December 27, 2005: Rutgers Plays Its 1st Real Bowl Game

December 27, 2005: For the 1st time, the football team at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, plays in a real postseason "bowl game."

It wasn't actually the first one. In 1978, frustrated over not having been selected for bowl games despite some fine seasons -- 8-1 in 1958, 8-1 in 1960, 9-0 in 1961, 8-2 in 1968, 7-4 in 1972, 7-3 in 1974, 9-2 in 1975, 11-0 in 1976, 8-3 in 1977 and finally 9-3 -- mainly due to a weak schedule, Rutgers started its own bowl, the Garden State Bowl.

It would be held at their secondary home field, the 77,000-seat Giants Stadium, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey, 36 miles from their 23,000-seat Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, and 35 miles from their Student Center in New Brunswick, both in Middlesex County.

The Scarlet Knights invited Arizona State, which had faced a similar level of disrespect, because they had dominated the weak Western Athletic Conference, and had just joined the Pacific-8, making it the Pac-10. Maybe they should've invited a weaker team than Frank Kush's Sun Devils, who beat them, 34-18.

That was a badge of dishonor: The Scarlet Knights couldn't even win a bowl on their secondary home field. So, again, they weren't invited to bowls, despite going 8-3 in 1979, 7-4 in 1980, 7-3 in 1984, 6-4 in 1986, and 7-4 in 1992. In '92, a loss to Boston College really stung, not just because BC's quarterback, future New York Jet Glenn Foley, had been a Jersey Boy, from Cherry Hill, but because he told the postgame media, "The only bowl Rutgers is going to is the one I just got off of." Meaning the toilet.

The new Rutgers Stadium (now SHI Stadium) opened in 1994, but, having joined the Big East Conference, RU was not putting up bowl-worthy seasons. Greg Schiano was hired in 2001, and it took him until 2005 to put up a winning season, 7-4.

Finally, a bowl came calling. It wasn't a major bowl. It was the Insight Bowl, named for an Internet company. It had gone through several names: The Copper Bowl from its 1989 establishment until 1996, the Insight.com Bowl starting in 1997, just the Insight Bowl starting in 2002, the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in 2012, the Cactus Bowl starting in 2015, the Cheez-It Bowl in 2018 and 2019, and the Guaranteed Rate Bowl starting in 2020. (UPDATE: In 2024, it was rebranded as the Rate Bowl.)

It was held at the University of Arizona's Arizona Stadium in Tucson from 1989 to 1999; then the Arizona Diamondbacks' Bank One Ballpark/Chase Field in Phoenix from 2000 to 2005; Arizona State University's Sun Devil Stadium (now Mountain America Stadium), in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, from 2006 to 2015; and Chase Field again ever since.

It is the Phoenix area's secondary bowl game, behind the Fiesta Bowl, which was played at Sun Devil Stadium from 1971 to 2006, and has been played at the Arizona Cardinals' home, now named State Farm Stadium, in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, since 2007.

So being invited to the Insight Bowl was not much respect. But it was more than Rutgers were used to, and it was a chance to spend Christmas week someplace considerably warmer than New Jersey, so they accepted the bid. As fate would have it, the opponent was the same as in the 1978 Garden State Bowl: Arizona State. The Sun Devils would be traveling 11 miles, so this would be more or less a home game for them. The Scarlet Knights would be traveling 2,386 miles.

At first, the long roadtrip didn't seem to faze Rutgers: Ryan Hart threw a touchdown pass to Clark Harris to give them a 7-0 lead. Arizona State answered with their own touchdown pass, but Hart threw another to Brian Leonard. Just before the 1st quarter ran out, Jeremy Ito kicked a 25-yard field goal. RU were up 17-7. Things were looking good.

The Sun Devils kicked a field goal to make it 17-10. Leonard ran for a touchdown to make it 24-10 Rutgers. But the Sun Devils scored to close to within 24-17 at the half.

In the 3rd quarter, Arizona State scored a tying touchdown, but Ito kicked another field goal to put RU back up, 27-24. Arizona State scored a touchdown to take their 1st lead, 31-27. Just before the end of the quarter, Ito kicked another field goal to make it 31-30 Sun Devils. Early in the 4th quarter, he kicked another to make it 33-31 Scarlet Knights.

Rutgers had a 4th quarter lead in a bowl game, in what was essentially a home game for the other team. This wasn't quite living the dream, but it sure looked like a building block toward reaching the dream.

But you can almost set your watch by the Rutgers defense collapsing. The Sun Devils scored a touchdown and a 2-point conversion, then another touchdown and a failed 2-point conversion. It was 45-33 Arizona State.

With 2 minutes left, Hart threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Tres Moses, closing RU to within 45-40. But they failed to recover the onside kick, and Arizona State ran out the clock to seal the win.

It was yet another failure for Rutgers, one of the most underachieving programs in college football. On the other hand, they had been invited to a bowl, and scored 40 points against a hometown team. That was something to take with them into the next year.

