Does your college town suck? Rutgers University

New to the line up this season: we will be examining the various college towns of Wisconsin’s opponents. We’ll be answering all of the important questions – Is it a state capital? What is the population? Does it have a Culver’s?

Facts:

City: New Brunswick, New Jersey

Size: 5.753 square miles

Location: 40.486678°N 74.444414°W

Population: 55,266 (2020)

State Capital? No

Time zone: Eastern

Landmarks: Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers Geology Museum, Rutgers Gardens, Kirkpatrick Chapel

About:

From the state that brought you Chris Christie and The Jersey Shore, comes Rutgers University.

You’re right Sam, New Jersey is.

New Brunswick, home of Rutgers University is the birthplace of college football, as the first collegiate game was held there on November 6, 1869, between Rutgers and Princeton. Wait, if it’s the birthplace of college football, why aren’t they better?

There’s more to the story, shut up.

However, the college game played that day was based more on soccer than it was on rugby, which current day American football takes its rules from in a round about way. Rutgers won the game by a score of six goals to Princeton’s four goals. Goals? That’s not football.

Years before hosting the first collegiate “football” game, New Brunswick was incorporated as a town in 1736 and then chartered as a city in 1784. If it’s so old, how old is Old Brunswick? Is there an Old Brunswick? You would think there would have had to have been, since it’s now all of a sudden...new.

Something cannot be new, unless it existed before…

Apart from being the birthplace of college football, or whatever the hell it was that they played that day, New Brunswick is a town in Middlesex County.

Dirty...

It is also becoming quite the commuter town with people who work in New York City choosing to live in New Brunswick, given the close proximity and the fact that it is cheaper to live in New Jersey. Then again, you are living in New Jersey…

The town is clearly booming. In 2000, the population was 48,573 and then they saw a 13.6 percent increase by 2010, up to 55,181 and most recently a 0.2 percent increase to 55,266 in 2020. Well, I mean it was booming.

New Brunswick is known as a Hub City and a Healthcare City, thanks to the concentration of healthcare facilities. Not only that, but several global pharmaceutical companies make New Brunswick their home, including Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squib.

Can you just smell the capitalism?

Bars:

The Scarlet Pub is one bar that caught my eye. Most notably when I saw a review someone had left on Google…

“If you want just a college bar – nothing special – you’ll love this place.” That is the highest praise I have ever heard for a bar. I mean, let’s be honest, we’re all just looking for a college bar, that is… just there to get a burger and a pint at.

According to their website, the Scarlet Pub is the “best way to end the knight.” Get it? Because they’re the Scarlet Knights…oh man, word play.

Thanks to fellow B5Qer and New Jersey native J.J. Post, we have the name of the most iconic spot to get food on Rutgers’ campus – Stuff Yer Face. Based on the interwebs, Stuff Yer Face, which has been around since 1977, is famous for it’s Stromboli, which according to its site is a sandwich made with your favorite stuffings.

(Editor’s note: stromboli, much like myself, was invented outside of Philadelphia and is delicious and I will hear no slander about it.)

There three different sizes of “boli,” and all sound like they will leave you totally immobilized on the floor, wishing for a swift end to the pain you just caused yourself.

The smallest, the baby boli, is four and a half inches long and is served with soup or salad. Large, is nine inches, weighing in at about a pound. While the huge size is 18 inches and weighs about two pounds. Stuff Yer Face also serves pizza, burgers, desserts and a 60 oz. fishbowl.

J.J. also recommends getting a bagel, because they are noticeably better than bagels from anywhere that’s not New York.

There are no Culver’s in New Jersey.

Stadium:

SHI Stadium, located in Piscataway, New Jersey, is the home of the Scarlet Knights football team. The stadium opened in 1994 as Rutgers Stadium and has since changed its name multiple times – Rutgers Stadium (1994-2011), High Point Solutions Stadium (2011-2017), HighPoint.com Stadium (2018-2019) and now, SHI Stadium (2019-present).

Makes me really glad Camp Randall doesn’t have a corporation associated with it.

SHI Stadium currently has a capacity of 52,454 fans, thanks to renovations that took place prior to the 2009 season, which added nearly 11,000 more seats. The expansion cost $102 million, which was set to bring the capacity to nearly 56,000, but due to a poor economy and financial difficulties, the university cut short of its goal and landed at the 52,454 capacity it seats today.

SHI Stadium (formerly Rutgers Stadium), when built, was built on the site of the old Rutgers Stadium, causing Rutgers to play the 1993 season at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. during construction.

Does your college town suck?

I am still hung up on this Old Brunswick thing...is anyone else concerned? No? Come on!

Given the fact that New Brunswick is in New Jersey, it’s in an uphill battle, because as we know, New Jersey is one of the worst places. However, the thing that settled this for me, was that when I was searching for landmarks in New Brunswick, I stumbled on a list that showed Shediac’s Giant Lobster, but then I realized it is in New Brunswick, Canada.

I thought it’s saving grace would be a giant crustacean, but sadly, that is north of the border. I may be considered shellfish for this, but New Brunswick, NJ is a lost claws.

It sucks.