Why do we throw tennis balls at Princeton?
This week, tennis balls will be sold out at every single sports supply store in Hanover. No, everyone hasn’t suddenly decided to pick up the sport in the middle of winter — this Friday is the Dartmouth-Princeton Men’s ice hockey game.
The tradition began at Princeton University in 1998, when a Princeton student threw a single tennis ball at the Dartmouth goalkeeper after Princeton scored their first goal. Dartmouth students responded in full force the next year at our home game, when we pelted the team with not just one tennis ball, but several hundred instead.
Chase Schoelkopf ’15, avid hockey fan and past tennis ball thrower, thinks that “it is a great tradition, and shows Dartmouth’s solidarity.”
Schoelkopf, who usually attends all of Dartmouth’s home hockey games, cites storing the tennis balls in his pockets as his main way of sneaking them in.
“We usually don’t get patted down,” says Schoelkopf, even though Safety and Security claims to frisk students upon entrance to Thompson Arena for the game.
Kristen Rumley ’15 took the tradition to a whole new level at the game last year.
“I went to Boss Tennis Center and got a bag of over 200 tennis balls for everyone,” Rumley said. “A lot of my friends snuck them in and we threw them after every goal.”
Everyone — including the referees — is aware of the tradition, which means that the Dartmouth team is usually not penalized after the first goal. However, during last year’s game students did not stop throwing tennis balls after the first goal, resulting in multiple penalties for Dartmouth during subsequent points.
“It’s all in good fun the first time, but the people who do it the third, fourth and fifth time — I don’t think that’s right,” said Schoelkopf.
Members of the hockey team likely feel the same way.
“Our captain had to go to the penalty box for it,” Rumley said of the 2011-2012 season captain Mike Keenan ’13. “He went on the PA system and asked us to stop throwing them but that didn't stop people so he got another penalty.”
In support of this time-honored tradition, t-shirts that say ‘Puck Frinceton’ on the front and “A tradition unlike any other” on the back have been sold to the general student population as recently as 2011. However, these shirts were not available for purchase in last winter.
Two members of the Class of 2015, who wished to remain anonymous, were dissatisfied by the lack of availability of these legendary shirts their freshman year.
“We liked seeing them on upperclassmen around campus and thought that underclassmen should have the opportunity to wear them too, to honor this tradition,” one said.
They decided to take matters into their own hands and sold the t-shirts under the radar. The ‘Puck Frinceton’ shirts will surely be on full display at the game this Friday.
So ’16s, prepare yourselves for the deafening roar after the first goal and ’13s, rejoice in your last opportunity to celebrate this tradition unlike any other. Watch out, Princeton — the Big Green’s coming for you.