The Players

Although a six win season doesn't sound like much, the limited schedules of the era and Rutgers lack of success against those schedules made the 1918-19 season the most successful in the school's limited basketball history.  Not only was six a record for wins, there was a road triumph over powerful NYU and a respectable overtime loss to Princeton, the only home defeat of the season.  Hopes were high therefore when the team (minus any football players) took the court for the first practice of the season in mid-November.  The first order of business was replacing the two seniors loss to graduation, team captain Al Neuschafer and the legendary Paul Robeson.  Robeson's loss hurt in a number of ways, in addition to being the team's second leading scorer, he took the all important jump after each made basket and was a dominating physical presence at both ends of the court.   Even with those losses, however, there was plenty to build on, beginning with the two senior starters, Calvin Meury and Leland Taliaferro.

Calvin Meury - Home News - January 7, 1920

Meury, from Dickinson High School in Jersey City, was the team's third leading scorer and had been a starter since the end of his freshman season.  As team captain, he would have extra leadership responsibilities including running practice the two days a week when Frank Hill wasn't available.  In addition, the senior would make all in-game strategy decisions since coaches were prohibited from talking to the players even during time outs.  Also providing senior leadership was Leland Taliaferro, leading scorer on the 1919 team even though he had only played the last seven games.  A native of Atlantic City, a high school basketball powerhouse, Taliaferro had served briefly in the military during World War I, although he had not gone overseas.  Also a baseball letter winner, the Atlantic City native was clearly a leader off the court as he had been elected president of the senior class.  There was one other military veteran on the squad, Art Hall of Passaic, who had missed the prior academic year while on duty in the Coast Guard.

Leland Taliaferro - Home News - January 18, 1920

Perhaps even more intriguing than the returnees however were two newcomers, or more accurately one newcomer and a sophomore with limited experience.  The latter was Walter French of Moorestown, New Jersey, one of the greatest athletes ever to play at Rutgers, who is understandably forgotten today because, as we shall see, he played only two years on the banks.  French had been a member of the 1919 team, but his active participation had been limited because as the Home News put it, he had been "stranded along the way on the scholastic shoals."  President of the sophomore class, French had already earned two letters in football and played a major role on the 1919 team.  Although out for four weeks with a neck injury, he scored seven of the team's seventeen touchdowns recording six runs of over 30 yards including a 75 yard jaunt against Northwestern.  Described by the Home News, as "almost untackable," French's arrival after the end of the football season was doubtless eagerly awaited by coach Hill.

Walter French - Home News - March 3, 1920

New to Rutgers basketball, but not the Ballantine Gymnasium was freshman Eddie Benzoni, from Union Hill (today's Union City).  A year earlier Ballantine Gym hosted the first New Jersey state high school tournament, a four team, invitation only affair.  In addition to Union Hill, considered the weakest team in field, the invitees were Trenton, Atlantic City and Passaic.  Trenton only agreed to participate if they did not have to play Atlantic City in the first round, a team they had already beaten twice.  Matched up against Union Hill, the clearly over-confident Trenton team were rudely awakened when Benzoni led his team to an upset win, ending Trenton's 42 game winning streak.  A day later, Benzoni again starred when his underdog team defeated Passaic ending the north Jersey school's 32 game winning streak.  Known to history as the "Wonder Team," Passaic would go 200-1 over a ten period, the only blemish at the hands of the Benzoni led Union Hill team.  While this was long before recruiting and scholarships, a year later the Home News claimed Benzoni's attendance at Rutgers was due to his participation in the high school tournament on the Ballantine Gym court.  Regardless of how he got there, the Hudson County's product's appearance in a Rutgers uniform was doubtless eagerly anticipated.

Edward Benzoni - Home News - March 6, 1920

Naturally one of the focal points as practices began was filling the two vacant spots with special emphasis on the center position because of the center jump.  Hill hoped that Don Storck, who he claimed could out jump Robeson, would claim the position but a football injury kept him out of action until January. As a result the position seemed to belong to Frederick Dettlinger almost by default.  Gradually the squad was cut down from about 35 to 12 while the team also worked on plays off of the center jump.  Supposedly the 1919 team had utilized 20 different such plays and Hill hoped to do the same with this year's squad.  Both Benzoni and French won starting positions and by the time of the Christmas break, center remained the only issue.  After about 10 days off for the holidays, the players returned before classes resumed to prepare for a schedule the Home News called "pretentious and ambitious," beginning with a visit from powerful NYU on January 7, 1920.

