Your guess would be wrong. Princeton took football very seriously, till football was de-emphasized and claims 28 National Championships, the last being in 1950.
Yes, Rutgers fans have never donated adequately. Let’s start with the fact that Palmer Stadium was built with a substantial donation from Edgar Palmer, in 1914. Capacity was 45,725. With removable stands in the open area of the stadium, attendance was over 50K.
www.princetonmagazine.com
Rutgers Stadium was built in 1938, with a helping hand from the Government. Prior, Rutgers played football at dilapidated Nielsen Field.
The date was Nov. 7, 1934, and Little was looking to move Rutgers' football, baseball, lacrosse and track teams to more modernized playing fields. As part of the study, Little proposed building a football stadium on the 256-acre tract of land partly owned by the Vermeule family and by the New Brunswick Country Club.
At the time, the Rutgers football team played its games at dilapidated Neilson Field.
"It is our expectation that this project will contribute greatly to the effectiveness of our program of physical education, which has been handicapped through inadequate playing fields,'' Clothier told reporters after the university acquired the tract of land off the Raritan River in Piscataway on Jan. 15, 1935.
Nearly three years to the day that Little first proposed a new field to replace 3,500-seat Nielson Field, Rutgers opened its 23,000-seat stadium on Oct. 22, 1938.