Rutgers Scarlet Knights Lacrosse (Big Ten) @ SHI Stadium (Piscataway, NJ)

I visit the so called "Birthplace of College Football" for a completely different sport

*This trip occurred on March 1, 2025.

While it's hard for me to pin down a succinct description of (field) lacrosse, the best way to describe it is that it's similar to soccer, but with players using specialized sticks instead of their feet. It's famous for being more or less fully developed in North America by Native Americans, and those Native American roots are always present: it's one of the few sports where Native American nations field teams instead of their players playing for the U.S. (which is a bit of an issue for the sport's upcoming Olympic debut). While the official rules have been a bit "unclear" recently (partially due to its current pro league tinkering with them), the main things you really need to know are that it's a 10 vs. 10 game played on a field that's about as long as an American football field (though a bit wider).

With that out away, let's talk about the place I went to (in more ways than one): Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey is one of America’s oldest universities and the largest university in New Jersey (and technically my alma mater¹). Originally founded as Queen’s College in 1766, it was renamed Rutgers in 1825 after a wealthy benefactor. However, the school’s biggest claim to fame (especially in the sporting world) is being the host of the first ever college football game in 1869. This lends itself to the school’s nickname as “The Birthplace of College Football”, but outside of that...they haven’t really done that much in terms of athletics. They were a long time Big East member (during which they had the most success I’ve ever seen) until the Catholic schools kicked the non-Catholic schools out, and then they were only in the resultant American Athletic Conference for a year before joining the Big 10 - where they've largely been less relevant than they were in the Big East (somehow).

You may expect that a lacrosse team based in New Jersey - one of the top lacrosse states in the country (I THINK²) - would have a long and storied history. They don’t. While they’ve (apparently) been around since 1887, they only have one Final Four appearance to their name, and it didn’t occur until 2022.

This game was played at the same stadium the football team plays in. Currently known as SHI Stadium, it opened in 1994 as a replacement for another stadium built on the same site. Given that Rutgers football has largely been an afterthought (especially since becoming cannon fodder for a bunch of “States” adjacent to the Great Lakes), it’s kinda hard to pinpoint the “high points” in the stadiums history (ironically, one of the former names of the stadium was High Point Stadium), but I can think of two:

1. The football team’s most famous win: an upset of Louisville back in 2006 (when I was in high school)
2. Barack Obama’s 2016 commencement speech. I remember there being a TON of controversy as Newark and Camden students wanted to attend, but students in New Brunswick felt they shouldn’t be allowed (though I believe Rutgers allowed students to attend whichever commencement they choose back then)

Only one side of the stadium was open for this game along one of the sidelines, but the entrance was near one of the end zones, so you ended up having to walk a bit from the entrance to the stands. While it was nice and sunny, strong winds made the stadium REALLY cold (again, this game was in March). It also didn’t help that Rutgers LOST this game to a team from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia (a school you probably didn’t know existed until just now); in fact, it felt like more people were there to cheer THEM on than the home team (especially in the late stages of the game).

MERCH

Surprisingly, there was a small merch stand open for the game! While I don’t remember much of what they had, I ended up going home with was a couple of hats from the school’s baseball team.

If you’re looking for more Rutgers merch, however, the school’s bookstore and a spirit shop are close by in downtown New Brunswick, so I figure that if you’re REALLY interested in merch, that’s your best option (especially the spirit shop). Parking is a bit of a hassle however, so be prepared for that (or just use the garage - that’s what I used to do when I had things in New Brunswick).