Guest column: Tiger athletics and the relegated place of club sports

byVolker Schröder

Throughout this month, the University is commemorating the 150thanniversary of intercollegiate sports. On this historic occasion, Princeton Athletics has decided “to recognize its past and celebrate its present in a variety of ways.” Unfortunately, this “variety of ways” appears to be strictly limited to the varsity teams and fails to acknowledge the role that club sports have played in the past and continue to play in the present. Willful or unintentional, this omission is typical of the tradition of neglect and disdain that club sports still have to confront at Princeton.

To help alleviate the situation, I would like to challenge our new director of athletics to answer the following questions:

1) How many of the “140 Olympians” produced and celebrated by Princeton Athletics competed in a sport that is not currently classified as varsity? List their names and sports.

2) In 2013-14, which Tiger student-athletes won a national intercollegiate championship (team or individual)?

3) Which current Princeton undergraduates are Olympians?

For each athlete correctly identified in The Daily Princetonianin response to this challenge, I pledge to donate $100 to the respective Friends Group.

Volker Schröder is an associate professor in the Department of French and Italian and faculty adviser for the Princeton University table tennis club.