The School, the Gym, the Coach

Perhaps no United States college or university has changed more in the last one hundred years than Rutgers.  Founded in 1766, the school, then known as Queens College, was founded, like other colonial colleges, primarily to prepare young men for the ordained ministry, in this case the Dutch Reformed Church.  Unfortunately, the denomination was one of the smallest in the United States and unable to provide any significant financial support.  Gradually separating itself from the church during the 19th century, Rutgers began to achieve some degree of financial stability during the Civil War while also becoming New Jersey's land grant college, thereby adding agriculture and the manual arts to the school's classical curriculum.  By the time basketball arrived on the banks in 1907, however, the school was still quite small with a student body of 236.  The size of the student body almost doubled over the next decade and by the beginning of the 1919-20 academic year was approaching 700.  Tuition that year had increased by 50% to an unprecedented $150 and was scheduled to go up another $50 the following year which with fees of $70 would push the cost of an academic year to almost $300 probably about the equivalent of $5,500 today, still a bargain by modern terms.

Daily Home News - January 31, 1907

When basketball arrived at Rutgers a decade after the first college game, it did so not because of student demand for an indoor winter sport, but as a means of supporting the school's football team.  In January of 1907, football coach Frank Gorton announced the introduction of basketball on both the inter-class and intercollegiate level.  According to Gorton, the new emphasis on passing in football meant that the "college that does not play basketball will be greatly handicapped in the great fall game" so "Rutgers cannot afford to go on another year without basketball."  In addition to a series of intramural contests, a team representing Rutgers was to play two games with New York University and one with Lehigh.  The school's first intercollegiate game was played at NYU on January 18, 1907 and not surprisingly for a new team, resulted in a 20 point loss.  Far less understandable was a 88-23 shellacking at the hands of Lehigh where the Home News incredibly claimed "The game was more closely played than the score would indicate." Although the team showed improvement in a one point loss in a return match against NYU, the team would have to wait until the following season, for it's first victory, a win over Manhattan on December 19, 1907.

Ballantine Gymnasium

Both the 1907 season ending loss to NYU and the victory over Manhattan were played at Ballantine Gym, the first home of Rutgers basketball.  Ballantine Gym opened its doors in April of 1894 thanks to a $60,000 donation from Robert F. Ballantine a trustee of the school.  Thanks to a further gift from his widow, a pool was added in 1915.  By that point, however, the amount of intercollegiate basketball played there had been spotty at best.  Perhaps because of the somewhat mixed motivation for taking up the game, the sport was dropped after the second season with a combined record of 4-14.  Basketball returned in 1913 with little success over the next two years as the team managed only three wins against 10 losses.  While it wasn't obvious at the time, a major change for the better came in 1915 with the arrival of Frank J. Hill as head coach.  Although Frank Hill has been well recognized by the schools where he coached, detailed information about his long basketball career, especially before he went into coaching is somewhat sketchy.  According to the Pro Basketball Encyclopedia Hill was "one of the best centers of the early years of professional basketball" who played for the Paterson Crescents around 1910 when the team played in the Hudson River League, an early pro league.

Frank Hill - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia

As his pro career, wound down, Hill branched out into both coaching and officiating.   In a 35 year career as an official, Hill quickly earned an "outstanding reputation" to the point that he was the only official to work the New Jersey high school tournament (a much smaller affair) for the event's first 16 years.  Even more unique was Hill's career as a coach which began at St. Benedict's Prep in Newark which he followed by adding Seton Hall University and Rutgers to his portfolio.  As hard as it may seem to believe, Hill coached all three teams at the same time while simultaneously holding a full time job with the Newark water department.   The feat is somewhat explained by the fact that at the time the coach's role during games was much more limited because of the prohibition on reentry limited substitutions and the coach could not speak to the players during the game.  The captain's role was much greater and included running practice when the coach wasn't available.   After only a 7-9 record in his first two seasons, Hill led Rutgers to winning seasons the next two years setting the stage as the team began preparations for the historic 1919-20 season.

