November 29, 2012: Rutgers' Football Team Blows Their Biggest Chance

November 29, 2012: To paraphrase Boromir in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: One does not simply blow an 11-point 2nd-half lead at home and lose, on national television, and still call oneself Conference Co-Champions. It is folly. With fifty thousand men, you could not do this.

Rutgers University had played the 1st college football game in 1869, and won it -- and they hadn't done a damn thing since. That was an exaggeration, but not much of one. They had undefeated seasons in 1961 and 1976, but both came as independents, not as members of a conference.

And, in so doing, they played what was, before such a classification became official, a schedule full of NCAA Division I-AA (now Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS) teams. It was only in the wake of not getting a bowl big despite going undefeated in 1976 that they decided on what was then called "bigger-time football," scheduling whatever Division I-A (now Football Bowl Subdivision, of FBS) team was willing to take them.

They joined the Big East Conference in 1991, and never came close to winning it until 2006: They beat the University of Louisville, then ranked Number 3 in the country, at home at Rutgers Stadium. They should have won the Conference Championship. But late-season losses to the University of Cincinnati and West Virginia University cost them the title.

In 2012, with their home now renamed High Point Solutions Stadium (since 2019, it's been SHI Stadium), Rutgers began the season 7-0. They won away to Tulane and home to Howard; away to South Florida, a Big East game; away to Arkansas; then home to Connecticut and Syracuse and away to Temple, all Big East games. They were ranked Number 18 in the country.

Then, embarrassingly, they lost at home to FCS team Kent State. Fortunately, it wasn't a Big East game. Nor was their next game, a home win over Army. On November 17, they traveled to Cincinnati, and beat the Bearcats, 10-3. The Scarlet Knights had clinched no worse than a tie for the Big East title.

All they had to do to win the title outright, and possibly gain a berth in a New Year's Day bowl game, was beat either the University of Pittsburgh away or Louisville at home. But they lost to Pitt, 27-6. And so, in a Thursday night game televised nationally on ESPN, they had to defend their home "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" to take the title.

Rutgers wore all-black uniforms for this game, including silver helmets instead of their usual scarlet red, but looked from a distance like they were black. They scored first, when Gary Nova threw an 85-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Coleman. Louisville kicked a field goal to make it 7-3. Early in the 2nd quarter, Mark Harrison caught a pass from Nova, and broke a tackle to make it a 68-yard touchdown reception. 14-3 Rutgers. That lead held into the 3rd quarter.

But in the last minute of the 3rd quarter, Louisville scored a touchdown to make it 14-10. And then, in true RU fashion, the ensuing kickoff was fumbled, and Louisville recovered, leading to 2 touchdowns in 15 seconds of game-clock time. 17-14 Cardinals.

With less than 8 minutes left in regulation, the Knights tied it with a field goal. And, with 4 minutes left, Rutgers were driving for the go-ahead score. But Nova threw an interception, and, with 1:41 to go, John Wallace kicked a 29-yard field goal to give Louisville back the lead. With 1:06 to go, Nova threw one last interception, and Louisville had it won, 20-17.

The season ended with Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati and Syracuse all 5-2 in Big East play. The title was shared. Louisville emerged as the highest-ranked team, so they got the Big East's major bowl bid, and upset Number 4 Florida in the Sugar Bowl, 33-23.

Rutgers were invited to the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando -- formerly known as the Tangerine Bowl and the Florida Citrus Bowl -- on December 28, against former Big East team Virginia Tech, now in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and lost in overtime, 13-10. After starting the season 7-0, they ended it 9-4. 

That was RU's last season in the Big East, which was breaking up. Most of its teams ended up in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Rutgers didn't: They spent a stopgap year in The American Conference, and then, in 2014, joined the Big Ten Conference, which made no sense, either geographically (it's a Midwest-based league) or competitively (going into this weekend, their record in Big 10 games is 12-56).

Either way, they are now in a league with national powers Penn State (their arch-rivals), Ohio State, Michigan and Nebraska; and perennial contenders Michigan State, Wisconsin and Iowa. They are not winning the Big Ten title anytime soon.

A few years ago, Greg Schiano said, "It's time." But as Keith Sargent wrote in the local newspaper, the Home News Tribune, after a similarly missed opportunity in 2011, "For Rutgers, the future never seems to come."

That 2012 game against Louisville was supposed to be the night that Rutgers won a Conference Championship outright, without sharing it with another team (and they'd never even done that), and get invited to one of the traditional New Year's Day bowl games. This was supposed to be Rutgers' "We have overcome" night.

