Going Back 10 Years to Gain a Little Perspective

[CoachMagoo]

Try explaining to a young fan what it was like to be a Rutgers football fan just 10 years ago, and you really do gain a bit of perspective and an appreciation for those who have led this program.

That was my task this weekend, and I remembered the 2005 season as such a frustrating struggle. The summer before the season, I took a trip to Europe with a group of friends. I wore my Rutgers cap every day, and a friend of a friend commented, "What's the 'R' stand for? Rutgers?" I responded proudly that it was. I can still hear him laughing. He was from California (wearing a Cal t-shirt), so you could almost excuse this completely dismissive attitude, however, this was also the reaction for so many here in New Jersey. In the school where I taught, no student EVER wore Rutgers gear -- not in my first 15 years at that school.

On a camping trip that Labor Day weekend, I forced a group of friends to listen to the Illinois game because I had a good feeling about our chances. Things seemed to be going our way until late in the game when Illinois came roaring back to erase our 20 point lead. The response of my friends -- mostly NJ and NY people -- was that Rutgers will always fall short of ever competing with the likes of Illinois. It was something I had heard for 30 years, and I had nothing really to counter that argument. Deep down I believed that what had always been said about the Sleeping Giant was in fact the truth -- that it would one day rise and take its proper place as an eastern power.

Having been to the 1978 Garden State Bowl as a HS freshman, I counted wins so carefully in 2005, hoping that we could somehow reach the 7th win and finally go to another bowl. I kept dreading what I thought was inevitable -- that the Illinois loss would come back to haunt us. And all Rutgers fans knew at the time that 7 wins didn't mean an automatic bowl bid. We had experienced that disappointment before; we were familiar with that dismissive attitude. And we'd have to once again listen to "same old Rutgers" comments.

But I believed. Deep down I did truly believe, in spite of everything. And 2005 was the turning point that I had hoped for. The bowl announcement in December brought me to tears.

And Brian Leonard. Thank God for Brian Leonard. He will always be Superman in my mind.

Heading into the 2015 season, I have to be grateful for the past decade and for the heroes who made it all possible. Ten years later, I'm still wearing my Rutgers cap with my head held high -- as I did in 2005 -- but my new hat has a Big Ten logo on the side, something that was unimaginable to me in 2005. I watch more than 20 Rutgers players in the NFL. I look at the list of 9 bowls in those 10 years almost in disbelief, but I swell with pride when I count them up and think how the culture has changed in New Brunswick.

2014: Quick Lane Bowl
2013: New Era Pinstripe Bowl
2012: Russell Athletic Bowl
2011: New Era Pinstripe Bowl
2009: St. Petersburg Bowl
2008: PapaJohns.com Bowl
2008: International Bowl
2006: Texas Bowl
2005: Insight Bowl

It's easy to forget how important these 10 years have been. But in my office I have a picture of Brian Leonard conducting the band as it played the Alma Mater in 2006 for his final game. That ranks among my all-time favorite moments of my 40 years as a Rutgers fan, and it can still bring me to tears.

Thank God for Brian Leonard.

 

[Ole Cabbagehead]

Awesome post. I can still so clearly remember wearing Rutgers gear around 2000 and 2001, and people would comment on it in random public places. Imagine being in public places, and people think a person wearing a shirt for the state university is an incredible novelty. You would get comments like "did they lose again this week" or the chuckles like "how can you publically support that team." Around 2003 and 2004, if you tried to talk up the team, explain how this might be the year we turn it around no one would believe you. When they found out you actually went to the games, they would act like you were actually insane. I remember dreading coming to work after the bad losses in, because I knew it was going to be relentless.

