Reunion Across the Pond Login to comment

Friday, June 18 2010 01:01:47 PM

Baird Foster RC’60 (Left in picture) and Steve Murray RC’60 (Right in picture), both Dekes, were unable to attend our 50th. When they learned from fellow Deke George Sipel RC’60 that neither could show up because they’d be in England, they exchanged a few emails and realized they’d be just 20 miles apart. So they staged their own reunion, with their wives, too, and had dinner at the Moorlands Hotel in Dartmoor, Devon, on May 9! Both admitted they would not have recognized each other on the streets, but they agreed it was fun to reminisce. Steve, retired for three years, lives in the Gainesville, GA, area. Baird retired in 1994 and lives in Moorestown, NJ. – Submitted by Dave Van Duren ED’60, Rutgers Magazine class correspondent

Call for Nominations Login to comment

Thursday, June 03 2010 11:24:47 AM

Rutgers University Commencement Traditions Login to comment

Tuesday, May 18 2010 10:32:14 AM

• In 1774, the graduating class of Queen’s College consisted of one student, Matthew Leydt.
  
• Before 1913, commencement took place in the Ballantine Gymnasium, which later burned to the ground. A portion still survives in the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum.
  
• In the 1920s, commencement exercises shifted to the Second Reformed Church, then located at George and Albany streets.
  
• In the 1930s, commencement moved to the College Avenue Gym, constructed in 1932 to replace the Ballantine Gym.
  
• In 1948, commencement was to take place on the Voorhees Mall, but inclement weather forced a last-minute relocation to the College Avenue Gym. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower received an honorary degree and delivered an impromptu, six-minute address. The 1948 university commencement also brought together the Newark and New Brunswick campuses for the first time. Camden would join later.
  
• In 1949, commencement moved from Voorhees Mall to Rutgers Stadium to accommodate 1,666 degree candidates — mostly World War II veterans — and 10,000 guests.
  
• In 1967, the national anthem was sung for the first time at the ceremony.
  
• In 1968, a gonfalonier appeared with the university gonfalon followed by gonfalons for each academic unit. The gonfalon is a banner displaying Rutgers’ coat of arms that is borne at the head of all university processions by a senior faculty member known as the gonfalonier. The coat of arms is quartered to represent in armorial bearings the founding and growth of the university. The upper right quarter bears the arms of the House of Orange and recognizes the Dutch settlers who founded Queen’s College under the aegis of the Dutch Reformed Church. The upper left quarter contains the armorial devices of English King George III and Queen Charlotte. The lower right quarter contains the Great Seal of New Jersey. The lower left bears the coat of arms of Col. Henry Rutgers.
  
• In 1972, the ceremony returned to Voorhees Mall. The university’s schools and colleges adopted the practice of holding their own convocation ceremonies. Advanced degrees were conferred on 1,800 men and women in the morning and 4,000 baccalaureate degrees were conferred at individual convocations.
  
• In 2004, the ceremony once again returned to Voorhees Mall, after 24 years at the Louis Brown Athletic Center, more commonly known as the RAC, on the Livingston campus.
  
• At Commencement exercises, tradition led undergraduates to break clay pipes over the Class of 1877 Cannon monument in front of Old Queens, symbolizing the breaking of ties with the college, and leaving behind the good times of one's undergraduate years. This symbolic gesture dates back to when pipe-smoking was fashionable among undergraduates, and many college memories were of evenings of pipe smoking and revelry with friends.
  
• During commencement, graduating seniors walked in academic procession under the Class of 1902 Memorial Gateway (erected in 1904) on Hamilton Street leading to the Voorhees Mall where the ceremonies were held for Rutgers College. Traditionally, students are warned to avoid walking beneath the gate before commencement over a superstition that one who does will not graduate.

Douglass' Sacred Path Login to comment

Monday, May 03 2010 01:25:39 PM

In the early 1900s, it was customary on college campuses for the rising classes to impose 'friendly' restrictions on the new first-year class, and the New Jersey College for Women was no exception to this tradition. The NJC Class of 1922 deemed that first-year students were not permitted to wear anything red and were prohibited from walking on the path from George Street to College Hall for the duration of their first year. This path is known as Sacred Path.

The NJC community decided that at the end of spring semester, they would gather for a "moving up" of the classes ceremony, in which first-year students would be escorted down the Sacred Path by upper-class women, thereby officially becoming sophomores.

Today, Rutgers University honors the Sacred Path tradition with a program in the spring that begins at Voorhees Chapel. The program includes a ceremony of the moving-up of the Douglass classes, a tribute to all service groups, and culminates with a fire pit lit parade to College Hall. Along the way, the participants make a wish on a pinecone and toss into the flames of the fire pits. They then move down the Sacred Path to a reception in the Douglass Campus Center in which the participants receive a charm corresponding to their class year. At the end of four years, they will have four charms to commemorate their years at Rutgers. In addition, each class year is represented by a certain color. Alumnae receive an ivy leaf charm. Dressed in black, seniors receive the mortarboard. In red, juniors receive a key. Wearing pink, the sophomores receive a clock. Clothed in white, the first years receive a lantern.

The most recent celebration of Sacred Path was held on Sunday, May 2, 2010. Over 700 students, alumnae, family, and friends filled the chapel to honor Douglass tradition and to collect their charms. 

Happy Earth Day, Rutgers Alumni! Login to comment

Thursday, April 22 2010 03:01:30 PM

What’s in a Name? Login to comment

Wednesday, April 14 2010 10:21:05 AM

Color War: Orange vs. Scarlet Login to comment

Wednesday, March 31 2010 10:53:00 AM

At the time, the use of school colors was little known in the United States, making Rutgers a pioneer in establishing a college color, according to William H.S. Demarest, Class of 1883 and Rutgers president (1906–1924). 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. The Board of Trustees officially made scarlet the school color in 1900.

Memory Lane Finalists 2 comments

Monday, March 15 2010 01:18:03 PM

Origin of the Knight Login to comment

Monday, March 15 2010 10:14:55 AM

In its early days, Rutgers athletes were known informally as "The Scarlet" in reference to the school color, or as "Queensmen" in reference to the institution's first name, Queen's College. 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. At the time, the student humor 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. The Chanticleer mascot was unveiled at a football game against Lafayette College, in which Lafayette was also introducing a new mascot, a leopard.

It is also a little-known fact that the New Brunswick-based broadcast station, WCTC, which serves as the flagship station of Rutgers athletics, had its call letters derived from the word "ChanTiCleer." Chanticleer remained as the nickname for some 30 years.

However, the choice of Chanticleer as a mascot was often the subject of ridicule because of its association with "being chicken." 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." Earlier proposed nicknames included "Pioneers" and "Cannoneers." The Scarlet-garbed knight, riding a spirited white charger, came to represent a new era – the rejuvenation of first-class football "On the Banks."

Rutgers and Princeton Cannon War 2 comments

Monday, March 01 2010 11:59:59 AM