Rutgers University - The Birthplace of College Football

Rutgers University and its neighbor, Princeton, played the first game of intercollegiate football on Nov. 6, 1869, on a plot of ground where the present-day Rutgers gymnasium now stands in New Brunswick, N.J. Rutgers won that first game, 6-4.

The game, which bore little resemblance to its modern-day counterpart, was played with two teams of 25 men each under rugby-like rules, but like modern football, it was “replete with surprise, strategy, prodigies of determination, and physical prowess,” to use the words of one of the Rutgers players.

William J. Leggett, captain of the Rutgers team who later became a distinguished clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church, suggested that rules for the contest be adopted from those of the London Football Association. Leggett's proposal was accepted by Captain William Gunmere of Princeton, who later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

At 3 pm on that memorable afternoon, the 50 combatants and about 100 spectators gathered on the field. Most of the assemblage sat on a low wooden fence and watched the athletes doff hats, coats and vests and use suspenders as belts. To distinguish themselves from the bareheaded visitors, 50 Rutgers students, including players, donned scarlet-colored scarfs which they converted into turbans.

An analytical account of the game appeared in the November, 1869 issue of the Targum, Rutgers’ undergraduate newspaper.

“To describe the varying fortunes of the match, game by game, would be a waste of labor for every game was like the one before,” wrote the student re-porter. “There was the same headlong running, wild shouting, and frantic kicking.

“In every game the cool goaltenders saved the Rutgers goal half a dozen times; in every game the heavy charger of the Princeton side overthrew everything he came in contact with; and in every game, just when the interest in one of those delightful rushes at the fence was culminating, the persecuted ball would fly for refuge into the next lot, and produce cessation of hostilities until, after the invariable ‘foul’, it was put in straight.

“To sum up, Princeton had the most muscle, but didn't kick very well, and wanted organization. They evidently don't like to kick the ball on the ground. Our men, on the other hand, though comparatively weak, ran well, and kicked well throughout. But their great point was the organization, for which great praise is due to the captain. The right men were always in the right place.”

One of the Princeton players, William Preston Lane, in 1933 contended in a newspaper interview that Rutgers “ran us Princeton men out of town. I never found out why they did that,” he related. “But we don't ask any questions. When we saw them coming after us, we ran to the outskirts of New Brunswick and got into our carriages and wagons and went away as fast as we could.”

Lane's contention is refuted in the Targum account. “After the match the players had an amicable "feed together," the paper reported. "At 8 o'clock our guests went home, in high good spirits, thirsting to beat us next time, if they can.”

The Daily Fredonian, a New Brunswick paper of that era, supported the Targum account in its issue of November 9, 1869.

“Though the generous liberality of the students of Rutgers College,” the Fredonian reported, “a bountiful entertainment was prepared for our Princeton friends, at the favorite resort in Church Street known as Northrop's where ‘mine host’ and his estimable lady know how to get up a good supper.”

Regardless of what actually happened after the first game, football was here to stay. Rutgers got Columbia University started in the grid sport the following season and in a few years most of the East's colleges and universities were represented on the gridiron.

Traditions

Rutgers Fight Song
R-U, Rah, Rah,
R-U, Rah, Rah,
Whoo-Raa, Whoo-Raa;
Rutgers Rah
Up-Stream Red Team;
Red Team Up-Stream
Rah, Rah,
Rutgers Rah!!

Why Knights?
Since its days when the school was officially known as Queen's College, the athletic teams were referred to as the Queensmen. Officially serving as the mascot figure for several football seasons beginning in 1925 was a giant, colorfully felt-covered, costumed representation of an earlier campus symbol, the "Chanticleer." Though a fighting bird of the kind which other colleges have found success, to some it bore the connotation of "chicken." It is also a little-known fact that the New Brunswick-based broadcast station, WCTC, which serves as the flagship station of Rutgers athletics, had its call letters derived from the word "ChanTiCleer." Chanticleer remained as the nickname for some 30 years. In the early 1950's, in the hope of spurring both the all-around good athletic promise and RU fighting spirit, a campus-wide selection process changed the mascot to that of a Knight. By 1955 , the Scarlet Knight had become the new Rutgers mascot. The Scarlet-garbed knight, riding a spirited white charger, came to represent a new era - the rejuvenation of first class football "On the Banks."

1892 - A Rutgers legend is created when the Princeton football team breaks the leg of Rutgers' biggest player, Frank "Pop" Grant. While being carried from the field, Pop is claimed to have mumbled, "I'd die for dear old Rutgers." The saying, spread across the country when it was satirized in the play "High Button Shoes," became a slogan for school spirit and the old college try. Many alumni have since offered their own versions, including the alumnus who swears Pop really said, "I'll die if somebody doesn't give me a cigarette."

The Ringing of the Bell - Rutgers began its extraordinary history as Queen's College, which was charted in 1766, the eighth institution of higher learning foundation in the colonies. In 1825, the name of the college was changed to Rutgers. Its athletic teams have long competed in proud association with colonial Queen's College and "Old Queens" building traditions. The bell in the latter's cupola, an 1826 gift of namesake donor Colonel Henry Rutgers, along with tolling the change of classes, was, and still is, rung on special occasions, including those of prized athletic success. Most recently, the bell was rung when the women's basketball team won the 1982 AIAW National Championship, and when the 1990 men's soccer team reached the championship game of the NCAA Tournament.