If they insist on fooling with the lyrics to 'On The Banks of the Old Raritan'...

... maybe we can make 'Scarlet Begonias' our school song.


(After watching this video from the Capitol in 1976, I remember why I missed so many football games when I was in New Brunswick in the '70s.)

There's no video of this following show available, but here's the whole first set of the Jerry Garcia Band's show at The Barn on December 4, 1977. Anyone else there? I was in the second row after waiting for tickets overnight in the Brower Commons.

Exorcising the Curse

Along with the many ridiculous reasons being given for the second-half collapse of Rutgers' football fortunes in 2013 -- Players? Coaches? Fans? -- the obvious cause keeps getting neglected, the curse of Howard N. Fuller. When the glee club changed his classic 140-year-old lyrics "My father sent me to old Rutgers / and resolv'd that I should be a man" to an anodyne politically-correct "From near and far we come to Rutgers / resolved to learn all that we can" before the Arkansas game, the curse began.

With the score of today's UConn debacle at 14-7 in favor of the Huskies, I plugged in my SG and attempted to drive the curse away.


Surprisingly, it didn't work. The Huskies won 28-17.

Obviously, I can't exorcise this curse all by myself.

The 1873 Lyrics

I.
My father sent me to old Rutgers,
And resolv'd that I should be a man;
And so I settled down,
In that noisy college town,
On the banks of the old Raritan.

II.
As Fresh, they used me rather roughly,
But I the fearful gauntlet ran,
And they shook me so about
That they turned me inside out,
On the banks of the old Raritan.

(Chorus)
On the banks of the old Raritan, my boys,
where old Rutgers ever more shall stand,
For has she not stood since the time of the flood,
On the banks of the old Raritan.

III.
I passed through all these tortures nobly,
And then, as Soph, my turn began,
And I hazed the poor Fresh so,
That they longed for Heaven, I know,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)

IV.
And then I rested at my pleasure,
And steered quite clear of Prex's ban,
And the stars their good-bye kissing
Found me not from euchre missing,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)

V.
And soon I made my social entrée
When I laid full many a wicked plan,
And by my cunning art
Slew many a maiden's heart,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)

VI.
Then sing aloud to Alma Mater,
And keep the Scarlet in the van;
For with her motto high
Rutgers' name shall never die
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)

UConn vs. Chas Dodd 10/8/2010

I'm so glad to see Chas Dodd finally getting the start he has deserved this whole season. Here's a repeat of his first start against the Huskies in 2010 and video evidence of why the state of Connecticut was hoping to see the Gary Nova show this Saturday.


Note especially at the 2'46" mark when the ESPN announcers explain how Chas Dodd uses something called a "second read", which Gary Nova doesn't seem to understand.

Oh, and as long as we're bringing back Chas Dodd to close out the 2013 Rutgers football season on a higher note, please bring back these 2010 uniforms too.

And the correct opening words to our Alma Mater.

"My Father Sent Me To Old Rutgers" revisited

It's been more than a month since the last game at R House, but you remember which first verse you're singing at the Homecoming on Saturday, right?

Here's a Wordle constructed from all the 1873 lyrics.

The Life of a Rutgers Man in the [Eighteen] Seventies

With the attempted 2013 changes to the first verse of the 1914 lyrics to "On The Banks of the Old Raritan" still fresh in everyone's mind, it's a great time to revisit Howard N. Fuller's (RC, '74) hastily-penned 1873 version which gives a quick contemporary sketch of a Rutgers man's progression from freshman hazee to sophomore hazer to junior card player to senior maiden slayer. 

It's amazing the first and last verses made it from 1873 to 2013 completely unchanged (only the chorus's "my boys" became "my friends" with co-education) while verses II through V couldn't even make it past 1914. The original central verses were unfamiliar to me, but it's amazing how fresh and alive (and politically completely incorrect) they feel.