In 2006, Rutgers went 10-2, finishing 2nd in the Big East. They were invited to the Texas Bowl. It wasn't the biggest bowl in Texas -- that remains the Cotton Bowl in Dallas -- but at least, unlike the Insight Bowl, it was the biggest bowl in its own metropolitan area, Houston. Rutgers won this game rather easily, 37-10, for their 1st-ever bowl win.

It began a streak of 4 straight seasons with bowl wins, and 5 in 6 years. Rutgers has since won (these dates are for the season, not necessarily the calendar year) the International Bowl in Toronto in 2007, The PapaJohns.com Bowl in Birmingham in 2008, the St. Petersburg Bowl in 2009, the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in 2011, and the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit in 2014. But the biggest bowl game they've ever been to, and it's still only a secondary bowl, is the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, in the 2021 season, losing to Wake Forest, 38-10.

UPDATE: Rutgers won the Pinstripe Bowl again in 2023.

*

December 27, 2005 was a Tuesday. One other bowl game was played that day, the Champs Sports Bowl. This was also a secondary bowl, the 2nd-biggest at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, behind the eponymous Citrus Bowl. Clemson beat Colorado, 19-10.

There were 8 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 96-91 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands. LeBron James scored 31 points, but it wasn't enough for the Cavs.

* The Charlotte Bobcats (now the new Charlotte Hornets) beat the Atlanta Hawks, 93-90 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Miami Heat beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 109-98 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Dwyane Wade scored 35.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, 82-74 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Indiana Pacers, 99-86 at the SBC Center (now the Frost Bank Center) in San Antonio.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Toronto Raptors, 113-106 at the Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. Chris Bosh scored 37 in defeat.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Denver Nuggets, 108-106 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver. Carmelo Anthony scored 45 to lead all scorers on the night, but the Nugs still lost.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 110-93 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. Mike Bibby scored 38 for the Kings.

There were 4 games played in the NHL that night. None involved any of the New York Tri-State Area teams:

* The Boston Bruins beat the Washington Capitals, 4-3 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington. Brad Stuart scored the winning goal, 2:04 into overtime.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 at the Mellon Arena (usually named the Civic Arena) in Pittsburgh. Tomas Kaberle scored the winning goal, 2:26 into overtime.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Dallas Stars, 4-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* And the Nashville Predators beat the Calgary Flames, 4-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

June 4, 1963: “The Nutty Professor” Premieres

Jerry Lewis as Dr. Julius Kelp

June 4, 1963: The Nutty Professor premieres. Not to be confused with the 1961 film The Absent-Minded Professor, this film is also a screwball comedy, Jerry Lewis' take on the story of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

The top of the film's poster showed Lewis, as Dr. Julius Kelp, mixing the chemicals that would change him, and asked, "What does he become? What kind of monster?" The bottom of the poster shows a shadow stalking Stella Stevens as Stella Purdy, and makes her look interested in him, and says, "Well, any scientist who makes a girl like this can't be all mad."

Julius is a college chemistry professor (the movie was filmed at Arizona State University), and a stereotypical nerd: He's funny-looking, he has a funny voice, his lab coat has a front pocket full of pens, he's socially awkward, he's accident-prone, and he's physically weak. He's tired of being bullied. So he plays to his strength, science, and when he drinks the formula he's made, he turns into a handsome, suave, confident man. He names himself Buddy Love.

Jerry Lewis as Buddy Love.

Note the Dean Martin-like hair.

As Buddy, he pursues Stella, one of his students -- thus avoiding what would now be considered a conflict of interest. At a students' hangout, he sings and plays piano, and becomes popular. But Buddy is a narcissist, mean and violent to those he considers his inferiors. And the formula starts to wear off at inopportune times: For example, Buddy sings beautifully, and then Julius' nasal whine breaks through, and he knows he has to flee the scene, or else be exposed.

Julius knows that, as Buddy, he becomes a bad person, but he's addicted to the attention he gets. Finally, while performing at the students' annual dance, the formula slowly wears off, and he can't hide it any longer. He admits his mistakes, and that he has to learn to like himself as he is, and everyone else has to like themselves as they are. Stella tells him she prefers his normal self, and kisses him.

For 10 years, 1946 to 1956, Lewis had teamed in a comedy duo with singer Dean Martin, a man nicknamed "The King of Cool" after his death. But the act broke up because Lewis wanted to do other things. Some people saw the Buddy Love character as a slap at Martin. Even after Frank Sinatra, a friend of both men, got them to reconcile in 1976, Lewis still faced charges that Buddy was based on Dino.

Instead, he insisted the character was based on every obnoxious, self-important, hateful hipster he ever knew, and wished that, instead of simply obnoxious, he'd made the character genuinely evil. As Lewis grew older, he began to care less about his image as a good guy who raised millions for charity, and the dark side of his personality became less a well-kept secret, and more obvious, and people began to see that Buddy Love was the real Jerry Lewis. 

