The Challenge:
The November 5, 1917 Daily Home News headline read: “‘The greatest football team in the world.’ That’s what eastern critics are saying about the wonderful grid iron machine developed by ex-Captain Cupid Black of Yale among his comrades at arms at the Newport Naval station (Rhode Island). Four members of Walter Camp’s All-American teams, two former All-Western men and other stars of scintillating brilliance make up the team... Every one of the first string men who make up Black’s eleven is a star of the first magnitude. Each has earned his right by the hardest kind of tests to sport the distinction of All-American calibre. It is not a bunch of stars hurriedly gotten together and the eleven will not be without team unity for they have played and practiced together for the past two months, under a capable coach, Dr. William T. Bull, of Yale,… It will be interesting to see how Rutgers great running attack will fare against the Black line which averages 203 pounds. The Scarlet forwards will be outweighed 23 pounds to a man.”
When the U.S. was building up for WWI, military football teams formed mostly with former college players. Some became the "best" among the college football powers they played. The 1918 and 1919 Rose Bowls faced off military teams on New Year's Day.
The Rutgers Team: Player Scavaging, Patches, and Ragtag Neophytes
“Way last September, no one even entertained the thought that Captain Rendall’s 1917 eleven would be the greatest in Rutgers football history. Graduation and enlistment of players in the war service had depleted the ranks. Baseball and track men had to be turned into football players while schoolboys, verdantly green, had to take places on the varsity eleven. There were no Talmans, no Tooheys, no Nashs, no Twings, no McCloskeys and no Garretts. It seems impossible that this 1917 team should achieve greater distinction than the one which boasted of these giants and stars and should approach championship calibre… But Captain (Kenneth) Rendall’s eleven have and it will be long remembered,” according to the November 27, 1917 Daily Home News.
The Upset and Reaction Back at Rutgers/NewBrunswick
Rutgers became the first college to play at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and before an estimated crowd of 15,000, the Scarlet did the impossible and shut out the Newport Second District Naval Reserves 14-0. “The Rutgers undergraduates last night celebrated the football eleven’s victory over Cupid Black’s Newport team with a ‘pee-rade’ and a visit to the George Street movie houses and New Brunswick Opera House. Practically every student in the college participated in the college march. “Benny Suydam, manager of the Bijou Theatre, says he never before witnessed such excitement and enthusiasm in his moving picture house as on Saturday afternoon, when the final score of the Rutgers-Newport game was flashed to the audience. The crowd remained for the final score and jumped to its feet in a wild burst of cheering when the victory was assured. The scoring of fourteen points in the second quarter was received with wild acclaim at the Opera House and Schneider’s newsstand where a big crowd gathered for the news. The posting of the score at the amusement places on Saturday created the same enthusiasm. The Rutgers undergraduates are due to some celebrating tonight and they will be justified. The score was delayed a bit in reaching this city, because all of the wires on the field were busy in the transmission of running stories to the New York evening newspapers.”
Sportswriter Later To Be Famous Author
It was an article in the November 24, 1935 Sunday Times of New Brunswick that recalled future famous author Damon Runyon’s account of the Rutgers-Newport Naval Reserves game as a sportswriter for the New York American. He wrote, “Most folks expected Cap’n Cupid’s lads to blow the Rutgers outfit plumb to Rahway with their first attack, whereupon the result was most flabbergasting. How in all conscience could any team expect to best this unbeaten, unscored on team of all-stars. We dunno. But Rutgers did it.”
Paul Robeson's Magnum Opus
“We in New Brunswick who have been following the Rutgers eleven in its triumphant march through all opponents with the exception of Syracuse, have always considered Paul Robeson a wonderful player. He had starred so often and played so brilliantly, that we almost have forgotten to marvel and rave about him. In Saturday’s big clash in Brooklyn, the big end was in his greatest form and attracted more attention than any other individual who wore the Scarlet jersey. His work has drawn unanimous and unstinted praise from every writer who saw him in action. One critic places him in the class with the great stars of the game and that is where he belongs,” wrote of the Daily Home News' Harold E. O’Neill.
George Daly of the New York World said, “It is seldom indeed that a linesman can develop such versatility. Robeson does about everything except carry the ball, and everything he does may be marked ‘sterling.’ As a matter of fact, Robeson has a running play and the team is equipped with plays in which Robeson throws the forward pass. He can toss the ball about as far as most people can punt.”
And Louis Lee Arms of the New York Tribune added, “Robeson’s intrinsic worth to his eleven is disguised in part by the fact that he seldom carries the ball. He works on the receiving end of forward passes and because of his enormous reach has a better than average chance to complete any half-satisfactory pass…. One afternoon, not long ago, we were on the campus at Rutgers and this tall, tapering Negro trotted by. ‘There,’ said Foster Sanford, ‘goes the most valuable football player in America.’ There will not be a dissenting vote in New Brunswick.”
A Bowl Game?
