Betty passed Sunday night at her home surrounded by our family just 10 days before her 84th birthday. This was NOT Coronavirus related. Mom returned home after a hospital stay and took a turn for the worse quickly.:cry:
Mom and my brother Rocktherac were inseperable at RU events over the past 25 years. She lived and breathed Rutgers in her later years.
Mom started going to Rutgers games back in the 80s with my Dad as part of the Giants Stadium college football package which had the Kickoff Classic, a RU game or two and maybe another game thrown in. We were raised on high school games and college football on Saturday so all day the radio was tuned into WCTC listening to Football USA with Bruce Johnson and Jennifer Kushinka. Every Saturday was hamburger and fries night listening to scores to keep track of the picks in the Somerset Messenger Gazette Contest where my brother Rock and I would make picks for the entire family. One time my mom even won and they sent a photo crew to take her pic for the paper. I think the prize was $25
I was at RU from 88-93 so I was going to games but at some point in the early 90s my brother Rocktherac started taking her to basketball games and got season tickets starting in 94. I had tickets of my own on the other side seperate from them but would join them for the games down at the Palestra for the A10 tourney and the infamous 2nd half continuation on the UMass game at the Spectrum. Not alot of winning in football and basketball was going down the tubes but Mom still loved going and after my Dad passed in 1998 that really kept her going. She would come home and put on Neil Solondz on Knightcap on WCTC and listen to Skip and Mark lament why can't Rutgers win.
She loved going with my brother and his then wife to the Bannon Show and later the Waters show at the Hyatt. She was a huge fan of Quincy Douby and has his pic right on her desk in her tv room. As the program sputtered she would always say...."This team needs Douby"...she was right! Mom was there at the Eric LeGrand game at Met Life and she became a big fan of his after his injury always talking about his progress and what he was doing or if he was on television. In fact the day before she went to the hospital, she was watching Eric on the Virtual Fanfest on Youtube.
My mom had a bad fall in 2007 that left her in a coma like state for almost a week with a brain bleed but one of the first questions we asked when she started to come to was "Who is the Rutgers football coach"...Mom softly spoke.."Schiano". She would wear her #27 Ray Rice jersey in the rehab facility. It was a rough road back for her and she missed football and the basketball season for 2 years but she was iron tough and she made it back to going to every hoops and football game in 2009and beyond. Made it to her first and only bowl game at the Pinstripe Bowl vs Iowa State.
Mom got the Star Ledger and Courier News, she would cut out all the Rutgers articles, organize, clip them together and then put in a bag for me to pick up and read. Even though I usually would have already read the article a day or two later, I would always pick them up when she called and said, "I have some cut outs for you". It was a great way to keep her mind busy.
Got to give my brother Rocktherac alot of credit as he was tasked with taking her to the games and as the years went on Mom had to use a walker to get to the stadium and to the RAC but there was no way she was going to miss a game...rain, snow, cold, she didnt care. There was no discussion about not going...no way. Her and Rock stayed to the end of games not matter how bad they got, she wouldnt even think of bailing early. Only the past 2 years did she actually start to throw in the towel and want to bolt with how awful Chris Ash was
Mom's favorite thing though was seeing the Scarlet Knight horse video and watching the white horse charge out onto the field. She would often be caught with tears in her eyes saying "I love that horse". She would take many pics with him and in fact had a blanket made up of pics of the horse and a t shirt with the horse. One time there was a little girl saying..."look that lady is wearing a shirt with a pic of her with the horse and she is getting her picture taken with the horse!" lol
Mom would often blame RU losses on the refs, which of course in typical Bac fashion I would say...."its not the refs". With the losses piling up under Eddie Jordan, she would say...."Rutgers never should have joined the Big 10"...at that point it was hard to argue with her...lol
Although the cancellation of the NCAA tourney prevented Mom from seeing RU in the Big Dance, she got to experience the big win and celebration over Maryland as the last RU game she attended. She got to see RU win 18 times this year and that was so nice for her to experience after all the losing for so long. She liked Pike. She even came around to the idea of Greg Schiano coming back to coach at Rutgers after souring on him after he bolted to the NFL.
I know several board members always came up and said "Hi" to Mom and she truly enjoyed those little moments with other fans and those little meetings on the way out of the RAC which went from "ugh we need to fire this coach" to happy faces and smiles in the Pikiell era. All of the ticket takers were so nice to Mom in the last couple of years as she entered the RAC and her face would just light up upon entering. She made friends with the guy in charge of the handicap section I think his name was James who did a yeomans job trying to work out the logistics for her in that section. Rock will tell you he always had an adventure with her each game especially this season.
It will not be the same for me and especially for Rocktherac entering the RAC or the stadium with Mom as she has been a mainstay of our thoughts for over nearly 30 years at these games but the memory of her love for all things Rutgers will always be strong. Mom will be wearing a nice Rutgers long sleeve shirt for her funeral. She would not have it any other way.