Instead, it was their Bill Buckner Game. The one that will have those of us who are Scarlet Knights fans muttering in our beds late at night for the rest of our lives.

Why does Rutgers always have to do this? Why can't they come through and be a true champion? To paraphrase Tevye in the Broadway musical Fiddler On the Roof: Would it spoil some vast eternal plan?

*

November 29, 2012 was a Thursday. This was the only college football game played that night. There was 1 NFL game: The Atlanta Falcons beat their arch-rivals, the New Orleans, Saints, 23-13 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

Baseball was out of season. And the NHL team owners had locked the players out, so the season didn't begin until January 19, 2013. But there were 2 NBA games played. The Miami Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs, 105-100 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. And the Golden State Warriors beat the Denver Nuggets, 106-105 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland.

November 25, 1976: Rutgers Completes Its 2nd Undefeated Football Season

November 25, 1976, Thanksgiving Day: Rutgers University, which played and won the 1st college football game in 1869, completes an undefeated football season. This followed, earlier in the year, the school's basketball team nearly doing the same, going 31-0 and reaching the NCAA Final Four, before losing. Rutgers had previously gone 9-0 in 1961.

By no means were they a "big-time" college football team in those days. Rutgers Stadium, built in 1938 in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey, across the Raritan River from the school's main campus in New Brunswick, seated only 23,000 people, with grassy berms on either side of the north stand that could fill up with people and raise capacity to about 30,000. And they were playing other small Northeastern schools as well.

Here's the slate: 

* 1-0: September 11, beat the U.S. Naval Academy, 13-3 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* 2-0: September 18, beat Bucknell University, 19-7 at Memorial Stadium in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. That stadium would later be renamed for Bucknell's most famous graduate, Christy Mathewson, 1 of the 1st 5 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

* 3-0: September 25, beat Princeton University, 17-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey. Not only were Princeton their arch-rivals, but they were also their opponents in the 1st college game in 1869. (Rutgers won that, 6 goals to 4.)

* 4-0: October 2, beat Cornell University, 21-14 at Rutgers Stadium.

* 5-0: October 9, beat the University of Connecticut, a.k.a. "UConn," 38-9 at Rutgers Stadium.

* 6-0: October 16, beat Lehigh University, 28-21 at Taylor Stadium in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

* 7-0: October 23, beat Columbia University at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey. This was the 1st college game played at the Meadowlands, which is closer to Columbia's campus than to Rutgers'.

* 8-0: October 30, beat the University of Massachusetts, a.k.a. "UMass," 24-7 at Rutgers Stadium.

* 9-0: November 6, beat the University of Louisville, 34-0 at Rutgers Stadium.

* 10-0: November 13, beat Tulane University, 29-20 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. This was the 1st game Rutgers had ever played indoors.

* 11-0: November 25, beat Colgate University, 17-9 at Giants Stadium.

Like Rutgers, Navy was not what it once was, but did join NCAA Division I-A, now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). So did Louisville and Tulane.

The Ivy League, including '76 Rutgers opponents Princeton, Cornell and Columbia, joined Division I-AA, now known as the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). So did '76 Rutgers opponents Bucknell, Lehigh, UMass and Colgate. So did UConn, although they eventually moved up to D I-A/FBS.

This schedule was so lightly regarded that only after Week 10 was Rutgers ranked by the Associated Press' poll, Number 19. And they only got up to Number 17, because they turned down an invite to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana, thinking they would get an invite to a bigger bowl, but that invite never game. And so, 11-0 they remained.

And let's be honest: If there had been a Big East Conference, as Rutgers eventually joined in 1991, RU would have been slaughtered by the University of Pittsburgh, who went 12-0 and won the National Championship, led by Heisman Trophy winner and eventual Dallas Cowboys Hall-of-Famer Tony Dorsett.

Bret Kosup passed for 1,098 yards, Glen Kehler rushed for 764, and Mark Twitty had 514 receiving yards. The head coach was Frank Burns. No, not the incompetent right-wing surgeon then being played by Larry Linville on the TV show M*A*S*H. 

This Frank Burns was a native of Roselle Park, Union County, New Jersey. He had been a quarterback for Rutgers from 1945 to 1948, was an assistant coach "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" in 1949 and '50, served as head coach at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1951 and '52, coached at Rutgers again in 1955 and '56, spent 4 years as head coach at Chatham High School in Morris County, New Jersey, returned to Rutgers as an assistant in 1961, was named head coach in 1973, and remained through 1983, the early years of Rutgers' attempts to become "bigger time" in football. His career record was 84-52-2, 78-43-1 at Rutgers. He died in 2012, at age 84.

