Talk:History of Rutgers University
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[edit] TO DO (Additions)
- Discussion of history of University of Newark, Institute for Jazz Studies, etc.
- Discussion of history of College of South Jersey
- Better coverage of UMDNJ/NJIT merger shit.
- Better coverage of athletic history
- Better coverage of traditions...entering freshman, etc.
- Class wars, burning down Rahway, etc.
[edit] Future Addition: Athletics (from RU article)
[edit] Athletics
[edit] In History
Rutgers was among the first American institutions to engage in intercollegiate athletics, and participated in a small circle of schools that included Yale University, Columbia University and long-time rival, Princeton University. In light of the schools beginning to engage in athletic games in the 1860s, these four schools met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Manhattan on 19 October 1873 to establish a set of rules governing their intercollegiate competition, and particularly to codify the new game of football. Though invited, Harvard chose not to attend.[1][2]
On May 2, 1866, in the first intercollegiate athletic event at Rutgers, the college's baseball team was defeated 40-2 by a team from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).[3]
Rutgers University is often referred to as The Birthplace of College Football. Rutgers and Princeton played the first intercollegiate football game on November 6, 1869, on a plot of ground where the present-day Rutgers gymnasium now stands. Rutgers won the game, with a score of 6 runs to Princeton's 4.[3]
However, "football" at the time was a name given to variety of games, and the rules of the game played by Rutgers in 1869 resembled soccer much more than modern American football.[4][5] Scores were computed in runs (roughly equivalent to goals). Instead of wearing uniforms, the players stripped off their hats, coats, and vests and bound their suspenders around the waistbands of their trousers. For headgear, the Rutgers team wound their scarlet scarves into turbans atop their heads.[6] The 1869 team shared the national title with Princeton, according to the Parke Davis ranking.[7] During the 1870s, games resembling rugby became popular at other American colleges, and Rutgers eventually adopted similar rules. These games ultimately developed into modern American football. (See the article History of American football, for further information.) Rutgers maintains athletic rivalries with Princeton and Columbia in all intercollegiate sports but has not met either school in football since 1980.
The first intercollegiate competition in Ultimate Frisbee (now called simply "Ultimate") was held between students from Rutgers and Princeton on November 6, 1972—the one hundred third anniversary of the first intercollegiate football game. Rutgers won 29-27.[8]
[edit] Today
Rutgers is a member of the Big East Conference, (in football since 1991, all other sports since 1995) a collegiate athletic conference consisting of 16 colleges and universities from the East Coast and Midwestern regions of the United States. The Big East is a member of the Bowl Championship Series. Rutgers currently fields 27 intercollegiate sports programs and is a Division I-A school as sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Since joining the Big East, the Scarlet Knights have won two conference tournament titles: men's soccer (1997) and baseball (2000). Several other teams have won regular season titles but failed to win the conference's championship tournament.[9] The Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-Camden campuses compete within NCAA Division III.
Rutgers University fields thirty teams in NCAA Division I-A sanctioned sports, including Football, Baseball, Basketball, Crew, Cross Country, Fencing, Field Hockey, Golf, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball, Tennis, Track and Field, Swimming and Diving, Wrestling, Volleyball.[10]
In 2005, the Rutgers Football team accepted a bowl bid to play Arizona State University in the Insight Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona. The Scarlet Knights lost to the ASU Sun Devils with a score of 45 to 40.[11] The only other bowl appearance for the Scarlet Knights was in 1978 at the now defunct Garden State Bowl, held at Giants Stadium, also against Arizona State; Rutgers lost that game as well by a score of 34 to 18.[12]
On September 24, 2006, a 4-0 Rutgers football team was ranked 23rd in both major college football polls, the first time Rutgers had been ranked nationally in 30 years since the end of their undefeated 1976 season (11-0). Much of this success has been attributed to coach Greg Schiano, who has used recruiting pipelines from his days as a defensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes to retain many top players from New Jersey and New York (as opposed to those players leaving the state for other top programs such as Miami and USC), but also attract highly rated recruits from football hotbeds in Florida.[citation needed]
On November 9, 2006, Rutgers won one of its most noted national football victories. The Scarlet Knights, ranked #15 with an 8-0 record, defeated the #3 ranked, undefeated Louisville Cardinals 28-25. This victory marked the first time since 1988 that the Scarlet Knights defeated a ranked opponent, the first time they had defeated a ranked team at home, and also the first time the Knights defeated a ranked opponent while they also were ranked.
Following the weekend, on November 12, 2006, 9-0 Rutgers jumped up to 7th in the AP Poll, 8th in the USA Today/Coaches poll, 7th in the Harris Interactive Poll, a #2 average ranking amongst the six sports ratings systems that the BCS employs (Anderson & Hester #3, Richard Billingsley #3, Wesley Colley #2, Kenneth Massey #2, Jeff Sagarin #2 and Peter Wolfe #2). This resulted in Rutgers' highest ever ranking of #6 in the Bowl Championship Series Standings and the Scarlet Knights being very much alive in the National Championship picture, until a loss in the following week to the University of Cincinnati.[13] After defeating Syracuse on November 25 by a score of 38-7 in a game during which Brian Leonard broke the school's all-time scoring record, Rutgers was defeated by West Virginia on December 2nd by two points in triple overtime and was not able to clinch the Big East title. The Scarlet Knights played against Kansas State in the inauguaral Texas Bowl on 28 December 2006 and came away with a victory of 37-10.
