Princeton Reunions - Trivia

Trivia

• As older classes march by in the P-rade, younger classes greet them by shouting an old, traditional Princeton cheer called a locomotive. The format of the cheer (for the Class of 2008, for example) is "Hip! Hip! Rah! Rah! Rah! Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! Sis! Sis! Sis! Boom! Boom! Boom! Ah! Oh-Eight! Oh-Eight! Oh-Eight!". The older class then traditionally returns the locomotive cheer to the younger class. This is a variant on one of the oldest college cheers, the "Princeton Locomotive," dating to the late 1870s or early 1880s.
• Noted Princeton Reunions participants in 2004 included Donald Rumsfeld, returning for his 50th Reunion, and Bill Frist, returning for his 30th.
• Noted Princeton Reunions participants in 2005 included Ralph Nader, returning for his 50th Reunion.
• Each senior class designs and distributes a decorated (and often personalized) canvas "beer jacket." Beer jackets are so named because they were originally worn to protect the wearers' clothing from beer. Since 2002, the administration has renamed these as "Class Jackets" for politically-correct reasons, but students continue to refer to them as "beer jackets." Modern incarnations are also designed with voluminous inner pockets to conceal and carry beer cans. The jackets also serve to distinguish seniors from other underclassmen, a custom that dates to the days when seniors were afforded special privileges.
• For the 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th Reunions, each class designs a new costume. Over the years, costumes have included cowboys, tigers, Dutch clog-wearers, Chinese "coolies," the Roman Legion, Arab Shiekhs, Scottish Highlanders, astronauts, toreadors, soldiers, the French Foreign Legion, mountain-climbers, clowns, sailors, ANZACs, beetles, chefs, firemen, pirates, Apaches, prison convicts, toga-clad Romans, and a 50-person-long "centipede."
• At the 25th Reunion (which marches at the front of the P-Rade, immediately following the University leadership and the Princeton University Band), class members receive class blazers. These range from blue blazers with a class logo to various variants of orange-and-black stripes (including a noted striped jacket worn by the parent/grandparent classes of 1933, 1958 and 1983), or various custom designs with class numerals, names of classmates and other icons.
• In 2005, there were 74 classes in the P-rade, beginning with the Class of 1925.
• In 2012, the Class of 1925 was once again the oldest class represented, with Malcolm Warnock '25, age 107, the recipient of the "Class of 1923 Cane" awarded to the oldest alumnus from the oldest returning class. Warnock returned for many Reunions, becoming the first person ever to participate in the P-Rade at his 84th, 85th, and 86th Reunions.