History of Rutger's Mascot
I was reading the front page and saw the image of the two elder "cannoneers" waiting for a TD, and I started thinking to myself: What the hell does a Revolutionary War mascot have to do with the Scarlet Knights? It led me to a wikipedia search where I found this gem:
Rutgers University's school color is scarlet. Initially, students sought to make orange the school color, citing Rutgers' Dutch heritage and in reference to the Prince of Orange. The Daily Targum first proposed that scarlet be adopted in May 1869, claiming that it was a striking color and because scarlet ribbon was easily obtained. During the first intercollegiate football game with Princeton on November 6, 1869, the players from Rutgers wore scarlet-colored turbans and handkerchiefs to distinguish them as a team from the Princeton players.[3] The Board of Trustees officially made scarlet the school colors in 1900.[3]
In its early days, Rutgers athletes were known informMGoBoardally as "The Scarlet" in reference to the school color, or as "Queensmen" in reference to the institution's first name, Queen's College.[3] In 1925, the mascot was changed to Chanticleer, a fighting rooster from the medieval fable Reynard the Fox (Le Roman de Renart) which was used by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales.[3] At the time, the student humour magazine at Rutgers was called Chanticleer, and one of its early arts editors, Ozzie Nelson (later of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet fame) was quarterback of the Rutgers team from 1924 to 1926.[18] The Chanticleer mascot was unveiled at a football game against Lafayette College, in which Lafayette was also introducing a new mascot, a leopard.[18] However, the choice of Chanticleer as a mascot was often the subject of ridicule because of its association with "being chicken."[19] In 1955, the mascot was changed to the Scarlet Knight after a campus-wide election, beating out other contenders such as "Queensmen", the "Scarlet", the "Red Lions", the "Redmen" and the "Flying Dutchmen."[3][20] Earlier proposed nicknames included "Pioneers" and "Cannoneers". When Harvey Harman, then coach of the football team, was asked why he supported changing the Rutgers mascot, he was quoted as saying, "You can call it the Chanticleer, you can call it a fighting cock, you can call it any damn thing you want, but everybody knows it's a chicken."[21] Harman later is said to have bought the first "Scarlet Knight" mascot costume for the 1955 season, which was to be his final season as football coach at Rutgers
November 8th, 2018 at 2:59 PM ^
The Chanticleers or Cannoneers would be bowl eligible.
November 8th, 2018 at 8:40 PM ^
Or the Flying Dutchmen. And then they should wear orange. There's way too much red in the Big Ten now.
November 8th, 2018 at 3:00 PM ^
They should revert back to the chicken
November 8th, 2018 at 3:22 PM ^
eh, it's a nervous bird.
November 9th, 2018 at 4:15 PM ^
But a tasty one!
(I like Chicken Kiev myself)
November 8th, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^
Dog shit would be a more fitting mascot these days.
November 8th, 2018 at 5:15 PM ^
Brutal.
November 8th, 2018 at 3:13 PM ^
And in 2018 it was again changed to the "Cable Subscribers"
November 8th, 2018 at 3:14 PM ^
Given their ineptitude, I think a knight with a guy banging two coconuts together to make a sound of a horse would be a more appropriate mascot...
November 8th, 2018 at 3:28 PM ^
That is such a fantastic idea. Everyone bring your coconut shells to the game.
November 8th, 2018 at 3:54 PM ^
Yeah, let me just reach into my coconut shell drawer. Or maybe I'll pick some off the palm trees along Main St.
November 8th, 2018 at 4:06 PM ^
perhaps you should also bring a swallow.
November 8th, 2018 at 4:17 PM ^
obligatory:
african or european swallow?
November 8th, 2018 at 5:16 PM ^
laden or unladen?
November 9th, 2018 at 4:16 PM ^
Will the animator suffer a heart attack and die this time?
November 8th, 2018 at 3:19 PM ^
They should revert back to playing in Lafayette's league.
