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It rained freshman week. It rained day in and day out and soaked and muddied the ground. The superstitious might have called it a bad omen. But we were freshmen and we only knew that we were in college and that all was right with the world. We only knew that the rain made carrying those refrigerators back to the room especially cold and difficult. What we didn’t know was that the refrigerators were probably over-priced and that we were being fleeced left and right. The university tried to help by forbidding any kind of solicitation for the first three days of the week, but that decree only sent the dealings underground.
The week had both its high and its low points. Most of us had to change at least one course, and this meant that we had to stand in line for hours in order to have our schedule adjusted. The meetings we had to attend were for the most part boring – except for the speech on the honor system that trustee James F. Oates delivered. It was a homely but eloquent speech, and Mr. Oates’ sincerity touched us deeply. On the lighter side were all the open-house parties. The beer flowed freely, and some of us become quite inebriated for the first time. Some of us even signed up and joined an organization or two.
Classes began all too soon. Our biggest problem was finding the rooms where the classes were meeting. It was embarrassing to ask some upperclassman how to find McCosh 10 and have him laugh and point out the very nearest doorway. One way or another, however, most of us found the way and avoided the $20 fine.
The class’s first chance for glory, Cane Spree, ended in disappointment as the sophomores swept to a lopsided 450-275 victory. However, two basketball wins and a triumph in the swimming meet foreshadowed the class’s prowess in those two sports. The heroes of the cage victories were Gary Walters, Rob Brown, Ed Hummer, Al Adler and Bill Koch, all names that would eventually contribute to some of the best basketball Princeton has ever known. In swimming the heroes included Kris Brown, Jim Kremer, Bob Brookens and Jim Edmundson, all of whom were destined to become university record holders.
It was an exciting fall for the entire university. Less than two weeks after classes had started the campus was visited by two nationally controversial figures, Black Muslim leader Malcom X and Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett. Malcom X was heard quietly, but the governor received a stormy and somewhat antagonistic reception. A week later Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu braved a Buddhist picket line to deliver a speech which included a swipe at the treatment she had received from Harvard students.
The freshman football team had trouble adjusting to Princeton’s single-wing system and never realized its potential. The one bright spot was a 46-0 whitewashing of Columbia. However, the individual talent developed during the season was to bolster Princeton football in the upcoming years. Doug James captained the squad and led it to victories over Cornell as well as Columbia. Walt Kozumbo, Pete Zeitzoff, Dave Martin, Carl Behnke and Bill Berkley also stood out as contributors to the squad and later on to the varsity. Among the unsung heroes who played freshman year and then went on to different activities were Lynn Moore, Nick Bogard, Gerry Hicks and Schuyler Henderson.
The soccer team fared better than the football squad and chalked up a 6-2-1 record. The team had a definite international air about it and was led by Ricardo Sicre, Turki Faisal, Ricardo Poma and Demetrios Valassis. On the other hand, the three other top players, Kit Kennedy, Robert Mayer and Jack LaPorte, all came from the Pingry School, which is just around the corner from Princeton.
Although everyone was quite conscientious about doing all the work in the first term of their career, the fall was not without its comic relief. One day in October, Rick Rosenthal, clowning around on top of a parking squad truck while putting up signs, fell off and suffered the consequences of a mild concussion for his chicanery. A few weeks later three other classmates, in an attempt to imitate some seniors who had successfully painted “Hate Yale” on a wall of the new Yamasaki building that was under construction, tried to paint “His” and “Hers” on Whig and Clio halls but were apprehended and reprimanded. Obviously seniors knew something freshmen didn’t.
© 1997 by The Class of 1967, Princeton University. Reprinted from the 1967 Nassau Herald.
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