(and in typical Bac fashion, I cannot keep anything short)
RIP MOM!
Mom and my brother Rocktherac were inseperable at RU events over the past 25 years. She lived and breathed Rutgers in her later years.
Mom started going to Rutgers games back in the 80s with my Dad as part of the Giants Stadium college football package which had the Kickoff Classic, a RU game or two and maybe another game thrown in. We were raised on high school games and college football on Saturday so all day the radio was tuned into WCTC listening to Football USA with Bruce Johnson and Jennifer Kushinka. Every Saturday was hamburger and fries night listening to scores to keep track of the picks in the Somerset Messenger Gazette Contest where my brother Rock and I would make picks for the entire family. One time my mom even won and they sent a photo crew to take her pic for the paper. I think the prize was $25
I was at RU from 88-93 so I was going to games but at some point in the early 90s my brother Rocktherac started taking her to basketball games and got season tickets starting in 94. I had tickets of my own on the other side seperate from them but would join them for the games down at the Palestra for the A10 tourney and the infamous 2nd half continuation on the UMass game at the Spectrum. Not alot of winning in football and basketball was going down the tubes but Mom still loved going and after my Dad passed in 1998 that really kept her going. She would come home and put on Neil Solondz on Knightcap on WCTC and listen to Skip and Mark lament why can't Rutgers win.
She loved going with my brother and his then wife to the Bannon Show and later the Waters show at the Hyatt. She was a huge fan of Quincy Douby and has his pic right on her desk in her tv room. As the program sputtered she would always say...."This team needs Douby"...she was right! Mom was there at the Eric LeGrand game at Met Life and she became a big fan of his after his injury always talking about his progress and what he was doing or if he was on television. In fact the day before she went to the hospital, she was watching Eric on the Virtual Fanfest on Youtube.
My mom had a bad fall in 2007 that left her in a coma like state for almost a week with a brain bleed but one of the first questions we asked when she started to come to was "Who is the Rutgers football coach"...Mom softly spoke.."Schiano". She would wear her #27 Ray Rice jersey in the rehab facility. It was a rough road back for her and she missed football and the basketball season for 2 years but she was iron tough and she made it back to going to every hoops and football game in 2009and beyond. Made it to her first and only bowl game at the Pinstripe Bowl vs Iowa State.
Mom got the Star Ledger and Courier News, she would cut out all the Rutgers articles, organize, clip them together and then put in a bag for me to pick up and read. Even though I usually would have already read the article a day or two later, I would always pick them up when she called and said, "I have some cut outs for you". It was a great way to keep her mind busy.
Got to give my brother Rocktherac alot of credit as he was tasked with taking her to the games and as the years went on Mom had to use a walker to get to the stadium and to the RAC but there was no way she was going to miss a game...rain, snow, cold, she didnt care. There was no discussion about not going...no way. Her and Rock stayed to the end of games not matter how bad they got, she wouldnt even think of bailing early. Only the past 2 years did she actually start to throw in the towel and want to bolt with how awful Chris Ash was
Mom's favorite thing though was seeing the Scarlet Knight horse video and watching the white horse charge out onto the field. She would often be caught with tears in her eyes saying "I love that horse". She would take many pics with him and in fact had a blanket made up of pics of the horse and a t shirt with the horse. One time there was a little girl saying..."look that lady is wearing a shirt with a pic of her with the horse and she is getting her picture taken with the horse!" lol
Mom would often blame RU losses on the refs, which of course in typical Bac fashion I would say...."its not the refs". With the losses piling up under Eddie Jordan, she would say...."Rutgers never should have joined the Big 10"...at that point it was hard to argue with her...lol
Although the cancellation of the NCAA tourney prevented Mom from seeing RU in the Big Dance, she got to experience the big win and celebration over Maryland as the last RU game she attended. She got to see RU win 18 times this year and that was so nice for her to experience after all the losing for so long. She liked Pike. She even came around to the idea of Greg Schiano coming back to coach at Rutgers after souring on him after he bolted to the NFL.
I know several board members always came up and said "Hi" to Mom and she truly enjoyed those little moments with other fans and those little meetings on the way out of the RAC which went from "ugh we need to fire this coach" to happy faces and smiles in the Pikiell era. All of the ticket takers were so nice to Mom in the last couple of years as she entered the RAC and her face would just light up upon entering. She made friends with the guy in charge of the handicap section I think his name was James who did a yeomans job trying to work out the logistics for her in that section. Rock will tell you he always had an adventure with her each game especially this season.
It will not be the same for me and especially for Rocktherac entering the RAC or the stadium with Mom as she has been a mainstay of our thoughts for over nearly 30 years at these games but the memory of her love for all things Rutgers will always be strong. Mom will be wearing a nice Rutgers long sleeve shirt for her funeral. She would not have it any other way.
(and in typical Bac fashion, I cannot keep anything short)
RIP MOM!
