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In 1996, Rutgers' actual varsity football team played a bunch of old alumni and lost

Babybull244

Babybull244

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Nov 4, 2015
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This popped up after doing a Google search...yeesh.


"Dr. Craig Schaefer is a well-respected general surgeon in Salisbury, Md., and a member in good standing of the Rutgers University Letterwinners' Club.

But when the former linebacker (class of 1969) received a letter from the club early last month inviting him to play in the first Varsity-Alumni football game at Rutgers Stadium on April 13, his reaction was predictable.

"I honestly thought somebody made an error," said Schaefer.

28 members of the 50-man team had graduated before 1990."

http://www.sbnation.com/college-foo...pring-game-alumni-1996-this-actually-happened
 
I was at that game and sat right behind the Olsen family. They were respectful but you just knew the Olsen boys were not going to attend RU. That surgeon was all over the field and just embarased the kids.
 
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Babybull244 said:
This popped up after doing a Google search...yeesh.


"Dr. Craig Schaefer is a well-respected general surgeon in Salisbury, Md., and a member in good standing of the Rutgers University Letterwinners' Club.

But when the former linebacker (class of 1969) received a letter from the club early last month inviting him to play in the first Varsity-Alumni football game at Rutgers Stadium on April 13, his reaction was predictable.

"I honestly thought somebody made an error," said Schaefer.

28 members of the 50-man team had graduated before 1990."

http://www.sbnation.com/college-foo...pring-game-alumni-1996-this-actually-happened
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That story "popped up after a google search"? It was published yesterday afternoon.

Are you Rodger Sherman?

Didn't this topic get mentioned here recently? Did some clown on this board use that knowledge to write this story over on SBnation?

Do you think any Michigan fans are writing blog-stories on how Appalachian State beat them and got paid millions to do it?
 
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Uh no... i Google'd Rutgers Football to get info on the spring game events and it was at the top of the page.
 
Yes, just in case anyone dares forget how awful Rutgers was during the mid to late 90's to the early 2000's.

By 2005 you knew those days were over.

Rutgers wasn't that bad in the late 80's and very early 90's, but things just kept getting worse and worse until we bottom out and then got worse still.
 
GoodOl'Rutgers said:
That story "popped up after a google search"? It was published yesterday afternoon.

Are you Rodger Sherman?

Didn't this topic get mentioned here recently? Did some clown on this board use that knowledge to write this story over on SBnation?

Do you think any Michigan fans are writing blog-stories on how Appalachian State beat them and got paid millions to do it?
Click to expand...

Dont shoot the messenger, its not his fault we sucked so bad back then.
 
Yes , but in 1998 Shea's team drubbed the alumni that sparked them to a 5-6 record . Alum mike Stephans (sp ? and who I believe posts on this board ) had a big fumble early on in that game . There was a rumor that the fumble was on purpose and the alums tanked the 98 game .
The 1999 spring game was a thriller . Alum Reggie funderburke had a big game , but a late touchdown by Seth Stanton (that generation's Brian Leonard ) had a late touchdown to give the varsity the win . Those were the glory days of the 1990s . Very exciting times !
 
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I don't remember what felt worse. Losing to the alumni or walking on the field after the game while players were still hanging out and realizing how physically small they were.
 
I posted this memory about 5 days ago in the OSU Spring game thread


Abro1975Heisman Winner
↑
Years ago, maybe in the 80s or early 90s our Spring game was our first team vs a bunch of old Alum football players. Our first team LOST, lol. Not good.

edit- maybe I'm not remembering this correctly, maybe it was an Alum game before the Spring game. Anyone else remember this ?

18 Abro1975, Saturday at 9:53 PM
Last edited: Saturday at 10:01 PM
 
The first spring game between Rutgers and its alumni was April 22, 1950. Harvey Harman coached against athletic director George Little who had 30 former players from the previous four seasons. It took Harman’s team a score in the last quarter to win 13-7 before 1,200. The alumni won 35-13 the next year.
 
Proud NJ Sports Fan said:
Shea was much worse than Flood.
Click to expand...