*

As I said, November 25, 1976 was Thanksgiving Day, therefore a Thursday. There was 1 other significant college football game played that day, instead of on the Friday or Saturday of Thanksgiving Weekend: Before 75,000 at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas, and millions more watching in prime time on ABC, Number 11 Texas A&M beat arch-rival Texas 27-3. Texas would rebound the next year, led by Heisman Trophy winner Earl Campbell, and win the Southwest Conference, and nearly the National Championship.

And there was a relatively minor college game, not a rivalry game, in the Mid-American Conference: Kent State beat Northern Illinois, 42-0 at Dix Stadium in the Cleveland suburb of Kent, Ohio.

There were 2 NFL games played that day:

* The Detroit Lions beat the Buffalo Bills, 27-14 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. In a losing effort for the Bills, O.J. Simpson rushed for 273 yards, a new single-game NFL record. I have a separate entry for this event.

Walter Payton would break that record the next season. O.J., of course, would go on to have a very different kind of "record."

* And the Dallas Cowboys beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 19-14 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

And Kent State beat Northern Illinois, 42-0 at Dix Stadium in the Cleveland suburb of Kent, Ohio.

One more note from football on this day: Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was born.

Major League Baseball was in its off-season. In recent times, the NBA and the NHL have avoided playing on Thanksgiving, so as not to compete for TV ratings with the NFL. But, this time, there were 3 NBA games:

* The Cleveland Cavaliers, beat the Detroit Pistons, 111-105 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Houston Rockets beat the New Orleans Jazz, 105-99 at the Superdome in New Orleans. In defeat, "Pistol" Pete Maravich scored 35 points.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Washington Bullets, 104-98 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 2 NHL games. The New York Islanders lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1 at the Nassau Coliseum. And the Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Boston Garden.

And there were 2 games in the World Hockey Association. The New England Whalers beat the Birmingham Bulls, 5-3 at the Jefferson County Civic Center in Birmingham. And the Quebec Nordiques beat the Indianapolis Racers, 5-0 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

This was also the day of the last concert by The Band, filmed for the documentary The Last Waltz. I have a separate entry for that event.

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.

*

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.

November 9, 2006: Rutgers Football Grows Up

November 9, 2006: The football team at Rutgers University has what is -- after 1869, anyway -- its signature moment.

Under head coach Greg Schiano, and his aggressive recruiting of New Jersey, New York State, Connecticut, Eastern Pennsylvania, and even Florida, where he'd been an assistant at the University of Miami, collectively calling all of those places "The State of Rutgers," the Scarlet Knights were having their best season since 1976, when they went undefeated against a considerably lesser schedule.

They began the season by beating North Carolina in Chapel Hill, 21-16. They hosted Illinois at Rutgers Stadium -- the 41,500-seat horseshoe in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey has since been expanded into a 52,454-seat bowl -- and won, 33-0. They hosted Ohio University (not Ohio State), and won, 24-7.

That got them into the Top 25, with a ranking of Number 23. Their next game wasn't going to help them: It was a home game against Howard University, a historically black FCS school, and RU won, 56-7. The next game should have helped them: It was away to South Florida in Tampa, and they won, 22-20. Still, they dropped to Number 24.

After a week off, they went to Annapolis, Maryland, and beat Navy, 34-0. Now, they had risen to Number 19. They played away to the University of Pittsburgh. They never beat Pitt away. This time, they did, 20-10. They rose to Number 16. They hosted Connecticut, and won, 24-13.

Now, the Scarlet Knights were 8-0 -- but still so little respected that they were only ranked Number 15 in the country. On a Thursday night, November 9, they would have a nationally-telecast (ESPN) prime-time game against Number 3 Louisville. The winner of this game would have the inside track to winning the Big East Conference.

A crowd of 44,111 fans crammed into the Piscataway horseshoe. (It's now a 52,000-seat bowl.) At that point, only 7 times had a Rutgers "home game" had more fans, all of them at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands: Against Florida in 1986; and against Penn State in 1977, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1992 and 1995. (The October 3, 1992 game against Penn State remains a record crowd for a Rutgers home game: 72,203. Rutgers lost, 38-24.)

Louisville scored first. At the end of the 1st quarter, Rutgers scored a touchdown to tie it, but Louisville returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown. And they scored a 2-point conversion. It was Cardinals 15, Scarlet Knights 7.

