'Friends' groups contribute key dollars

When the football team played in San Diego this September, they didn't make the trip to California alone. In addition to the numerous alumni who descended on the town for the weekend, another quintessentially Orange and Black group made its presence felt throughout the weekend at events ranging from a swanky evening reception to a game-day tailgate — the cheerleading squad.

But while the football team, as well as the numerous University staffers who made the trip, knew the Athletic Department would be paying for their trip, things weren't quite as simple for the cheerleaders.

Their trip was ultimately paid for by the Friends of Princeton Cheerleading. It wasn't the first time outside groups had come to the team's aid.

Indeed, most athletic teams at the University have found that their financial needs are most always met, even if it's not out of Princeton's athletic budget. Helping fill in the gaps are a number of organizations catering to both specific sports and Princeton athletics at large.

General support for Princeton athletics is collectively administered through the Princeton Varsity Club (PVC), while several individual sports — including the football and basketball teams — have specific "Friends" groups.

"The general mission of the Princeton Varsity Club is to support and unite around the performance, values and community of the Princeton athletics tradition," Assistant Director for Athletic Marketing and Development Brie Galicinao said in an email.

"Specifically, the PVC's purpose is to enhance the athletic, educational and postgraduate experience of our current student-athletes, and build a spirited collegiality among current and former Princetonians and other supporters of Princeton athletics."

The majority of that support comes in the form of financing. According to Galicinao, the funding ultimately comes from a range of "longterm supporters of Princeton athletics," mainly alumni.

Donors who meet a minimum level of annual support become members of the organization. While alums who graduated in the past five years are asked to give 50 dollars annually, those who graduated in 1989 and earlier must donate 150 dollars per year to remain members.

The program is managed by a Board of Directors whose members include Ralph DeNunzio '53, for whom DeNunzio pool is named, and Dick Kazmaier '52, Princeton's only Heisman Trophy winner. Another 65 individuals — ranging from Bill Bradley '65 to former men's basketball coach Pete Carril to current varsity athletes — serve on the PVC Advisory Board.

"The role of the advisory committee members [is] to be ambassadors of Princeton athletics and help spread the word about the Princeton Varsity Club," Galicinao said.

In recent years, the PVC has been instrumental is sponsoring recognition programs like the PVC Speaker Series, the Senior Student-Athlete Banquet, facility enhancements in the Jadwin weight room, mentoring from Princeton Athletics alumni for current team members and a program called Tigers in the Community that "organizes and provides cross-sport opportunities to volunteer in the community."

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For more specific needs, teams often call upon their "Friends" group for help.

"Friends groups generally help to support some expenses for their specific programs. For example, if a team needed new video equipment or wanted to go on a foreign tour, their Friends' funds would pay for those types of expenses, which are ancillary to the core operations of those sports," Associate Director of Athletics James Zaninovich said.

Zaninovich added that individual donors sometimes earmark gifts for specific purposes.

In the past, Friends groups have raised funds and rallied support for University teams in many unique ways.

The Princeton Football Association (PFA), the football program's "Friends" group, is one of the largest. The PFA helps cover the cost of recruiting fly-ins, part-time coaches salaries, filming of games, the team banquet and weight room, team career night, the head coach's endowment and more.

During the football team's weekend in San Diego this fall, the PFA, in conjunction with the athletic department and the PVC, organized a series of elaborate festivities for the estimated 500 alumni in attendance. The events included a Friday night party at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla, an elaborate tailgate the morning of the game on the campus of the University of San Diego and a reception at the San Diego Padres game Saturday night.

For other teams, Friends groups are less about providing extravagant festivities and instead often focus simply on keeping the program alive. Such was the case for the wrestling team, which lost varsity status for several years in the early 1990s. From 1997 to 2004, the team was funded entirely by the Friends of Princeton Wrestling.

In January, the University announced that the groups had raised more than three million dollars to establish an endowment for the wrestling program, meeting the fundraising requirement Princeton had set for the team to resume receiving University funding. Particularly noteworthy in that campaign was a silk scarf renowned artist Frank Stella '58 designed just to raise money.

The cheerleading team has also traditionally relied on Friends groups for financial support. Classified by the athletics department as a non-varsity sport, the squad is often relegated to second-class funding from the University. Squad captain Joanna Gaines '05 recalls perilous journeys through New York City traffic in a 15-person passenger van because of limited transportation funding.

To compensate, the team actively pursues financial help from Princeton alumni.

"Each year the captains write [letters] to various alumni asking for donations," she said. "We've used [the donations] to buy mats for practice, travel to San Diego and invest in new uniforms."

As a result, a large portion of the cheerleading team's funding comes from Friends groups. In addition to the help it receives from its own Friends group, it also receives assistance from the Friends of Princeton Basketball and the PFA, Gaines said.

Ultimately, the cheerleading squad and other Princeton teams find that, more often than not, their friends take care of them.

"Money," Gaines said, "seems to 'appear' when we need it."