It was like the twilight zone. Being there for that made the last 10 years incredible. Block R's all over the highway would have been unthinkable in those times, as would having every game on national TV and being able to bring up Rutgers football in discussions with fans of PSU, OSU and Michigan and not being laughed out of the room. Rushing the field in 2005 when we became bowl eligible. The standing ovation in the corner in Phoenix that lasted for what seemed like 20 minutes after we lost the game. Rushing the field after every win in 2006 after becoming bowl eligible, because each additional win brought us further into uncharted territory. An invite to the ACC or Big Ten being a crazy pipe dream that only the craziest of Rutgers fans dared to discuss, and only out of earshot of people who went to other schools who would openly laugh in your face if they heard you. Trying to convince fans that Rutgers was actually a good team, not just a team getting lucky in a bad conference.

It goes on and on, and its been one hell of a ride.

 

[NickyNewark51]

Try explaining to a young fan what it was like to be a Rutgers football fan just 10 years ago, and you really do gain a bit of perspective and an appreciation for those who have led this program.

That was my task this weekend, and I remembered the 2005 season as such a frustrating struggle. The summer before the season, I took a trip to Europe with a group of friends. I wore my Rutgers cap every day, and a friend of a friend commented, "What's the 'R' stand for? Rutgers?" I responded proudly that it was. I can still hear him laughing. He was from California (wearing a Cal t-shirt), so you could almost excuse this completely dismissive attitude, however, this was also the reaction for so many here in New Jersey. In the school where I taught, no student EVER wore Rutgers gear -- not in my first 15 years at that school.

On a camping trip that Labor Day weekend, I forced a group of friends to listen to the Illinois game because I had a good feeling about our chances. Things seemed to be going our way until late in the game when Illinois came roaring back to erase our 20 point lead. The response of my friends -- mostly NJ and NY people -- was that Rutgers will always fall short of ever competing with the likes of Illinois. It was something I had heard for 30 years, and I had nothing really to counter that argument. Deep down I believed that what had always been said about the Sleeping Giant was in fact the truth -- that it would one day rise and take its proper place as an eastern power.

Having been to the 1978 Garden State Bowl as a HS freshman, I counted wins so carefully in 2005, hoping that we could somehow reach the 7th win and finally go to another bowl. I kept dreading what I thought was inevitable -- that the Illinois loss would come back to haunt us. And all Rutgers fans knew at the time that 7 wins didn't mean an automatic bowl bid. We had experienced that disappointment before; we were familiar with that dismissive attitude. And we'd have to once again listen to "same old Rutgers" comments.

But I believed. Deep down I did truly believe, in spite of everything. And 2005 was the turning point that I had hoped for. The bowl announcement in December brought me to tears.

And Brian Leonard. Thank God for Brian Leonard. He will always be Superman in my mind.

Heading into the 2015 season, I have to be grateful for the past decade and for the heroes who made it all possible. Ten years later, I'm still wearing my Rutgers cap with my head held high -- as I did in 2005 -- but my new hat has a Big Ten logo on the side, something that was unimaginable to me in 2005. I watch more than 20 Rutgers players in the NFL. I look at the list of 9 bowls in those 10 years almost in disbelief, but I swell with pride when I count them up and think how the culture has changed in New Brunswick.

2014: Quick Lane Bowl
2013: New Era Pinstripe Bowl
2012: Russell Athletic Bowl
2011: New Era Pinstripe Bowl
2009: St. Petersburg Bowl
2008: PapaJohns.com Bowl
2008: International Bowl
2006: Texas Bowl
2005: Insight Bowl

It's easy to forget how important these 10 years have been. But in my office I have a picture of Brian Leonard conducting the band as it played the Alma Mater in 2006 for his final game. That ranks among my all-time favorite moments of my 40 years as a Rutgers fan, and it can still bring me to tears.

Thank God for Brian Leonard.

Ha..Great story....you sound like a slightly younger version of me. I've followed RU since 63 when i was 12 and delivered the NSL in Belleville and remember thinking sometimes we overachieved before we supposedly went big time around Nineteen Eighty I believe? Beating the Vols in Nashville in the "Whats a Rutgers" game and taking Alabama down to the wire causing Bear Bryant to say he's never coming back!! How about the tie of U Fla in Gainesville!! All with 2 star or UR players?? Imagine if we had a HC and AD with vision I thought!! I also knew someday our time would come but it was hard getting other Jersey kids to open their eyes or force them to have pride in state!! Then came Mulcahy,GS then TP whom I remembered as a player....I knew after Brian Leonard when GS convinced Ray Rice to commit something big could happen!!! And finally it did.....NO LOOKING BACK!!! Onward and upward.....I have faith in Flood.

