The great sportswriter Grantland Rice would eventually call them the "team of destiny."
But when that 1922 Princeton University football team headed West to play Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg's University of Chicago team, Rice had predicted they would lose.
"The Tiger will give Chicago a first class battle, but the heavier attacking Maroon team figures to win by one or two touchdowns," Rice wrote in a column that ran on Oct. 28, 1922.
The Tigers proved Rice wrong.
A headline in the New York Tribune the next day said: "Princeton Eleven Scores Sensational Victory Over Chicago, Winning 21 to 18 in Final Period."
Three weeks later, a still-undefeated Princeton went into its season finale against Yale.
The Tribune carried Rice's story about that game on the front page of its Sunday edition. The headline read: "Kick Wins For Princeton Over Yale, 3-0." A subhead said: "Record Crowd of 55,000 at Nassau Sees 'Team of Destiny' Hold Fierce Onslaughts of Bulldog."
"The Tiger defended his jungle home today with the savage power of a great defense, and so for the first time in eleven years Princeton stands with a spotless record on top of the football peak," wrote Rice. "Back in 1911, during the conquering reign of King Samuel White,........