Under Goldie's influence, gymnastics became a prominent intramural activity which every year reached its climax in a Commencement exhibition. In the early 1890s Princeton gymnasts began to give outside exhibitions at Mount Holly, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and a few years later took part in the first annual Yale-Princeton exhibition, which eventually became competitive. Additional meets were scheduled with other colleges and, with the establishment in 1900 of championship meets by the newly formed Intercollegiate Gymnastics Association, the era of competitive intercollegiate gymnastics began.
Goldie retired in 1911, and Goldie Field was named in his honor. Other gymnastic teachers served for brief periods until 1925 when Richard Swinnerton began a term as coach that lasted until the outbreak of World War II.
In the forty-year period before the Second World War, Princeton gymnastic teams were frequently among the best in the East and in five years -- 1908, 1916, 1927, 1931, and 1937 -- they were the best.
Three Princetonians won the eastern Intercollegiate all-round championship: Ernest W. Mecabe '08 in his sophomore and senior years, Jerome B. Wiss '17 in his sophomore and junior years, and Robley D. Snively, Jr. '28 in his sophomore year. Two others excelled in two individual events: Charles E. Claggett '31 was champion on the side horse in his junior and senior years and on the rings in his senior year. Thomas Gucker III '37 set a world's record by completing the twenty-foot rope climb in 3.8 seconds in his junior year, and he also won the side horse championship in his junior and senior years.
Other Princetonians who won individual eastern intercollegiate championships were: Louis E. Katzenbach '01, tumbling; Harrison G. Otis '02, flying rings; William A. Coulter '03, Charles W. Holzhauer '05, and Frank C. Roberts, Jr. '16, horizontal bar; Wolfgang S. Schwabacher '18 and Philip B. Townley '20, club swinging; David S. Sheldon '23, side horse (in 1922 and 1923); Barent M. Ten Eyck '24, club swinging; Otto Crouse '24, tumbling; Richard R. Quay, Jr. '26, parallel bar; Christopher A. Beling '27, horizontal bar; Robley D. Snively, Jr. '28, flying rings (in 1927 and 1928); Richard D. Wallace '34 and George Harrison Houston, Jr. '37, rope climb; Carl Ferenbach II '37, flying rings.
Gymnastics at Princeton ceased during the Second World War and was not revived again until the founding of a Gymnastics Club in 1967 and the beginning of an annual Ivy League Gymnastics Meet in 1968. A women's gymnastic team began competition in 1974; it was coached by Meredith Dean Baker until 1976 when Ute Alt was appointed women's coach at the same time that her husband J. Douglas Alt was made men's coach. In 1977, Vickie Mayer '80 placed second in the competition for the women's Ivy League all-round championship.