Photo From the Archives: Snow

Regarding your query about memories of the first winter snow at Princeton (From the Archives, February issue), I lived in Princeton and mostly remember the poor little crocuses sticking their heads up through the inevitable March blanket of snow, but I don’t have a specific memory of my college days.

However, I remember the story in the Prince of a first winter snow involving my son, John H. Carter ’96 (now M.D., Ph.D.). In his time, there was a naked run through campus upon the first snow — only boots allowed. The Prince story quoted my son as saying, “We bum-rushed the Wa.” My father, Raymond H. Carter ’33, a rabid Princetonian, read the story in the Prince and pretended to be somewhat shocked, but I know for certain he was thinking, “Attaboy!”

Editor’s note: Read winter memories from Mike McCurry ’76, Daniel Sattizahn ’99, and others at paw.princeton.edu.

The cross country skier depicted in the photo in your February 2022 issue looks like Chris Rose ’80. 

Best regards, 

In response to your request for stories about snow at Princeton, let me offer the following:

It was after midnight in early 1999 and Marquis Parker ’99, Justin Bennett ’99, and I had just finished our closing shifts at Chancellor Green Cafe and were walking back to our Spelman dorm room. Several inches of snow had fallen and the entire campus was covered to the point where walking paths were indistinguishable from their adjacent grass areas (this becomes important later). I do not recall who had the bright (this is a relative term) idea, but we decided that 1 a.m. was a perfect time to start an impromptu game of football … tackle of course. We reached out to as many people as we could and found ourselves engaged in a full-fledged, full-contact, snow football game in the area behind Spelman. 

In addition to the three of us, our other roommate, Constantine Georges ’99, joined the game along with Jon Reali ’99, Jeremy Dongilli ’99, and more than a dozen other friends who I cannot recall at this point. The game included starters from the football team, some backups, and a few of us who had no business being on the same field of play as those other guys! The game was intense, spirited, and laughs and yells filled the late night/early morning.  As we all awoke late the next day, we discovered many more bumps, bruises, cuts, scrapes, aches, and pains than we had anticipated. As we limped to lunch, we discovered that our field of play was actually crisscrossed with sidewalks that none of us had seen nor remembered as the game began, because of the blanket of thick snow! 

The churned up snow, grass, and earth reminded us all of the epic battle the night before, and the appearance of the sidewalks made us all laugh long after. A great night that, luckily, had no lasting injuries!

I saw the photo in PAW of snow from Jan. 30, 1978, cover. I recall a much bigger snowfall during finals that year. I remember walking across campus trying to get to the E-Quad with closer to 2 feet of snow. According to the internet, the big northeast blizzard of 1978 was between Feb. 5 and Feb. 7.

I don’t have much of a story with this one, but a photo to share from Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006, during my freshman-year winter at Princeton. This was part of a winter storm that dumped over 2 feet of snow on New York City and almost as much around Princeton.

My favorite snow memory: An early winter blast Oct. 27, 1972, early in my freshman year — as it happened, my 18th birthday. I lived in what was then called Princeton Inn Annex, and we borrowed trays from the dining hall for my first downhill ride on the Springdale Golf Course and a very memorable happy birthday.

I remember a late fall football game, possibly against Dartmouth, during the 1955–59 period when I was a grad student at Princeton. Lots of snow on the ground and in the stands. As the Princeton Band marched past the stands after completing their performance, many in the stands bombarded the band with snowballs. Then after the competing team’s band finished its performance, the Princeton Band returned past the stands and threw a barrage of snow ballsback into the stands. I forget who won the game.