Anybody else see the reference in the commercial (forget which!) to “1876” as the date for the birth of college football?
Birth Of CFB When??
- Thread starter IndianaKnight
- Start date
No idea why we say Birthplace of “college” football
why not just
Birthplace of football
why not just
Birthplace of football
And with Ash as HC and Hobbs as AD, we decided to downplay the whole 150th anniversary.
Because it's not. Football was played (usually as a hazing ritual) on various college campuses for decades. they also played it sporatically elsewhere without consistent rules or oversight. When Rutgers hosted Princeton on November 6, 1869 it became the birthplace of intercollegiate football. The two colleges started a chain of football happenings that continue into today. Intercollegiate football shaped the infrastructure, rules and play of American Football for the next half century.
Don't know why they went with the 1876 date (probably because a football rules conference was held in December of that year). Not a reason to date the birth of intercollegiate football (or football in general) to that year.
Last edited:
DJSpanky:
And with Ash as HC and Hobbs as AD, we decided to downplay the whole 150th anniversary.
Julie Herman was also showing little interest in far-sighted planning for the celebration of the 150th. And Ash showed little interest iin the history or traditions of Rutgers. By the 150th anniversary year of 2019, he was relieved of his job four games in. The AD had a game scheduled on November 2nd at Illinois but didn't play again until November. 16 at home.
And with Ash as HC and Hobbs as AD, we decided to downplay the whole 150th anniversary.
Julie Herman was also showing little interest in far-sighted planning for the celebration of the 150th. And Ash showed little interest iin the history or traditions of Rutgers. By the 150th anniversary year of 2019, he was relieved of his job four games in. The AD had a game scheduled on November 2nd at Illinois but didn't play again until November. 16 at home.
Last edited:
Have you thought about the location of the first football game recently? It’s a weedy, ugly parking lot with a plaque somewhere nearby and nothing else. It should be a shrine, museum and destination. But Rutgers has crapped on it. Rutgers has been such a terrible steward that I’ve been expecting somebody, something to come along and take the title away. Somebody in the administration or state should pull their head out of their *** and fix it.
IIRC, didn’t the College Football HOF make overtures to RU when they were deciding to make a new permanent home, with RU passing on the opportunity?
Not just ovetures. The spot the first game was played on was to be the site of the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame. Technically, the Hall was at Rutgers from 1949 through 1972 and was in eternal fund raising for a building that never got built. They had changed plans several times (the latest looked a lot like the Waksman Institute Building on Busch Campus).
Rutgers played Hall of Fame Games in the 1950s to raise money. Because the originally planned site was so crowded on campus, the HOF site was moved to be about 400 yards north of Rutgers Stadium - probably across the roadway where the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center currently sits.
Last edited:
When I attended RU 1965-1969, I 'remember' a sign where the yellow lot is that read "Future Site of the Collgege FB Hall of Fame'.
That's if memory serves me correctly but at this point it may not.
I always felt that if Werblin didn't die so early it would have happened here.
