Rutgers played its first games off the continent when both the Rutgers football and basketball teams and 2,000 followers finished the 1974 football season with a November 30 game in Hawaii. It was the first time Hawaii had ever played an east coast school. On Friday night before 7,495 at the Honolulu International Center (1:15 a.m. in New Brunswick), the men’s basketball team upset Hawaii 75-70 with Phil Sellers scoring 24, Mike Dabney 23 and Hollis Copeland 18 points. Fans were annoyed at the officiating and when the football team played Saturday night (12:15 a.m. in New Brunswick) the play was termed dirty and the crowd rowdy.
Fights broke out and in one of them a Rutgers player knocked out several teeth of one of the Hawaiian players. Rutgers was favored but lost 28-16 and finished 7-3-1. The December 5, 1974 Targum said, “‘The behavior on the part of the University of Hawaii was ‘abominable,’’ said a Trustee member at the regular meeting of the Board of Governors yesterday in the Alexander Library. ‘Fans threw cups and fruit at our cheerleaders. I hope President (Ed Bloustein) receives some sort of apology.’ ‘The crowd was not what I would call a well-ordered crowd,’ said Henry Winkler, vice president for academic affairs, in a tone of understatement. It was not a well ordered game. There was nothing questionable done by Rutgers fans or players.”