The sad, pathetic history of the Scarlet Knight

I started law school two weeks ago, which despite my best efforts has put some serious restrictions on my blogging time. Despite my hate for Rutgers, I've sadly had to focus a bit more energy on promissory estoppel than on ripping the Scarlet Knights. However, I am committed to bringing you at least some hate, so I've done a bit of research into the history of the Scarlet Knight and its origins (read: I looked up Rutgers on Wikipedia ). Here's what I found:

• Rutgers' school color is scarlet, but it wasn't always that way. Students originally wanted the color to be Orange, in reference to the Prince of Orange and Rutgers' Dutch connections. I think Michael Caine has said all that needs to be said about the Dutch .
• So why Scarlet? You can blame The Daily Targum, Rutgers' student newspaper. In 1859 the fancy boys over at the Targum started a push to pick scarlet over orange because it was a striking color and scarlet ribbon was easy to find. So basically, Rutgers' school color is scarlet because they are a bunch of lazy pretty-boys.
• In the early days of Rutgers football, the team was known either as "The Scarlet" or "The Queensmen." Why the Queensmen? I think there are only two possible answers. Option A: the school used to be called Queen's College. Option B: Rutgers is filled with a bunch of Tory bastards that hate America and wanted to show fealty to the Queen of England. I'll go with the latter.

Much more hate after the jump.

• By 1925, Rutgers decided it needed a real mascot, so naturally the school picked The Chanticleer. You know... The Chanticleer... The fighting rooster from a medieval fable that Chaucer used in Cantebury Tales. And, if there is one thing that is sure in this life, it is that if Chaucer doesn't inspire fear in the heart of your opponents, nothing will. If you're keeping score, Rutgers students are now traitorous, lazy, pretty-boy nerds.
• Bonus Chanticleer fact: It was first introduced in a game against Lafayette, who introduced their own mascot at the same game. Their pick? A leopard. I don't know about you, but I'm taking the leopard over the rooster. Nice pick Rutgers.
• Shortly after the Chanticleer was introduced, Rutgers students realized they had picked a chicken to be their mascot. I say that's fitting, but they found a problem with it. Anyway, it gave us this money quote from football coach Harvey Harman: "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."
• It took 30 years, but by 1955 Rutgers decided it was time for a change. They wound up settling on Scarlet Knights, but there were a few other options they considered: Queensmen (still traitors!), Scarlet (boring!), Red Lions (even more bland than the Scarlet Knight), Redmen (racists!), and the Flying Dutchmen (actually pretty cool, but again, the Dutch).
• Final Rutgers fun fact that says more about the school than I ever could. One of the "notable" songs of the school is called "Nobody Ever Died for Dear Old Rutgers." Legend has it that the song was inspired by an incident where Rutgers player Frank Grant was carried from the football field because of an injury and said he "would die for dear old Rutgers." Nice story, however other sources indicate he actually said, "I will die if somebody does not give me a cigarette." Yep, sounds like Rutgers to me.
• In summation, throughout history, Rutgers, its students and its fans have shown themselves to be chain-smoking chickens who are traitors, lazy, nerdy, racist, Dutch pretty-boys. Hate hate hate.