Women's Athletics ’82

TigerBlog would like to welcome his new readers from the Class of 1982.

For the second time this spring, TB was part of a Class of 1982 Zoom call related to athletics. The first one was about the 1981 football game against Yale, the one where Princeton won 35-31 on Bob Holly's touchdown run on the final play, after he threw for 501 yards, as the Tigers ended a 14-year losing streak to the Bulldogs.

That call was great. TB wrote about that one HERE.

The second one was this past Sunday night. This time it was a celebration the women athletes of the Class of 1982.

TigerBlog was invited to speak about Princeton women's athletic history. When he was first introduced, his daily blog was mentioned, and several members of the audience said they hadn't heard of it.

TB then told them where to find it, and hopefully they're here now. And as he said on the call, there are more than 3,000 you can catch up on if you like.

In all seriousness, thanks for reading. And thanks for including him on the call Sunday night.

TigerBlog can sum it up fairly succinctly. The Class of 1982 produced extraordinary women athletes, and those athletes have gone on to become incredibly successful beyond Princeton, all while staying really close with each other.

It doesn't get too much better than that.

Princeton won 20 women's championships in the four years that the Class of 1982 was on campus. The next-best total was 12, by Yale. No other school had more than six.

During their four years, Princeton's Class of 1982 swept the Ivy titles in outdoor track and field and swimming. There was no official indoor track and field championship until their junior year of 1980-81, and Princeton won that one and the next one.

There was no Ivy League champion in women's squash until 1983, but the women's squash Class of 1982 graduated with a record of 25-0 and three Howe Cup national championships.

The class saved its best for last, winning Ivy League championships in eight women's sports in 1981-82. Because of the success of the women's teams, Princeton in their sophomore year reached 10 Ivy titles, marking the first time in league history that a school had reached double figures. The second time was a year later with 11, and the third time was a year after that with 12 total.

TigerBlog is in the process of writing the history of women's athletics at Princeton, which turns 50 this fall. He'll be doing this in a series of stories, tracing how Princeton went from an all-male school to a national model for women's athletics and did so in a very short time.

To date it's been one of his favorite things that he's worked on here, and it's only going to continue to be more interesting as it goes along. The event Sunday night certainly contributed to the project.

The first women's athletic event in Princeton history was on Oct. 17, 1970, when Helena Novakova and Margie Gengler competed in the Eastern Intercollegiate tennis tournament (and won it). It was less than a decade later that the Class of 1982 arrived.

Women's athletics weren't quite in their infancy, but it was still a formative time for the program. Having the group of women who were on the call Sunday night built on the foundation set by the earliest pioneers and then set the stage for the amazing successes that followed, through to the modern era.

One thing that stood out on the call was the high percentage of multi-sport athletes in the group. There was a time when there were way more multi-sport athletes for both men and women, and TB often says when asked on the subject that there are fewer multi-sport athletes in eighth grade, let alone college, because of how the youth sports system almost demands specialization.

Still, the number of women who played two or even three sports was extraordinary. Even more so was the number of women who played a sport at Princeton that they hadn't yet played before they got there.

What it speaks to is their competitive nature, their drive, their ferocity. They spoke about how important their athletic experience was to them then and how much it has impacted them since. With the number of doctors and lawyers and other successes on the call, it's clear that the impact has been quite for the positive.

As with the football call, TB greatly enjoyed being a part of it and having the opportunity to hear them. And now to include them in the story of women's history at Princeton.

Their place is certainly a big part of the story.