Princeton University
Location: Princeton, N.J.
Nickname: Tigers

The Tigers' Olympic history started with the first modern Games, 1896 in Athens. Robert Garrett, Jr., Herbert Jamison, Francis Lane, and Albert Tyler, all Class of 1897, were part of the U.S. Track & Field team at Athens. Garrett, coming from a rather wealthy family, funded the trip for his three classmates.

A history professor at Princeton sparked Garrett's interest in the discus competition (a mainstay in the ancient Olympics), in addition to his customary events. But when they tried to produce a model of the object that was to be thrown, it weighed about thirty pounds, which discouraged Garrett from participating. Once in Athens, he would find that the actual discus weighed only five pounds, at which point Garrett entered the competition for fun. His 'fun' turned out to be a gold medal, beating two Greeks. Garrett would also win the shot put competition, again beating two Greeks. He was second in the long jump and high jump, the other medal-winners in both competitions were part of Harvard's large Olympic contingent.

Perhaps less prominent, but unique, is the Tigers' dominance of the American men's field hockey scene in the 1930's. The team sent to the 1932 Los Angeles Games featured four tigers: Horace C. Disston '28, Samuel Ewing '27, Warren Ingersoll '31, and David McMullin III '30. The team finished third in a field of three. All returned for the 1936 Berlin Games except Ingersoll, and they added Paul Fentress '36 and Ellwood Godfrey '33.

Many summer competitors in the 108 years since Garrett's Olympic experience have had similar success. Rhodes scholar, NBA star, and politician Bill Bradley '65, then just a junior at Princeton, helped the U.S. men's basketball team to a gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo games. Rower Anne Marden '81 won silver medals for the United States at both the 1984 Los Angeles and 1988 Seoul Games.

Lynn Jennings '83, a distance runner, competed in the 10,000-meter race at the 1988, 1992 (Barcelona), and 1996 (Atlanta) Games. Princeton is also represented in the Winter Games, with many men's ice hockey players on the U.S. national team in the 30's and 40's, and Andrea Kilbourne '03 being the current link with a silver medal from the 2002 U.S. women's ice hockey team.