Rutgers 31 Princeton 30 (Overtime)

Ballantine Gym about 1918

A year ago I began this blog to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Rutgers 1966-67 basketball team which earned national recognition in the National Invitational Tournament, finishing third after upsetting two nationally ranked teams.  I was fortunate enough to be a student manager on that team.  Last April, when we gathered to name the College Avenue Gym court in honor of Jim Valvano, I was deeply honored to be presented with a citation from President Robert Barchi for the blog.  Since it was so well received, not to mention fun to do, I've decided to continue during the 2017-18 basketball season, this time focusing on the 40th anniversary of the Rutgers Athletic Center by remembering a number of memorable men's games during that period.  As with last season, the blog posts will consist primarily of contemporary newspaper articles.

Please note, all pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Daily Home News - February 18, 1907

While the RAC memories will begin on November 30th, the fortieth anniversary of the opening game, I thought it would be interesting to start with one game apiece from the prior two homes of Rutgers basketball, the College Avenue Gym (AKA "the barn") and the Robert F. Ballantine Gymnasium.  My guess is that most people reading this have either never heard of Ballantine Gym or, if they have, know little or nothing about it.  Ballantine Gym was opened in April of 1894, the gift of Robert F. Ballantine, son of Peter Ballantine the founder of the Ballantine Brewery in Newark.  Although not an alumnus, Robert Ballantine was a trustee of Rutgers from 1876 to his death in 1905.  He gave at least $60,000 for the original gym and, after his death, his widow generously gave another $25,000 for the swimming pool.  The $85,000 total would probably equal about $2.6 million today.  Although the gym opened in 1894, Rutgers did not begin playing intercollegiate basketball until 1907 supposedly to help football players develop their passing skills in the off season.  Rutgers first game at Ballantine Gym was a 20-19 loss to NYU on February 16, 1907 when Longworth of NYU "threw a fowl."  The last game played there was a December 7, 1929 loss to the Crescent Athletic Club of Brooklyn.  Alton Adler, Rutgers Class of 1931 and a member of the Hall of Fame, played in that game.

When I was researching a commemorative booklet on the 1967 season, I spent some time in the Rutgers archives and found a picture of five basketball players with the date and score of a 1920 win over Princeton and no further information.  Further research led me to the little known story of the 1919-20 Rutgers team which was, in fact, the first Rutgers team ever to play in a post season tournament, the 1920 National AAU tournament held in Atlanta, Georgia.  Playing four games in four nights, that Cinderella Rutgers squad won three straight before falling to NYU in the championship game.  At some point, I hope to write more about this historic season, but in this post want to share information about that historic victory, the first time Rutgers ever defeated Princeton in basketball and only the second victory ever for a Rutgers team over Princeton since the 1869 football game.

The Daily Home News - February 11, 1920

Eddie Benzoni - star freshman on the 1919-20 team 

To say that college basketball was different 100 years ago is an understatement.  Rutgers was coached by Frank Hill, one of three coaches in the Rutgers Hall of Fame (Bill Foster and Tom Young are the others).  Hill was not, however, just the coach of Rutgers, he was simultaneously the coach of Seton Hall while also holding down a full time job elsewhere.  One of the reasons that he was able to coach two schools at the same time was that the rules of the day forbid coaching during the game thereby making the coach's presence at games unnecessary.  In fact, Hill did not accompany the team to the tournament in Atlanta.  The game was also very different on the floor as well, below are some of the major differences.

There is a center jump after every basket.

Once removed from the game, a player could not return

Each team had a designated foul shooter who shot all foul shots

There were no offensive fouls, three second or ten second rules.

While it's not clear how referees were hired, note in the below game account that the referees were chosen by Princeton for a Rutgers home game.  Even more interesting is the comment that when the overflow crowd of 1,000 objected to some of the calls, the referee stopped the game and explained the basis for his call!

The Daily Home News - February 12, 1920

The Home News - April 29, 1952

Next up in about two weeks, a look at the history of the "barn" and a memorable moment that no one should have trouble figuring out in advance!