There was talk of continuing Rutgers 7-1-1 season from none other than the “Father of American Football,” Walter Camp, as reported in the December 3, 1917 Daily Home News, “A game between (John) Heisman’s (of Heisman Trophy fame) Yellow Jackets from Georgia Tech and Sanford’s aggregation of red-jerseyed giants from Rutgers would make a contest worthy of any field or any year for that matter… If the South believes they have such a team in Georgia Tech, then Washington or New York would provide the crowd for the contest. Why not try it out for the Army and Navy Athletic Equipment Fund or divide it with the Red Cross?” Daily Home News sports writer Harold O’Neill said, “The attraction would be a brilliant social event in the National Capitol, drawing officers of the Army and the Navy and administration officials. The meeting… would surely net thousands of dollars for war charity…. The arrangement of the game would be a most laudable patriotic move.” Bob Denbar of the Boston Herald and Journal added, “Boston football folks would have enjoyed a meeting here between Georgia Tech and Rutgers. If Saturday, December 1 had been an open date, business manager Hapgood of the Boston Braves, would have staged the above super attraction…”
Rutgers Ranking - Long Before AP (1936) and UP, the Coaches Poll (1950) Began
Sportswriter Harold O’Neil’s thoughts about what Rutgers had accomplished, “There is no doubt but that Rutgers this season had one of the really great elevens of the country. It is only a trifle behind Pittsburgh and about the same margin behind Georgia Tech, the champion of the South and Ohio State, the class of the Middle West. There are many who believe that Rutgers is equally as efficient as Pittsburgh and Grantland Rice of the New York Tribune is one of them. There may be a stronger football machine in the East other than Foster Sanford’s array, but few who saw Rutgers overthrow the brilliant Newport eleven will believe it.”
The December 3, 1917 Daily Home News reported how Louis Lee Arms of the New York Tribune grouped his rankings on the best teams that season: 1. Georgia Tech 2. Pittsburgh and Navy 3. Rutgers, Syracuse, Minnesota and Ohio State 4. UPenn, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Washington & Jefferson, Michigan 5. West Virginia, Colgate, Dartmouth, Brown, Georgetown, Williams, Army and Boston College. A week later the Daily Home News reported the New York Sun ranked Rutgers at #4.
Remember The Scarlet Scourge
At the Rutgers season finale against Colgate on November 23, 1935, was a 20th anniversary gathering of the 7-1-0 team from 1915 watching the game from the stands in a snowstorm. They were asked who they thought was the best Rutgers football team ever. Their answer was the 7-1-1 team from 1917.
The November 5, 1917 Daily Home News headline read: “‘The greatest football team in the world.’ That’s what eastern critics are saying about the wonderful grid iron machine developed by ex-Captain Cupid Black of Yale among his comrades at arms at the Newport Naval station (Rhode Island). Four members of Walter Camp’s All-American teams, two former All-Western men and other stars of scintillating brilliance make up the team... Every one of the first string men who make up Black’s eleven is a star of the first magnitude. Each has earned his right by the hardest kind of tests to sport the distinction of All-American calibre. It is not a bunch of stars hurriedly gotten together and the eleven will not be without team unity for they have played and practiced together for the past two months, under a capable coach, Dr. William T. Bull, of Yale,… It will be interesting to see how Rutgers great running attack will fare against the Black line which averages 203 pounds. The Scarlet forwards will be outweighed 23 pounds to a man.”
When the U.S. was building up for WWI, military football teams formed mostly with former college players. Some became the "best" among the college football powers they played. The 1918 and 1919 Rose Bowls faced off military teams on New Year's Day.
The Rutgers Team: Player Scavaging, Patches, and Ragtag Neophytes
“Way last September, no one even entertained the thought that Captain Rendall’s 1917 eleven would be the greatest in Rutgers football history. Graduation and enlistment of players in the war service had depleted the ranks. Baseball and track men had to be turned into football players while schoolboys, verdantly green, had to take places on the varsity eleven. There were no Talmans, no Tooheys, no Nashs, no Twings, no McCloskeys and no Garretts. It seems impossible that this 1917 team should achieve greater distinction than the one which boasted of these giants and stars and should approach championship calibre… But Captain (Kenneth) Rendall’s eleven have and it will be long remembered,” according to the November 27, 1917 Daily Home News.
The Upset and Reaction Back at Rutgers/NewBrunswick
Rutgers became the first college to play at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and before an estimated crowd of 15,000, the Scarlet did the impossible and shut out the Newport Second District Naval Reserves 14-0. “The Rutgers undergraduates last night celebrated the football eleven’s victory over Cupid Black’s Newport team with a ‘pee-rade’ and a visit to the George Street movie houses and New Brunswick Opera House. Practically every student in the college participated in the college march. “Benny Suydam, manager of the Bijou Theatre, says he never before witnessed such excitement and enthusiasm in his moving picture house as on Saturday afternoon, when the final score of the Rutgers-Newport game was flashed to the audience. The crowd remained for the final score and jumped to its feet in a wild burst of cheering when the victory was assured. The scoring of fourteen points in the second quarter was received with wild acclaim at the Opera House and Schneider’s newsstand where a big crowd gathered for the news. The posting of the score at the amusement places on Saturday created the same enthusiasm. The Rutgers undergraduates are due to some celebrating tonight and they will be justified. The score was delayed a bit in reaching this city, because all of the wires on the field were busy in the transmission of running stories to the New York evening newspapers.”
