A May 8, 1969 article interviewed Rutgers athletes about the attitude of taking football and sports up to a higher level, “… our whole athletic department is full of men who are contented with second class and keeping Rutgers at the level with small private schools like Lehigh, Lafayette and Colgate,” chimed in one of the frustrated athletes. “It’s good for some of the young coaches like Jim Valvano to get out on their own, and it will only be time before we lose other good coaches like (swimming coach Frank) Elm, basketball coach Bill Foster and Frank Burns of the football team because of our stuffy policies.”
What Could Have Been... and Jim Valvano
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Couldn't have said it better myself. To this day I still can't fathom how incompetent the man was at his job and kept it for so long. However, that seemed to be Rutgers policy back then the worse you preformed the longer you stayed.
What happened when we "tried" to go B1G in 1989?
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-12-20/sports/8903190729_1_gruninger-rutgers-highest-priority
Rutgers Athletic Director Fred Gruninger said Tuesday he hadn`t heard from the Big 10 yet, but he sounded as if he wouldn`t mind getting the call.
According to conference sources, Pittsburgh and Rutgers head the list of possible candidates when the league, as expected, expands to a 12th school.
That Rutgers, the 22,000-student state university of New Jersey, rates so high comes as bit of a surprise, considering the university is located in East Brunswick, N.J.
However, Gruninger was quick to point out logistics are not ``measured in miles these days. It`s in accessibility.`` Rutgers is only a 20-minute drive from Newark`s airport.
Gruninger wouldn`t speculate about the Big 10, but he did stress that Rutgers, like Penn State, is anxious to join an all-sports conference. Rutgers currently is an independent in football and plays in the Atlantic 10 conference in basketball.
``Getting into an all-sport conference is our highest priority,``
Gruninger said. ``We`ve been playing football here for 125 years; we started the game. We have a lot to offer in the way of academics. If there is a high- prestige conference out there (with an opening), we`d be willing to listen. There`s not much more I can say.``
Valvano represented what was worst about college athletics. His reputation as a coach who didn't care if his players could read as long as they could shoot a basketball has been swept under the rug. He was forced out of NC State. He would have tarnished Rutgers and been forced out of here too.
So many of you hate Fred. The man was hired to manage all of sports and the facilities. Not to win but to keep things under budget. Fred was an great guy with a big heart and no money. Please stop the attacks on him.. he had zero support. I worked directly for him in 80 and 81. He put all the teams ahead of him. He was the last AD to keep his office in the Barn so others could use the new RAC.
While he recruited a few athletes that were academically challenged, he ran a clean program. He was forced out, as I recall, after an exhaustive investigation of his program orchestrated by the UNC BOG. What did they ultimately pin on him? A few of his players sold their free tickets and BB shoes. Of course, this was after he won a National Championship, something the good ol boys at UNC just couldn't tolerate. So they removed Jim and installed a UNC alum as the AD. Sweet huh? And then UNC began its sham classes for BB to help ensure its place atop the Big Four.
"...considering the university is located in East Brunswick, NJ"
Lol...way to do your homework, Mr Sherman!
Lol...way to do your homework, Mr Sherman!
Ehh, he was close with Brunswick. True story. When I was a student firefighter at Rutgers, a guy pulls up to the fire station and tells us he is from Greece, and he is visiting his family. He took the family care out for a drive and he got lost. We asked him where his family lived, and he replied "Brunswick." When we told him there was a New Brunswick, an East Brunswick, a North Brunswick and a South Brunswick, he looked like he was going to cry. This was in the 1980's before GPS and Google. We looked at his registration, called his family and they picked him up. I forget his name, but I think he became the Minister of Finance in Greece.
I have mixed feelings about Fred. I got to play golf with him and his wife at an RU outing a number of years ago. A fine gentleman and very knowledgeable about college athletics. His desire for RU to be in an all sports conference was the correct approach, but his execution of that vision ultimately failed.
What you say is true about the lack of funding he was dealt. But where JH gets a hall pass from RU fans because of a lack of funding, many continue to criticize Fred even though he was forced to operate with minuscule budgets.
There were serious talks at one point of the B1G taking Rutgers, Pitt and Cuse to go to 14 back then and give Penn State some travel partners. The Big East started to sponsor football to prevent Pitt, Cuse and possibly BC from leaving. Since there a as no way the Big Ten was going to take Rutgers by themselves at that point, they ended up staying at 11. Meanwhile, the Big East invited Rutgers to join for football only because they were terrified that the Big Ten would changed their minds. More so since Penn State was pushing for an Eastern partner and still wated Rutgers. I don't think there was enough support for that anyway but the Big East didn't want to take any chances.
