Whether students were attempting to relive the past glory of the rivalry or hanging on to the slight hope that the Quakers could turn the season around, the Red and Blue Crew was out in full force for last night's game.
"Everybody always comes out for Penn-Princeton," said senior Abraham Dauhajre, who shows up to every home game in a taco costume. "It's the biggest game of the year."
Penn students filled most of their sections, and alumni and local fans occupied much of the remainder. The official attendance was 6,243 -almost 1,500 more than average.
Unlike past well-attended games, however, the boost did not come from opposition fans. The Princeton crowd was meager, filling only one-and-a-half sections until the band showed up with just over three minutes remaining in the first half.
Princeton Band president, junior Alex Barnard, cited traffic from the inclement weather as the reason for the group's lateness. However, he also pointed out that the team's recent poor performance has led to a lack of student support for basketball and other teams.
"It's been a couple of disheartening years for Princeton basketball," he said. "We haven't come [to the Palestra] and won in a while."
Even the band, which Barnard referred to as the "locus of school spirit," was relatively silent for the duration of the game. The only audible cheering was a high-pitched squeak when the Quakers shot free throws.
The same cannot be said of the Red and Blue Crew, who was loud and creative with their chants. After a referee called a controversial technical foul on Brian Grandieri, a section of fans broke out in a "Donaghy" chant directed toward that official. The chant was in reference to Tim Donaghy, the former NBA ref who made incorrect calls to affect the point spread.
Even the Quaker got into the action, crowd surfing amid a sea of students until he was escorted out by security. After the fans began a "free the mascot" chant, however, he made his return.
This one lacked drama until the final minutes, but many members of the Red and Blue Crew showed up with fond memories of past Penn-Princeton games. They recalled the Quakers' 70-62 overtime win in 2005 in which Penn came back from an 18-point deficit in the final eight minutes to force the extra period. Dauhajre refers to that game, which happened his freshman year, as "the best game of my life."
Although the Penn fans were loud and eager to make noise, they often found themselves confused. During some crucial defensive stands, half of the crowd would chant "De-fense" while the other half jumped up and down and screamed.
There was no divide as the clock wound down, however. Penn students were unified in their a cappella version of Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part Two" as they let Princeton know exactly how they felt.