In the 2nd quarter, Louisville added a touchdown and a field goal, to make it 25-7. But Ray Rice, later to be a figure of terrible controversy, scored a touchdown to make it 25-14 at the half. He scored another touchdown in the 3rd quarter, to get RU within 25-20. But placekicker Jeremy Ito missed the extra point.

With 10:13 left in regulation, Ito kicked a 46-yard field goal, to tie the game at 25. RU's defense held until the final minute. Quarterback Mike Teel drove them down the field, and with 13 seconds to go, Ito attempted a 28-yard field goal. It was perfect. Rutgers led 28-25.

Fans stormed the field. And, as a Rutgers fan for nearly 30 years at that point, used to seeing them blowing it, I was worried that they wouldn't be able to clear the field, thus rendering the field unplayable, and forfeiting the game. But they did clear the field, and Louisville were unable to do anything on their last 2 plays.

Rutgers had beaten the Number 3 team in the country, and the entire country -- or, at least, all of that part of the country that cared about college football -- saw it. The Scarlet Knights had grown up. It was a truly magical moment for the country's 1st college football program.

Just 9 days later, they blew it. Now ranked Number 7, they went to Cincinnati, and lost to the University of Cincinnati, 30-11. They came home and beat Syracuse on Thanksgiving Saturday, 38-7. But the following week, they went to Morgantown and lost to West Virginia, 41-39 in overtime. Despite having been beaten by Rutgers, Louisville won the Big East Championship anyway.

Rutgers closed its season in Houston, beating Kansas State in the Texas Bowl, 37-10. They finished at 11-2, ranked Number 12 in the country.

Teel was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2009, and was on the roster for that entire season, but never entered a regular-season game, and was released. In the 2010 preseason, he was signed and released, first by the New England Patriots, then by the Chicago Bears. He has since gone into coaching.

Ito was signed and released by the New Orleans Saints in 2008. In 2009, he played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League, and was released. 

*

November 9, 2006 was a Thursday. So there were no other college football games played. There were no NFL games played. The baseball season was over. There were 3 games played in the NBA that night:

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Chicago Bulls, 113-94 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (It's now named the Rocket Arena.)

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Phoenix Suns, 119-112 at the US Airways Center in Phoenix. (It's now named the Mortgage Matchup Center.) Dirk Nowitzki scored 35.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, 121-116 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena). Baron Davis scored 36 points.

There were 8 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1 in a shootout at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. (Okay, it was officially named the Continental Airlines Arena at that point.) Yes, the Devils won in a shootout. Back then, it wasn't that big a deal. Today, it would be.

* The New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 6-4 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals, 5-0 at the RBC Center in Raleigh. (It's now the Lenovo Center.)

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-2 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. (It's now the Enterprise Center.)

* The Dallas Stars beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 1-0 at the Jobing.com Arena in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. (It's now the Desert Diamond Arena.)

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 7-3 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

* And the Anaheim Ducks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-0 at General Motors Place in Vancouver. (It's now named the Rogers Arena.) 

November 5, 1938: Rutgers Stadium Opens

Program from the dedication game

November 5, 1938: Rutgers Stadium opens in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey, across the Raritan River from the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers College, now called Rutgers University.

For the 1st time since they played each other in the 1st college football game in 1869 -- 69 years minus 1 day earlier -- Rutgers beat Princeton, 20-18.

Rutgers had begun the season playing home games in New Brunswick, at Neilson Field, where they had been playing since 1892. They finished the 1938 season 7-1, their only loss coming at Neilson Field, to New York University (NYU), 25-6.

Before 1892, including that 1869 game, they had played at College Field. In 1931, the College Avenue Gym and its parking lot were built on the site.

In 1953, the Alexander Library, the hub of RU's University Library system, was built on the site of Neilson Field. As far as I know, Rutgers is the only school that tore down a football stadium and built a library on the site. Can you imagine that happening at another school that's now in the Big Ten? Or in the South?

The 1938 Rutgers Stadium, late in its tenure

RU would continue to play home games in football, and sometimes soccer and lacrosse, at the 23,000-seat Rutgers Stadium until 1992. By the time of their undefeated season in 1976, when they committed to playing what they called "bigger time" football, the stadium was hopelessly outdated, and they had begun playing games at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands.

It was far larger, but well off campus, and visiting teams sometimes drew in bigger crowds, making it seem like a home game. Example: Army's Michie Stadium is 82 miles from Piscataway, but only 48 miles from the Meadowlands.

While RU played their 1993 home games at Giants Stadium, the old stadium was demolished, and replaced with a 41,000-seat modern Rutgers Stadium that opened in 1994. It was renamed High Point Solutions Stadium in 2011, HighPoint.com Stadium in 2017, and SHI Stadium in 2019. It now seats 52,454.

