end the Big Red's nearly two-decade Ivy title streak while winning their own for the first time in 34 years.

The COVID-19 situation means that there will always be some what-ifs for these three. Would Bella have led the women's basketball team (26-1 at the time) to the Sweet 16? Would Sowers have led the men's lacrosse team all the way (the Tigers were 5-0 and ranked second or third)? Would Kolodzik have won the NCAA title at 149 pounds?

There are no answers to these questions and there will never be. What there is, though, is an unquestionable legacy for all three.

And, as the events of this weekend show, the show indeed will always go on.

It's a sign of a resilience for Princeton Athletics and Princeton University that lends great hope that things will be back to normal again.