Sportswriter Later To Be Famous Author
It was an article in the November 24, 1935 Sunday Times of New Brunswick that recalled future famous author Damon Runyon’s account of the Rutgers-Newport Naval Reserves game as a sportswriter for the New York American. He wrote, “Most folks expected Cap’n Cupid’s lads to blow the Rutgers outfit plumb to Rahway with their first attack, whereupon the result was most flabbergasting. How in all conscience could any team expect to best this unbeaten, unscored on team of all-stars. We dunno. But Rutgers did it.”
Paul Robeson's Magnum Opus
“We in New Brunswick who have been following the Rutgers eleven in its triumphant march through all opponents with the exception of Syracuse, have always considered Paul Robeson a wonderful player. He had starred so often and played so brilliantly, that we almost have forgotten to marvel and rave about him. In Saturday’s big clash in Brooklyn, the big end was in his greatest form and attracted more attention than any other individual who wore the Scarlet jersey. His work has drawn unanimous and unstinted praise from every writer who saw him in action. One critic places him in the class with the great stars of the game and that is where he belongs,” wrote of the Daily Home News' Harold E. O’Neill.
George Daly of the New York World said, “It is seldom indeed that a linesman can develop such versatility. Robeson does about everything except carry the ball, and everything he does may be marked ‘sterling.’ As a matter of fact, Robeson has a running play and the team is equipped with plays in which Robeson throws the forward pass. He can toss the ball about as far as most people can punt.”
And Louis Lee Arms of the New York Tribune added, “Robeson’s intrinsic worth to his eleven is disguised in part by the fact that he seldom carries the ball. He works on the receiving end of forward passes and because of his enormous reach has a better than average chance to complete any half-satisfactory pass…. One afternoon, not long ago, we were on the campus at Rutgers and this tall, tapering Negro trotted by. ‘There,’ said Foster Sanford, ‘goes the most valuable football player in America.’ There will not be a dissenting vote in New Brunswick.”
A Bowl Game?
There was talk of continuing Rutgers 7-1-1 season from none other than the “Father of American Football,” Walter Camp, as reported in the December 3, 1917 Daily Home News, “A game between (John) Heisman’s (of Heisman Trophy fame) Yellow Jackets from Georgia Tech and Sanford’s aggregation of red-jerseyed giants from Rutgers would make a contest worthy of any field or any year for that matter… If the South believes they have such a team in Georgia Tech, then Washington or New York would provide the crowd for the contest. Why not try it out for the Army and Navy Athletic Equipment Fund or divide it with the Red Cross?” Daily Home News sports writer Harold O’Neill said, “The attraction would be a brilliant social event in the National Capitol, drawing officers of the Army and the Navy and administration officials. The meeting… would surely net thousands of dollars for war charity…. The arrangement of the game would be a most laudable patriotic move.” Bob Denbar of the Boston Herald and Journal added, “Boston football folks would have enjoyed a meeting here between Georgia Tech and Rutgers. If Saturday, December 1 had been an open date, business manager Hapgood of the Boston Braves, would have staged the above super attraction…”
Rutgers Ranking - Long Before AP (1936) and UP, the Coaches Poll (1950) Began
Sportswriter Harold O’Neil’s thoughts about what Rutgers had accomplished, “There is no doubt but that Rutgers this season had one of the really great elevens of the country. It is only a trifle behind Pittsburgh and about the same margin behind Georgia Tech, the champion of the South and Ohio State, the class of the Middle West. There are many who believe that Rutgers is equally as efficient as Pittsburgh and Grantland Rice of the New York Tribune is one of them. There may be a stronger football machine in the East other than Foster Sanford’s array, but few who saw Rutgers overthrow the brilliant Newport eleven will believe it.”
The December 3, 1917 Daily Home News reported how Louis Lee Arms of the New York Tribune grouped his rankings on the best teams that season: 1. Georgia Tech 2. Pittsburgh and Navy 3. Rutgers, Syracuse, Minnesota and Ohio State 4. UPenn, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Washington & Jefferson, Michigan 5. West Virginia, Colgate, Dartmouth, Brown, Georgetown, Williams, Army and Boston College. A week later the Daily Home News reported the New York Sun ranked Rutgers at #4.
Remember The Scarlet Scourge
At the Rutgers season finale against Colgate on November 23, 1935, was a 20th anniversary gathering of the 7-1-0 team from 1915 watching the game from the stands in a snowstorm. They were asked who they thought was the best Rutgers football team ever. Their answer was the 7-1-1 team from 1917.