 

[Ru2bnj]

You couldn't if find RU gear to buy in almost all sporting good stores until after the 2006 season. Having been to games since the late 70s, amazing to me that there are those that insist that RU should be seriously challenging for the B1G football championship every year right now. They have no perspective on where RU has been and conversely where schools like OSU , MSU, Neb have been for the last 50 years.

 

[Scarlet16E]

The standing ovation in the corner in Phoenix that lasted for what seemed like 20 minutes after we lost the game

One of the happiest moments of my life. After a LOSS! Didn't matter. We represented, and everyone knew it.

 

[NickyNewark51]

You couldn't if find RU gear to buy in almost all sporting good stores until after the 2006 season. Having been to games since the late 70s, amazing to me that there are those that insist that RU should be seriously challenging for the B1G football championship every year right now. They have no perspective on where RU has been and conversely where schools like OSU , MSU, Neb have been for the last 50 years.

Many don't realize how hard it is to win games even in the OBE....now we play much better stocked teams on a weekly basis...injuries take the toll not to mention team psyche...I'll be happy for similar to last yrs results this yr for now breaking in a new QB starter !! Depth building is they key. Athletes,linemen and playmakers led by a smart QB.7-5 will keep me content this yr but getting to yearly bowls is a must. Can't take any backward steps.

 

[REDRICH65]

After being a fan since the 50's and a grad in the 60's I knew something was about to change when we beat Cuse to end 2004 and Michigan State to start 2005. 2005 & 06 are still my two favorite years, followed by 2014. Just hope I live long enough to watch us play in Pasadina on New Years.

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

It is mind blowing to think you stuck through to see Rutgers go from playing almost nothing but FCS schools, to leaving them behind and joining the FBS, to joining the Big East, to going to a bowl in 2005, the madness that was 2006 to joining the Big Ten!

 

[NickyNewark51]

It is mind blowing to think you stuck through to see Rutgers go from playing almost nothing but FCS schools, to leaving them behind and joining the FBS, to joining the Big East, to going to a bowl in 2005, the madness that was 2006 to joining the Big Ten!

I hope we have developed many more lifetime fans and grow into a true Beast of the Northeast over the next generation though i'll be happy myself to see a Rose Bowl in my lifetime but a natty??That would be great. I believe.

 

[NickyNewark51]

After being a fan since the 50's and a grad in the 60's I knew something was about to change when we beat Cuse to end 2004 and Michigan State to start 2005. 2005 & 06 are still my two favorite years, followed by 2014. Just hope I live long enough to watch us play in Pasadina on New Years.

Yes RED that Cuse game gave indications things were about to change to me too...same thing or feeling I got when UConn hired PP..but in the wrong direction for the Huskies...terrible time for hiring dinosaurs!?! I'm glad we were here to see such great changes with hopefully even more to come.

 

[Best7Years]

Awesome post. I can still so clearly remember wearing Rutgers gear around 2000 and 2001... You would get comments like "did they lose again this week" or the chuckles like "how can you publically support that team."

Oh man, that brings back memories. I worked closely with a couple of Cuse alumni from 1999-2002. Even after we beat them in 1999, their sense of superiority has forever cemented my hate for all things Syracuse. Amazing how the tide has turned!

 

[e5fdny]

The standing ovation in the corner in Phoenix that lasted for what seemed like 20 minutes after we lost the game.

It goes on and on, and its been one hell of a ride.

One of the happiest moments of my life. After a LOSS! Didn't matter. We represented, and everyone knew it.

+1

The pageantry of the whole bowl experience: pre-game pep rally the day before and marching in behind the Band to the stadium after the tailgate party at Jackson's is as I said to the guy's my Dad and I shared a cab with on the way to the airport for the flight back east...it's when I knew we belonged.

