In what is today recognized as the founding of intercollegiate football, the Tigers played the first-ever official football game on Cannon Green against Rutgers in November 1869. Now 155 years young, Princeton is the oldest football program in the nation.
The 2024 edition of the Tigers, meanwhile, looks very different from its 19th century iterations. Today, the football roster is made up of 120 players and is a combination of diverse experiences and perspectives.
Princeton reported that in 2023–24, Black students made up 14 percent of the University’s population. The Daily Princetonian sat down with three Black football players — senior offensive lineman Nick Hilliard, junior defensive lineman Aaron Richard, and senior defensive back Nasir Cook — to gain insight into how race impacts their experience with the team and the Princeton community.
Richard and Cook discussed the intentionality that Black football players have in getting involved with fellow Black students outside of the team, serving both as leaders and members invested in the community.
“That’s one real important part of being a Black football player, is being in touch with your identity because you don’t always get that with just the football team. It’s important, you know, expanding yourself outside of football,” Richard told the ‘Prince.’
“I think we all love our brothers. We all love the football team. But you have to understand the intersectionality, I’m also Black. There’s a whole network of other students who do so many great things that you may not just meet in your football locker room,” Hilliard said.
While discussing their experiences of being a minority at a predominantly white institution (PWI), the players expressed their enthusiasm and interest in the Black student organizations on campus. Cook and Richard both serve on the executive board of Princeton’s Black Student Athlete Collective (BSAC) for the 2023–24 academic year. Cook is serving as the vice president, and Richard is serving as the treasurer.
“We are kind of the backbone of some of these organizations on campus.” Cook said. “Usually, the Black football players are at the top, leading those events.”
The players described how important it was for them to connect with a community outside of football through the Princeton community as a whole. The Black student groups on campus, including BSAC, provide an important space for them to engage with their identity.
“I see a lot of football players, including myself, go to BSU events, Generational African American Student Association (GAASA) events, etc.” Richard said.
Princeton has also changed the way their community outside of the Orange Bubble engages with them.
“People look at you differently once you commit and make it to an Ivy League school … you’re kind of seen as ‘the guy’ once you commit and all that for your community. But once you get here, sometimes you deal with that impostor syndrome as well. But like everybody said, there’s a big support system here that helps athletes, especially Black athletes on the team,” Cook said.
“You do feel a lot of different things from people back home … you’ve made it to almost one of the pinnacles of what it would be like to be in college, now you have to keep going,” Hilliard added in agreement with Cook.
The adjustment to life at Princeton is rarely easy for any student, but beginning life at Princeton on the football team is a different level of adjustment. First-years on the football team begin their time as Princeton students before others, coming to campus over the summer to begin practice.
For Hilliard, the upperclassmen on the team proved crucial to beginning the adjustment to life at Old Nassau.
“The other Black athletes on the football team were able to wrap arms and be a good support system. There’s a great community around you. I can remember specific instances with upperclassmen who would text you like, ‘do you need anything?’ or ‘are you okay?’ They notice it before you even notice it yourself,” Hilliard told the ‘Prince.’
When adjusting to Princeton, the greatest challenge can sometimes be dealing with the perceptions of peers.
All three players expressed a similar sentiment that the general perception from the student body is that players on the football team are trying to take the easiest route academically, but all were quick to debunk this view.
“The stereotype is that Black athletes on the football team try to get by and don’t take their academics seriously,” Cook said.
“I find that not to be true,” Richard told the ‘Prince’ about this perception. “I know a lot of athletes on the football team doing computer science, myself doing architecture, some doing engineering. I feel like we have a lot more to offer than our athletic abilities.”
Beyond the team, Princeton has been a launchpad for these players to go out into their communities and enact change in line with their passions.
“Princeton definitely sets you up to succeed no matter what,” Cook said. “You just have to use the resources to your advantage.”
Cook founded the Nashville Youth Initiative, a non-profit that helps mend the divide between youth and law enforcement. He used the John C. Bogle Fellowship through Princeton to receive resources needed to fund the project.
“You have these moments where you start to really understand what Princeton will allow for you and you can’t take that for granted. Even on the bad days where it feels like the entire world is falling. Princeton is a special place and what it can do for you is always paramount,” Hilliard told the ‘Prince.’
While the players spoke about the challenges that come from being at a PWI, they had an optimistic outlook on their experience. The support they get from the football team, namely, as well as from Princeton as a whole, equips them to go and make tangible changes in their communities.
“I think something Princeton does really well is they push you to want to be in those conversations, and push you to be in those rooms, to make the change for people who look like you and people that you feel may not be represented there,” Hillard concluded.
Ify Obianwu is a Sports contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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