I.
My father sent me to old Rutgers,
And resolv'd that I should be a man;
And so I settled down,
In that noisy college town,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)
On the banks of the old Raritan, my boys,
where old Rutgers ever more shall stand,
For has she not stood since the time of the flood,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
II.
As Fresh, they used me rather roughly,
But I the fearful gauntlet ran,
And they shook me so about
That they turned me inside out,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)
III.
I passed through all these tortures nobly,
And then, as Soph, my turn began,
And I hazed the poor Fresh so,
That they longed for Heaven, I know,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)
IV.
And then I rested at my pleasure,
And steered quite clear of Prex's ban,
And the stars their good-bye kissing
Found me not from euchre missing,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)
V.
And soon I made my social entrée
When I laid full many a wicked plan,
And by my cunning art
Slew many a maiden's heart,
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)
VI.
Then sing aloud to Alma Mater,
And keep the Scarlet in the van;
For with her motto high
Rutgers' name shall never die
On the banks of the old Raritan.
(Chorus)

Let's sing (loudly) the original first verse at the beginning and end of Saturday's Homecoming game, though we probably won't be singing about all-night euchre players with wicked plans to haze first-year students and become serial slayers of the hearts of many women. It is interesting though that while many schools have replaced "freshman" with the gender-inclusive "first-year student" in the 21st century, the gender-neutral "Fresh" in verses II and III here could be politically correct today (though the first-year hazing and fearful gauntlets and tortures probably less so).

That was a fun day at R House.

Rutgers Stadium is one place where the mighty SEC still doesn't have a win. This picture was taken as the Scarlet Knights finally scored their first 7 points at the end of the first half.
It was 10-7 in Arkansas' favor when this cannon fired.

Arkansas extended their lead to 24-7 in the third quarter on more Rutgers turnovers, and there were some people who left the Stadium and must be very sorry they did.  A 58-yard punt return for a touchdown by Janarion Grant at the end of the third quarter and two touchdown passes from Gary Nova to Leonte Caroo in the fourth quarter sent the rest of us home very happy indeed with a final score of Rutgers 28 and Arkansas 24. It was a great day for everybody who spent his or her afternoon and early evening On The Banks (except for that sizable contingent of Razorback fans in the Stadium this afternoon).
~~
And to follow up on my last blog post, there was a very spirited singing of "On The Banks of the Old Raritan" in section 109 before and after the game, with the correct opening lines.
~~
And to follow up on another earlier post this week, I'm sure the bar owners in Fayetteville, Arkansas are very happy tonight.

My Father Sent Me To Old Rutgers / And Resolved That I Should Be a Man

I know which words I'll be singing when "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" plays tomorrow at Rutgers Stadium. I'm never going to call Rutgers Stadium by the name of some fly-by-night corporate sponsor, and I'm never going to sing our alma mater with "From far and near we came to Rutgers/ And resolved to learn all that we can," the new opening lines that will introduced at the Arkansas game tomorrow. I'll stick with the words of Howard N. Fuller, who played football on the banks from 1871-1873.
 

I'd even be prepared to make an argument that these words belong to us, Rutgers alumni, and not to the university.  I'll continue singing the real lyrics. I hope some of you join me tomorrow.

And here's the "More Chest Hair" version from the Rutgers Glee Club giving this old drinking song its due in a European drinking establishment (followed by another great old Rutgers drinking song that may need some serious gender reworking, "Vive la Rutgers' Sons!").

Name That Tune.

(once again, thanks to Wordle.net and their addictive little toy. Images of Wordles are covered by a Creative Commons license.)

Rule #12 Revisited.

If you're getting a feeling of déjà vu, it's because I ran this entry, in almost exactly this form, just before the Rutgers Scarlet Knights' first football game of 2009 against the Cincinnati Bearcats. I've made a couple of minor edits and Point 5 is brand-new for the game against the Pittsburgh Panthers tomorrow night. It just seemed important to reiterate these rules of Rutgers Stadium behavior before the second real contest of the year. The "fans" have been entirely too quiet during the three intervening games between Cincy and Pitt. Tomorrow's forecast (39 and rain at this point according to weather.com) is not conducive to normal high spirits or high attendance, so those of us who are there are going to have to stretch our vocal cords to fill any gaps in the 55,000 seats.

We have many fewer rules than the Freshmen of the Class of 1923 had in the Rutgers College Handbook Volume XXVI, 1919-1920 , but rule number 12 from that little book should be considered as true and as enforceable now as it was then (you can see the full Freshman Regulations with Beat Visitor's 2009 annotations by clicking here):

Rule 12. Failure to know the songs and yells before the
first football game will be detrimental to your health.

