Originally posted by Source:
"...From 1915 through 1917, Head Coach George Sanford was 17-4-2. None of his players were ranked by Rivals, 247 or ESPN. He was a heck of a coach. ..."
He really was. Probably the best Rutgers head coach vs. the era he was coaching in and deservedly in the College Football Hall of Fame for his work at Rutgers College. At the time, there was only a loosely defined category of "big" and "small" colleges and universities and Rutgers was definitely in the latter category. When he began at Rutgers in 1913, the student body was 421 and when he finished in 1923, it was about 700. No scholarships, all try-outs. Attempts were made to lure him to the biggest schools in the nation and he declined. His salary from Rutgers for leading them???? Zero, zip, zilch.
He promised to be the best in the land within five years and it took a World War to prevent that. Biggest upset still in school history is his stunner at Ebbets Field against the WWI military unit from Newport Naval Reserves. At the time, it wasn't unusual for teams to schedule opponents within a season and Sanford was fearless. He wanted to play the best he could find and the powers-that-be shied away from doing so (looking at you Princeton) because (like Appalachian State's upset of Michigan) there was little to gain and a lot to lose playing Sanford's "Scarlet Scourge."
The November 5, 1917 Daily Home News headline read: "'The greatest football team in the world.' That's what eastern critics are saying about the wonderful grid iron machine developed by ex-Captain Cupid Black of Yale among his comrades at arms at the Newport Naval station. Four members of Walter Camp's All-American teams, two former All-Western men and other stars of scintillating brilliance make up the team."
According to the November 22, 1917 Daily Home News, "The eagerness in which he snatched up the chance to clash with 'Cupid' Black's All-American aggregation at Ebbets Field on Saturday is only an example of the confidence Sanford has in his system of instruction. Few college elevens would dare to tackle this combination of all-stars
the fighting spirit of 'Old Sandy' was aroused by the record of this Navy eleven
The New Brunswick coach was at last able to stack up his charges against a combination of stars that would test his system to the proper degree..." The next edition continued, "Every one of the first string men who make up Black's eleven is a star of the first magnitude. Each has earned his right by the hardest kind of tests to sport the distinction of All-American calibre. It is not a bunch of stars hurriedly gotten together and the eleven will not be without team unity for they have played and practiced together for the past two months, under a capable coach, Dr. William T. Bull, of Yale,
It will be interesting to see how Rutgers great running attack will fare against the Black line which averages 203 pounds. The Scarlet forwards will be outweighed 23 pounds to a man."
Before an Ebbets Field crowd estimated by the November 27, 1917 Daily Home News at 15,000, the Scarlet did the impossible and shut out the Newport Second District Naval Reserves 14-0 with one of Paul Robeson's greatest game efforts.
