Freshman Year
Spring 1964

The swimming and basketball teams paced the yearling squads. The cagers finished the season with a 14-2 mark, and what was perhaps more significant was that in practice they used to give the varsity an occasional run for their money. The swimmers posted a 14-1 mark and almost upset the Yale freshmen. In that meet Kris Brown set University records in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle and Jim Edmundson set a freshman record in the 200-yard breaststroke, but the Elis managed to finish with a surge and win, 49-46. At the end of the season the freshmen sent seven swimmers to the AAU championships while of varsity competitors only captain and Olympic swimmer Jed Graef was eligible. The freshmen sent a freestyle relay team of Bill Page, Pete Ballantine, Kris Brown and Bruce Brookens, as well as a medley relay team of Jim Kremer, Jim Edmundson, Bill King and Bruce Brookens.

When spring finally arrived, the class was restless enough to bust, and the weekend of Frosh Prom provided them with the perfect outlet. Terry Whipple and Dubby Wynne, the two co-chairmen of the affair, arranged a beer and steak dinner in Palmer Stadium to take the place of the traditional lake party. The biggest stumbling block to the weekend occurred when the deans objected that the description of the affair as a “blanket party” was “too suggestive.” The prom planners yielded, and publicity director Marty Eichelberger was forced to change all the signs to read “Stadium Party.” Once the weekend got underway, however, it was a success, and not even the cold weather could dampen anyone’s spirits.

The warm months of spring were made even warmer by the appearance of an outgoing Norwegian import known to most of us as Anna-Lisa. On one memorable Tuesday night she enlivened the then-famous Joline courtyard with a half-hour solo dance to the sound of “Wooly Booly”, attracting hundreds of students from mid-week grinds.

Later on in April the entire campus was convulsed by its attempt to elect President Goheen “Principal of the Year” in WABC’s annual contest. The entire student body, from the oldest senior to the youngest freshman, spent afternoons bathing in the sun and filling out votes. In addition, Paul Schmidt and John Lavieri helped derail competition when they found 1,000 votes for the Rutgers dean in the Rutgers student center and quietly walked off with them. All the effort went for nothing, however, for in the end Goheen was nosed out by Dean Ruth Adams of Douglass.

A relatively peaceful Houseparties came and went, exams followed and suddenly freshman year was over. A few of us lingered around for the Reunions spectacular, but by the middle of June we had dispersed to the four corners of the world to look back on an enlightening year and to look forward to an even better one on the horizon.

© 1997 by The Class of 1967, Princeton University. Reprinted from the 1967 Nassau Herald.