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.