A Merry Christmas Bob Cratchit! - Rutgers Football Team at the Holidays, 1891

[Source]

According to the December 21, 1891 Daily Times of New Brunswick, the school would close the next night for the holidays and, “A Christmas Entertainment… Will be given this evening in aid of the Rutgers College Athletic Association, in Kirkpatrick Chapel. Mr. Barbour, instructor in elocution, will recite Dicken’s Christmas Carol (written in 1843), and there will be selections by the banjo and glee clubs. A fine entertainment may be looked for… Tickets 50 cents, reserved seats 25 cents extra.”

Two days earlier on Saturday, the paper reported, “Rutgers foot ball team went on a hare and hound chase to Metuchen this afternoon.” Hare and hound chases involve one person playing the hare and leaving marks or bits of newspaper to trail while friends plays hounds to try and "catch" the hare before reaching a designated finish line. It could be on foot or bicycles. Hare and hound chases today incorporate motorcycles.

And to all of you, a happy, peaceful Christmas, Hanukah -- and for our Roman and Pagan friends -- Saturnalia!

And for the rest of of us, Happy Festivus!

 

[AshSaturday]

Anyone else here think of Rutgers pre-80's as kind of an upper-class occasionally "snooty" (that kind of vibe?). Nowadays blue-collar image.

Never heard of a fox hunt with motorcycles God forbid. Sounds like something the George W Bush Administration (Cheney, Rumsfeld) or Trump (wish him well) would go.

 

[Source]

 

[retired711]

Anyone else here think of Rutgers pre-80's as kind of an upper-class occasionally "snooty" (that kind of vibe?). Nowadays blue-collar image.

Never heard of a fox hunt with motorcycles God forbid. Sounds like something the George W Bush Administration (Cheney, Rumsfeld) or Trump (wish him well) would go.

1980 is not really the cut-off date; it's probably closer to the 1950s, when Rutgers was still private.