The weekend before Princeton’s commencement, jovial alumni return to town for Reunions and to reminiscence on their time spent on campus as students. To commemorate their annual return and celebrate the Great Class of 2026, we wanted to share several iconic tiger images from our Special Collections for Coloring Cotsen.

The tiger is a common mascot for many schools, colleges, and professional sports teams in the United States, but Princeton University is the first academic institution to officially start using the tiger nickname. In the early 1880s, Princeton’s football players would wear orange and black striped jerseys, socks, and knit caps during their games. Sports writers at the time began calling the team “tigers” and the moniker was quickly adopted across campus.

Tigers are now a regular part of life at Princeton. Tiger sculptures appear on and around campus buildings, magazines and publications have tiger related names, and university cheers and songs include tigers in the lyrics. Princeton’s fight song, “The Princeton Cannon”, was written in 1906 by J. F. Hewitt and A. H. Osborne, both members of the Class of 1907. Hewitt and Osborne incorporated “And Nassau’s walls with echo with the Princeton Tiger’s roar” in the song’s intro and the verse lively proclaims “Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Tigers sis boom ah!”

We extend our heartiest congratulations to the Class of 2026! Rah! Tigers sis boom ah!