The Big East started football and invited Rutgers for football ONLY to protect their basketball product.
It took a very long time before Rutgers finally joined the conference they should had joined in the 1st place.
I am just glad thatvwe are finally home.
The Big East started football and invited Rutgers for football ONLY to protect their basketball product.
It took a very long time before Rutgers finally joined the conference they should had joined in the 1st place.
I am just glad thatvwe are finally home.
In 1969, Al Twitchell was still the AD and one of the few things I remember about him was his excitement when announcing that Bucknell was being added to the Rutgers football schedule. It was he who lost his job when Pres. Bloustein (sp?) announced that Rutgers would go "bigger time" in sports and promoted Gruninger. But Bloustein was often accused of being a great ideas man but someone who didn't provide the resources to fully implement the ideas.
I am among the long-term critics of Gruninger but it is nothing personal. He just didn't seem to improve in his 25 years in the position and made several bad decisions, most notably the decision to remain out of the newly forming Big East basketball conference, despite the fact that our major rivals at the time - St. John's, Villanova, and Syracuse - were joining it and also despite the fact that you couldn't really have an eastern all-sports conference without BC and SU (and a couple of years later - Pitt). He was also very weak in the hiring of coaches, notably Littlepage and Shea, both of whom carried their respective teams to the bottom of D1 sports. He also prevented the undefeated 1976 football team from going to the Peach Bowl because he refused to guarantee the sale of 8000 tix. He was also very poor in promoting ticket sales, especially with regard to seasons' ticket sales. I recall being rather shocked that RU, in 1977 after the undefeated season, sold fewer than 4000 seasons' tix.
I am among the long-term critics of Gruninger but it is nothing personal. He just didn't seem to improve in his 25 years in the position and made several bad decisions, most notably the decision to remain out of the newly forming Big East basketball conference, despite the fact that our major rivals at the time - St. John's, Villanova, and Syracuse - were joining it and also despite the fact that you couldn't really have an eastern all-sports conference without BC and SU (and a couple of years later - Pitt). He was also very weak in the hiring of coaches, notably Littlepage and Shea, both of whom carried their respective teams to the bottom of D1 sports. He also prevented the undefeated 1976 football team from going to the Peach Bowl because he refused to guarantee the sale of 8000 tix. He was also very poor in promoting ticket sales, especially with regard to seasons' ticket sales. I recall being rather shocked that RU, in 1977 after the undefeated season, sold fewer than 4000 seasons' tix.
Some excellent points ecojew. Agree with the point about the folly in not joining the BE conference when our FB rivals like BC and Cuse were joining.
The one issue I would disagree with is to blame FG for the Shea hiring. Fred was near the end of his career at that time and Pres Francis Lawrence personally set the hiring criteria for the new FB coach. It was Fred's job to interview candidates that met those criteria. Lawrence fancied himself as a knowledgeable sports fan and directly involved himself in the hiring process. Lawrence himself made the decision to hire Stringer, in large part to deflect criticism of his comments regarding the academic abilities of minority students.
As I recall the minimum experience Lawrence required was that the new HC needed previous D1 HC experience and must have earned a bowl berth as a HC. Of course that eliminated almost all of the applicants as no coordinators or up and coming HC's from smaller schools would make the cut. Unfortunately, Shea met the criteria, as he had previously been a HC at San Jose State and took his team to the California Raisin Bowl. Lawrence was firm in holding to his hiring criteria and Shea emerged as the best candidate. Fred merely administered the interview process while Lawrence was responsible for the choice.
The one issue I would disagree with is to blame FG for the Shea hiring. Fred was near the end of his career at that time and Pres Francis Lawrence personally set the hiring criteria for the new FB coach. It was Fred's job to interview candidates that met those criteria. Lawrence fancied himself as a knowledgeable sports fan and directly involved himself in the hiring process. Lawrence himself made the decision to hire Stringer, in large part to deflect criticism of his comments regarding the academic abilities of minority students.
