November 25, 1961: Rutgers Completes Its 1st Undefeated Season

Alex Kroll (left) and John Bateman

November 25, 1961: Rutgers University beat Columbia University, 32-19 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey, across the Raritan River from Rutgers' main campus in New Brunswick. This completes a 9-0 season for Rutgers, the 1st undefeated season of more than a few games for them.

Rutgers and nearby Princeton had played the 1st college football game in 1869, with Rutgers winning, 6-4. Rutgers had mostly struggled since, although the building of Rutgers Stadium in 1938 led to a bit more success for them.

In 1958, under head coach John Stiegman -- ironically, born and raised in Princeton, and for a time a member of their coaching staff -- Rutgers went 8-1, losing only to the Quantico Marines, a Virginia-based team that served as the closest thing that the U.S. Marine Corps had to a team to match the service academies (Army, Navy and Air Force). They dropped their football program in 1972.

In 1959, Rutgers went 6-3. Stiegman then left to become the head coach at the University of Pennsylvania. (In a retroactive irony, since Rutgers and Princeton stopped playing each other in 1980, Penn have replaced RU as Princeton's arch-rival.) John Bateman was hired as head coach, and he led them to an 8-1 record in 1960, their only loss by 2 points at home to Villanova.

Rutgers began the 1961 season away to Princeton, and won, 16-13. They beat Connecticut at home, 35-12; Bucknell away, 21-6 Lehigh at home, 32-15; Stiegman's Penn away, 20-6; Lafayette away,3 7-6; Delaware at home, 27-19; and Colgate away, 26-6.

Beating Columbia on the Saturday after Thanksgiving made Rutgers undefeated. In yet another irony, Bateman was a Columbia graduate, and had played there. RU finished the season ranked Number 15 in the country. However, there were fewer bowl games in that era, and in none of these seasons were they invited to one.

Rutgers' best player was center Alex Kroll, named to the All-American team. A native of Leechburg, Pennsylvania, a small town north of Pittsburgh, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. But his only professional season would be 1962, with the nearby New York Titans of the American Football League. The next season, without Kroll, they became the New York Jets. Kroll went into the advertising industry, and ended up as the CEO of firm Young & Rubicam. As of November 25, 2022, he is still alive.

Bateman remained Rutgers' head coach through the 1972 season. He had seasons of 8-2 in 1968, 7-4 in 1972, and 6-3 in 1964 and 1969. He was succeeded by Frank Burns, who guided RU to an undefeated season in 1976. Bateman died in 1998.

UPDATE: Kroll died in 2024.

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November 25, 1961 was a Saturday. Before I get to what I consider to be the other notable college football games that were played that day, let me address that this was Thanksgiving Weekend:

* On November 23, Thanksgiving Day, Number 5 Texas beat their arch-rivals, Texas A&M, 25-0 at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas; Colgate beat Brown, 30-6 at Brown Stadium in Providence, Rhode Island; the University of Richmond beat arch-rival William & Mary, 36-18 at City Stadium in Richmond, Virginia; and Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) beat Chattanooga (now the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga), 41-13 at Chamberlain Field in Chattanooga.

* On the day after Thanksgiving, November 24, the University of Miami beat Northwestern, 10-6 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

Now, for the November 25 games:

* Number 1 Alabama were idle that week. Army and Navy were also idle, preparing for their game against each other the next week, which Navy won, 13-7 at Municipal Stadium (later John F. Kennedy Stadium) in Philadelphia.

* Rivalry: Number 2 Ohio State beat Michigan, 50-20 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

* Rivalry: Number 3 Minnesota were upset by Wisconsin, 23-21 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis.

* Rivalry: Number 4 Louisiana State (LSU) beat Tulane, 62-0 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

* Number 7 Colorado beat Iowa State, 34-0 at Folsom Field in the Denver suburb of Boulder, Colorado.

* Number 8 Michigan State beat Illinois, 34-7 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan.

* Number 9 Arkansas beat Texas Tech, 28-0 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas.

* Rivalry: Number 10 Kansas lost to Missouri, 10-7 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas.

* Rivalry: Harvard beat Yale, 27-0 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut.

* Rivalry: Arizona beat Arizona State, 22-13 at Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.

* Notre Dame lost to Iowa, 42-21 at Iowa Stadium (now Kinnick Stadium) in Iowa City.

* And Rutgers' rival, Princeton, lost to Dartmouth, 24-6 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

* Rivalry: Penn State beat the University of Pittsburgh, 47-26 at Pitt Stadium.

* Rivalry: Virginia beat Maryland, 28-16 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia.

* Rivalry: Tennessee beat Kentucky, 26-16 at McLean Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky.

* Rivalry: Purdue beat Indiana, 34-12 at Seventeenth Street Stadium (now Memorial Stadium) in Bloomington, Indiana.

* Rivalry: Oklahoma beat Nebraska, 21-14 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

* Rivalry: The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) beat the University of Southern California (USC), 10-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Rivalry: Oregon State beat Oregon, 6-2 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

* Rivalry: Washington beat Washington State, 21-17 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal travel to the Birmingham area, and beat Wolverhampton Wanderers, 3-2 at Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton.

Baseball was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Boston Celtics, 116-96 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Chicago Packers, 134-102 at the Philadelphia Civic Center. Wilt Chamberlain had 39 points and 38 rebounds. In one game.

Yes, the Chicago Packers. It was their 1st season. Most Chicagoans didn't want to root for a team with the same name as the football team they hated so much. So, for 1962-63, they became the Chicago Zephyrs. It didn't help. So, for 1963-64, they became the Baltimore Bullets. They moved to Washington in 1973, and became the Washington Wizards in 1997.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 104-103 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Syracuse Nationals, 141-108 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

There were 2 games in the NHL that day. The New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 5-0 at the Montreal Forum. The Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks were not scheduled.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal went to the Birmingham area, and beat Wolverhampton Wanderers, 3-2 at Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton.