June 4, 2003: From the Archives

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William “Silas” Whitehead, Class of 1891, is nattily dressed to play what was long the most popular game at Princeton. Tennis began as an organized sport in 1882, when a group of undergraduates formed the Princeton Lawn Tennis Association. In 1884, Princeton joined the newly founded Intercollegiate Lawn Tennis Association. Since then, Princeton men’s tennis has become the school’s most successful men’s varsity sport, with an all-time record of 864 wins, 250 losses, and six ties. Women’s tennis, introduced in 1971—72, was one of Princeton’s first women’s varsity sports.