The current Rutgers stadium

*

November 5, 1938 was a Saturday. These other notable college football games were played:

* The University of Pittsburgh, then ranked Number 1, were by their neighbors, Number 19 Carnegie Tech, 20-10 at Pitt Stadium. This ended a 22-game unbeaten streak for the Panthers (20-0-2). Both teams used Pitt Stadium as their home field, and Carnegie Tech became Carnegie Mellon University in 1967.

* The Number 3 team in the country also lost: California lost to Number 13 USC, 13-7 at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

* The Number 2 team, Texas Christian University, a.k.a. TCU of Fort Worth, beat the University of Tulsa, 21-0 at Skelly Field in Tulsa. TCU jumped to Number 1, won the Southwest Conference title, and beat Carnegie Tech, then ranked Number 6, in the Sugar Bowl to finish 11-0. Their quarterback, a lefthander named Davey O'Brien, was awarded the Heisman Trophy.

* Number 4 Notre Dame beat Navy, 15-0, in a game moved from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland to Municipal Stadium in Baltimore, to take advantage of the much higher seating capacity. Memorial Stadium would be built on the site in 1954. Notre Dame would blow its shot at the National Championship by losing to USC.

* Number 6 Tennessee beat the University of Chattanooga, 45-0 at Shields-Watkins Field in Knoxville, Tennessee. (It was later renamed for Tennessee's head coach, Bob Neyland.) Tennessee rose to Number 2, and then beat Number 4 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl to finish 11-0. The polls split the National Championship between TCU and Tennessee.

* Number 12 Minnesota beat Iowa, 28-0 at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. They went on to win the Big Ten.

And 2 games were played in the NHL. The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at the Montreal Forum; and the Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. 

Also, Arsenal lost to Leeds United, 3-2 at Highbury in North London.

And César Luis Menotti, who managed Argentina to win the 1978 World Cup on home soil, was born on this day.

October 31, 1992: Rutgers' Halloween Homecoming Thriller

October 31, 1992: Rutgers University plays Virginia Tech in a Halloween Homecoming thriller, in the next-to-last game at the old Rutgers Stadium. The stars of this game, all from New Jersey, were quarterback Bryan Fortay of East Brunswick, running back Bruce Presley of Highland Park, tight end Jim Guarantano of Lodi, and receiver Chris Brantley of Teaneck.

RU fell behind 42-23 in the 3rd quarter, before launching a comeback. With 1:32 left, and Tech leading 49-44, the Scarlet Knights got the ball on their own 22. Among the plays on this drive was a 46-yard pass from Fortay to Mario Henry with 7 seconds left. RU won on the final play, the 4th Fortay-to-Brantley touchdown pass of the game, 50-49. Yes, that score is in football, not basketball.

The shootout featured a combined 1,164 yards of total offense, on 167 plays, with 54 first downs, 10 interceptions and 14 touchdowns.

Rutgers played in the 1st college football game, in 1869. So they have, literally, been playing football longer than anybody in America. This may not be their greatest game in their history, and it certainly isn't the most important (or even the most important one since 1869). But it is the wildest.

RU advanced to 5-3 on the season, and had a shot at winning the Big East Conference title, having already beaten then-Number 15 Syracuse 3 weeks earlier.

But the next week, they lost away to the University of Cincinnati, 26-24, before closing the old Rutgers Stadium the following week with a 13-9 win over West Virginia. The closed the season by beating Temple at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. After playing all their home games at the Meadowlands in 1993, the old stadium was demolished, and the new Rutgers Stadium, now named SHI Stadium, opened on the site in 1994.

RU finished 7-4, and were not invited to go to a bowl game. After they lost their season opener, to Boston College, their quarterback, Glenn Foley -- a New Jersey native they let get away, from the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill -- told the media, "The only bowl Rutgers is going to is the one I just got off of." Big talk from a guy whose biggest achievement as a pro was starting 8 games at quarterback for the New York Jets.

*

October 31, 1992 was a Saturday. Among the other college football games played on that Halloween were these:

* Number 1 Miami beat West Virginia, 35-23 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Miami won the Big East Conference title.

* Number 2 Washington beat Number 15 Stanford, 41-7 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Washington won the Pacific-Ten title.

* Number 3 Michigan beat Purdue, 24-17 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. Michigan won the Big Ten title, but lost the Rose Bowl to Washington.

* Number 4 Alabama had the week off. They went on to win the Southeastern Conference title, rising to Number 2, then beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl for the National Championship.