When you go to watch Rutgers beat Pitt (for the fifth year in a row), here are The Four Absolutely Necessary Songs and Yells at Rutgers Stadium:
1) R ... U ... R ... U ... etc. This one is idiot proof. If someone yells R at anytime on game day, you yell U. If you're on the bus from the parking lot at the RAC and someone yells R, you yell U (especially if there are fans with Pittsburgh's colors on board). If the students in the new South Endzone seats of Rutgers Stadium yell R and point in your direction, you -- and everybody else in the Stadium -- yell U as loudly a possible and point back at the student section. Like I said, idiot proof. But there are always some idiots who feel they are above yelling at a football game (they should reminded of Rule #12). If you and some of your leather-lunged friends are feeling ambitious, you can yell R yourself and start a chant in the parking lot or on a refreshment line or while walking into the mens' room. The line of fellow Scarlet Knights at the urinals with their backs to you are under an obligation to reply.
2) First Down! Touchdown! Go RU! After every Rutgers first down, you will hear the familiar voice of Joe Nolan proclaim over the loudspeakers : "And THAT is a Rutgers FIRST DOWN!" Your duty as a fan is to scream that along with him and point emphatically in the direction the Knights are traveling when you get to the words "first down." The band will immediately start to play a fanfare (a tune that will become very familiar with repetition as the Scarlet Knights march up and down the field at will). After the first repetition of the fanfare, you yell HEY. The second repetition will be in a higher key, you yell HEY at the end. The third, still higher, repetition of the theme will be followed by HEY, First Down! Touchdown! Go RU!. If you're in one of those sections where your neighbors like to sit quietly, and they give you a look, you can give them a look back, or make copies of Rule #12 to hand out in your section.
3) Here's the reason we come to the games rather than sitting at home listening to the radio: R U rah rah! R U rah rah! / Hoo-rah Hoo-rah Rutgers rah! / Upstream Red Team / Red Team Upstream / Rah Rah Rutgers Rah! You'll get a chance to practice once with the band as they play "The Bells Must Ring" before the National Anthem before the game, and then you will chant it over and over again after every Rutgers touchdown or field goal (you can see it in action at the 2:19 mark in this video -- you will also hear where to add "Fight Fight Fight" in "The Bells Must Ring".)
4) On the Banks of the Old Raritan. You have no excuse not to sing along with your beautiful Alma Mater (the nation's best Alma Mater) at the beginning of the game with the band (and sometimes glee club) and at the end of the game with the team. Not only do you only need to know the first verse, but the words are usually projected on the scoreboard and zippers. If your neighbors don't sing, you know which rule they are violating. Also, note in the illustration up above that there is also a page for the Class of 1923 entitled "A Word to the Wise." Note the second piece of advice: "While 'On the Banks' is being sung all Rutgers men rise and uncover." In other words, don't sit down and put your cap on after the National Anthem, you have another song to sing (we'll assume that you already sang The Star-Spangled Banner with feeling and are in the mood to sing some more).
And FINALLY, and MOST IMPORTANTLY ...
5) Though not officially a "Song or Yell," Make As Much Noise As Possible Whenever Rutgers Is on Defense. There were people around me last week who didn't seem to know this basic rule of any football stadium. We won't have another home football game until November 12th against the USF Bulls, so plan on leaving tomorrow night's game with your vocal cords torn and bloodied. They have a month to recover.

Go Knights!

Rule #12, or Training Camp for the Rest of Us

The players have been training hard for a while now but our training camp, as fans, is much easier. Your whole playbook fits into this one short blog post.
We have many fewer rules than the Freshmen of the Class of 1923 had in the Rutgers College Handbook Volume XXVI, 1919-1920 , but rule number 12 from that little book should be considered as true now as it was then (see the full Freshman Regulations with Beat Visitor's 2009 annotations by clicking here):

