Scarlett Fever

RU Rah Rah! I have to admit, I'm getting a little caught up in Rutgers fever. It's pretty hard not to here in NJ these days. My alma mater's 8-0. And I got to see their biggest win - probably ever - while we were out in Hoboken last week. The whole town was PACKED. Every bar was filled with people in red and football was on every TV. We left about two places before ending up in City Bistro, which wasn't packed, but still had the game on. I never saw this kind of school spirit while I was at Rutgers. I was in Target the other day and there was a whole little section with RU stuff! It's pretty cool.

The last time I saw a Rutgers football game was in 1996! Rutgers was mutilated by Notre Dame - and to make things look even worse - it was the game where Lou Holtz retired (the first time)! So RU had these lame-ass ads with then-prez Fran "genetic hereditary background" Lawrence and a scientist, while Notre Dame had these well-produced glitzy ads. I wrote a column about the ads - not the team - and how RU was doing a lousy job marketing itself for the Targum and got so many letters about how I had no school spirit!