* Number 5 Texas A&M beat Southern Methodist (SMU), 41-7 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. A&M won the Southwest Conference title.

* Number 6 Florida State beat Number 23 Virginia, 13-3 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia. Florida State won the Atlantic Coast Conference title.

* Number 7 Georgia were upset by Number 20 Florida, 26-24 at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville. Florida won the SEC Eastern Division title, but lost the SEC Championship Game to Alabama. They returned to the Gator Bowl stadium to play the game of the same name, and beat North Carolina State. Georgia beat Ohio State in the Florida Citrus Bowl.

* Number 8 Nebraska beat Number 9 Colorado, 52-7 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska won the Big Eight Conference title, but lost the Orange Bowl to Florida State. Colorado went to the Fiesta Bowl, where they lost to Syracuse.

* Number 10 Notre Dame beat Navy, 38-7 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. Notre Dame went to the Cotton Bowl, and beat Texas A&M.

* Number 14 Penn State were upset by Brigham Young University (BYU), 30-17 at Cougar Stadium (now LaVell Edwards Stadium) in Provo, Utah.

* Number 16 Tennessee were upset by South Carolina, 24-23 at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina.

* Number 19 Washington State were upset by Oregon, 34-17 at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington.

* Army beat Eastern Michigan, 57-17 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

Baseball season was over. The NBA season started 6 days later. There were 10 games played in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3 at the Montreal Forum.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the New York Islanders, 5-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2 at the Colisée de Québec.

* In another "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Hartford Whalers, 7-1 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Buffalo Sabres and the Ottawa Senators played to a tie, 2-2 at the Ottawa Civic Centre (now the TD Place Arena).

* The 2 remaining "Original Six" teams also played each other, as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-4 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Minnesota North Stars, 5-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Washington Capitals, 4-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

October 19, 1946: The Rutgers-Princeton "Cannon War"

"Big Cannon," with Nassau Hall behind it

October 19, 1946: Princeton beats Rutgers 14-7 at Rutgers Stadium. An attempt to steal the cannon proves even more embarrassing for RU.

Rutgers University is in New Brunswick, in Middlesex County, New Jersey. (The stadium is across the Raritan River, in Piscataway.) Princeton University is in the town of the same name, in Mercer County. They are separated by 17 miles of State Route 27. In 1869, Rutgers beat Princeton in "the first college football game," in New Brunswick, hence Rutgers calls itself "the Birthplace of College Football."

Two cannons were left on the Princeton campus after the War of the American Revolution, although neither of them were used in the Battle of Princeton of January 3, 1777, as is often claimed. "Big Cannon" is located behind Nassau Hall in the center of the quadrangle there, called "Cannon Green," and "Little Cannon" is situated between Whig and Clio Halls.

For the War of 1812, Big Cannon was transported to New Brunswick to help defend the city against potential attack by the British, remaining on the Rutgers campus, where it was used for training during and after the American Civil War of 1861-65 by Rutgers cadets, until it was taken back to Princeton in 1875 by the "Princeton Blues," a local militia.

On the night of April 25, 1875, 10 members of the Rutgers Class of 1877 set out to take Big Cannon from Princeton. However, they were unable to move it, so instead they returned to New Brunswick with Little Cannon. Princeton responded with a raid on Rutgers, stealing some muskets, and the presidents of the colleges exchanged polite but demanding correspondence. Eventually, a joint committee settled the matter, and Little Cannon was returned to Princeton, escorted by the New Brunswick Police Chief. In other words, Rutgers was forced to cave.

On October 19, 1946, a contingent of Rutgers men slipped onto the Princeton campus, and again tried to steal the famed Big Cannon. This attempt was even more disastrous than the first. They attached one end of a heavy chain to the cannon and the other to their car, a Ford. Surprised by Princeton students and the police, they gunned the engine of the car so hard that the car, weighted down by the cannon, was torn in half. The Rutgers students managed to escape, but with neither the car nor the cannon.

On the eve of the annual Rutgers-Princeton game of 1971, Big Cannon was apparently "stolen" again. A 5-foot-deep hole was found where the cannon sat. Campus police were baffled that the cannon had been taken, given its extreme weight. After crime photos were taken, it appears that a hole had simply been dug next to Big Cannon and the dirt from the hole used to bury it. Reports appeared in the Rutgers newspaper, the Daily Targum, as well as nearby papers such as the New Brunswick-based Daily Home News, the Princeton Packet and The Times of Trenton. (Rutgers won the game, 33-18.)