November 8th, 2018 at 3:25 PM ^
Honestly the most interesting thing I learned was that Ozzie (of "Ozzie and Harriet") was the Rutger QB. Never would have guessed that.
November 8th, 2018 at 10:23 PM ^
From the book Rutgers Football A Gridiron Tradition in Scarlet [p. 41]: In 1940, halfback Tom Harmon of Michigan won his second straight scoring title. Harmon topped all college players by totaling 102 points in 1939 and 117 points in 1940. Harmon also won the Heisman Trophy in 1940. (Many years later, Tom Harmon’s daughter, Kristen, would wed singer Rick Nelson, the son of former Rutgers quarterback Ozzie Nelson.)
November 8th, 2018 at 3:29 PM ^
So why do they still have cannons and Revolutionary War reenactors? Did I miss that somewhere? Is it just because they were almost called the Cannoneers?
November 8th, 2018 at 3:33 PM ^
I think the Revolutionary War costumes are just an excuse to fire heavy artillery during a football game. After all it is New Jersey.
November 8th, 2018 at 4:00 PM ^
The state and area were important to the Revolutionary War and the school was founded in 1766, so there is likely some connection (although I don't care enough to look for it).
November 8th, 2018 at 9:10 PM ^
Thankfully we weren't counting on Rutger to fight the British.
November 8th, 2018 at 5:17 PM ^
You never need and excuse to fire artillery. King of Battle.
November 8th, 2018 at 5:41 PM ^
If you did, I did also! Lol
I am as perplexed as you are why 'two elder "cannoneers" ' are involved.
November 8th, 2018 at 3:32 PM ^
We should have made playing with red turbans over their helmets a condition of joining the Big 10.
Then people would watch.
November 8th, 2018 at 5:45 PM ^
Or else incorporate the red turban design into their helmet.
But I suppose it would just end up looking like a red, steamy pile on their heads. (Hmm,... that could work too!)
November 9th, 2018 at 4:41 PM ^
We should have made playing with red turbans instead of helmets a condition of joining the Big 10.
Maybe that's what actually happened.
November 8th, 2018 at 3:42 PM ^
Oddly, it was the advent of the gun/cannon that put an end to the Knight.
That Rutgers has them coexisting is perfectly Rutgerian.
November 8th, 2018 at 4:10 PM ^
Fun fact: some of the later knights' armor was bulletproof (well, "bullet" being a relative term).
The problem with this: you couldn't do much in this armor. Like...move. Like, if you fell there was no getting up
November 8th, 2018 at 3:48 PM ^
The chicken has always been there.
November 8th, 2018 at 3:49 PM ^
Rutgers fighting cocks is an insult to my manhood
November 8th, 2018 at 3:54 PM ^
The Rutger "Fighting Queensmen" has a certain je ne sais quoi. The cheerleaders should wear red turbans and handkerchiefs.
November 8th, 2018 at 4:56 PM ^
Perhaps one of the silliest (as expected) history lessons AND discusions on MGB in years.
November 8th, 2018 at 4:08 PM ^
our kids named our favorite rooster, a giant rhode island red, "chanticleer" way back when. he lived to about a thousand chicken years, was as big as a turkey, and very mellow. he woke up dead about 4 yrs ago and was mourned. his successors in the hen house have not been so well liked, and none of them have risen to the level to even have a name.
November 8th, 2018 at 4:58 PM ^
“He woke up dead”...kind of like the beloved scarlet knights....
November 8th, 2018 at 5:19 PM ^
You did barbecue him, right?
November 8th, 2018 at 5:51 PM ^
proper burial in the pasture.
November 9th, 2018 at 4:44 PM ^
xtramelanin, you are the second most interesting man in the world.
November 8th, 2018 at 4:58 PM ^
So I'll just call them the Scarlet Double Dutch Rudders from now on.
November 8th, 2018 at 10:32 PM ^
Was this really a thing? Photoshop? Or most Rutgres thing ever?
November 9th, 2018 at 9:09 AM ^
Musta been Hispanic/Latino Heritage Night