The Game

Unlike baseball whose origins are shrouded in the mist of myth and legend, basketball's birth is well documented perhaps more definitively than any other major sport.  Instead of debating Abner Doubleday and Cooperstown, there is no question that basketball was invented by Dr. James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts in December of 1891.  Naismith, then an instructor at the International YMCA Training School, was challenged to come up with an indoor game that would satisfy a class of 18 "incorrigible" students who had driven two prior instructors away in despair.   Initially Naismith was also unable to solve the problem until, according to an account written many years later, he realized that any viable indoor sport required some kind of ball.  Since games with smaller balls like baseball or lacrosse required a stick or bat to move the ball, Naismith opted to start with a soccer ball.  Next came decisions to prohibit physical contact, running with the ball and to make the objective putting the ball in an elevated goal or basket.  Especially interesting is how Naismith chose 10 feet for the height of the goal - the legendary peach baskets were tied to railings in the Springfield Gym that were - wait for it - 10 feet high.

Dr. James Naismith with ball and peach basket

Since the class had 18 students there were nine on a team for that first game which ended with a final score of 1-0 on a 25 foot toss perhaps anticipating the three point shot.  Not only had Naismith solved the problem of an indoor game for those 18 "incorrigible" students (perhaps basketball fans today owe them a debt of gratitude), he had invented a new game so popular that within two weeks games began attracting fans.  Wisely resisting the suggestion to call his new game "Naismith ball," the inventor chose basket ball which remained two words for many years.  Nor did it take long before the first public game played between teams of students and faculty, on March 11, 1892 in front of a crowd of over 200, won by the students by a 5-1 score (baskets initially counted as one point).  The faculty's one basket was scored by legendary Hall of Fame football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg.  Also noteworthy was that Naismith himself also played on the faculty team, one of only two known times, he played the game he invented.  Since basketball was invented in a YMCA training school, there was a nation wide network of organizations ready and willing to host a new sport.  Basketball arrived in New Jersey only six months after its invention and the first Rutgers team took the court in 1907.

Springfield Republican - March 12, 1892

The rules of basketball began evolving almost immediately so that the game played by the 1920 Rutgers team and their opponents differed significantly from the initial 1891 contest.  But if that first group of players would have a hard time recognizing the 1920 version, we, a century, later would likely be even more confused beginning with the Ballantine Gym court about two-thirds the size of a modern court.  While the center of the court was marked, there was no half-court or ten second line and the free throw lane was a mere six feet wide. Neither absence meant very much since there was no three second restriction in the foul lane and teams could hold the ball in the back court as long as they wanted.  Center court was put to heavy use because every made basket was followed by a center jump, a rule that survived until 1937-38.  Naismith lived along enough to see others change his game dramatically and supposedly he was particularly upset about the elimination of the center jump and the institution of the ten second rule (1932-33).  

As this picture suggests, having a tall center like Bogota High School's Ray Nolte (6'7") was key
     to basketball success.  Not quite so tall was Henry Zinn, second from the right, front row.
                                                    Bergen Record - February 9, 1933

Unfortunately game accounts tell us little about how the game was played, but it appears that after each center jump teams would try to advance the ball, primarily by passing, towards the opponents goal.  Most shots were either layups or two handed both of which took time to set up.  Players had to be especially careful of violations like traveling which were penalized not by a change in possession, but a foul shot for the opposing team.  Such violations were likely to be costly since each team chose a designated foul shooter who took all of the team's free throws.  One thing teams with the ball did not have to worry about were offensive fouls which were not introduced until 1928-29.  Players did however have to be more mindful of personal fouls since the fourth foul resulted in disqualification.  Marvin Riley, an early referee, claimed that fouls were called, not unlike pass interference in football, based on whether the defender was playing the ball or the man. From a strategy standpoint, once the game began, the players were on their own because coaches were not allowed to "coach" during the game, including speaking to the players during time outs.  In game strategy was the responsibility of the team captain who was a coach on the floor both literally and figuratively.