[edit] Venues
[edit] New Brunswick/Piscataway
Rutgers University fields 27 sports teams from their New Brunswick-Piscataway Campus for NCAA Division I-A competition. Most of the university's 14 athletic venues and facilities are currently located in Piscataway on the Busch and Livingston campuses, with two facilities in New Brunswick (the College Avenue Gymnasium and the Class of 1914 Boathouse).
One hundred and twenty-five years after Rutgers and Princeton first inaugurated the tradition of American football, Rutgers Stadium, a 42,000 seat facility, was opened during the 1994 football season. The field at Rutgers Stadium is large enough to host national and international soccer matches.[14]
The Louis Brown Athletic Center, commonly known as the RAC (for its original name of Rutgers Athletic Center), is home to the Rutgers men’s and women’s basketball programs and has a capacity of 8,000 seats. The RAC is often considered one of the toughest places to play by opponents because of the shape of the facility and the volume and intensity of the crowd. [15]
Soccer and Lacrosse are both played at Yurcak Field, which accommodates over 5,000 fans. Built in 1994, this site, recognized as one of the premiere collegiate venues for these two sports in the United States, was named in honor of Rutgers alumnus Ronald N. Yurcak, a 1965 All-American Lacrosse player.[16]
Rutgers also operates an 18-hole 6,000-yard, par 71 golf course, designed by Hal Purdy and awarded four stars in 2004 by Golf Magazine and ranked by Golf Digest as "Best Place to Play".[17]
[edit] Newark
Rutgers-Newark fields teams for NCAA Division III competition in Men's and Women's Soccer, Basketball, Tennis, Volleyball (women), Baseball (men) and Softball (women). The Men's Volleyball team is the only NCAA Division I sport on the campus. Their teams are known as the "Scarlet Raiders."[18]
Built in 1977, the Golden Dome Athletic Center is the hub of Rutgers-Newark athletics, seating 2,000. Soccer and softball games are held on Alumni Field, while the Rutgers-Newark baseball team plays at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, a 6,200-seat ballpark that is home to the Newark Bears, a minor-league professional baseball franchise.[19]
[edit] Camden
Rutgers-Camden fields teams for NCAA Division III competition in Men's and Women's Crew, Cross Country, Golf, Soccer, Volleyball, Basketball, Indoor Track, Baseball (men), Softball (women), and Track and Field. In 2006, Rutgers-Camden won the NCAA Division III Softball championship, defeating two-time defending champion St. Thomas, 3-2 to capture the school's first national title.[20]
Rutgers-Camden basketball also holds the unfortunate distinction of the longest losing streak in college basketball, set in 1997. The team was disbanded, but student outcry lead to a re-instatement. Then Athletic Director "Pony" Wilson coached the team to its first win in 117 games over Iona College. Though yet to post a winning season, the team has returned somewhat to respectability.
[edit] Controversy and debate
Rutgers efforts to upgrade the quality of its football program have raised criticism of several alumni, faculty and students regarding the size of athletic department's budget, wishing to divert its funds elsewhere. The athletic department's budget is $35.5 million[21] compared to a $1.6 billion budget for the entire university.[22] A large portion of the athletics budget comes from mandatory student fees enacted in recent years. The rest comes from self-generating revenue (ticket sales, merchandise, broadcast rights) and from the general university budget. In addition, many argue that having a very visible football program increases the connection of alumni and members of the community at large, thus increasing donations to the athletic department and even the university as a whole. For this reason it is difficult to quantify the positive impact that a strong football program has on the university in a variety of areas.
Critics claim that the focus on Division I-A athletics lowers admissions and academic standards. However, at 980, Rutgers team had the third-highest Academic Performance Rate (APR) score of any Division I-A football team in 2005.[23] Critics also claim that off-the-field criminal incidents will damage the university's reputation, believing that big-time athletics inevitably fosters corruption. These concerns have not been empirically tested, and incidents have been less frequent at Rutgers than at other major state universities. A final complaint was that the upgraded football schedule would prevent competing against long standing rivals Princeton, Columbia, Lehigh, and Lafayette. However, supporters of the move claim it would make Rutgers more comparable to large, prestigious state universities such as the University of Michigan and University of California and private institutions such as Stanford University which have been touted for balancing their academic reputation with athletic success.
William C. Dowling, a University Professor in the Department of English, and a few other like-minded faculty, students and alumni organized a group known as "Rutgers 1000"[24] in 1993, favoring downgrading the school's football team to Division I-AA. This group disbanded in 2003 after Professor Dowling expressed dismay at President Richard McCormick's decision to continue supporting the athletic program.
[edit] Major Failure
This article, like the general article on the general article on Rutgers University, studiously avoids explaining why Rutgers University was nationalized. —SlamDiego 08:16, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
- Simple, because it wasn't "nationalized". —ExplorerCDT 11:03, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
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- Perhaps you aren't familiar with what nationalization is, in which case you might find the link to the article on nationalization (provided in my original comment above and in this comment as well) useful. Rutgers was a private university, and it is now the state university. —SlamDiego 21:32, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