The team was already bad by the time Shea got there, he just made it much worse. Flood had a top recruiting class and great leftover players, many who later went to the NFL and ran the whole thing to the ground where we hit recording breaking bad numbers, yes worse than the Shea years, in defense, last year.

So ...
 
Shea and flood both stunk . You can make a sound argument that either was worse . Shea never embarrassed the school off the field and he was respected as far as xs and 0s . You don't get a position coach and then coordinator job in the NFL after Rutgers for no reason .
 
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Plum Street said:
Yes , but in 1998 Shea's team drubbed the alumni that sparked them to a 5-6 record . Alum mike Stephans (sp ? and who I believe posts on this board ) had a big fumble early on in that game . There was a rumor that the fumble was on purpose and the alums tanked the 98 game .
The 1999 spring game was a thriller . Alum Reggie funderburke had a big game , but a late touchdown by Seth Stanton (that generation's Brian Leonard ) had a late touchdown to give the varsity the win . Those were the glory days of the 1990s . Very exciting times !
Click to expand...
The game earlier ( 96 or 97) , we lost to the alumni 6-0. Thought I saw Rusty Schwartz get reinjured in that game.
 
RUScrew85 said:
Any other bad memories you'd like to dredge up?
Click to expand...

How about 1995 Syracuse at Rutgers . Syracuse had a young qb in mcnabb who lit us up . Rutgers had senior Ray Lucas who stunk up the joint so much he was booed when he went back on the field because the crowd wanted Robert Higgins in . Graber was an asshat after the game defending Lucas like the whole flood /nova fiasco . You stick around a program long enough and history repeats itself . Yes , the crowd actually booed back then and there was no message board to complain or praise it .
 
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Plum Street said:
How about 1995 Syracuse at Rutgers . Syracuse had a young qb in mcnabb who lit us up . Rutgers had senior Ray Lucas who stunk up the joint so much he was booed when he went back on the field because the crowd wanted Robert Higgins in . Graber was an asshat after the game defending Lucas like the whole flood /nova fiasco . You stick around a program long enough and history repeats itself . Yes , the crowd actually booed back then and there was no message board to complain or praise it .
Click to expand...

Lucas had one bad problem.. he didn't throw the ball away.. he'd run out of bounds with the ball for a 5 yard loss.. and, with a knee brace on much of his time here, he just didn't have the wheels to do what he thought he could do in buying time.

By far my worst Rutgers memory was opening the season at Duke, with consecutive Big East Rookies of the Year, Presley and Willis in the backfield.. and we open in a shotgun and empty the backfield on first down and throw an INT. First play of the season. Wow.. what a terrible "plan". Thunder and Lightning... and you empty the backfield on 1st down. I wanted to hurl.
 
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Thanks for the memories from the time before we actually went Big Time.
 
It was baaaaaaaadddddd.... We were so pathetic back then. I didn't love Flood, but c'mon, saying he's as bad as Shea is just nuts. We were 11-44 under Shea, being crushed by any good teams and losing badly to even poor teams, vs. being 27-24 under Flood, including three bowl games, with some bad losses to good teams, but some good wins against pretty good teams, too. World of difference. Still wanted Flood canned after season 2, but could understand keeping him and then we had to keep him after a pretty good first season in the B1G.
 
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Did Rusty Schwartz, a good linebacker, rip up his knee at the Alumni game?
 
RU848789 said:
It was baaaaaaaadddddd.... We were so pathetic back then. I didn't love Flood, but c'mon, saying he's as bad as Shea is just nuts. We were 11-44 under Shea, being crushed by any good teams and losing badly to even poor teams, vs. being 27-24 under Flood, including three bowl games, with some bad losses to good teams, but some good wins against pretty good teams, too. World of difference. Still wanted Flood canned after season 2, but could understand keeping him and then we had to keep him after a pretty good first season in the B1G.
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Shea took over a program that was falling apart and could not find a way to turn it around. Flood took over a program where our previous coach had taken an NFL job after completely turning the program around into an annual conference title threat and bowl participant... and after Schiano had brought in their highest rated class ever, Flood managed to bungle it away into a terribly embarrassing season that not only included a losing record despite many of those recruits still around, poor decision-making, poor player management, turning off of local recruits, and a bunch of players getting arrested. And as an X's & O's coach, Shea crushes Flood.

