The November 20, 1917 Daily Home News carried sportswriter Harold O’Neil’s thoughts about what Rutgers had accomplished, “There is no doubt but that Rutgers this season had one of the really great elevens of the country. It is only a trifle behind Pittsburgh and about the same margin behind Georgia Tech, the champion of the South and Ohio State, the class of the Middle West. There are many who believe that Rutgers is equally as efficient as Pittsburgh and Grantland Rice of the New York Tribune is one of them. There may be a stronger football machine in the East other than Foster Sanford’s array, but few who saw Rutgers overthrow the brilliant Newport eleven (WWI military all star team) will believe it.”
The November 14 edition explained how dominant Rutgers had been during the season in progress, “In five games, the opposition made 87 line plays and 21 forward passes with one first down by scrimmage and two through the forward pass. If scrimmage alone were considered, the ball according to the above formula would be six yards behind the starting point.” Teams that George Foster Sanford coached in this era acquired their nickname after its next game, according to the November 19 Daily Home News, “The sports writers favorite phrase in referring to Rutgers since Saturday is the ‘scarlet scourge.’”
The "Queensmen" was an unofficial nickname beginning in the late 1920s.
