Rutgers Chanticleer Banner Sold for $455

[Source]

Just going through ebay and saw this sold listing back in October. It's an actual Rutgers pennant complete with the original mascot, The Chanticleer, embracing the University seal. Never saw (or knew) this particular banner existed. Here's the ebay "sold" site for the item if you want to view it. Very cool.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/pre-1955-felt-Pennant-Banner-Rutgers-University-w-Chanticleer-rooster-mascot-/381476031835?hash=item58d1be4d5b:g:RTMAAOSwgyxWVSsW&nma=true&si=BfENQYEmWsMKQ1je0EadmuNwoA4%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

[Piscataway]

Really cool, but oh so happy we aren't the Chanticleers any more.

 

[theRU]

I still don't get the "scarlet knights" ...we're named after Henry Rutgers a revolutionary....wouldn't Rutgers Revolutionaries be the logical step?

 

[Source]

I would have voted for Rutgers Revolution (we'd have been called the Revs by the media). But in 1955, they wanted to change the nickname (that never really was fully embraced). The students voted on several choices: Scarlet Knights, Queensmen, Red Lions, Scarlet, Raritangs, Redmen, Flying Dutchman. It was tiered voting. So in the end Scarlet Knights beat out Queensmen.

 

[LadyRU09]

What's a Raritang?

 

[Source]

The Raritangs were supposedly Native Americans along the Raritan River and a subculture of the Lenni Lenapi tribe.

Being a little lazy today and not endorsing wikipedia for information purposes but:

"The trails along the Raritan River were named after a local Indian tribe called the Raritangs. Piscataway Township is one of the fifth oldest towns in New Jersey and among the fifty oldest towns in the United States."

 

[CornerTavern]

The Raritangs were supposedly Native Americans along the Raritan River and a subculture of the Lenni Lenapi tribe.

Queensmen would've been aiight but what would that have looked like? Red coat soldiers...? Or... knights?

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Looks like the red has faded enough to match the current salmon color.

 

[bac2therac]

Here come the rooster....

 

[derleider]

I would have voted for Rutgers Revolution (we'd have been called the Revs by the media). But in 1955, they wanted to change the nickname (that never really was fully embraced). The students voted on several choices: Scarlet Knights, Queensmen, Red Lions, Scarlet, Raritangs, Redmen, Flying Dutchman. It was tiered voting. So in the end Scarlet Knights beat out Queensmen.

Red Lions would have been great. Amazingly, there are relative few lion mascotted teams in the NCAA - and real lions (not cougars or panthers like Pitt, PSU, FIU) are even rarer - among D1 teams only Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Golden Lions), Loyola Marylmount, Columbia, and Southeastern Louisiana are the lions.

I assume a Raritangs is a native American caricature of some time.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Columbia...prolly the reason we didn't go with lions

 

[Scarlet16E]

I still don't get the "scarlet knights" ...we're named after Henry Rutgers a revolutionary....wouldn't Rutgers Revolutionaries be the logical step?

Why?
Not all mascots are related to the school history?
Are there a lot of bears in Waco? Tigers in Baton Rouge? etc.

 

[theRU]

Why?
Not all mascots are related to the school history?
Are there a lot of bears in Waco? Tigers in Baton Rouge? etc.

Most have some sort of connection to the location of the school or the actual school history. The school mascot is essential your first line of propaganda so if it doesn't have any real connection it better be "bad ass".

Wolverines makes sense for Michigan and sounds cool.

Spartans for MI St... doesn't seem to have any real connection but at least is a bad ass mascot.

Scarlet Knights is ok, but IMO the obvious go to should have been something to do with the revolution, or even patriots.

 

[Scarlet16E]

Most have some sort of connection to the location of the school or the actual school history. The school mascot is essential your first line of propaganda so if it doesn't have any real connection it better be "bad ass".

Wolverines makes sense for Michigan and sounds cool.

Spartans for MI St... doesn't seem to have any real connection but at least is a bad ass mascot.

Scarlet Knights is ok, but IMO the obvious go to should have been something to do with the revolution, or even patriots.

When we adopted "Scarlet Knights" as our mascot / nickname in 1955, being colonial, or revolutionary, or patriots was not especially unique among the schools we played in sports.

 

[MozRU]

I am glad we are no longer the chanticleers. Its is basically a hoke.

The Revs would have been sick!

