Harvard was dominant in the 1880s, winning the championship six years out of nine. Princeton won the title in 1884, 1888, 1889, and then gave up the sport a year later because of the lack of space for practice (in competition with baseball and track), and the feeling that lacrosse's training value for other sports -- its chief appeal at the beginning -- had been overestimated.
Harland W. Meistrell '25, star lacrosse player from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, revived lacrosse at Princeton in 1921, as he had previously done at Rutgers before transferring to Princeton. A trophy bearing his name is awarded to the winner of the annual Rutgers-Princeton game.
Princeton won championships in 1924, 1926, and 1929, and enjoyed three successive undefeated seasons in 1933, 1934, and 1935.
The undefeated 1937 team shared the national championship with Maryland; the undefeated 1942 team won it outright. Two players of this period died in World War II: John E. Higginbotham '39, captain his senior year, and Tyler Campbell '43, All-American defenseman in 1941 and 1942. Higginbotham is memorialized by a lacrosse trophy for sportsmanship, play, and influence; Campbell, by a playing field for lacrosse.
Princeton excelled in the 1950s and 60s. The 1951 team tied with Army for the national championship; the 1953 team won sole possession of the title. After the formal organization of the Ivy League, Princeton was champion seven consecutive years, 1957 through 1963, and then shared the championship with Harvard in 1964 and with Dartmouth in 1965. Cornell toppled Princeton in 1966, but Princeton regained first place the next year with a perfect 6-0 Ivy League record.
Princeton lacrossemen named to All-American teams have been: Kenneth A. Dittmar '23, Conrad J. Sutherland '24, Henry W. Jeffers, Jr. '26, Walter McN. Woodward '37, Lawrence P. Naylor III '41, Joseph D. B. King '41, Tyler Campbell '43, Frederick A. Allner, Jr. '46, Ernest L. Ransome III '47, Henry E. Fish '48, Leonard M. Gaines, Jr. '49, Frank J. Hoen '49, Donald P. Hahn '51, David C. Tait '53, Ralph N. Willis '53, Henry F. Baldwin '54, Douglas G. Levick III '58, John D. Heyd '59, Howard K. Krongard '61, Timothy C. Callard '63, Gray G. Henry '63, John D. Baker '67.
Varsity coaches have been: Albert B. Nies, 1921-1935; William F. Logan, 1935-1945; Richard Colman, 1946-1949; Ernest Ransome III '47, 1950-1951; Ferris Thomsen, 1951-1970; Arthur E. Robinson, 1970-1976; Michael J. Hanna 1976-. Thomsen was named coach of the year by the U.S. Lacrosse Coaches Association in 1967.
Four Princetonians have been elected to the Lacrosse Hall of Fame: Conrad J. Sutherland '24, Harland W. Meistrell '25, and Coaches William F. Logan and Ferris Thomsen.
A women's lacrosse team, coached by Penelope Hinckley, was organized in 1972; high scorer for three seasons was Kienbusch Sportswoman Emily Goodfellow '76.