With Rutgers having committed to "big-time" (sometimes written as "bigger time") football, and Princeton having committed to the smaller-time Ivy League, the schools haven't played each other in football since 1980, a 44-13 Rutgers win in Piscataway, although they still play each other in other sports.

Big Cannon at Princeton is routinely painted red by Rutgers students, particularly in the week leading to Rutgers commencement, as well as on other notable Rutgers dates. In November 2011, a group of Rutgers students who went to paint the cannon in Princeton brought a video camera with them and made a documentary about the tradition.

The footage became part of a larger project about the history of the Cannon War and its perception in the minds of current students today. The film, Knights, Tigers, and Cannons. Oh My!, by Zack Morrison, premiered at the New Jersey Film Festival in September 2012, and won the award for Best Student Film.

*

October 19, 1946 was a Saturday. In other notable college football games:

* Number 1 Army beat Number 11 Columbia, 48-14 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* Number 2 Notre Dame were idle that week. Notre Dame would play Army in a de facto National Championship game at Yankee Stadium 3 weeks later, but it ended in a 0-0 tie. Notre Dame, naturally, were awarded the National Championship.

* Number 3 Texas beat Number 14 Arkansas, 20-0 at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas. Arkansas won the Southwest Conference title, anyway.

* Number 4 UCLA beat the University of California, 13-6 at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California. UCLA won the Pacific Coast Conference title.

* Number 5 Michigan and Number 10 Northwestern played to a tie, 10-10 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

* Number 6 University of Pennsylvania beat the University of Virginia, 40-0 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* Number 7 Alabama were upset by Number 9 Tennessee, 12-0 at Shields-Watkins Field (later Neyland Stadium) in Knoxville, Tennessee.

* Number 8 Georgia beat Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State), 33-13 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia.

* Number 12 Louisiana State University were upset by Georgia Tech, 26-7 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

* Number 15 North Carolina beat Navy, 21-14 at Municipal Stadium in Baltimore.

* Number 16 Rice beat Southern Methodist University (SMU), 21-7 at Rice Field in Houston. Rice shared the SWC title with Arkansas, but lost the head-to-head tiebreaker. Nevertheless, they were invited to the Orange Bowl, where they beat Tennessee. Rice went to the Cotton Bowl, where they played LSU to a tie.

* Illinois, then unranked, beat Number 20 Wisconsin, 27-21 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. Illinois went on to play UCLA in the Rose Bowl. That was the 1st time that the Champions of the leagues that would come to be known as the Big Ten and the Pac-12 were locked into playing each other in the Rose Bowl. Illinois won, 45-14.

* New York University beat the University of Rochester, 6-0 at River Campus Stadium in Rochester, New York.

* Fordham University lost to St. Mary's of the San Francisco Bay Area, 33-2 at the Polo Grounds.

There were 2 games in the All-America Football Conference. The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 21-10 at Yankee Stadium. Yes, that's in football. And the Buffalo Bisons beat the San Francisco 49ers, 17-14 at Civic Stadium (later renamed War Memorial Stadium) in Buffalo.

Baseball season ended 4 days earlier, with the St. Louis Cardinals beating the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of the World Series. The league that would become the NBA played its 1st game on November 1. The NFL scheduled no games for this day, but the nascent All-America Football Conference played 2. The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 21-10 at Yankee Stadium. Yes, there were football teams with those names. And the Buffalo Bisons beat the San Francisco 49eres, 17-14 at Civic Stadium (later War Memorial Stadium) in Buffalo.

And there were 2 NHL games on this day. The Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens played to a tie, 1-1 at the Montreal Forum. And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The New York Rangers and the Chicago Black Hawks were not scheduled,

Also on this day, Arsenal defeated Staffordshire team Stoke City 1-0 at Highbury. Kevin O'Flanagan scored the goal. Soccer was not his best sport: He was renowned as a rugby player for Ireland, and excelled in sprint races and the long jump. He was also a noted amateur golfer and tennis player, and played Gaelic football as a boy.

But he's not the most notable player in this game. That would be Albert Sigurður Guðmundsson. Although this is the 1st of only 2 League matches he plays for Arsenal, it makes him the 1st native of Iceland ever to play professional soccer. He later served his country as Minister of Finance.

September 3, 1994: The New Rutgers Stadium Opens

September 3, 1994: The new Rutgers Stadium opens on the site of the old one, on the Busch Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in Piscataway, "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" as the school song goes.

From 1938 to 1992, Rutgers University had played football at a 23,000-seat stadium on the same site. But the growth of college football made the facility inadequate for the modern game: Wooden benches with no seat backs, not enough of them, no permanent lights, and press facilities barely good enough to cover a high school football game.