Games were incredibly low-scoring perhaps partially because of player fatigue since once a player left a game there was no re-entry and, as we shall see, in close games starters played the full 40 minutes.  While there were no restrictions on who could shoot, the names of the different positions suggest roles with the forwards chosen for offensive ability while guards focused on defense and the center, the multiple, and all-important center jump.  The ball itself was made of leather with laces which presented its own challenges for shooting and dribbling.  Box scores of the day are very limited and don't provide much in the way of team statistics, but for three 1920 games the Home News provided team field goal shooting percentages which were very low.  In those three contests Rutgers averaged 25% with a high of 34% and a low of 18% and the opposition figures were similar.   Rutgers averaged 55 shots per game compared to 59 attempts per contest by the 2018-19 squad suggesting the problem wasn't getting shots but making them.  As unattractive as the game may seem to us, it had gradually become more popular at Rutgers and was about draw crowds that might have shocked Naismith himself.

The Picture

About five years ago I was doing some research in the Special Collections Department of Alexander Library at Rutgers in anticipation of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the 1967 men's basketball NIT team.  Included in the archival material was a file of images and the first photo was the below picture of what was clearly a very early Rutgers basketball team.  While the names of the five players and the young man in street clothes were on the back of the picture, the most valuable information was painted on the basketball - "Rutgers 31 - Princeton 30 - February 11, 1920."  Clearly there was a story here and a visit to the microfilm department produced a Daily Home News article which described a dramatic Rutgers victory at Ballantine Gym, then Rutgers home court.  My interest might have ended there, but a few days later, I was telling longtime friend, Bill Bess about the game and he asked, rhetorically, or so he thought, who Rutgers played in those days.

Left to right, second row, Leland Taliaferro, E. L. Casey, Art Hall, first row, Edward Benzoni, Calvin Meury, Walter French
Rutgers University Archives

A look at the "All Time Scoreboard" in the Rutgers media guide reflected many familiar opponents - Syracuse, West Virginia and Pittsburgh to name a few.  Also included were schools like Swarthmore, Stevens Institute, NYU and CCNY, the latter two were among the college basketball powerhouses of the day.  None of this was surprising until I got to the end of the schedule when suddenly Rutgers had played some very different opponents - major state universities like Georgia and Utah.  Even more intriguing was a notation next to these and two other games indicating that they had been played on a neutral court. The notation led me to the end of the media guide where I read the words "National AAU Tournament, Atlanta, Georgia."  But that couldn't be, the 1967 squad was the first Rutgers team to play in the post-season or so I had believed for almost 50 years.

Daily Home News - February 12, 1920

Further research confirmed that not only had Rutgers played in the 1920 National AAU tournament (there was no NCAA tournament at the time), they finished second, winning three straight games before losing in the championship game.  When I looked into the 1920 season in more detail, I realized that this remarkable story had largely been forgotten.  As a result, I decided to nominate the 1919-20 team for the Rutgers Athletic Hall of Fame and was delighted when they were inducted in October of 2019, in time for the 100th anniversary of a season that should never be forgotten.  I'm especially grateful to the Hall of Fame committee since it isn't easy to evaluate players and teams that no one living today saw play.  Some schools avoid the issue like another New Jersey university that won't consider Hall of Fame nominations unless the school's Sports Information Department can confirm the relevant statistics.  That kind of policy would doom the first 70 years of Rutgers athletics to oblivion since a 1930 fire not only destroyed Ballantine Gym, but took with it almost all of the records dating back to the first football game in 1869.

Daily Home News - February 18, 1920

Somehow the picture I found by accident survived and it's a good thing it did.  Without it, the story of the 1920 team would have remained lost unless, as in my case, someone stumbled upon it.  One of the many differences between Rutgers basketball then and now is that no games were played until January so these next three months mark the centennial of a season when, just as in 1967 and 1976, a Rutgers basketball team brought national recognition to the school.  In order to both preserve and tell that story in more detail, the 2020 version of this blog will feature weekly posts on the team and its achievements beginning with some background about college basketball and Rutgers, both of which were very different 100 years ago.