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).

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!").