A Halftime Caper

Not because of what happened on the field, but what happened at halftime ...

I and 11 other members of the Class of 1983 were living in Wilson College in the infamous "Zoo" dorm room: 12 freshmen and  two floors of pizza, beer, and a giant cool tiger painting on the wall. A perfect recipe for mischief. 

That season before the home game against  Yale, we decided we needed to steal the Yale flag from the tower above Palmer Stadium. 

In an elaborate and, as it turned out, relatively well-planned scheme,  one group faked a run up the tower with the Princeton flag, drawing the attention of the proctors. While their attention was diverted, the real caper was successfully pulled off -- the rest of the team climbed upon shoulders and one of us scaled the Yale tower, pulled down their flag in front of the whole stadium, and threw it down to to my waiting arms. 

As the proctors closed in, I in turn tossed it over the edge of the stadium down to my fellow Zoomate, who scampered away with the flag for good. 

The stolen Yale flag spent the rest of the year hanging in the Zoo and was given to the one who had actually climbed the tower in honor of his bravery.

Zoomates (who may or may not have also participated):

John Rafter '83

Steven Silverman '83

Mark O'Brien '83

Phil Buri '83

Rick Lipkin '83

Jonathan Intner '84

Gary Jenkins '83

Byron Joyner '83

Yiu-Wai Cheung '83

Eric Pai '83

Mark Blake '83