 

[srru86]

Yes, it really is a new world.

 

[DJ Spanky]

What I remember is the ever changing logo, and not having anything standardized. That's how we ended up with this, and worse.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

Anyone who has perpective of the past RU has a lot of respect on where we were then versus now

9 bowls in 10 games...won 79 games in the past 10 years (we won 79 games in 21 years under Anderson, Graber, Shea, and the first four years of Schiano)

In the Big ten having Michigan, Penn state in our stadium versus begging them for a 2 for 1 with our home game in the Meadowlands.

Beating Michigan...the winningest program in college football

Being DISAPPOINTED that we lose to Penn State...and being legit with that statement

Averaging 50,000 people in the stadium.....all into it for Rutgers to win and not there for homecoming and showing up in the second quarter...

I can go on and on

We are not there yet...but we are moving in the right direction

In the big ten...I am more confident than ever in saying..."Its not a matter of if....its a matter of when"

 

[RUforester72]

I went to the 100 th anniversary game versus Princeton in 1969. We have come a long way! No more Lafayette. Cornell. Lehigh. Bring it on B1G! Up stream Red team!

 

[G- RUnit]

Great stuff! These are the type of posts that are priceless and I hope none of them were kicked out of their parking lots!

 

[RC1978]

Great memories posted by some of you. I have been going to games since I was a kid and was lucky enough to be in school during our undefeated season of "76. I am not going to repeat some thoughts that are already posted but I agree with all. I also agree with how some on this board do not remember when you could not find a RU hat our T-shirt anywhere outside of campus. the thought of having one big team at the stadium on our schedule was exciting as heck.

My favorite are personel to me:

First bowl game (not including Garden State Bowl, I was there).
BL conducting the Alma Mater, I looked over to one of my long time friends and fellow RU fan and tears were rolling down his cheeks.
L'Ville
Michigan game, When they were driving down the field for the final field goal try, I looked up and said "please dont do this to these kids". I am not a church going person but the next morning my wife was getting ready for church and I told her I was coming she just shook her head and said lightning is going to strike you.

Enjoy the ride folks the next 40 years are going to be blast and I hope I am around for at least 25 more.

 

[e5fdny]

Great memories posted by some of you.
My favorite are personel to me:

* BL conducting the Alma Mater, I looked over to one my long time friend and fellow RU fan and tears were rolling down his cheeks.

+ Michigan game, When they were driving down the field for the final field goal try, I looked up and said "please dont do this to these kids".

Enjoy the ride folks the next 40 years are going to be blast and I hope I am around for at least 25 more.

* My Dad realized this was happening before I did and he couldn't get it out to explain it to me without his voice breaking.

+ Last year at 85(!) he ran onto the field with the rest of the crowd.

 

[NickyNewark51]

Great stuff! These are the type of posts that are priceless and I hope none of them were kicked out of their parking lots!

Agreed.This thread is for all the true fans young and old.

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

I was not really a fan growing up, Rutgers was invisible in the 1980's and terrible during the 1990's. I didn't pay much attention to them other than the odd game here and there only to see them get blown out. I remember in 2005 when a co-worker told me that they played in a bowl game, I was in complete disbelief. I keep asking questions to make sure they weren't confusing Rutgers for some other school, LOL.

So feeling bad that I missed the 2005 season and kicking myself for doing so, I said to myself that I was going to make sure to start watching their games starting the next season which was in 2006 and the rest was history. Me and the rest of the state became a Rutgers fan that year!

