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130 Years Ago - A Rutgers Football Field Christening

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The Rutgers football and baseball teams were evicted from College Field by the end of the 1880s. But a prominent Rutgers alum from the class of 1866, saved them.

Just as the 1890-91 Rutgers school year was coming to a close, the July 1, 1891 Targum proposed, “The past year has seen the College presented with an athletic field now complete in its equipment and ready to be opened with the approaching football season. For this generous gift no more suitable name could be given to the grounds than by attaching the name of the benefactor, Mr. James Neilson,’66, and calling the new athletic grounds Neilson [pronounced nel-son]Field.” Neilson Field would hold its first football game on October 24, 1891. But it was on August 19, 1891 that the grounds would host its first sporting event. The field was across the street from College Field where Records Hall, the giant smokestack, and the parking deck now exists. Mr Neilson died at 92 years old, just 20 months before Rutgers Stadium superceded his field.

By the way, James Neilson's grandfather was Colonel John Neilson who read a document to the townspeople provided by a rider out of Philadelphia on July 9, 1776. His New Brunswick reading of the Declaration of Independence followed such readings in Philadelphia and Trenton. It took place near today's Albany and Neilson Streets.

A Happy and safe 4th of July to you and your family and friends.
 
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Thanks guys. You have a great holiday weekend. I can smell the burgers cooking already.

Remember, what was to be the future Rutgers campus is where America's first celebration of Independence Day was held on July 4, 1778 by order of none other than General George Washington.
 
Thanks guys. You have a great holiday weekend. I can smell the burgers cooking already.

Remember, what was to be the future Rutgers campus is where America's first celebration of Independence Day was held on July 4, 1778 by order of none other than General George Washington.
Source, great tidbit that I never heard about. Do you have any more detail on this?
 
Source, great tidbit that I never heard about. Do you have any more detail on this?
The March 11, 1879 New Brunswick Daily Times recalled, “…It is an interesting historical fact that the first formal celebration of the Fourth of July, as the anniversary of the birthday of the nation, was celebrated here on the ground north of the Seminary, where David Bishop’s [Rutgers Class of 1836] house now stands [today’s Honors College of Rutgers now stands there], near the centre of where the old [Revolutionary War] fort used to be.” Washington used Ross Hall as his headquarters across the Raritan River in Piscataway where his guests that night included Alexander Hamilton, the Marquis de Lafayettte and Baron Von Stuben. On July 4, 1778, musket fire accompanied cannon fire and concluded with soldiers giving three cheers for, “Perpetual and undisturbed Independence to the United States of America.”

Ross Hall was later used from 1897-1925 as the clubhouse for the New Brunswick Golf Club, predecessor to the Rutgers Golf Club. Ross Hall was damaged by fire in 1954 and raised three years later. It was less than two miles due east of today’s Rutgers football stadium. The October 14, 1916 Daily Home News said “‘The Father of Our Country’ loved the nearby farmland, forests, water and mountains. After staying at Buccleuch Mansion [still in the park] next to today’s Rutgers campus he wrote, ‘This is the loveliest scene on Earth! If rest and repose ever be my lot, I should, next to Mount Vernon, choose this peaceful spot in which to pass my life.’”

And that's about as historical as it gets.

Ross House in Piscataway, circa 1900:

 
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Oh, I forgot to mention that the latest Constitution of New Jersey (we've had 3 in history) was debated and created in the summer of 1947 in the College Avenue Gym located right above the playing field for America's first intercollegiate football game.

Happy Independence Day!
 
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