50 Fun Facts About Rutgers

Under what name was Rutgers originally chartered in 1766?

It honoured Queen Charlotte, wife of George III. King's College was the original name of Columbia.

New Jersey's last royal governor, who signed the 1766 charter, was the son of which Founding Father?

William Franklin stayed loyal to the Crown during the Revolution, unlike his famous father.

The college was founded by ministers of which denomination to train future clergy?

That connection survives in the university motto, which is adapted from Utrecht University's in the Netherlands.

Rutgers is one of how many 'colonial colleges' chartered before the Revolution?

The others include Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth and William & Mary. Rutgers and William & Mary are the only two that are now public.

Where were the college's first classes held in 1771?

The Sign of the Red Lion tavern was abandoned when the British began suspecting taverns of harbouring rebels, and classes moved into private homes.

Who was Henry Rutgers, for whom the college was renamed in 1825?

The trustees said he 'epitomized Christian ethics'. A year later he gave a $200 bell that still hangs in Old Queens and a $5,000 bond that saved the college's finances.

Which two gifts from its namesake did the newly renamed college receive in 1826?

The bond was worth about $142,000 in 2025 dollars and put the school on sound financial footing after years of closures.

Rutgers became New Jersey's land-grant college in 1864 under which federal law?

That created the Rutgers Scientific School, with departments of agriculture, engineering and chemistry.

In which decade was Rutgers designated the State University of New Jersey by the legislature?

Acts of 1945 and 1956 made it public, though it retains some private rights as successor to the 1766 college.

In what year did Rutgers College first admit women?

The board of governors voted on September 10 that year. Women had been served since 1918 by the New Jersey College for Women, later Douglass.

Rutgers' historic core, including Old Queens, sits in which New Jersey city?

The College Avenue Campus is close to downtown and the train station. Busch and Livingston lie across the river in Piscataway.

Which river separates the College Avenue campus from the Busch and Livingston campuses?

The alma mater is 'On the Banks of the Old Raritan'. The Camden campus sings a nearly identical version about the Delaware.

Which sponsor's name did the Rutgers Athletic Center (RAC) take in 2021?

The trapezoidal building is home to the men's basketball team and is famous for its noise.

Rutgers' northern campus was formed in 1946 when it absorbed what?

Rutgers–Camden followed in 1950 with the College of South Jersey and South Jersey Law School.

In 2011, Governor Chris Christie tried to merge Rutgers–Camden into which other school?

Campus protests and pushback from Camden faculty, students and alumni killed the plan.

Who became the first sitting US president to speak at a Rutgers commencement, in 2016?

It was part of the university's 250th-anniversary celebrations, which culminated on November 10, 2016.

What was changed in the Rutgers alma mater in 2013?

'My father sent me to old Rutgers, and resolved that I should be a man' became 'From far and near we came to Rutgers, and resolved to learn all that we can.'

Rutgers' only official school colour is what?

Students had pushed for orange in honour of the Dutch heritage, but the Targum argued for a striking colour whose ribbon was easy to buy. Trustees made it official in 1900.

What was Rutgers' mascot from 1925 until 1955?

It came from the medieval fable of Reynard the Fox, but the association with 'being chicken' made it a punchline.

Which football coach dismissed the rooster mascot as 'a chicken' and bought the first knight costume in 1955?

The knight won a campus-wide vote over 'Queensmen', 'Red Lions' and 'Flying Dutchmen'. Today's costumed knight is called Sir Henry.

Which future star of a 1950s family sitcom was Rutgers' quarterback from 1924 to 1926?

He was also an early arts editor of the student humour magazine Chanticleer, the source of the mascot's name.

Rutgers is 'the birthplace of college football' thanks to a game on November 6 of which year?

Rutgers beat Princeton 6–4 at home. The rules, based on England's 1863 Football Association code, made it closer to soccer.

How many players did each side field in that first 1869 game against Princeton?

No throwing or running with the ball was allowed. Teams played ten 'games', each ending with a goal, and the side with more goals won.

What did the Rutgers players wear in the 1869 game to tell themselves apart from Princeton?

The habit stuck: it is the origin of the school colour that trustees made official in 1900.

Before the 1869 game, Rutgers and Princeton students had feuded for years over what object?

Princeton finally encased it in several feet of concrete on its campus, then crushed Rutgers 40–2 at baseball. The football challenge was revenge.

