The December 6, 1941 Targum announced the first-ever dinner for the football team by the Touchdown Club of New Brunswick for that Monday. By the time the dinner took place there was speculation on how many of the football players that night would be missing on next year’s team. Within a week, one Rutgers alumnus had died at Pearl Harbor and another in Manila; Old Queen’s ordered all electric typewriters off so radio news bulletins could be heard over loud speakers; 21 members of Phi Gamma Delta spent midnight to 4:00 a.m. shifts at Post 25A on the outskirts of town voluntarily watching the skies for any aircraft flying toward New York with a secret phone number to contact Mitchel Army Air Field in Long Island if they did; ROTC was mobilized in the event of an air raid; a Rutgers Defense Council was formed; and campus black-outs imposed. The skylight of the College Avenue Gymnasium was painted over to make it look black from the sky. Those same paint flakes floated down on the basketball court and stopped play during the men’s undefeated 1975-76 season. The United States – and along with it Rutgers - had entered World War II.
Rutgers and the Attack on Pearl Harbor - 74 Years Ago Today
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That is an interesting perspective. Thank you for posting. Thank you to all veterans for your service and sacrifice.