 

[mikefla]

I look at that list of 9 bowls and I STILL have to pinch myself. LOVE that we made a bowl in our 1st year in the B10 too. In c. 2003 if someone told me we would go to 9 bowls I would have deemed them insane! LOL

 

[Upstream]

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/bigeast/2005-10-26-whiteside-rutgers_x.htm

It is worth rereading this article that Kelly Whiteside wrote for USA Today back in 2005, the week before the Navy game

 

[BROTHERSKINNY]

I went to college in the middle of PA. this was the late 80's. TTFP dominated everything in my area. there was even a store in the local mall that was everything TTFP. I graduated and started working in downtown New Brunswick. Most of my co workers were RU Alum. We would go to RU football games every now and then mostly to tailgate. At this time the most memorable game was a cold November game around thanksgiving(can't remember who we played, thank you mass quantities of Budweiser) but it was very cold. There could not have been more than 3 or 4 thousand people in the entire stadium! That was the all time low in Rutgers football history. We continued to go to games. Then a very young coach came to Rutgers and was excited about the opportunity to turn the team around. Many laughed but the guy had infectious enthusiasm. The first few years people said, "same old Rutgers". Then that magical season in 2006, people started to believe! I was there for all that. And now RU is in the Big 10 playing with the Big Boys and someday we will be in the premiere bowls representing RU, NJ and BIG. Its a very exciting time to be a Rutgers fan!

 

[RUregulator]

You couldn't if find RU gear to buy in almost all sporting good stores until after the 2006 season. Having been to games since the late 70s, amazing to me that there are those that insist that RU should be seriously challenging for the B1G football championship every year right now. They have no perspective on where RU has been and conversely where schools like OSU , MSU, Neb have been for the last 50 years.

I still have and wear my replica Rutgers jersey that one of the mercharts sold in town. There was demand for Football Jerseys and RU didn't have the Nike contract.. . That Jersey Still holds up.

 

[e5fdny]

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/bigeast/2005-10-26-whiteside-rutgers_x.htm

It is worth rereading this article that Kelly Whiteside wrote for USA Today back in 2005, the week before the Navy game

Ugh...the Gator Bowl.

We would have had a great showing if went.

 

[RuSnp]

Try explaining to a young fan what it was like to be a Rutgers football fan just 10 years ago, and you really do gain a bit of perspective and an appreciation for those who have led this program.

That was my task this weekend, and I remembered the 2005 season as such a frustrating struggle. The summer before the season, I took a trip to Europe with a group of friends. I wore my Rutgers cap every day, and a friend of a friend commented, "What's the 'R' stand for? Rutgers?" I responded proudly that it was. I can still hear him laughing. He was from California (wearing a Cal t-shirt), so you could almost excuse this completely dismissive attitude, however, this was also the reaction for so many here in New Jersey. In the school where I taught, no student EVER wore Rutgers gear -- not in my first 15 years at that school.

On a camping trip that Labor Day weekend, I forced a group of friends to listen to the Illinois game because I had a good feeling about our chances. Things seemed to be going our way until late in the game when Illinois came roaring back to erase our 20 point lead. The response of my friends -- mostly NJ and NY people -- was that Rutgers will always fall short of ever competing with the likes of Illinois. It was something I had heard for 30 years, and I had nothing really to counter that argument. Deep down I believed that what had always been said about the Sleeping Giant was in fact the truth -- that it would one day rise and take its proper place as an eastern power.

Having been to the 1978 Garden State Bowl as a HS freshman, I counted wins so carefully in 2005, hoping that we could somehow reach the 7th win and finally go to another bowl. I kept dreading what I thought was inevitable -- that the Illinois loss would come back to haunt us. And all Rutgers fans knew at the time that 7 wins didn't mean an automatic bowl bid. We had experienced that disappointment before; we were familiar with that dismissive attitude. And we'd have to once again listen to "same old Rutgers" comments.

But I believed. Deep down I did truly believe, in spite of everything. And 2005 was the turning point that I had hoped for. The bowl announcement in December brought me to tears.

And Brian Leonard. Thank God for Brian Leonard. He will always be Superman in my mind.

Heading into the 2015 season, I have to be grateful for the past decade and for the heroes who made it all possible. Ten years later, I'm still wearing my Rutgers cap with my head held high -- as I did in 2005 -- but my new hat has a Big Ten logo on the side, something that was unimaginable to me in 2005. I watch more than 20 Rutgers players in the NFL. I look at the list of 9 bowls in those 10 years almost in disbelief, but I swell with pride when I count them up and think how the culture has changed in New Brunswick.

