College Field
One hundred and twenty-five years ago on November 6, 1869, Rutgers and Princeton played the first intercollegiate football game in New Brunswick on College Field, which is now the site of the College , Avenue Gymnasium and its parking lot. And, while Rutgers won that initial contest, 6-4, Princeton would dominate the early days of this intrastate rivalry.
The Tigers won the second game at home a week later and went on to win the next 24 games through 1897, holding the Scarlet Knights scoreless in 22 of the 25 victories. Getting together again in 1911, Princeton added five more wins before the series lapsed in 1915. A leap of 18 years, a tumultuous time in this country's history, elapsed before the next meeting, but the pattern did not change as Princeton took the 1933, 1935, 1936 and 1937 games, all on its home grounds, as were all but six of the 34 games.
Neilson Field
Those six games had been played at the site of the original game, College Field, where contests were staged through 1891, after which Neilson Field became the home of the Scarlet until 1938.
The stage was set for "the game that would live forever" (according to Jimmie Fleming, sports editor of the New Brunswick Home News) and a game that a New York news commentator rated one of the four principal historical events of 1938, along with the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, the Munich agreement and the wars in China and Spain. But, the story began a few years earlier.
Through the presidency of John Martin Thomas (1925-30) and the brief 18-month tenure of Philip Milledoler Brett, Rutgers experienced a severe identity crisis. "For a quarter of a century," wrote historian Richard P. McCormick, "Rutgers had been in the throes of transformation from a small college to a multi-dimen- sional university, from an essentially private institution to an instrumentality of the state." That drama would continue even while the athletic picture began to improve. It would play itself out against a background generally called the Great Depression.
Robert C. Clothier was named president in December, 1931, and George E. Little became the athletic director in April, 1932. It is with these two visionaries that the story of Rutgers Stadium begins.
The first game in the old stadium was against Hampden-Sydney before an estimated crowd of 10,000
 Both saw that the effectiveness of the instruction in physical education was heing seriously hampered by lack of space and deteriorating facilities. Neilson Field, the football home site that had replaced College Field and the home of the Rutgers football since 1892, was in disrepair. Though indoor facilities were sufficient (College Avenue Gymnasium was completed in January 1932 and held athletic contests as well as a concert by Paul Robeson '19) but if the overall program was to be strengthened, space had to be found.
Feeling that the University had weathered the initial phases of the Depression, Clothier dispatched Little on a survey of suitable land and on November 7, 1934, the determined athletic director recommended the purchase of a tract of land covering 256 acres across the Raritan River that included the disbanded New Brunswick Country Club golf course and the Adrian Vermeule properties, The Board of Trustees, noting that it was a daring move, nevertheless adopted the proposal and bought the land for less than $100,000.
Clothier would prove to be profoundly prophetic when he said, "In years to come, units of the University may be transferred to this new location. New buildings and stately towers may rise from the heights across the river...It is at one time an outlet for our program of physical education, a financial investment which we expect to increase in value with the return of good times, and a pledge to that future of which we can now be only dimly aware, but in which we have unwavering confidence."
Though the stadium area, a natural ravine, was included in the purchase, the original proposal did not include construction of a stadium. The development of the area would provide recreational areas for students and considerable acreage for future needs. The Federal government approved an initial grant of $320,000 on November 13, 1935, and workmen began the enormous job of developing the River Road campus. The project was to carry a cost of $418,514 with the University contributing $98,390. It would provide work for 387 workers for one year.
>STADIUM HISTORY: The Depression Years
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