Rutgers is on a bye this week after five straight weeks of playing.
This Week....in Rutgers....Football....History (*echoing* history...history....history)
Last year: October 1, Columbus, Ohio. Hard to forget, isn’t it? RU went to 2-3 on the season and, as we all know, would not win again in 2016. Junior Robert Martin led the Scarlet Knights with 40 yards rushing (the Knights only had a total of 83). Jawuan Harris had three catches for 33 yards — the only receiving yards by Rutgers all day. Okay, I’ll stop.
1999: These are the dark days of Terry Shea. On Oct. 2, RU traveled down Tobacco Road to Winston-Salem to face the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest, losing 17-10. Wake was off to its best start in 12 years (3-1) while Rutgers went to 0-4 after this contest. The Knights actually had a 10-0 lead, with Mike McMahon at QB hitting freshman Antoine Lovelace on a 62-yard scoring play.
1981: October 3 and Rutgers welcomed Ivy League member Cornell to Piscataway. RU was still going “bigger time” and the schedule reflected old foes and old contracts. This is the same season Rutgers would face Alabama in Tuscaloosa. How many teams play the Big Red and the Crimson Tide in the same season? Rutgers won 31-17 on the way to a 5-6 season.
1973: October 6. Rutgers is 2-0 as UMass visits. The Minutemen would finish the season at 6-5 (the same as the Scarlet) including this nailbiting win over the Knights, 25-22, the second of the two wins that UMass has over the Scarlet.
1969: It’s the Big Red of Cornell in town. RU is coming off its historic 27-0 Centennial Game victory over Princeton the week before and they kept up the attack this week. RU turned in a 21-7 win.
Continuing to celebrate the Centennial of college football, Rutgers featured its four CFB Hall of Fame players on the cover with the artwork of Bill Canfield. At that point in time, the plan still called for the college football hall of fame to be built at Rutgers. And this time, it wasn’t our fault it failed.
1960: Rutgers is on the road at Connecticut for Band Day. I’m sure it was a festive event at the Huskies’ Memorial Stadium....in Storrs, not East Hartford where they play now. On its way to a 5-0 start and an 8-1 season, the Knights topped the puppies by a 19-6 count.
1950: We’re just five years removed from the end of World War II. The GI bill has brought an influx of students to New Brunswick. And on Oct. 7 in brought in the No. 19 Princeton Tigers. Let me repeat that: Princeton was the No. 19 football team in the country. Rutgers played them tough, losing 34-28. RU would go 4-4 while the Tigers would finish the season with an unblemished 9-0 record and be ranked No. 6 in the final AP poll. For the record, almost one-third of the points given up by Princeton that year (94) were scored by Rutgers in this game.
Next week: Rutgers travels to Champaign for a significant match up with the Illini. We’ll be here on #TBT to look at what happened the week of Oct. 8-14 in Rutgers....Football....History (*echoing* history...history....history)