12. Failure to know the songs and yells before the
first football game will be detrimental to your health.

The first football game of the year against the Cincinnati Bearcats is less than two weeks away, and here are The Four Absolutely Necessary Songs and Yells at Rutgers Stadium:
1) R ... U ... R ... U ... etc. This one is idiot proof. If someone yells R at anytime on game day, you yell U. If you're on the bus from the parking lot at the RAC and someone yells R, you yell U (especially if there are fans with the opposing team's colors on board). If a handful of people on the opposite side of the Stadium yell R and point in your direction, you -- and all your neighbors -- yell U as loudly a possible. Like I said, idiot proof. But there are always some idiots who feel they are above yelling at a football game (they should reminded of Rule #12). If you and some of your leather-lunged friends are feeling ambitious, you can yell R yourself and start a chant in the parking lot or on a refreshment line or while walking into the mens' room. The line of fellow Scarlet Knights at the urinals with their backs to you are under an obligation to reply.
2) First Down! Touchdown! Go RU! After every Rutgers first down, you will hear the familiar voice of Joe Nolan proclaim over the loudspeakers : "And THAT is a Rutgers FIRST DOWN!" Your duty as a fan is to scream that along with him and point emphatically in the direction the Knights are traveling when you get to the words "first down." The band will immediately start to play a fanfare (a tune that will become very familiar with repetition as the Scarlet Knights march up and down the field at will). After the first repetition of the fanfare, you yell HEY. The second repetition will be in a higher key, you yell HEY at the end. The third, still higher, repetition of the theme will be followed by HEY, First Down! Touchdown! Go RU!. Like I said, you'll get a lot of practice in the first game. If you're in one of those sections where your neighbors like to sit quietly, and they give you a look, you can give them a look back, or make copies of Rule #12 to hand out in your section.
3) Here's the reason we come to the games rather than sitting at home listening to the radio: R U rah rah! R U rah rah! / Hoo-rah Hoo-rah Rutgers rah! / Upstream Red Team / Red Team Upstream / Rah Rah Rutgers Rah! Like the first down chant, this will become very familiar with repetition. You get a chance to practice once with the band as they play "The Bells Must Ring" before the National Anthem before the game, and then you will chant it over and over again after every Rutgers touchdown or field goal (you can see it in action at the 2:19 mark in this video -- you will also hear where to add "Fight Fight Fight" in "The Bells Must Ring".)
4) On the Banks of the Old Raritan. You have no excuse not to sing along with your beautiful Alma Mater (the nation's best Alma Mater) at the beginning of the game with the band (and sometimes glee club) and at the end of the game with the team. Not only do you only need to know the first verse, but the words are usually projected on the scoreboard and zippers. If your neighbors don't sing, you know which rule they are violating. Also, note in the illustration up above that there is also a page for the Class of 1923 entitled "A Word to the Wise." Note the second piece of advice: "While 'On the Banks' is being sung all Rutgers men rise and uncover." In other words, don't sit down and put your cap on after the National Anthem, you have another song to sing (we'll assume that you already sang The Star-Spangled Banner with feeling and are in the mood to sing some more).

Tomorrow's Fan Lesson: Something New for the New Stadium, "The Rolling R!"

Don't Turn Around! (New Rule for 2009)

"For Has She Not Stood Since the Time of the Flood"
Crescent Moon & Sunset at Rutgers Stadium, September 15, 2007

If you go to the Rutgers Stadium expansion page and scroll down to the Construction Photo Gallery, you'll see that they've added another slideshow today. There aren't any dramatic external structural changes from last screenshot I posted a week ago, but they are installing seats and the video screens above what will be the new student section. Rather than show someone else's new photos, I dragged out one of my own and pasted it up above. It shows the old screen with its familiar STS and PSE&G ads as the team sang a postgame "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" (you can tell the picture's from 2007 because you see the top of the temporary bleachers that were first installed for the 2006 Louisville game, but were removed for construction to begin before the 2008 season).
The students used to be able to watch themselves on screen when they were at the opposite end of the Stadium, but with the new larger video display directly above the new endzone seats where the students will be sitting, we're going to have to make sure that there's a new "Don't Turn Around to Watch Yourself" rule added to all the other rules that incoming Rutgers freshmen have to learn by heart.

Where Will the Children Play?!?

Not that I'm shopping for more season tickets for myself, but out of curiosity I checked the Rutgers ticket office today to see which sections have seats being offered for new season-ticket holders in the expanding Stadium. As you can see by the sections highlighted in red below, none are being offered from the new South Endzone sections 131-144, but they are being offered in the former student sections in the northwest corner (sections 110-115) and in some of the upper deck sideline sections.

Which brought up the question in my mind of where the students were going to be sitting and how it was going to affect the crowd dynamics in R House this fall. I found the confirmation of my fears here in the 2009-2010 RUTGERS FOOTBALL STUDENT TICKET POLICY that the students will be entering through the new South Endzone entrance and sitting far from me in sections 134-141. From my seats in section 123 I've often felt like we were the main recipients of the students' enthusiatic "R"s to which we replied with our feeble "U"s. We also were in the thick of the "Upstream Red Team" cheers after scores and "First Down Touchdown Go R U" cheers after first downs. Does losing the students mean that we also lost our proximity to the band and the cheerleaders?? If so, I hope that the new occupants of the northwest corner do their homework and learn all the cheers before September 7th. And while they're at it, they need to learn all the verses of "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" too.

Having the students filling one entire end of the Stadium could change the dynamics for the better, leading to calls and responses that involve the entire Stadium (including those people in the lower level between the twenty-yard lines who seem to think they should be able to sit during a Rutgers football game), but we'll see soon.

