". . . There is an aristocracy to which the sons of Harvard have belonged, and let us hope will ever aspire to belong--the aristocracy which excels in many sports, carries off honors and prizes in learned professions and bears itself with distinction in all fields of intellectual labor and combat . . ." PRESIDENT ELIOT, INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 1869.
"Respectable" sales programs are often mere facades for many colleges that pretend they are "selling" the college when they are really buying the player. Princeton, however, and several other Ivy Leaguers seem to have made the program work so far without deliberately entering the professional circuit. Princeton seems intentionally to foster the reputation of being a place for the "all-around boy"--a reputation that automatically attracts a large number of student-athletes.
But the traditionally vociferous, Nassau alumni also have a recruiting machine which, according to one Harvard official, "is simply beautiful to watch." Well-organized Schools and Scholarship Committees scour the nation for scholar-athletes, and when they get one they feel can meet Princton's high standards, they apply continuous pressure. They seldom lose the boy to another college. They contact him at the crucial time just after acceptances have been mailed out. (Harvard, Yale, and Princeton acceptances are usually all sent on the same day, under a College Board agreement).
Princeton also encourages trips to the Nassau campus, shows athletic films around the country, and sends the affable Charley Caldwell on the chicken-salad circuit.
Furthermore, Princeton's press relations work, has been generally excellent. The Tigers' athletic successes have been vigorously publicized, and such publicity is particularly important in the prep school area where college sports are well followed. Harvard football defeats has seemingly blotted out much of the news about the many other successful Crimson teams. And yet Harvard sports publicists have looked strangely passive in their promoting of the good news about Harvard athletic teams.
Yale follows a similar program; Bob Kunned takes his swimming team to a Massachusetts prep school for an exhibition meet, and Bob Hall brings Yale movies along when he drops in at Connecticut schoolboy team banquets.