2014: Quick Lane Bowl
2013: New Era Pinstripe Bowl
2012: Russell Athletic Bowl
2011: New Era Pinstripe Bowl
2009: St. Petersburg Bowl
2008: PapaJohns.com Bowl
2008: International Bowl
2006: Texas Bowl
2005: Insight Bowl

It's easy to forget how important these 10 years have been. But in my office I have a picture of Brian Leonard conducting the band as it played the Alma Mater in 2006 for his final game. That ranks among my all-time favorite moments of my 40 years as a Rutgers fan, and it can still bring me to tears.

Thank God for Brian Leonard.

Leonard "ole'ing" that Illinois cb ... Never will be a moment like that again for me. That was it.

 

[bitnez]

when we ran out of the tunnel in '05 for the Insight Bowl i had tears in my eyes. i don't recall ever feeling so proud. man, i was raw at that precise moment. i have never felt so connected to RU as i did at that moment. that one sticks with me.

 

[Abro1975]

MY avatar here is Brian Leonard leading the RU BAND in the alma mater. Couldn't squeeze the sword into the tiny pic.

Great memories posted by some of you. I have been going to games since I was a kid and was lucky enough to be in school during our undefeated season of "76. I am not going to repeat some thoughts that are already posted but I agree with all. I also agree with how some on this board do not remember when you could not find a RU hat our T-shirt anywhere outside of campus. the thought of having one big team at the stadium on our schedule was exciting as heck.

My favorite are personel to me:

First bowl game (not including Garden State Bowl, I was there).
BL conducting the Alma Mater, I looked over to one of my long time friends and fellow RU fan and tears were rolling down his cheeks.
L'Ville
Michigan game, When they were driving down the field for the final field goal try, I looked up and said "please dont do this to these kids". I am not a church going person but the next morning my wife was getting ready for church and I told her I was coming she just shook her head and said lightning is going to strike you.

Enjoy the ride folks the next 40 years are going to be blast and I hope I am around for at least 25 more.

 

[rurichdog]

What I remember is the ever changing logo, and not having anything standardized. That's how we ended up with this, and worse.

I still have a windbreaker with that logo on the chest. I continue to wear it as a remembrance of where we were and how far we've come.

 

[mkollar]

The ESPN College GameDay Top Play for September 3, 2005:

 

[NickyNewark51]

I was not really a fan growing up, Rutgers was invisible in the 1980's and terrible during the 1990's. I didn't pay much attention to them other than the odd game here and there only to see them get blown out. I remember in 2005 when a co-worker told me that they played in a bowl game, I was in complete disbelief. I keep asking questions to make sure they weren't confusing Rutgers for some other school, LOL.

So feeling bad that I missed the 2005 season and kicking myself for doing so, I said to myself that I was going to make sure to start watching their games starting the next season which was in 2006 and the rest was history. Me and the rest of the state became a Rutgers fan that year!

Unlike you though i feel no more of a fan than those recently seeing the greatness in future potential of RU I NEVER wavered on the home team!! It was just a matter of when not if....we all want the best NJ has to offer to shake the nation...Why Pennsy? Ohio? Mich?...all hicks in comparison to us swaggering city boys from the center of civilization...between Philly and NYC....our/my stomping grounds. Were gonna Shock the World soon.

 

[davidniven2]

Went to RU in the Graber era, and then Ohio State in the John Cooper era. Became a life long RU fan because I can't ever seem to take the easy path.

Somewhere in the early 2000s, I'm wearing an RU football t-shirt, waiting to check out at an office supply store in south Florida.

Guy behind me says, "Do they even play football?"

Lost in my own thoughts, it didn't register for a moment.

He points to the shirt, "Do they even play football there?" he says.

I say, "It's the birthplace of college football."

He says, "Oh yeah? I went to the school with more wins than any other. Do you know who that is?"

I say, "Michigan."

He nods.

I say, "Do you want to know how I figured that out?"

