48 Fun Facts About Rutgers

Rutgers was chartered in 1766 as Queen's College, honouring the wife of which British king?

George III's wife, Queen Charlotte, gave the college its first name, and it kept that royal name through the Revolution fought against her husband, becoming Rutgers only in 1825.

New Jersey's last royal governor, who signed the 1766 charter, was the son of which Founding Father?

William Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin, was royal governor of New Jersey from 1763 to 1776 and signed the 1766 charter; he stayed loyal to the Crown during the Revolution, unlike his famous father.

Rutgers was founded by ministers of which denomination to train future clergy?

Dutch Reformed ministers founded the college to train clergy; the tie survives in the motto 'Sol iustitiae et occidentem illustra', adapted from Utrecht University's in the Netherlands.

Seven of the nine colonial colleges, but not Rutgers, share which league?

The Ivy League took seven of the nine colleges chartered before the Revolution, including Dartmouth, which is three years younger than Rutgers.

Where did Rutgers hold its first classes in 1771?

In a tavern: a college founded to train ministers opened in 1771 at the Sign of the Red Lion, a former inn where a single tutor taught a handful of students.

Who was Henry Rutgers, for whom Queen's College was renamed in 1825?

A Revolutionary War colonel, Henry Rutgers never studied at the college that took his name: he graduated in 1766 from King's College, now Columbia.

Henry Rutgers gave the newly renamed college a $5,000 bond and which other gift?

A bell bought with his $200 still hangs in the cupola of the oldest campus building, while the bond's interest steadied a college that had twice shut for lack of money.

Rutgers became New Jersey's land-grant college in 1864 under which federal law?

The Morrill Act of 1862 funded land-grant colleges; New Jersey chose Rutgers in 1864, creating the Rutgers Scientific School with departments of agriculture, engineering and chemistry.

Before becoming New Jersey's state university in 1945, Rutgers was what?

A private college from 1766, Rutgers served as New Jersey's land-grant school from 1864, yet it took acts of 1945 and 1956 to make it the state university.

Which Rutgers campus began in 1918 as the New Jersey College for Women?

Douglass took its name in 1955 from founder and first dean Mabel Smith Douglass; Rutgers College itself voted to admit women only in 1970 and enrolled its first full class of them in 1972.

Which city is home to Rutgers' oldest campus, on College Avenue?

New Brunswick beat Hackensack by ten votes to seven when the trustees chose the college's home in May 1771.

Which river separates Rutgers' College Avenue campus from its Busch and Livingston campuses?

The Raritan also runs through the alma mater: a student of the class of 1874 wrote 'On the Banks of the Old Raritan' and set it to an old Scottish tune.

Which sponsor's name did the Rutgers Athletic Center (RAC) take in 2021?

Jersey Mike's, the sandwich chain born on the Jersey Shore, bought the name in 2021 in a 20-year deal; the RAC's steep stands make it so loud that fans call it the Trapezoid of Terror.

Rutgers' northern campus was formed in 1946 when it absorbed what?

The University of Newark, itself formed in 1936 from five Newark schools, was folded into Rutgers a year after the legislature made Rutgers the state university.

Which school did Governor Chris Christie try to merge Rutgers–Camden into?

Rowan University was to absorb Rutgers–Camden under a plan Christie backed; opposition led by Camden faculty, students and alumni defeated it, and the campus stayed part of Rutgers.

Who became the first sitting US president to speak at a Rutgers commencement?

Barack Obama told the class of 2016 he came 'because you asked': Rutgers had run a three-year campaign of letters, tweets and videos to land him for its 250th anniversary.

What did Rutgers change in its alma mater in 2013?

A line about becoming a man was dropped: 'My father sent me to old Rutgers, and resolved that I should be a man' became 'From far and near we came to Rutgers', four decades after women enrolled.

Rutgers' only official school colour is what?

Scarlet won out in 1869 after the student newspaper argued for a striking colour whose ribbon was easy to buy; an earlier push for orange failed, and trustees made scarlet official in 1900.

What was Rutgers' mascot from 1925 until 1955?

A fighting rooster called the Chanticleer, named for the rooster of the medieval Reynard the Fox tales, served from 1925 to 1955, but the link to 'being chicken' made it a punchline.

Which Nobel-winning economist graduated from Rutgers in 1932?

Milton Friedman arrived on a scholarship meaning to become an actuary, until two Rutgers teachers, Arthur Burns and Homer Jones, drew the mathematics student into economics.

Which future star of a 1950s family sitcom was Rutgers' quarterback from 1924 to 1926?

Ozzie Nelson went on to earn a law degree in 1930 but made his name leading a dance band, long before The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet reached television in 1952.

The 1869 Rutgers game called the first college football game used rules closest to which sport?

Soccer is the nearest match: with 25 men a side, teams scored by kicking a round ball into the opposing goal, and carrying or throwing it was against the rules.

What did Rutgers players wear in the first college football game to tell themselves apart from Princeton?

Turbans and handkerchiefs in the school colour marked out the Rutgers side because there were no uniforms: players simply shed their coats, vests and hats before the start.

Rutgers and Princeton students feuded over which object, carried off in a night raid in 1875?

A Revolutionary War cannon stayed in Rutgers' home town after the War of 1812 until it went back to Princeton; in 1875 Rutgers students hauled one home by night, and a joint committee had to return it.

Rutgers' first intercollegiate contest, in 1866, was a 40–2 loss to Princeton in which sport?

Baseball brought the 40–2 humiliation, and the urge for revenge is credited with pushing Rutgers to challenge Princeton to a football game three years later.