The Scarlet beat the White 31-3 on Saturday (here's the video to hold you until Labor Day)

Here are some film clips and photos from Saturday afternoon's 2009 Scarlet-White Game at Rutgers Stadium in beautiful Piscataway.
Once again, it was beautiful weather for the Spring game -- you didn't need to wear anything more than your free scarlet t-shirt. The Scarlet beat the White 31-3 after we watched the Rutgers Lacrosse team fall to Penn State by a score of 9-4 in the 11:30am opener (which explains the yellow lines you may notice on the field).
This video features film clips and shots of quarterbacks Domenic Natale and D.C. Jefferson, wide receiver Tim Brown, kicker San San Te, running back Joe Martinek, the ongoing stadium construction, the on-field postgame autograph session, and more. The background music -- variations on our Alma Mater "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" -- was recorded specifically for this three-minute video. The guitar was played by R. Mumma, but if you want to play along at home the bass and drums are courtesy of a Fender G-Dec Junior (ballad setting in the key of A).
See you at the next game at R House on Labor Day versus Cincinnati!

The Homecoming Victory Video

Sorry I've been away from this page for awhile, but here's a short video of last Saturday's game at the Stadium from my seats, including an ominous pregame warning and shots of UConn's missed field goal and the following celebration.
That's two in a row at R House!

In Memory of Walter Seward, Class of 1917

Walter Seward died at the age of 111 on September 13.

Here's a video of him singing "On The Banks of the Old Raritan" on ESPN during the historic Rutgers-Louisville game of November 9, 2006.


He was the oldest alumnus of Rutgers, the oldest graduate of Harvard Law School, and the fifth oldest male in the world when he passed away.

He is featured on the back page of the current issue of Rutgers Magazine (I just received mine last week).

Rest in Peace Walter (and pull some strings for your beloved Knights from up above!)

"On the Banks of the Old Raritan" -- A Sing-A-Long Video

Here's the one song that every fan at Rutgers Stadium should sing out loud with the band right after the national anthem, and with the players at the end of the game. And you won't have to sing all five of the verses in this video, just the first verse and the chorus.

"On the Banks of the Old Raritan" was written by Howard Fullerton, a graduate of the Rutgers College class of 1874, in 1873. The version on this video with one voice and guitar replacing the traditional marching band and/or glee club, was played by a graduate of the Rutgers College class of 1978 on May 9, 2008. If this little ditty has one thing, it's longevity.

• Here's another video of the song, showing the team singing the first verse and chorus on the road in North Carolina in September 2006 with great spirit (though it takes half the song before they begin to agree on a key).
  
• Here's a video of New Brunswick street scenes after the Navy game in September 2007 backed by a rock version of "On the Banks...", with two verses, the chorus, and a long outro, played by Chris Batten and the Woods.
  
• And this link has an mp3 of the Rutgers Glee Club singing the first and last verses and three choruses with great vocal skill (though it drives me crazy when they prounce "Man" and "Raritan" to rhyme with "John" rather than "Fan").

This Blog May Be New, But I'm Not a Bandwagoneer (not that that's a bad thing)

When the picture of my son was taken on Halloween of 1998 after a Rutgers victory over Temple (21-10), I had already been watching games at the Stadium since I started at Rutgers College 25 years earlier.
There are now plenty of complaints about rich bandwagoneers grabbing the best seats and closest parking lots with large contributions. I find it hard to complain about people who are willingly donating the money that will help to keep my beloved Knights at the level they reached in 2006 -- and keep Greg Schiano on his path to becoming the Joe Paterno of the Garden State.

I'll gladly continue to tailgate miles away and take the shuttle bus from the RAC in order to see the quality of football I've seen over the last couple of seasons. I don't see any point in complaining about parking spaces or crowds or traffic or newcomers. We're not going to continue selling out the Stadium game after game without quite a few "bandwagoneers". Remember days (like the one pictured above) when the Stadium was silent as the band played On the Banks of the Old Raritan toward gleaming (and very empty) aluminum benches? Could we then imagine a day like the last home game of the 2006 season against Syracuse when NO ONE left the Stadium even though the result of the game was never in doubt? Could we then imagine that the highlight of our day would be a full-throated singing of the Alma Mater and watching Brian Leonard lead the band with the game ball in one hand and the knight's sword in the other?

If I weren't already bleeding Scarlet, this is a bandwagon I'd be glad to jump on.

Everyone's welcome in R House!