He nods.

I say, "Everyone I've ever met from that school is a pompous ass****. So I figured..."

(Damn near came to blows over the whole thing. Which is to say, beyond the joy of bowls and memorable wins and all, the last 10 years have saved me quite a bit of trouble.)

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

Unlike you though i feel no more of a fan than those recently seeing the greatness in future potential of RU I NEVER wavered on the home team!! It was just a matter of when not if....we all want the best NJ has to offer to shake the nation...Why Pennsy? Ohio? Mich?...all hicks in comparison to us swaggering city boys from the center of civilization...between Philly and NYC....our/my stomping grounds. Were gonna Shock the World soon.

My best pre-2006 memory was the famous VT Halloween game. Just remember I am not a Rutgers Alumni, if I was, I would have not been so causal way back
then.

 

[BrunswickBob]

This is why GS will always be on our Mt Rushmore of important figures in RU sports history in my book. By the end of the Shea era I was convinced we were headed to a Patriot League future, not a Big Ten future.

His obsessiveness and obstinence were absolutely necessary ingredients to garner the institutional support that he received in turning around the program. Even when he was showing little to no on-field improvement, he had me believing that better days were possible. His ability to sell a vision was uncanny. That applied to recruits, administrators, fans, and students.

There are certainly better football coaches out there, but he was unquestionably uniquely qualified to take the program from an absolute embarrassment to a place where significant growth is plausibly still achievable.

 

[NickyNewark51]

This is why GS will always be on our Mt Rushmore of important figures in RU sports history in my book. By the end of the Shea era I was convinced we were headed to a Patriot League future, not a Big Ten future.

His obsessiveness and obstinence were absolutely necessary ingredients to garner the institutional support that he received in turning around the program. Even when he was showing little to no on-field improvement, he had me believing that better days were possible. His ability to sell a vision was uncanny. That applied to recruits, administrators, fans, and students.

There are certainly better football coaches out there, but he was unquestionably uniquely qualified to take the program from an absolute embarrassment to a place where significant growth is plausibly still achievable.

All the best HC's had those qualities of "refuse to lose" stubborness like early JoPa,Bear Bryant and Woody Hayes.

 

[srru86]

There was a time when one of the most exciting things to happen in my RU fan-dom was being in the Steel City when a mediocre Shea team beat a not particularly good Pitt team on their homecoming in old Memorial Stadium. Didn't mean anything for the season, and long run, but BE conference road wins where rather rare back then. Couldn't picture things like Louisville 2006, Bowl wins or beating Michigan in Piscataway. Hope the newer, and future, fans never have to live through that sort of futility.

 

[NickyNewark51]

There was a time when one of the most exciting things to happen in my RU fan-dom was being in the Steel City when a mediocre Shea team beat a not particularly good Pitt team on their homecoming in old Memorial Stadium. Didn't mean anything for the season, and long run, but BE conference road wins where rather rare back then. Couldn't picture things like Louisville 2006, Bowl wins or beating Michigan in Piscataway. Hope the newer, and future, fans never have to live through that sort of futility.

I enjoyed some RU FB during the Ray Lucas/Marco Battaglia years esp the 1 pt win over VT on the last play and remember thinking....Does it get any better than this? lol...Shows how limited our expectations were back then. I loved Tyronne Stowe and Brian Sheridan LBer play back then too. How about Union HS's all state RB Albert Smith? Those were some big time kids for us back then.

 

[beaced]

Try explaining to a young fan what it was like to be a Rutgers football fan just 10 years ago, and you really do gain a bit of perspective and an appreciation for those who have led this program.

That was my task this weekend, and I remembered the 2005 season as such a frustrating struggle. The summer before the season, I took a trip to Europe with a group of friends. I wore my Rutgers cap every day, and a friend of a friend commented, "What's the 'R' stand for? Rutgers?" I responded proudly that it was. I can still hear him laughing. He was from California (wearing a Cal t-shirt), so you could almost excuse this completely dismissive attitude, however, this was also the reaction for so many here in New Jersey. In the school where I taught, no student EVER wore Rutgers gear -- not in my first 15 years at that school.

