Cane Spree

"[5][6] Sometime in the 1870s the Princeton University administration attempted to implement controls to minimize the violence, however random attacks continued.

[6] On September 15, 1870, James McCosh (President of Princeton College) interrupted a brawl between sophomores and freshmen and shouted "Disperse, young men, or the bailiffs will be after you.

[12] Cane Spree was reported in the New York Times,[8][9][10][11] Scribner's Magazine,[13] as well as local and university publications.

[1][3][5][12] While it has changed significantly since its origins in the 1860s, Cane Spree is a tradition that endures today, taking place in Princeton's football stadium in early October as a friendly and fun multi-sport battle for supremacy between the freshmen and sophomore classes.

Several of the names carved on the Princeton College class of 1881[14] cane pictured above are members of prominent Gilded Age families and/or went on to become notable historical figures: