A simple request: Go to the game

As every Princeton sports fan well knows by now, we beat Harvard and Yale in football this year. Even though our long-awaited bonfire was rained out last night, we will be able to carry out this Princeton tradition tonight for the first time in 12 years.

Aside from the exciting action on the field, one of the greatest things to see was the interest and attendance of students at the games. We took to the stands at home against Harvard, and even more impressively, well over 500 of us traveled up to Yale by bus or car to see our Tigers take down the Bulldogs. One of my greatest moments as a sports fan was seeing senior wide receiver Brian Brigham's touchdown catch with seven minutes left to give us the lead, sending the sea of Orange into a frenzy that did not let up for the rest of the game. I would even like to think that the fans might have helped just a tiny bit, as perhaps the noise coming from the stands might have been a reason that Yale's quarterback was forced to call two timeouts during the team's final drive. And storming the field at the end of the game? As visitors? It was just too perfect.

So I of course hope that every Princeton student enjoys the bonfire and celebrates the football team's victory. But while we celebrate the wins, I have a request for every Princeton student: Go to the game on Saturday.

We play Dartmouth tomorrow, and while it was nice to beat our two biggest rivals, we have to win this game to win the Ivy League title. So this game is just as important as either the Harvard or Yale game.

I have already seen that Princeton students are ready to support the team with a bonfire on the line. But I have also gone down to Princeton Stadium too many times during my four years and seen just a handful of students supporting the Tigers. Students simply would not go, or just go to tailgates without actually going to the game, which is ridiculous — the whole point of tailgates is to go to the game afterward.

It's not just at football games that student attendance is lacking. During my freshman year, the newly formed Jadwin Jungle had no trouble bringing fans to basketball games as the team rolled to an Ivy League championship. But in the last couple of years, as the team struggled somewhat, attendance has lessened.

Simply put, Princeton students need to do more to support their teams. And there is definitely a reason to support them as we have some very good teams. While our men's basketball team struggled early on last season, it recovered to take second in the Ivy League. Our women's basketball team did them one better, finishing first in the league. Our men's and women's lacrosse teams not only regularly win the Ivy League, but are also perennial contenders for the National Championship.

But we should not only support the major sports such as football, basketball and lacrosse; we should support other teams too. We have plenty of teams that deserve our support.

Our field hockey team took home an Ivy League title this year, and posted a shocking upset of Old Dominion in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The captain of our men's squash team just graduated last year as a four-time national champion Our women's hockey team is ranked ninth in the country and is unbeaten in its first seven games this season.

So my call to Princeton students is to go to more games. And start by going tomorrow.

Which crowd will show up tomorrow, the sea of orange or the handful of students? My guess is that the bonfire — weather permitting — will fire us all up and we will turn out en masse to see the football team crush Dartmouth and win the Ivy League title.