Name-a-Day Calendar, June 26: Princeton Tigers
Page 232 of 365
Chosen in: The 1880s
Chosen by: The school community as a whole
The origin of Princeton’s “Tigers” nickname goes all the way back to when the school was still known as the College of New Jersey (not to be confused with the school in Trenton known by that name since 1996).
By the late 19th century, intercollegiate athletics were already well established at this school. In the 1880s, the school’s primary rallying cheer used the word “tiger”, most likely because the school’s colors were orange and black.
Additionally, the Class of 1882 during their senior year published a humor magazine titled The Princeton Tiger, which ran for nine issues. This was likely the first direct reference to a “Princeton Tiger”, as—though the school moved to its current Princeton, New Jersey, location in 1756—it was not renamed Princeton University until 1896.
Fight songs including the word “tiger”, often in direct reference to the school’s identity, followed. Gradually, everyone came to accept the tiger as the college mascot.
Funnily enough, this all came almost immediately after the Class of 1879 gifted the college two lion statues. They’d reverse course and replace them with tiger statues in 1910—two of the many tigers sprinkled throughout Princeton’s campus.
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