Paul Robeson, Football Player

In its ongoing recognition of the 100th anniversary of his graduation (as valedictorian) in 1919, Rutgers Today just published this short history of Paul Robeson's stellar football career on the banks that is well worth clicking on and taking ten minutes to read.

Rutgers' Mount Rushmore

The Big Ten Network announced the results of their contest for the Mount Rushmore of Rutgers football. No current players were eligible (sorry Kemoko) and no coaches (sorry Schiano),

The winners of the vote were from four different eras and matched my choices.

• Paul Robeson (1915-1919)
• Bill Austin (1956-1958)
• Marco Battaglia (1992-1995)
• Brian Leonard (2003-2006)

Did you choose different players from the 10 that BTN suggested? Honestly, I feel that only Paul Robeson is undebatable.

The Throwback Photo for Our Next Opponent, the Michigan Agricultural College.

As with Rutgers changing its name from Queens College after the Revolutionary War made that royal name politically incorrect, our next football opponents have had some name changes too. In 1855, the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan was founded; in 1861, it became the State Agricultural College; in 1909, the Michigan Agricultural College; in 1925, the Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science; in 1955, the Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science; and finally, in 1964 it became plain old Michigan State University.

In the tradition we started in this inaugural Big Ten year with MSU's big brother Michigan and continued with Ohio State, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Indiana, here's a photo of the 1915 Michigan Agricultural College football team.

The 1915 Michigan Agricultural College football team.

The 1917 Rutgers College football team.

Never too early to start #ChopIndiana week

Continuing the tradition in which BeatVisitor.com introduced our new Big Ten opponents Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, here are a couple of early team photos showing our October 15th visitor to The Birthplace of College Football, the Indiana Hoosiers, who began playing football in 1887, just 18 years after that first game between Rutgers and Princeton, and are another team we have never met before on the gridiron.
I couldn't find any 19th-century portraits of the early Hoosiers, so I've gone with slightly later photos for both squads in advance of this very first meeting.

The 1910 Indiana football team after beating Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago team 6-0.

The 1917 Rutgers team featuring future All-American and valedictorian Paul Robeson.

No Absolution Received

Here's the terse joint statement just issued this afternoon by the President of the NCAA, Myles Brand, and Rutgers University President Richard McCormick:

"The NCAA and Rutgers University are offended by the insults on MSNBC’s Don Imus program toward the 10 young women on the Rutgers basketball team. It is unconscionable that anyone would use the airways to utter such disregard for the dignity of human beings who have accomplished much and deserve great credit.

“It is appropriate that Mr. Imus and MSNBC have apologized.”

I'm very impressed by the skillful way in which the "apology" of Mr. Imus and his employers was acknowledged without being accepted.

To bring this controversy back to the original narrow focus of this blog, i.e. Rutgers Football, I can't help thinking about these same comments in a slightly different context.

Imagine that instead of reading the transcript of a radio show about a Rutgers-Tennessee basketball game from 2007, we were reading an article about a Rutgers-Princeton football game from 1917. Imagine our retroactive shock at reading a description of the great Paul Robeson of Rutgers as ugly and "nappy-headed" compared to the "cute" Princeton backfield of Mitt Buffington, Peter "Pippi" Longstocking, and P.T. Boatwright the Fourth. Of course we'd label that article a sad remnant of America's shameful racist past.

But what is Don Imus doing playing with the same hateful stereotypes on national radio and television in the 21st century? You don't have to imagine that one of these very dedicated and very young women is your sister or daughter to imagine the pain that this show is causing. There are stupid people everywhere (just look at some of the hundreds of comments generated by this article, "Don Imus Calls Rutgers Women's Team 'Nappy-Headed Hos' "), so Imus doesn't get all the blame; the lion's share of the blame has to belong to the businesspeople who have given him his money and his airtime ( You can reach them here at viewerservices@msnbc.com and Imus@msnbc.com).
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ADDED CONTACT INFORMATION, 6 April 07 @ 8:30 pm: Because MSNBC keeps on disclaiming responsibility for anything broadcast by Imus, here's the contact information for his radio station
WFAN (A CBS Company)
Email: fanmail@wfan.com (use a catchy subject line)
Main Phone Number: 718-706-7690
On-Air hotline to talk with our hosts: 718-937-6666Contest Line: 800-821-6611
Mailing Address:
WFAN-AM
34-12 36th Street
Astoria, NY 11106
So his main enablers are a CBS company and an NBC company? Is this racist somewhere on ABC too?

ADDED CONTACT INFORMATION, 7 April 07 @ 9:30 am: Here's a list of the 96 radio stations on which he appears around the country (ZERO in the proud state of New Jersey!) in case you want to write to your local Imus outlet.
In the Boston Herald this morning, the response to the local station is noted:

Phil Redo, vice president and market manager for Greater Media Boston, which owns WTKK (96.9 FM), said the Boston station hadn’t received any complaints.
“I can’t defend it because it’s indefensible,” Redo said of the remarks. “I’m glad that he apologized and he should have. It was a stupid comment. It was a terrible thing to say.” [emphasis added]

Even just one email or phone call to these local stations (cc'd to local sponsors) should have some ripples. If you hear a response to any of your complaints, please let me know in the comments.