March 23, 1981
100 Years of PAW - March 22, 2000
Princeton Alumni Weekly remembers
Selections from our first century of publication
March 23, 1981
Frederic E. Fox '39, beloved keeper of Princetoniana, appeared on the
cover of this issue, which featured a tribute to him by William G. Bowen
*58.
March 28, 1917
War clouds
During the past week many [students] . . . have left Princeton for Newport, to take the two weeks' training for the United States Naval Reserve, and in case of war, to serve in the coast patrol. . . . The application for the establishment at Princeton of an Officers' Reserve Training Corps has been approved. . . . With the arrival of spring the Princeton Provisional Battalion is now drilling out of doors and the rifles to be supplied by the War Department are expected to arrive any day now. The Princeton Aviation Corps has received . . . two aeroplanes and the organization hopes to receive additional planes in the near future. There are about two hundred undergraduates enrolled in the Aviation Corps, and they expect to begin training on one of the fields in the neighborhood of Princeton.
March 14, 1923
Compulsory chapel
The new Princetonian board fired an opening broadside at compulsory chapel bright and early on the first Monday morning of its tenure of office, under the caption of "Religion and the Ramrod." Stating that the present system is supported by two arguments, "its value in making Christians out of heathen undergraduates and its value in forcing men to be in Princeton for an hour of at least half the Sundays of the year," the editor continued: "Without disputing the claims of Christianity or any other religion, we do question the benefit to be derived from forcing religion down anyone's throat. . . . The mere psychological effect of compulsion is an effective deterrent to the acquisition of the spiritual attitude which everyone wishes to see in others, and even in himself."
March 18, 1955
After the Junior Prom
Sunday afternoon the undergraduate and his date spent concocting punches from the dregs of Saturday's fifths and pints, drinking draft beer imported from Kingston and struggling with the mammoth crossword puzzles in his Sunday papers. The dates were gone by dinnertime, and so were the cars, and the undergraduates faced their theses, junior papers and midterms and decided to forget them till Monday. Freshmen had their own Prom to look forward to, and juniors and seniors knew what to expect of Houseparties. Sophomores, now men in the Street, still weren't sure what to expect, but after a pretty harrowing Bicker and a weekend of reward, they were ready to take it in stride.
March 17, 1964
Sportsmanship reborn
(Letter to the editor from B. Peter Carry '64).
This year it is all changed; changed so radically that one Princeton alumnus, who had not been to a basketball game for a while, actually likened the gymnasium to a cathedral during the Columbia game two weeks ago. That is the way it has been most of this year and last. There has been plenty of noise, but of the enthusiastic, cheer-for-the-home-team variety, rather than the ridicule and often obscenity which used to color the vocalizing from the gym's bleachers . . .
A number of people have been responsible for the change. Director of Athletics R. Kenneth Fairman '34 has always been a one-man police force at the games, telling unsportsmanlike fans to shut up in no uncertain terms. The big break came last year when Fairman received a vote of confidence on the question of spectator behavior from coach Bill van Breda Kolff '45 and captain Art Hyland '63. The pair combined in writing and signing an open letter to the fans which has been duplicated this year with captain Bill Howard '64's cooperation. The letter, which appears on the front of every game program, asks the spectators to "please observe the rules of sportsmanship and good taste at all times. The officials and our opponents are guests of Princeton."
. . . Another big factor, probably the biggest of all, in the better behavior has been Bill Bradley '65. His own fine example on the court and that of the rest of the team is reflected in the stands, mostly because Princeton fans now watch Bradley constantly and have little time for extracurriculars like blasting the refs. . . .
March 20, 1991
Student drinking
Declaring Princeton's current efforts to combat alcohol abuse "inadequate,"
President Shapiro has appointed his chief assistant, O. Carl Wartenburg,
to head a two-year campaign to identify and relieve the conditions that
foster excessive drinking by undergraduates, including student attitudes
toward alcohol. As the university's "alcohol liaison," Wartenburg
will live on the campus for a year and work full-time with students and
administrators to nurture a collaborative response to the crisis.
To order the best of paw
The Best of paw is a 448-page anthology edited by former PAW editor Jim Merritt '66. The anthology will celebrate the history, traditions, character, and culture of Princeton and will be available this summer. To order, send $35pp to Best of PAW, Princeton Alumni Weekly, 194 Nassau St., Princeton, NJ 08542.
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