Flip their scenarios around, Shea could probably succeed at least moderately with Schiano's recruits, while Flood might have found a way to end up with worse results than Shea.
 
RU#1fan said:
Flood could not carry Shea's playbook. He had no clue on play calling like Shea.
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11-44 Terry Shea no postseason games; finished 0 of 5 seasons above .500
27-24 Kyle Flood 1-2 in post season games; finished 2 of 4 seasons above .500
 
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RU848789 said:
It was baaaaaaaadddddd.... We were so pathetic back then. I didn't love Flood, but c'mon, saying he's as bad as Shea is just nuts. We were 11-44 under Shea, being crushed by any good teams and losing badly to even poor teams, vs. being 27-24 under Flood, including three bowl games, with some bad losses to good teams, but some good wins against pretty good teams, too. World of difference. Still wanted Flood canned after season 2, but could understand keeping him and then we had to keep him after a pretty good first season in the B1G.
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1) what "pretty good" teams did Flood beat? Please don't include a 6-6 UNC team in The Quick Lane Bowl.

2) way to leave out "quite a few losses to not-so-good teams"

...just sayin'!
 
Source said:
The first spring game between Rutgers and its alumni was April 22, 1950. Harvey Harman coached against athletic director George Little who had 30 former players from the previous four seasons. It took Harman’s team a score in the last quarter to win 13-7 before 1,200. The alumni won 35-13 the next year.
Click to expand...
Cool. More people saw our 1950 Spring Game, than BC's 2016 Spring Game.
 
Plum Street said:
How about 1995 Syracuse at Rutgers . Syracuse had a young qb in mcnabb who lit us up . Rutgers had senior Ray Lucas who stunk up the joint so much he was booed when he went back on the field because the crowd wanted Robert Higgins in . Graber was an asshat after the game defending Lucas like the whole flood /nova fiasco . You stick around a program long enough and history repeats itself . Yes , the crowd actually booed back then and there was no message board to complain or praise it .
Click to expand...

and to top it all off, we showed up at that tailgate without a spatula....worst game ever
 
I was there as well. Couldn't believe what I was witnessing. You knew this couldn't be good, and you knew we were not going to have a good season. Definitely a twilight zone episode.
 
AreYouNUTS said:
1) what "pretty good" teams did Flood beat? Please don't include a 6-6 UNC team in The Quick Lane Bowl.

2) way to leave out "quite a few losses to not-so-good teams"

...just sayin'!
Click to expand...

UNC (yes), Navy, Maryland, Michigan, Cincy, and Arkansas two years in a row (maybe their record wasn't great, but you know they had talent), just off the top of my head. Flood inherited a bit more than Shea, but Flood also had a far better record than Shea - that is indisputable. Shea left us at absolute rock bottom in 1A, while Flood left us worse than he started, but not rock bottom.
 
RU848789 said:
UNC (yes), Navy, Maryland, Michigan, Cincy, and Arkansas two years in a row (maybe their record wasn't great, but you know they had talent), just off the top of my head. Flood inherited a bit more than Shea, but Flood also had a far better record than Shea - that is indisputable. Shea left us at absolute rock bottom in 1A, while Flood left us worse than he started, but not rock bottom.
Click to expand...
Shea, inherited a program that was already close to bottom. Flood inherited a program that while not at its peak, was darn close to it. If Flood had lasted another two years no telling how low the program could have gone. Thank God, Barchi had the balls to make quick changes. I think the program is in much better hands.
 
RU848789 said:
UNC (yes), Navy, Maryland, Michigan, Cincy, and Arkansas two years in a row (maybe their record wasn't great, but you know they had talent), just off the top of my head. Flood inherited a bit more than Shea, but Flood also had a far better record than Shea - that is indisputable. Shea left us at absolute rock bottom in 1A, while Flood left us worse than he started, but not rock bottom.
Click to expand...

Can't agree with any of those teams, in those years, other than maybe Navy (Michigan was 5-7). That being said I'm not comparing the 2, at all, trust me lol!
 
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