Early History
Shortly after the creation of The College of New Jersey
(later Princeton University) in 1746, ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church sought to establish autonomy in ecclesiastical affairs. At that time,
those who wanted to become ministers in within the church had to travel to the Netherlands to be trained and ordained, and many of the
affairs of churches in the American colonies were managed from Europe. Thus, the
ministers sought to create a governing body known as a classis to give local autonomy to the church in the colonies, and offer opportunities for the education of
ministers.Throughout the 1750s, Dutch ministers joined the effort to create an classis in the
colonies, including Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen who travelled on horseback in winter of 1755 to several congregations throughout the northeast to rally ministers and congregations to the cause. Soon after,
Frelinghuysen travelled to the Netherlands to appeal to the General Synod, the Dutch Reformed Church's governing council for the
creation of the classis. In 1761, the effort having failed, Frelinghuysen set sail for the
colonies, but as the vessel approached New York, he mysteriously perished at sea.After Frelinghuysen's death, Jacob Rusten Hardenburgh (later Rutgers' first president), established himself as spokesperson
for the cause, and a strong supporter of establishing a college in New Jersey. Hardenbergh, travelled to Europe renewing
Frelinghuysen's efforts to gain the Synod's approval, but was also rejected. Much to the Synod's chagrin, however, Hardenburgh
returned to the colonies with money for the establishement of a college.
Queen's College
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, was chartered on November 10,
1766 as "Queen's College," in honor of King George III's Queen-consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744–1818). The charter was signed and the young college supported by
William Franklin (1730–1813), the last Royal Governor of New Jersey and illegitimate son of Benjamin
Franklin (1706–1790). The original purpose
of Queen's College was to "
educate the youth in language, liberal, the divinity, and useful arts and sciences" and for the
training of future ministers for the Dutch Reformed
Church—though the university is now non-sectarian and makes no religious demands on its students. (Ironically, given
the tenets of Christianity, the college first met at a tavern called the Sign of the Red Lion, on what is today the grounds of
the Johnson & Johnson corporate
headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey.) It
admitted its first students in 1771—a single sophomore and a handful of first-year
students taught by a lone instructor—and granted its first degree in 1774, to
Matthew Leydt. When the American Revolution broke out, the college
abandoned the tavern and held classes in private houses, in and near New Brunswick. During its early years, the college developed
as a classic liberal arts institution.In its early years, Queen's College was plagued by a lack of funds. In 1793, with the
fledgling college falling on hard times, the board of trustees voted on a resoluton to merge with the College of New Jersey (now
Princeton University). The measure failed by one vote. The
problem did not go away, and in 1795, lacking both funds and tutors, the trustees consider
moving the college to New York. Instead, they decide to close, only to reopen in 1808 after
the Trustees raised $12,000.The next year, the College got a building of its own, affectionately called "Old Queen's" (which still stands), which is
regarded today by architectural experts as one of the nation's finest examples of Federal architecture.
University President Ira Condict laid the cornerstone on 27 April 1809. However, continued financial woes would cause the building to wait 14 years for completion,
that combined with a nationwide economic depression and the impending War of
1812 forced Queen's College to close down a second time, in 1812.In 1825, Queen's College was reopened, and its name was changed to "Rutgers College" in
honor of American Revolutionary War hero
Colonel Henry Rutgers (1745–1830). According to the Board of
Trustees, Colonel Rutgers was honored because he epitomized Christian values, however, it probably helped that the Colonel gave a
gift that set the college on secure financial footing. Rutgers, a descendant of an old Dutch family that settled in New Amsterdam (now New York
City), gave the fledgling college a $5000 bond and a bell to be placed in the cupola of Old Queens. The college's early
troubles inspired numerous student songs, including an adaptation of the drinking song
Down Among the Dead Men with the
lyrics "Here's a drink to old Rutgers, loyal men, May she ne'er go down but to rise again.""Rutgers College" became "Rutgers University" in 1924.
