Has Rutgers Remembered its 250th But Forgotten Its 150th in Sports?

[Source]

Just clicked on the baseball thread with the 2015-2016 schedule.

Why has a game not been scheduled on May 5, 2016 with Princeton? On May 5, 1866 the very first intercollegiate contest that Rutgers ever played was on that date at Princeton. It was the only baseball contest Rutgers played in the 1860s until the team started annual play in 1870. The November 6, 1869 football game with Princeton was the second intercollegiate contest Rutgers ever played. Crew started June 20, 1870 against the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard on the Raritan River.

Considering 2016 is the 250th anniversary of Rutgers, eighth oldest school among the Colonial Colleges of America, this is big piece of Rutgers athletic history being completely ignored.

Anybody got some connections with the powers-that-be to ask them (or inform them) of a big component of this part of Rutgers history?

 

[soundcrib]

Did we win?

 

[BoroKnight]

Nope. We lost 40-2. Even so, this should be remembered with as much pomp and circumstance as college baseball season can muster.

 

[Section124]

Sounds more like a WVU score in football.

 

[Source]

They did lose 40-2 but also played with only eight men. Baseball started as a hitters' sport. The pitcher merely delivered the ball underhand where you wanted it. Princeton scoring 40 wasn't all that remarkable. Rutgers beat the Franklin Base Ball Club of Rahway in 1873 by the score of 52-28. If anything, the remarkable thing was that Rutgers only scored two runs in that inaugural contest. Regardless, sports holds as much a place in history at Rutgers as other components that have gone into her 250 year history. This should not be allowed to pass quietly.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

They did lose 40-2 but also played with only eight men. Baseball started as a hitters' sport. The pitcher merely delivered the ball underhand where you wanted it. Princeton scoring 40 wasn't all that remarkable.

Sooo.. what you are saying is.. Princeton cheated by not delivering the ball where it could be hit.

Got it.

So lets remember the first cheating in intercollegiate sport.. Princeton doesn't play fair!

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

Rutgers generally ignores this part of history.

On the official results page, it only goes back to 1946. So it is missing about 80 years worth of results!

Even on the football side didn't acknowledge any of the conference championships that they won in the past or the National Championship until they joined the Big Ten. Most fans and perhaps people working in the AD can't name them without using google.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

Just clicked on the baseball thread with the 2015-2016 schedule.

Why has a game not been scheduled on May 5, 2016 with Princeton? On May 5, 1866 the very first intercollegiate contest that Rutgers ever played was on that date at Princeton. It was the only baseball contest Rutgers played in the 1860s until the team started annual play in 1870. The November 6, 1869 football game with Princeton was the second intercollegiate contest Rutgers ever played. Crew started June 20, 1870 against the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard on the Raritan River.

Considering 2016 is the 250th anniversary of Rutgers, eighth oldest school among the Colonial Colleges of America, this is big piece of Rutgers athletic history being completely ignored.

Anybody got some connections with the powers-that-be to ask them (or inform them) of a big component of this part of Rutgers history?

I'll talk to the guys I know. I'll let you know how it goes.

Do you have citations/evidence for me to send along with it?

 

[Source]

May 5, 1866 at Princeton Grounds, Princeton
Nassau Base Ball Club (of Princeton University) 40
Rutgers Base Ball Club 2

Umpire: Joseph Creed Stamps ’67, Princeton
Scorers: Edward Mills Fithian ’66 for Princeton and William H. Rankin ’68 for Rutgers

This was the first intercollegiate sports competition in Rutgers history. Rutgers batted second and scored two in the first inning and played with no centerfielder.

“The match game of Base Ball played on Saturday last upon the College ball grounds between the Nassau and Rutger’s clubs resulted in a decisive victory for the former…” Source: May 7, 11, 1866 Princeton Packet

“The first game was against Rutgers and resulted in the severe defeat of the visitors by the score of 40-2. Rutgers was at a disadvantgae playing on the strange and rough ground and with only eight men. After the supper at the Mansion House, Rutgers challenged the Nassaus to a return game on the following Saturday, but the challenge was not accepted because of the approaching Greek examinations.”

Note: Pre-game coin flips were mentioned in newspapers of the time to determine who batted second.

Nassau 4 0 5 6 2 7 8 1 7 -- 40
Rutgers 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 2

Rutgers BBC: Captain Tunis G. Bergen ’67 (P), 1 run scored; Florian W. Gordon ’66 (SS), 0; George C. Towle ’69 (1B), 1; Herman C. Berg ’66 (3B), 0; Francis H. Stubbs ’66 (2B), 0; John H. Leupp ’70 (LF) 0; J. (John) Bayard Kirkpatrick ’66+’69 (C), 0; Nicholas Terhune ’69* (RF), 0

(*Nicholas and William L. Terhune ’69 were listed on Rutgers class baseball teams. Nicholas was Class of 1869 team captain and probably the varsity starter for the Princeton game.)
Note: Tunis Bergen and J. Bayard Kirkpatrick were made Rutgers College trustees in 1883 and 1892 respectively.