Eddie Murphy remade The Nutty Professor in 1996, as a comedy, though a considerably more lowbrow one, with a sequel in 2000. He altered the good guy's name to Sherman Klump, but kept the bad guy's name as Buddy Love.

Lewis was an executive producer for Murphy's versions, but later expressed regret: "I have such respect for Eddie, but I should not have done it. What I did was perfect the first time around, and all you're going to do is diminish that perfection by letting someone else do it."

*

June 4, 1963 was a Tuesday. This was also the day that Hockey Hall of Fame goaltenders Jacques Plante and Gump Worsley were traded for each other. I have a separate entry for that event.

All-Pro offensive tackle Jim Lachey and NBA All-Star Xavier McDaniel were born. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Steve Barber -- his arm apparently neither sore nor a little stiff -- outpitched Ralph Terry. John "Boog" Powell hit a home run. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3. Mickey Mantle had a home run and a single; otherwise, the Yankees got just 3 hits.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Braves, 3-2 at the Polo Grounds. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 1-0 at District of Columbia Stadium (later Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington. Tom Cheney pitched a 5-hit shutout to outpitch Earl Wilson. The only run of the game came on a home run by Don Lock in the bottom of the 6th. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Al Kaline went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 3-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Willie Mays went 1-for-4. Willie McCovey appeared as a pinch-hitter, and struck out.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Athletics, 5-0 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Jim Perry pitched a 4-hit shutout. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Colt .45s, 2-1 at Colt Stadium in Houston. This was a no-frills temporary facility to be used by the expansion franchise in the 1962, '63 and '64 seasons, after which they moved to the Astrodome for the 1965 season, changing their name to the Houston Astros.

Being completely open to the elements, Colt Stadium had problems with heat, mosquitoes, and even snakes, which became a bigger problem when the Astros kept using it as a practice facility after the Astrodome opened, until it was finally demolished in 1971. Sandy Koufax, who did not appear in this game, remarked on the size of the mosquitoes, calling them "twin-engine jobs."

* And the Los Angeles Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 1-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels were groundsharing while waiting for their stadium in Anaheim to be built. Dan Osinski pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Gary Peters. The only run of the game came in the bottom of the 2nd, when Lee Thomas singled Félix Torres home.

* The Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates were rained out at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader 2 days later. The Reds swept, 7-5 and 10-5. Over the 2 games, Frank Robinson went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs, 2 walks, and 3 RBIs, rookie Pete Rose went 5-for-9 with a walk, and Roberto Clemente went 2-for-8.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals were not scheduled.

 

 

February 14, 1912: Arizona Is Admitted As the 48th State

February 14, 1912: Arizona is admitted to the Union as the 48th State. It produces one of the most distinctive State Flags, and produces, starting the following July 4, one of the most familiar versions of the American Flag, the 48-star version that flew in World War I and World War II.

Arizona was in the Southest. It had been acquired as part of the Mexican Cessation of 1848, after the Mexican-American War, with an addition part of it, in the southeast, coming from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. It has become known for the Grand Canyon, its Native American and Wild West heritage, and for its heat -- but, as the saying goes, it's a dry heat. It's also known as a retirement destination, especially for people from Chicago, as Florida is to New York and New Jersey.

Arizona has been politically conservative, with a Western-style libertarian bent, favoring land rights and gun rights. Senators Barry Goldwater in 1964 and John McCain in 2008 have been nominated for President by the Republican Party. Because of Goldwater, no Democratic nominee won Arizona between Harry Truman in 1948 and Bill Clinton in 1996, but Joe Biden won it in 2020.

Carl Hayden, a Democrat, was the President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate from 1957 to 1969, making him the highest-ranking member of Congress from the Grand Canyon State. The highest-ranking Arizonan in a President's Cabinet has been Janet Napolitano, a former Governor who served as the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013.

The University of Arizona is in Tucson. Arizona State University is in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix, the State's capital and largest city. The State's 1st major league team was the Phoenix Suns, who arrived in the NBA in 1968. It took a while for sports to catch up to Phoenix's great growth, but the United States Football League had the Arizona Wranglers in 1983 and '84, merging with the Oklahoma Outlaws to become the Arizona Outlaws in 1985. The Philadelphia Eagles were nearly moved to Phoenix that year, and the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals moved there in 1988, taking the name "Phoenix Cardinals" until 1994, when they became the "Arizona Cardinals."

In 1996, the original version of the Winnipeg Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes, becoming the Arizona Coyotes in 2014. And after decades of Spring Training games, and the Pacific Coast League's Phoenix Giants, Phoenix Firebirds, and Tucson Indians, Major League Baseball finally arrived in 1998, with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The World Hockey Association had the Phoenix Roadrunners from 1974 to 1977. It took me years to notice that they had a team named the Roadrunners, and later a team named the Coyotes. (UPDATE: In 2024, the Coyotes moved to Salt Lake City, becoming the Utah Mammoth.)

*

February 14, 1912 was a Wednesday. There were no games on this day: The only professional sports league then active in North America was Canada's National Hockey Association, but no games were scheduled.