Rutgers and Princeton staged the first intercollegiate contest in what sport in 1972?

Ultimate Frisbee's first college game was staged 103 years to the day after the schools' first football game and on the same ground, by then a parking lot; Rutgers won 29–27.

Unbeaten Rutgers reached which round of the 1976 NCAA basketball tournament?

The Final Four ended the run: Rutgers arrived 31–0, then lost the national semifinal to Michigan and the third-place game to UCLA to finish 31–2.

Rutgers officially joined which athletic conference on July 1, 2014, alongside Maryland?

The Big Ten took in Rutgers and Maryland together on July 1, 2014; Rutgers paid an $11.5 million exit fee to leave the American Athletic Conference after a single season there.

What name did Rutgers' football stadium take in a 2019 sponsorship deal?

SHI Stadium got its name from a 2019 deal with a New Jersey IT firm, replacing HighPoint.com Stadium, a name adopted only a year earlier when the previous sponsor rebranded itself.

Which other team joined 9–0 Rutgers as unbeaten and untied in 1961?

Alabama went 11–0 under Bear Bryant and won the Sugar Bowl, while Rutgers, 9–0 in its first unbeaten season, played no bowl game at all.

Which inaugural bowl game did unbeaten Rutgers turn down in 1976, the US bicentennial year?

The Independence Bowl, named for the bicentennial, wanted 11–0 Rutgers to face McNeese State; the team declined, feeling snubbed by the bigger bowls, and waited until 1978 for its first bowl game.

What is the nickname of the 2006 comeback win over No. 3 Louisville sealed by Jeremy Ito's field goal?

'Pandemonium in Piscataway' was an 18-point comeback against third-ranked Louisville, won 28–25; it set up a season that ended with the program's first bowl victory, over Kansas State.

Which running back left Rutgers in 2007 as its career rushing leader with 4,926 yards?

Ray Rice ran for 4,926 yards from 2005 to 2007, including 2,012 in 2007, and the university mounted a Heisman campaign for him before he left early for the NFL.

Which coach left Rutgers for the Buccaneers in 2012 and returned in 2019 on an eight-year deal?

Greg Schiano gave Rutgers its first bowl win in his first spell, left for the NFL in 2012, was fired by Tampa Bay after two seasons, and returned to Rutgers in December 2019.

Rutgers punter Adam Korsak won which national award in 2022?

The Ray Guy Award for college football's best punter went in 2022 to Korsak, who grew up in Melbourne playing cricket and Australian rules football, not the American game.

Which Rutgers scientist discovered streptomycin with Albert Schatz and won the 1952 Nobel?

Selman Waksman took the 1952 Nobel alone for streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis; Albert Schatz, the student who isolated it, sued and won legal credit as co-discoverer.

Who graduated from Rutgers in 1919 as class valedictorian and a two-time football All-American?

Paul Robeson became a world-famous singer and actor, until his outspoken politics led the US government to revoke his passport in 1950.

Which future Supreme Court justice taught at Rutgers Law School from 1963 to 1972?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was told at Rutgers she would be paid less than male colleagues because her husband had a good job; she went on to advise the students who launched the Women's Rights Law Reporter.

Which Rutgers alumnus founded ESPN?

Bill Rasmussen hatched ESPN after the New England Whalers fired him in 1978, and the network he founded with his son Scott went on air on September 7, 1979.

Which Sopranos star graduated from Rutgers in 1983?

James Gandolfini earned a communications degree in 1983 and worked as a bouncer at a campus pub; he came to acting only later, when a friend took him along to a class in Manhattan.

Which poet, who attended Rutgers before finishing at Columbia, wrote 'Trees' in 1913?

Joyce Kilmer left Rutgers for Columbia and was killed in France in 1918; the Army's Camp Kilmer was named for him, and part of it later became Rutgers' Livingston campus.

The Fat Darrell and the Fat Cat were over-stuffed sandwiches sold by which Rutgers institution?

The Grease Trucks, a row of food trucks on College Avenue, sold 'Fat' sandwiches crammed with fried extras until Rutgers moved them off their long-time lot.

Which Rutgers alumnus served as vice president of the United States under William McKinley?

Garret A. Hobart, Rutgers class of 1863, died in office in November 1899; that left the vice presidency open for Theodore Roosevelt, who was president within two years.

Which Hall of Fame coach led Rutgers women's basketball from 1995 to 2022, passing 1,000 career wins?

C. Vivian Stringer left Iowa for Rutgers in 1995 and built a national contender; in 2018 she became the first Black college basketball coach to win 1,000 games.

Who became the first African American president of Rutgers in 2020?

Jonathan Holloway, a historian who had been provost at Northwestern, became Rutgers' 21st president in July 2020; his tenure saw the first faculty strike in the university's history, in April 2023.

The Zimmerli Art Museum on the College Avenue campus is noted for its collection of art from where?

Russia and the Soviet Union supply its best-known holdings: economist Norton Dodge smuggled thousands of dissident artists' works out of the USSR and gave the collection to Rutgers in the 1990s.

The Dana Library houses a famous Rutgers institute devoted to which music genre?

Jazz scholar Marshall Stearns founded the Institute of Jazz Studies in his New York apartment in 1952 and arranged its transfer to Rutgers in 1966, where it grew into one of the world's largest jazz archives.

Which future US senator and presidential candidate earned her law degree at Rutgers in 1976?

Elizabeth Warren started at Rutgers Law School once her daughter turned two, juggling childcare with classes, and finished in 1976 shortly before her son was born.