What was Rutgers' first intercollegiate athletic event, in 1866?

Rowing had been the first organised sport at Rutgers two years earlier, with six-mile races on the river.

Rutgers and Princeton staged the first intercollegiate contest in what sport in 1972?

Rutgers won again, 29–27.

Rutgers men's basketball reached the Final Four once. In which year?

They lost to Michigan in the semifinal and to UCLA in the consolation game, finishing ranked fourth in the country.

Rutgers officially joined which athletic conference on July 1, 2014, alongside Maryland?

Before that it played in the Big East from 1991 and, for a single season, the American Athletic Conference.

What name did Rutgers' Piscataway football stadium take in a 2019 sponsorship deal?

The Busch campus is also home to the golf course and the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.

Rutgers went 9–0 in 1961. Which other major team was unbeaten that year?

Rutgers was a Rose Bowl contender but was passed over because president Mason Welch Gross showed no interest to the organisers.

After going 11–0 in 1976, Rutgers declined an invitation to which brand-new bowl game?

The opponent would have been unranked McNeese State. Rutgers' first bowl came two years later, a Garden State Bowl loss to Arizona State.

What is the nickname of the 2006 comeback win over No. 3 Louisville sealed by Jeremy Ito's field goal?

Rutgers rose to No. 7 in the AP poll the next week and beat Kansas State in the Texas Bowl for the program's first bowl win.

Which running back left Rutgers in 2007 as its career rushing leader with 4,926 yards?

He finished second in the nation in rushing in 2006 and the university mounted a Heisman campaign for him in 2007.

Which coach left Rutgers for the Buccaneers in 2012 and returned in 2019 on an eight-year deal?

His first stint produced the program's first bowl win and a 5–1 postseason record.

Adam Korsak, the NCAA's all-time leader in punting yards, won which national honour in 2022?

He never had a punt blocked in his Rutgers career and set the FBS record with 15,318 punting yards.

Which Rutgers scientist discovered streptomycin with Albert Schatz and won the 1952 Nobel?

It was the first antibiotic used to cure tuberculosis. He also discovered neomycin and actinomycin at Rutgers.

Rutgers researchers developed the ceramic tiles used on the heat shield of which vehicle?

The university's other credits include robotic hands, tetraploid plants and artificial bovine insemination.

Which singer and civil-rights activist graduated from Rutgers in 1919 after being an All-American end?

He played three years in the early NFL and now has a cultural centre, a library and a campus centre named after him across the three campuses.

Which future Supreme Court justice taught at Rutgers Law School from 1963 to 1972?

Alumnus Joseph P. Bradley served on the Court for two decades and cast the tie-breaking vote that decided the 1876 presidential election.

Which Rutgers alumnus founded ESPN?

Fellow alumni founded Home Depot (Bernard Marcus) and co-founded Bloomberg L.P. (Duncan MacMillan). David Stern ran the NBA.

Which Sopranos star graduated from Rutgers in 1983?

Other entertainment alumni include Calista Flockhart, Roy Scheider, Sebastian Stan and Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick.

Which two famous alumni edited The Daily Targum, the second-oldest US college newspaper?

Kilmer wrote the poem 'Trees'; Friedman won the Nobel in economics. Only The Dartmouth (1843) is older.

What are the 'Grease Trucks', a beloved campus tradition?

They serve grill fare and Middle Eastern specialities; three remain on College Avenue and two moved to Cook/Douglass.

Which Rutgers alumnus served as vice president of the United States under William McKinley?

Seven alumni have been New Jersey governor and Louis Freeh ran the FBI.

What was the name of the New Brunswick tavern where Queen's College held its first classes?

The college fled the tavern during the Revolutionary War, when the British suspected such places of harbouring rebels.

Who became the first African American president of Rutgers in 2020?

His tenure saw the first academic strike in the university's 257-year history in April 2023, and he was succeeded by William F. Tate IV in 2025.

The Zimmerli Art Museum on the College Avenue campus is noted for its collection of art from where?

Its 60,000-plus works also cover French 19th-century art and American prints of the early 20th century.

The Dana Library on the Newark campus houses a famous institute devoted to which music genre?

The Institute of Jazz Studies is one of the world's largest collections of jazz archives and research material.

By what nickname do students know the Archibald S. Alexander Library, Rutgers' oldest and largest?

It holds the university's main humanities and social science collection in New Brunswick.