Nassau Hall BBC: William Hall Wickham ’66 (C); 4 runs scored; John Bayard McPherson ’66 (P), 4; Edward A. Condit ’66 (1B), 7; George Kemp Ward ’69 (2B), 3; William James Lyon ’67 (3B), 4; John S. Greir ’69 (SS), 3; David Brainerd Hunt ’66 (LF), 5; Robert F. Little ’67 (CF), 6; William Howard Eby ’69 (RF), 4

Source: May 7, 1866 Princeton Packet, Princeton baseball website, Rutgers Alumni Directory
Source: Athletics At Princeton – A History

Note: In the fall of 1866, students at Rutgers came up with the name of the school paper, Targum, in the room of Tunis G. Bergen at Hertzog Hall. It was taken from the “Targum of Onkelos” or the “Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel” which loosely meant “translater” or “interpreter” that the students recalled their language professor mentioning from Hebrew history texts. One issue of the Targum was put out for the 1866-67 school year (in February); one issue for 1867-68 school year (in December) and monthly publications beginning in January of the 1868-1869 school year. A prelude to the Targum, the Rutgers College Quarterly, was put out by Rutgers two literary fraternities from 1859-1861.

Source: November 4, 1887 Rutgers Targum

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

May 5, 1866 at Princeton Grounds, Princeton
Nassau Base Ball Club (of Princeton University) 40
Rutgers Base Ball Club 2

Umpire: Joseph Creed Stamps ’67, Princeton
Scorers: Edward Mills Fithian ’66 for Princeton and William H. Rankin ’68 for Rutgers

This was the first intercollegiate sports competition in Rutgers history. Rutgers batted second and scored two in the first inning and played with no centerfielder.

“The match game of Base Ball played on Saturday last upon the College ball grounds between the Nassau and Rutger’s clubs resulted in a decisive victory for the former…” Source: May 7, 11, 1866 Princeton Packet

“The first game was against Rutgers and resulted in the severe defeat of the visitors by the score of 40-2. Rutgers was at a disadvantgae playing on the strange and rough ground and with only eight men. After the supper at the Mansion House, Rutgers challenged the Nassaus to a return game on the following Saturday, but the challenge was not accepted because of the approaching Greek examinations.”

Note: Pre-game coin flips were mentioned in newspapers of the time to determine who batted second.

Nassau 4 0 5 6 2 7 8 1 7 -- 40
Rutgers 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 2

Rutgers BBC: Captain Tunis G. Bergen ’67 (P), 1 run scored; Florian W. Gordon ’66 (SS), 0; George C. Towle ’69 (1B), 1; Herman C. Berg ’66 (3B), 0; Francis H. Stubbs ’66 (2B), 0; John H. Leupp ’70 (LF) 0; J. (John) Bayard Kirkpatrick ’66+’69 (C), 0; Nicholas Terhune ’69* (RF), 0

(*Nicholas and William L. Terhune ’69 were listed on Rutgers class baseball teams. Nicholas was Class of 1869 team captain and probably the varsity starter for the Princeton game.)
Note: Tunis Bergen and J. Bayard Kirkpatrick were made Rutgers College trustees in 1883 and 1892 respectively.

Nassau Hall BBC: William Hall Wickham ’66 (C); 4 runs scored; John Bayard McPherson ’66 (P), 4; Edward A. Condit ’66 (1B), 7; George Kemp Ward ’69 (2B), 3; William James Lyon ’67 (3B), 4; John S. Greir ’69 (SS), 3; David Brainerd Hunt ’66 (LF), 5; Robert F. Little ’67 (CF), 6; William Howard Eby ’69 (RF), 4

Source: May 7, 1866 Princeton Packet, Princeton baseball website, Rutgers Alumni Directory
Source: Athletics At Princeton – A History

Note: In the fall of 1866, students at Rutgers came up with the name of the school paper, Targum, in the room of Tunis G. Bergen at Hertzog Hall. It was taken from the “Targum of Onkelos” or the “Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel” which loosely meant “translater” or “interpreter” that the students recalled their language professor mentioning from Hebrew history texts. One issue of the Targum was put out for the 1866-67 school year (in February); one issue for 1867-68 school year (in December) and monthly publications beginning in January of the 1868-1869 school year. A prelude to the Targum, the Rutgers College Quarterly, was put out by Rutgers two literary fraternities from 1859-1861.

Source: November 4, 1887 Rutgers Targum

Ok! So they are indeed aware of this, and are in the midst of looking into plans for celebrating it!

 

[Source]

Thank you Sir Scarlet Knight. If you hear more, please post!. Appreciate the effort!

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

Thank you Sir Scarlet Knight. If you hear more, please post!. Appreciate the effort!

Of course! You know, I'd recommend you take the history course on Rutgers History being taught this spring, but something tells me you'd just be correcting my work!

Also, here is the list of people in charge of marketing at athletics. I know they're always very interested in anything they can do in terms of promotions.

http://www.scarletknights.com/school-bio/marketing.html

 

[_dave_]

Florian and Tunis, if I may call them by their first names, are now two of my favorite Rutgers players.

 

[Source]

Florian and Tunis, if I may call them by their first names, are now two of my favorite Rutgers players.

Well.....Tunis was the captain. But of all the other guys, why Florian?

Florian Wellington Gordon,
Rutgers Class of 1866; born in Key West, FL about 1845
and died in Perth Amboy on October 22, 1885

 

[_dave_]

Just love the names. I've always been fascinated how certain names that were once popular die off. I have never met, or heard of, a Tunis or Florian so was joking about that.

I'm sure that those names weren't unheard of back in the 1860s. One of my grandmothers had a very common name in her time. Ethel. I'm not sure if any girls were named that post WWII. I often joke to friends having babies that they should bring back those old names. My reply was just in the spirt of this.

 

[wheezer]

Nope. We lost 40-2. Even so, this should be remembered with as much pomp and circumstance as college baseball season can muster.

--------------
that is because our pitcher could not throw a deep ball, and he was put in to manage the game... you need a pitcher who can do it all.