 

[PiscatawayMike]

Just going through ebay and saw this sold listing back in October. It's an actual Rutgers pennant complete with the original mascot, The Chanticleer, embracing the University seal. Never saw (or knew) this particular banner existed. Here's the ebay "sold" site for the item if you want to view it. Very cool.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/pre-1955-felt-Pennant-Banner-Rutgers-University-w-Chanticleer-rooster-mascot-/381476031835?hash=item58d1be4d5b:g:RTMAAOSwgyxWVSsW&nma=true&si=BfENQYEmWsMKQ1je0EadmuNwoA4%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I put a bid on it, but the end price was a little too rich for my blood.

 

[Source]

I put a bid on it, but the end price was a little too rich for my blood.

Too bad PiscatawayMike. But I do agree with you. $455.... that's alot.

I think folks are over-thinking how we got the Scarlet Knights name. "Scarlet" because that's the school color... Scarlet Knight because Rutgers student Oscar Huh'57, a future LSU environmental scientist-professor, wrote a sardonic tale of the Red Knight of Germany for his sophomore English course. He changed the main name and fellow students encouraged him to submit the name for the nickname vote in May of 1955. The submission won. Huh just passed away last December 31. He revisited Rutgers in 1982 and was proud his idea went as far as it did.

Sorry the story isn't more "sexy" but it's worked for R.U. for 60+ years now.
Most school's nicknames do not have mythical, epic stories behind them. But they are enjoyable none the less.

 

[derleider]

Columbia...prolly the reason we didn't go with lions

Yes - probably.

Most have some sort of connection to the location of the school or the actual school history. The school mascot is essential your first line of propaganda so if it doesn't have any real connection it better be "bad ass".

Wolverines makes sense for Michigan and sounds cool.

Spartans for MI St... doesn't seem to have any real connection but at least is a bad ass mascot.

Scarlet Knights is ok, but IMO the obvious go to should have been something to do with the revolution, or even patriots.

The Knights is RU history related. Its an alternative to Queensmen (the queens men being knights) - taken from our original name Queens College.

All of the suggested choices had historical ties (Raritangs to the supposed local indian tribe, Flying Dutchmen to our Duthh Reformed heritage, Scarlet and Redmen to our early adoption of scarlet as our color, Red Lions to the tavern where the first classes were held.

 

[PiscatawayMike]

In the early 50s, many people referred to us as the Queensmen.

 

[Source]

Queensmen was in use about the same time as the Chanticleer. But just like the "Bronx Bombers" is an unofficial reference for the New York "Yankees"... "Queensmen" was an unofficial reference for the Rutgers "Chanticleer."

 

[Source]

Queensmen was in use about the same time as the Chanticleer. But just like the "Bronx Bombers" is an unofficial reference for the New York "Yankees"... "Queensmen" was an unofficial reference for the Rutgers "Chanticleer."

When Rutgers became the "Scarlet Knights" in 1955, the "Chanticleer" nickname was barely uttered again. But "Queensmen" hung around on occasion into the 1960s.

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

That was our original student in a suit mascot, however Rutgers actually had another mascot before that, which was a actual bulldog. I don't know if the bulldog was an official mascot or not. Kind of like the Stanford Tree is not an official mascot. Stanford doesn't have a mascot, even if the tree is everywhere.

Rutgers didn't have an official name for the football team, so they were called "Queensmen" and "The Scarlet".

 

[BeKnighted]

That was our original student in a suit mascot, however Rutgers actually had another mascot before that, which was a actual bulldog. I don't know if the bulldog was an official mascot or not. Kind of like the Stanford Tree is not an official mascot. Stanford doesn't have a mascot, even if the tree is everywhere.

Rutgers didn't have an official name for the football team, so they were called "Queensmen" and "The Scarlet".

I have been told by Stanford alumni on many occasions that the Tree actually is the mascot for the band. If you know the band, that makes sense. And, of course, Stanford teams are the Cardinal (the color, not the bird, as I have been told enough times to make me want think that Stanford students are required to memorize that phrase), which isn't really a mascot.

 

[Source]

Starting in the 1860s and for the next few decades, Seton Hall had a name for its base ball club. It wasn't the Pirates... it was known as the Alert Base Ball Club (of Seton Hall college). Fordham (then known as St. John's College) was called the Rose Hills Base Ball Club. Princeton at the start was the Nassau Hall Base Ball Club. And even though they are known as the Harvard Crimson today, they started for a few years beforehand as the Harvard Magenta.

 

[BoogieKnight]

My high school's team names are "The Scarlets" and the mascot is the scarlet bird. I'd be happy with rutgers scarlet like Stanford Cardinal. It's unique. Not like Knights (army, UCF, FDU, etc)

 

[ScarletDave]

The Stanford tree is actually a member of the band each year. They each have to make their own costume from scratch. The girl who was it this year plays the tuba.