Born On This Day In Rutgers Football History

[Source]

Rutgers Head Coach 1973-1983: Frank Robert Burns (March 16, 1928 - July 14, 2012)

The Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey was established in 1988 and the first inauguration was in 1993. The inductees were Vince Lombardi, Franco Harris, Milt Campbell, Super Bowl XXI (Giants 39-20 win over the Broncos) and “The First College Football Game – Rutgers vs. Princeton.” Since then, Rutgers players Paul Robeson (1995), Deron Cherry (1996), booster Sonny Werblin (1997), sportswriter Jerry Izenberg (1997), athletic director Robert E. Mulcahy, III (1999), alumnus David J. Stern (2000) and head coach Frank Burns (2003) have also been inducted.

 

[beaced]

Rutgers Head Coach 1973-1983: Frank Robert Burns (March 16, 1928 - July 14, 2012)

The Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey was established in 1988 and the first inauguration was in 1993. The inductees were Vince Lombardi, Franco Harris, Milt Campbell, Super Bowl XXI (Giants 39-20 win over the Broncos) and “The First College Football Game – Rutgers vs. Princeton.” Since then, Rutgers players Paul Robeson (1995), Deron Cherry (1996), booster Sonny Werblin (1997), sportswriter Jerry Izenberg (1997), athletic director Robert E. Mulcahy, III (1999), alumnus David J. Stern (2000) and head coach Frank Burns (2003) have also been inducted.

God Bless Frank. A great Coach AND an even greater person.

 

[knightfan7]

Flinging Frank's teams of the mid 70's started me on my 40 year Rutgers fandom.

 

[imbazza2]

Frank was a great coach but a greater man!

 

[redlight123]

Too bad he got fired.

 

[knightfan7]

Too bad he got fired.

Same old story. No facilities and no money to invest in program. Burn's teams were very good when they were on a level playing field.

 

[redlight123]

Why fire a winning coach.

 

[imbazza2]

"Rutgers is going BIG TIME" and needed a coach that could do the job THANK YOU FRACK'N FRED your three strikes at FB HC has put Rutgers in the bottom of the barrel in athletics for years to come. It will be 2 generations to crawl out of the hole this incompetent golf coach put us in!

 

[REDRICH65]

Burn's would have had more success than Schiano if he had the same level of support. God bless him.

 

[RURod]

Great player and coach. Saw the plaque to Coach Burns in the stadium last year. Nice tribute. "A man we are proud to call one of our own." Hope Ash keeps the Burns "toughness" award in the spring.

 

[LC-88]

Too bad he got fired.

The second (or third) dumbest thing Fred G. ever did.

 

[LC-88]

Why fire a winning coach.

Why join the Big East. We all know the answer.

 

[knightfan7]

Why fire a winning coach.

After two 5-6 seasons, Rutgers fell to 3-8. Wins came against two 1AA teams (Wm&Mary and UConn) and Colgate. There were losses to BC, WVU, PSU, Cincy, Tenn, and Cuse. IIRC, the cappers were a loss to a really bad Army team and Temple (I believe Burns was fired right after the game).

The team had some talented skill position players such as RB Albert Ray, TE Alan Andrews, WR Andrew Baker, and QB Rusty Hochberg but just could score points. Defense wasn't up to Burns normal standards but not all THAT bad.

Coaching change didn't help as RU went 2-8-1 the next year.

 

[rulaw87]

I was a senior in 1983. During the Temple game someone hung a banner in front of the bleachers across the away side of the stadium that said "The Big Red is dead with Fred at the head." Fred fired Burns after the game.

 

[rufancoe00]

1983 alot of injuries? 1984 7-3 under Anderson

 

[ru8081]

Anderson was a terrible hire. It is a debate as to who was worse Anderson or Shea. Anderson, send my kid to PSU.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

The second (or third) dumbest thing Fred G. ever did.

He got the stadium rebuilt.. somehow, someway, he got it done. In this state.

 

[NickKnight 1]

Burn's would have had more success than Schiano if he had the same level of support. God bless him.

Schiano was a few games below 500 in 11 regular season games, please don't insult
this great man who was a great coach, by comparing him to a poor coach
that had a great AD and great support.