Athletes accept decision to postpone games as necessary

Princeton is generally known as a trendsetter among universities. For example, when the University changed its financial aid policy by replacing loans with grants, Harvard responded by making its aid packages more generous.

But in light of other school's responses to last week's terrorist attacks, Princeton's Department of Athletics found itself reacting to events rather than shaping them. The University originally announced that its teams would play in most scheduled competitions. But by Friday, all of this weekend's athletic contests had been cancelled.

Gary Walters '67, Director of Athletics, said on Wednesday that Princeton would participate in as many sporting events as possible, including Saturday's football game against Lafayette.

The University's position was inspired by President Shirley Tilghman's call for Princeton to return to normal functions as soon as was prudent.

Other institutions, notably Yale, immediately cancelled all of their sporting events until today. The Princeton field hockey team's matchup with the Elis, scheduled for Saturday, was postponed to October.

Princeton, however, planned to play a regular schedule and the field hockey team beat Drexel, 4-0, Thursday night. The men's soccer team was also in action, and the Tigers beat Farleigh-Dickinson 1-0.

The nation's mood had shifted by Thursday, however, as major sports teams around the country began to reschedule their games.

First, Major League Baseball postponed last week's games. Then, the NFL, for the first time in its history, cancelled an entire week of play, 15 games in all. Even Michael Jordan postponed a news conference on his potential return to basketball.

Earlier in the week, many Division I-A college football games remained on the schedule. Some conferences cancelled or rescheduled games, but others, notably the Southeastern Conference, attempted to hold to their plans despite travel complications. But as public pressure mounted and the professional sports leagues cancelled their events, every Division I-A football game was cancelled, and only three Division I-AA games were played.

Princeton football, a Division I-AA team, wanted to kick off its season against Lafayette, but the Leopards cancelled all of their sporting events for the weekend, including the football game with Princeton.

"Assuming that things would have been safe, it would have been a good time to reflect together," senior captain Bob Farrell said. "My family was supposed to come up here and watch the game."

Farrell realized why others might have wanted to postpone the games.

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"I see that there are two sides of the argument. I understand that people want to honor those who have died and have time to reflect.

"I respect their decision to cancel. If I were in that position, I probably would have done the same thing."

The men's soccer team generally supported this weekend's cancellation of games as well.

"I support the decision not to play," senior captain Graeme Rein said. "Different people react in different ways to the tragedy. It would have been hard to get people together who are so far apart emotionally.

"Life is so much more important than soccer."

Even with competitions being cancelled, Princeton's sports teams attempted to conform to a relatively normal practice schedule.

"Instead of a light practice on Thursday, we had a heavy practice — essentially a scrimmage," Farrell said. "Then we had Friday and Saturday off and practiced [Sunday] morning."

"No one practiced Friday because it was the National Day of Prayer," Rein said. "We practiced on Saturday and Sunday mornings because there was no game."

The Tigers also know that the effects of this week's events will hang over this season.

"It's hard to block out of your mind," Rein said, "but I feel confident we'll be able to focus."

"It's hard to just pick up and play as if this never happened," Farrell said. "It'll be on our minds. We know we'll only have one game done after Lehigh, and we'll know why."