The Losing Streak Is Over

The only two games at Rutgers Stadium that I missed last year were the two wins, so it was great to be there today for the 65-0 win over Morgan State.
To celebrate, here's the band playing 'The Bells Must Ring' before the game.

Last Saturday's Halftime Show at R House

For those of you who weren't there (or for those of you who were waiting in line through halftime for a hot chocolate or a urinal), here's the joint patriotic appearance of the Rutgers University Marching Scarlet Knights and the Indiana University Marching Hundred on video:

I'm sorry this home season is over so early, but I hope we see this kind of joint appearance again soon, like when Ohio State comes to Rutgers Stadium next year.

A Big Ten Musical Challenge to Rutgers from The Best Damn Band in the Land

Here's the halftime show that wasn't shown on ABC television when Rutgers visited Columbus, Ohio for the first time yesterday:

I think we'll be competing with Ohio State on the football field before the Marching Scarlet Knights (a.k.a. "The Pride of New Jersey") are able to compete with the choreography of the TBDBITL when the men in pads relinquish the field.

Musically TPONJ is not bad at all, but we want marching Frankensteins and people smashing guitars.

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)

"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!").

"... this boardwalk life for me is through ..."

Could the namers of hurricanes have picked a more appropriate name than "Sandy" for a hurricane that seems to be aimed directly at the boardwalks of New Jersey?

Stay safe New Jersey!!

Name That Tune.

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

The Quote of the Day (and more) about today's Homecoming Game against Texas Southern

“We're going to go out there and play every game just like it's the national championship. We're going to treat it all the same. We're not going to look down at any team. You see it this year when you're watching the games, everyone's beating everyone so you gotta go out there and be focused.”

-- Ryan D'Imperio, Number 44

The Beat Visitor dot com Quote of the Day from Rutgers' middle linebacker comes from an article in yesterday's Houston Chronicle entitled "Rutgers will go for 600th win vs. Texas Southern". Six hundred wins is not an insignificant milestone just because it may come against a school that has shown that it is playing at a lower level than the current Scarlet Knights. In the Scarlet Knights' all-time record, a win against CCNY or Stevens in the 'eighties (1880's that is) counts the same as an exciting win against #3 Louisville or #2 USF in the 'naughties. And 600-591-42 will look much better than 599-591-42.

As an extra preview of today's visit to Rutgers Stadium by Texas Southern University, here's a YouTube preview of "The Best Dance Squad Ever":
Speaking of exciting live shows, I was personally glad to have started my homecoming weekend on Thursday night at Giants Stadium watching Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band play for three hours and play (in sequence) one of the biggest LPs to hit the record stores of George Street during my years On The Banks, Born to Run (no offense to little Jovi and his weekly appearances on the endzone Ginormotron, but Bruce and the Boys reminded me how much Bon Jovi sucks). I hope I have than much energy when I'm sixty (I wish I had that much energy when I was twenty).
Finally, when did the redesign of ScarletKnights.com take place?? I've been busy at work and I don't think I checked it this week. It's a much cleaner, more modern, interface and I assume everything that was there is still there. I'm just having a little trouble finding what I need this morning. Check it out.

"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").