As I recall the minimum experience Lawrence required was that the new HC needed previous D1 HC experience and must have earned a bowl berth as a HC. Of course that eliminated almost all of the applicants as no coordinators or up and coming HC's from smaller schools would make the cut. Unfortunately, Shea met the criteria, as he had previously been a HC at San Jose State and took his team to the California Raisin Bowl. Lawrence was firm in holding to his hiring criteria and Shea emerged as the best candidate. Fred merely administered the interview process while Lawrence was responsible for the choice.
But it was an UNDERSTANDABLE choice at the time... to hold out for an all sports conference. A few things conspired to make it a catastrophic choice... like the rise of cable TV and ESPN giving the new conference ridiculous national exposure and said conference winning right out of the gate.
But the real FG error was in not joining the big East with the 2nd invite. Being a founder would have been nice.. an all-sports conference including Penn State would have been better. But when Villanova and then Pitt fled to the Big East.. we should have realized the Big East was the place to be at that time.
I always blamed JoePA for this.. but maybe the Big Ten was whispering in his ear way back then... that if he ever wanted to join a conference, the Big Ten was the choice. That would have been smart of them.. to prevent the rise of a real football-playing eastern conference.
Joining the Big East might have made Rutgers a MBB powerhouse or not. It wouldn't done nothing for football.
Rutgers wanted a football conference with Penn State, West Virginia and Temple. It would had happen had Pitt not join the Big East.
Oh well...
Rutgers wanted a football conference with Penn State, West Virginia and Temple. It would had happen had Pitt not join the Big East.
Oh well...
there is no question that basketball would have enjoyed enormous success in the Big East and RU very well likely would be the premier program in the northeast
Not to sound cruel, but when the invite to the original Big East was made to RU, it was turned down because it wasn't yet obvious that this was going to be a successful conference. However, a second offer came a few seasons later when it was obvious. It cost RU millions in the seasons to come as the Big East became a premier place to be in American sports and we languished in the Eastern 8, later, Atlantic 10. A friend of mine summed this up this way, "Have many top executives get to make judgment calls that cost the business millions AND keep their jobs?"
Paterno pushed for an all East football conference and RU AD wanted to be a part. Nothing wrong with that. But there comes a time to fish or cut bait in your own schools' interest and RU did neither. We were nowhere when a major critical decision or two needed to lobbied for... forcefully.
Besides, there was an article in the mid-1990s about the background and life of a typical large college program athletic director. It was eye opening. The average lifespan of a major level program AD was about 6 years employment... ours was going on 25. Average amount of football and/or basketball head coach hires as AD was a fraction over 1. Burns was made coach when Bloustein promoted the assistant football coach and assistant athletic director. After that, FG went through Anderson, Graber and Shea. On the basketball side Littlepage, Wenzel, etc.
Other ADs had previous jobs on their resume's like CEO or President or, in one case, ambassador to another country. Ours was the golf coach moved up to AD in a 1972 shake up.
I have heard many people say that FG bleeds scarlet. That might be true. However, for the sake of your school, wouldn't it have been a help to do a little self inspection during your 25 years on the job and consider one possibility in not getting to the promised land was not firing another coach... but turning over the reigns to someone else? Unless he was fired, FG gave the impression he was never going to leave or take any responsibility for the poor condition of major RU sports.
Paterno pushed for an all East football conference and RU AD wanted to be a part. Nothing wrong with that. But there comes a time to fish or cut bait in your own schools' interest and RU did neither. We were nowhere when a major critical decision or two needed to lobbied for... forcefully.
Besides, there was an article in the mid-1990s about the background and life of a typical large college program athletic director. It was eye opening. The average lifespan of a major level program AD was about 6 years employment... ours was going on 25. Average amount of football and/or basketball head coach hires as AD was a fraction over 1. Burns was made coach when Bloustein promoted the assistant football coach and assistant athletic director. After that, FG went through Anderson, Graber and Shea. On the basketball side Littlepage, Wenzel, etc.
Other ADs had previous jobs on their resume's like CEO or President or, in one case, ambassador to another country. Ours was the golf coach moved up to AD in a 1972 shake up.
I have heard many people say that FG bleeds scarlet. That might be true. However, for the sake of your school, wouldn't it have been a help to do a little self inspection during your 25 years on the job and consider one possibility in not getting to the promised land was not firing another coach... but turning over the reigns to someone else? Unless he was fired, FG gave the impression he was never going to leave or take any responsibility for the poor condition of major RU sports.
That right there is the reason why Rutgers didn't become a powerhouse during that time. We should have been a Michigan type school if we just tried to keep up with Princeton then Penn State instead we were happy to play little brother.
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