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30 Years Ago Today in Rutgers Football History

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The Rutgers Athletic Center opened in the fall of 1977 in Piscataway, NJ replacing the College Avenue Gymnasium as the basketball home of the varsity team. It was renamed the Louis Brown Athletic Center on May 17, 1986. According to a 2001-2002 Rutgers Gametime Magazine article, an alumni-philanthropist left the University a $1 million endowment in his will when he died on February 14, 1984. “Louis Brown was a member of the Rutgers Class of 1936. During his days as a student ‘On The Banks,’ Brown was a member of the Scarlet Knight football team. He also played water polo and freshman lacrosse, two sports that were offered at the time. As active as he was while attending Rutgers, Brown is most commonly remembered for his efforts and contributions following his departure from the State University.” Ironically, none of the sports he played at Rutgers are played in the building named in his honor.
 
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Always wanted to know who he was. We should rename a part of one of the new lacrosse or football rooms in the new buildings after him. Unfortunately, the arena was renamed, officially, "Rutgers Athletic Center" I believe in Julie's final year, in order to attract sponsorship for the title, since having it named after a person could turn away sponsors who are searching themselves since they might think it was after a famous player or in memory and thus isn't in the market for a title sponsor, but we are.
 
Was unaware that it was no longer the Louis Brown Athletic Center. Must have missed the news release.
 
I remember that a few months before the RAC was completed a fellow RU student handed me the latest Issue of Targum..... The headline was that the soon to be finished RAC had a fire, accidentally started by some of it construction workers, and it was completely destroyed...... Instantly dismayed by the headline, I read the rest of the article, which went on to explain how the upset construction workers panicked and tried to put the fire out by throwing gasoline on it

This was my first exposure to the yearly issue of the Mugrat, which I had no idea about...... Had me going for a minute.
 
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Was unaware that it was no longer the Louis Brown Athletic Center. Must have missed the news release.
Great picture of TLBAC on the front of the Boston U vs Rutgers program from 1977. Building is intact, but surrounding grounds are still dirt. Unusual to detract a name unless a separate building is erected, but money speaks more than words.
 
You know the original plans of the Rutgers Athletic Center called for an ice hockey rink. Of course, once the inevitable budget cuts invaded the project, the ice hockey rink was out.
 
You know the original plans of the Rutgers Athletic Center called for an ice hockey rink. Of course, once the inevitable budget cuts invaded the project, the ice hockey rink was out.

I'm sure that's a Rutgers urban myth.
An arena large enough to hold a hockey rink would have to have a completely different design. The RAC's roof is largely supported by four reinforced concrete columns that would preclude an ice rink.

Perhaps there was some thought of building an arena with ice, but it's hard to believe it ever got to the point of ice being in the original plans for that building.
 
I'm sure that's a Rutgers urban myth.
An arena large enough to hold a hockey rink would have to have a completely different design. The RAC's roof is largely supported by four reinforced concrete columns that would preclude an ice rink. Perhaps there was some thought of building an arena with ice, but it's hard to believe it ever got to the point of ice being in the original plans for that building.

Then somebody went back in time and planted a drawing in the paper with a RAC hockey rink included when leading up to the announced proposals of what the arena would look like. I'd use my time machine to go back and correct that, but it's really not worth risking the time line changes that may occur.
 
Then somebody went back in time and planted a drawing in the paper with a RAC hockey rink included when leading up to the announced proposals of what the arena would look like. I'd use my time machine to go back and correct that, but it's really not worth risking the time line changes that may occur.
An artist's conception versus the actual plans are two very different things. Maybe they had grand visions of what could be done until they actually started designing a building. What they actually built could not hold an ice hockey rink without a TOTAL redesign. It was more than just cutting a few things from the same basic design.
 
The original RAC concept also had it with a plus 10,000 capacity, a requirement back then to hold NCAA tournament games,,,,
 
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