From New Orleans to New Haven, I've played them all

In my three plus years here at Princeton, I have been to approximately 27 football games, 46 men's basketball games including the NCAA Tournament in New Orleans, two women's ice hockey games, 12 men's lacrosse games, a rugby tournament and the dedication of the new wrestling room.

And I didn't cover a single one of them for the 'Prince'.

As a sports fan who knew he was not destined for a spot on a varsity squad at Princeton, I knew I wanted to stay in some way involved with watching and dealing with sports.

So when I walked onto campus for the first time as a freshman, I was determined to join two groups. One was the 'Prince' sports section. The other was the University Band.

Yes, that band.

The one with the tacky wool orange-and-black plaid uniforms.

The one with the always odd and sometimes funny halftime shows at the football games.

The one that has probably woken you up on a Saturday morning if you lived in Dod, Edwards or Witherspoon.

The one performance group that plays for more people each year than any other.

That band.

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I had never stepped onto a football field until the first game ever held at Princeton Stadium when I took a snare drum and marched onto the field playing the Princeton Cannon song — our fight song. I never had the traditional high school marching band experience of long practices and pinpoint high stepping marches. I preferred to play in our ragtag pep band, the orchestra and with my own garage band which never played anywhere other than our own basements.

But as a sports fan, I knew that playing in the band would give me the chance to travel to more sporting events than I could ever see otherwise.

I came home for fall break talking not about my classes, but rather about the articles I had been writing for the 'Prince' and the fact I had run into Yale's library and played Tequila the week before and seen a football game, which wasn't picturesque, but was fun.

So far this year, however, the band has not gotten a chance to perform.

After the first football game of the year against Lafeyette was cancelled and the Lehigh Athletic Department refused to let the band perform a halftime show without significant restrictions, those in the orangeand-black plaid uniforms will perform for the first time in Princeton Saturday night under the lights.

But that's actually not true.

The night before, the band will be playing at President Tilghman's installation. So in the span of 24 hours, the band will play all of the Princeton songs at Tilghman's installation (there are more of them than you would think) and then they'll poke fun at her in the halftime show. Not a bad weekend of work.

For a sports fan it's been a dream for me at Princeton. I've followed the men's water polo team within a hair of reaching the NCAA Tournament and the women's soccer team to its first Ivy Championship in recent history last year as a journalist. As a fan I've painted my face orange and watched the football team come agonizingly close to victories and seen the men's basketball team cut down the nets as the fans danced the "Hey Song."

There are sports fans who cheer as hard as any student for our teams to do well, varsity athletes in their off-seasons having a little bit of fun, and musicians who simply love to perform.

So if you've made fun of the band in the past that's ok, I have too. But realize the group is just a bunch of people who love sports, music and Princeton. I wouldn't have traded my time at Princeton covering sports and playing at games for anything.