So the old stadium was dug up, and a new one was built in its place. The Scarlet Knights played their 1993 home schedule at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

The new stadium was ready for the 1994 season, seating 41,500. Rutgers hosted Kent State University, based in Kent, northeastern Ohio, and a member of the Mid-American Conference. Rutgers won, 28-6.

The natural grass field was converted to FieldTurf in 2004. A new south end was built in 2009, expanding the stadium to 52,454 seats.

In 2011, the naming rights to the stadium were sold, and it became High Point Solutions Stadium. In 2020, it adopted its current name, SHI Stadium. Both High Point and SHI are headquartered in New Jersey.

*

September 3, 1994 was a Saturday. It was a little too soon for the NFL, and also too soon for the NBA and the NHL. And Major League Baseball was on strike. But there were other college football games played on the day:

* The Big East Conference's Miami, ranked 6th, hosted the Southern Conference's Georgia Southern, and won 56-0. The Big East's Virginia Tech, ranked 21st, hosted the Big West's Arkansas State, and won 34-7. The Big East's Syracuse hosted the Big 8's Oklahoma, ranked 16th, and lost 30-29. The Big East's Pittsburgh hosted the Southwest Conference's Texas, ranked 19th, and lost 30-28. The Big East's West Virginia hosted the MAC's Ball State and won 16-14. The Big East's Temple visited the MAC's Akron and won 32-7.

* In the Atlantic Coast Conference, Florida State, ranked Number 4 in the country, hosted Virginia and won 41-17; North Carolina, ranked 18th, hosted Texas Christian (TCU) and won 27-17; and Duke hosted Maryland and won 49-16. Clemson, ranked 24th, hosted and beat the Southern Conference's Furman 27-6.

* In the Southeastern Conference, Auburn, ranked 12th, visited the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), and won 22-17. Florida, ranked Number 1, hosted the WAC's New Mexico State, and won 70-21. Alabama, ranked 11th, hosted the Southern Conference's Chattanooga, and won 42-13. Vanderbilt hosted and beat the ACC's Wake Forest 35-14. Kentucky hosted and beat independent Louisville 20-14. Georgia visited the ACC's South Carolina and won 24-21. Mississippi State visited independent Memphis and won 17-6.

* In the Big Ten Conference, Penn State, ranked 9th, visited Minnesota and won 56-3. Michigan, ranked 5th, hosted the Big East's Boston College, and won 34-26. Northwestern hosted independent Notre Dame, and won 42-15. Indiana hosted and beat the MAC's Cincinnati 28-3. Iowa hosted and beat the MAC's Central Michigan 52-21.

* In the Mid-American Conference, Western Michigan visited Miami of Ohio and won 28-25; and Toledo hosted Indiana State and won 20-17.

* In the Southwest Conference, Arkansas hosted Southern Methodist (SMU) and won 34-14. Texas A&M, ranked 15th, visited the SEC's Louisiana State (LSU), and won 18-13.

* The Big Eight Conference's Colorado, ranked 8th, hosted the Southland Conference's Louisiana-Monroe, and won 48-13. Iowa State hosted the Missouri Valley Conference's Northern Iowa, and lost, 28-14. Kansas State hosted the Southern Conference's Louisiana-Lafayette and won 34-6. Missouri hosted independent Tulsa and lost 20-17.

* Among Southwest Conference teams, Baylor hosted the Big West's Louisiana Tech and won 44-3. Texas Tech hosted the WAC's New Mexico and won 37-31.

* In the Western Athletic Conference, Colorado State visited the Air Force Academy and won 34-21; Wyoming hosted Texas-El Paso (UTEP) and won 36-13; and Brigham Young visited Hawaii and won 13-12. San Diego State hosted independent Navy and won 56-14. WAC's Utah visited the Big West's Utah State and won 32-17.

* In the Pacific-Ten, USC, ranked 17th, hosted Washington, ranked 23rd, and won 24-17; and Arizona State hosted Oregon State and won 22-16. UCLA, ranked 14th, hosted the SEC's Tennessee, ranked 13th, and won 25-23. Oregon hosted the Big West's Portland State and won 58-16.

* In the Big West Conference, Fresno State hosted San Jose State and won 45-13; Nevada hosted Northern Arizona and won 30-27; and the University of the Pacific hosted and beat California-Davis 24-7. Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) hosted the MAC's Eastern Michigan and won 17-3.

* And in a game between a pair of independents that would soon join Conference USA, Southern Mississippi visited Tulane and won 25-10.