Before Reunions, Princeton Band Plays a Special Gig to Honor Longtime Fans

The crisp, bright afternoon of Monday, May 19, was reminiscent of an early fall day when Tom Meeker ’56 and his wife, Joanne, would set up the ’56 Tiger Tailgate before Princeton home football games. The Meekers started tailgating with a few friends behind Cap & Gown, and the group grew over time to include both classmates and friends across generations, thanks in part to a longstanding link with the Princeton University Band.

When Tom and Joanne saw the band walking down Roper Lane at that first game in 1985, they called them over to play for the group, and then they fed the students before they marched on to Palmer Stadium. From then on, “the kids,” as Joanne lovingly calls them, showed up to play some songs each week and, of course, get fed. Tom and Joanne started a band fund. They would raise about $4,000 a season to donate to the band.

Tom Meeker ’56 leads a locomotive cheer in 2006, with student conductor Charles Pence ’07 and drum major Charlie Bergen ’07 looking on. 

Courtesy of Tom Meeker ’56

Before Tom died July 27, 2024, the band made its way to his retirement community in West Caldwell, New Jersey, before Reunions 2024 to perform for him one more time. The residents and the band members enjoyed it so much that they planned for an encore before Reunions 2025, in the week after spring exams. They performed 12 songs, from Princeton favorites “Going Back to Nassau Hall,” “Here Comes That Tiger,” and “Old Nassau” to rock ’n’ roll classics including “Great Balls of Fire.” One resident shouted out during the performance, “You are all very good and have a lot of power!”

“The residents love when the band comes,” Joanne said. “Nobody has to wear their hearing aids.”

Band member Nick Masters ’25 plays the ’56 orange bongos — orange plastic pumpkins with “56” painted in black that Tom would make every year for the band. Joanne made and donated a new set so that the tradition will live on.

And after the band was done performing, Joanne, of course, had sandwiches, drinks, and snacks for the kids.

The Princeton University Band will play its annual Fred E. Fox ’39 Memorial Concert on Cannon Green Saturday, May 24, at 11 a.m.