On a camping trip that Labor Day weekend, I forced a group of friends to listen to the Illinois game because I had a good feeling about our chances. Things seemed to be going our way until late in the game when Illinois came roaring back to erase our 20 point lead. The response of my friends -- mostly NJ and NY people -- was that Rutgers will always fall short of ever competing with the likes of Illinois. It was something I had heard for 30 years, and I had nothing really to counter that argument. Deep down I believed that what had always been said about the Sleeping Giant was in fact the truth -- that it would one day rise and take its proper place as an eastern power.

Having been to the 1978 Garden State Bowl as a HS freshman, I counted wins so carefully in 2005, hoping that we could somehow reach the 7th win and finally go to another bowl. I kept dreading what I thought was inevitable -- that the Illinois loss would come back to haunt us. And all Rutgers fans knew at the time that 7 wins didn't mean an automatic bowl bid. We had experienced that disappointment before; we were familiar with that dismissive attitude. And we'd have to once again listen to "same old Rutgers" comments.

But I believed. Deep down I did truly believe, in spite of everything. And 2005 was the turning point that I had hoped for. The bowl announcement in December brought me to tears.

And Brian Leonard. Thank God for Brian Leonard. He will always be Superman in my mind.

Heading into the 2015 season, I have to be grateful for the past decade and for the heroes who made it all possible. Ten years later, I'm still wearing my Rutgers cap with my head held high -- as I did in 2005 -- but my new hat has a Big Ten logo on the side, something that was unimaginable to me in 2005. I watch more than 20 Rutgers players in the NFL. I look at the list of 9 bowls in those 10 years almost in disbelief, but I swell with pride when I count them up and think how the culture has changed in New Brunswick.

2014: Quick Lane Bowl
2013: New Era Pinstripe Bowl
2012: Russell Athletic Bowl
2011: New Era Pinstripe Bowl
2009: St. Petersburg Bowl
2008: PapaJohns.com Bowl
2008: International Bowl
2006: Texas Bowl
2005: Insight Bowl

It's easy to forget how important these 10 years have been. But in my office I have a picture of Brian Leonard conducting the band as it played the Alma Mater in 2006 for his final game. That ranks among my all-time favorite moments of my 40 years as a Rutgers fan, and it can still bring me to tears.

Thank God for Brian Leonard.

Too many posters do not give cognizance to our humble beginnings.Not back to the First ever Game but just to the last 20 years. We've come a long way Baby.And the BEST is yet to come!

Great memories posted by some of you. I have been going to games since I was a kid and was lucky enough to be in school during our undefeated season of "76. I am not going to repeat some thoughts that are already posted but I agree with all. I also agree with how some on this board do not remember when you could not find a RU hat our T-shirt anywhere outside of campus. the thought of having one big team at the stadium on our schedule was exciting as heck.

My favorite are personel to me:

First bowl game (not including Garden State Bowl, I was there).
BL conducting the Alma Mater, I looked over to one of my long time friends and fellow RU fan and tears were rolling down his cheeks.
L'Ville
Michigan game, When they were driving down the field for the final field goal try, I looked up and said "please dont do this to these kids". I am not a church going person but the next morning my wife was getting ready for church and I told her I was coming she just shook her head and said lightning is going to strike you.

Enjoy the ride folks the next 40 years are going to be blast and I hope I am around for at least 25 more.

You gave me a great B1G impromptu laugh with your wife's response.

 

[beaced]

I enjoyed some RU FB during the Ray Lucas/Marco Battaglia years esp the 1 pt win over VT on the last play and remember thinking....Does it get any better than this? lol...Shows how limited our expectations were back then. I loved Tyronne Stowe and Brian Sheridan LBer play back then too. How about Union HS's all state RB Albert Smith? Those were some big time kids for us back then.

My favorite RU players ,ever,are Deron Cherry and Kevin Kurdyla.Two top human beings.(they could play some FB too)