Athletics
Rutgers was among the first American institutions to engage in intercollegiate
athletics, and participated in a small circle of schools that included Yale University, Columbia University
and long-time rival, Princeton University.On May 2, 1866, in the first intercollegiate
athletic event in Rutgers history, the Rutgers baseball team was humiliated by the
Princeton team, 40-2.On November 6, 1869, Rutgers became
the "Birthplace of College Football" when it defeated Princeton,
six "runs" to four, in the first intercollegiate football game ever played (the
site, then a field, is now occupied by the College Avenue Gymnasium). Instead of wearing uniforms, the players stripped off their
hats, coats, and vests and bound their suspenders around the waistbands of their trousers. For headgear, the Rutgers team wound
their scarlet scarves into turbans atop their heads. This led to the College later adopting scarlet as its school color. The
game— with rules more resembling those of soccer than the later form of American football—gave birth to a new pastime described as
"
replete with surprise, strategy, prodigies of determination, and physical prowess." During the 1870s, games resembling
rugby became popular at other American colleges, and Rutgers eventually
adopted similar rules. These games developed into what is today known as American football.However, Rutgers proceeded to lose at football to Princeton each year for the next 68 years, only breaking that losing streak
in 1938.Today, Rutgers University is a member of the Big East
Conference, (in football since 1991, all other sports since 1995) a collegiate athletic conference consisting of thirteen colleges and universities in the Northeastern United
States. Rutgers is a Division I-A school as sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic
Association. The Rutgers-Camden and Rutgers-Newark campuses participate in Division III athletics within the New Jersey Athletic Conference.The Rutgers University mascot is the Scarlet Knight.
Traditions and Legacies
Howard Fullerton, a member of the Order of the
Bull's Blood, goes down in Rutgers history not only for his penning the
alma mater but for allegedly inspiring the
theft of a cannon from the campus of Princeton University
on 25 April 1875, an event—and the
ensuing debate between the two university presidents—reported in nationwide newspapers. Princeton students retaliated by
raiding the Rutgers Armory and stealing a few muskets. Eventually the committee appointed by the two colleges recommended the
return the stolen items to their owners before the event. When the cannon was returned, Princeton University officials ordered it
buried in the ground, encased in cement, with only a few feet of the butt end exposed above ground.Several Rutgers students attempted to repeat the crime, unsuccessfully, in October 1946.
With the efforts of the Princeton administration to thwart them unknown, they attach one end of a length of heavy chain to the
cannon and the other to their Ford. Surprised by Princeton men and the local constabulatory, they gun the engine of the Ford so
viciously that the car is torn in half. The Rutgers army manages to escape, but with neither the car nor their prize, the
cannon.To this day, intrepid Rutgers students journey the 16 miles to Princeton University to place their declaration of ownership of the cannon by painting the cannon
scarlet red. Unfortunately, like the students who stole the cannon in 1875, they usually
paint the wrong cannon, as there are two behind Nassau Hall
at Princeton. Today, a cannon is placed in the ground
before Old Queens at Rutgers, memorializing both this event, and a few alumni in the service who were killed in action. At
Commencement, tradition leads undergraduates to break clay pipes over the cannon, symbolizing the breaking of ties with the
college, and leaving behind the good times of one's undergraduate years. This symbolism dates back to when pipe-smoking was
fashionable among undergraduates, and many college memories were derived from evenings of pipe smoking and revelry with
friends.
Trivia
- The College Avenue Gymnasium, built on the site where the first college football game was played, hosted New Jersey's 1947 and 1966 Constitutional Conventions.
- In 1810, a book of 104 rules and regulations are published to guide student down a
moral path. Among these rules were prohibitions on dancing and fencing schools, billiards, cards, dice, beer and oyster houses,
firearms, powder, and public ball alleys; and further, no student was to "disguise himself for the purpose of imposition or
amusement," "speak upon the public stage anything indecent, profane, or immoral," or "employ a barber on the Lord's day to dress
his head or shave him."
- In 1879, Mark Twain, the famed
American author, accepted an honorary membership into the Philoclean Society at Rutgers, but failed to make the customary
monetary contribution.
- In addition to being the "birthplace of college football," Rutgers has given birth to discoveries and innovations such as
Cheez-Whiz, water-soluble sustained
release polymers, Tetraploids,
robotic hands, artificial bovine insemination, and developed the ceramic tiles for the heat shield on the
Space Shuttle.
Alma Mater
The
alma mater of Rutgers University is the song entitled
On the
Banks of the Old Raritan, written by Howard Fullerton (Class of 1872). The lyrics to
the song are, as follows: