Gary Nova. He would later switch to Number 10.
November 17, 2012: Rutgers wins a Conference Championship in football.
Stop laughing. It may have been in the lamest possible fashion, but it happened.
From 1958 to 1961, Rutgers was a member of the Middle Atlantic Conference, and they won it in 1958, 1960 and 1961, the last of these being an undefeated season: 9-0. But that was when they were still considered a minor college football team.
Other than that, Rutgers was an independent until 1991, when the Big East Football Conference was founded. They had their moments, but, for the most part, were terrible until 2001, when Greg Schiano became the head coach. It took him until 2005 to get Rutgers to a winning season.
In 2006, Rutgers was in line to win the Conference, but they blew it by losing 2 of their last 3 games. They finished 2nd again in 2008, that time blowing it by losing their 1st 2 Big East games. After the 2011 season, having led Rutgers to 6 bowl games, winning 5 of them, Schiano left to take the head jokb with the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The team he left new coach Kyle Flood did well in 2012, winning their 1st 7 games: They beat Tulane in the Superdome, Howard University at home, South Florida in Tampa, Arkansas away, Connecticut and Syracuse at home, and Temple in Philadelphia. They had earned the Number 18 ranking in the country.
Then they lost at home to Kent State, a truly embarrassing result. But it wasn't a Big East game, so they still had a shot at the Conference title. After a week off, they beat Army at home -- but that wasn't a Big East game, either.
The next game was against the University of Cincinnati, one of the teams against whom they'd blown it in 2006 and '08. The game was played at Cincy's Nippert Stadium, in front of 34,526 fans. That doesn't sound like much, but it was a full house. Rutgers went in ranked Number 22, while Cincinnati was unranked. If Rutgers won, they would clinch at least a share of the Big East title.
The game was scoreless until 2:17 was left in the 1st half. Quarterback Gary Nova had taken the Scarlet Knights from their own 3-yard line, and threw to Mark Harrison, who took it 71 yards for a touchdown. Nick Borgese kicked the extra point.
With 6:49 left in the game, a 12-play drive ended in a 42-yard field goal by Borgese. Cincinnati kicked a field goal with 1:16 left, but could not recover the onside kick. Final score: Rutgers 10, Cincinnati 3.
Rutgers had 2 regular-season games left, both Big East games: Away to Pittsburgh, and home to Louisville. All they had to do was win 1 of the 2, and they would win the league outright.
They didn't. Pitt beat them, 27-6; and Louisville beat them, 20-17, thanks to some truly sloppy 4th quarter play. The season ended with Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati and Syracuse all 5-2 in Big East play. The title was shared.
Louisville emerged as the highest-ranked team, so they got the Big East's major bowl bid, and upset Number 4 Florida in the Sugar Bowl, 33-23. Rutgers, on the other hand, went to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, and lost to Virginia Tech, 13-10 in overtime, to finish the season 9-4.
That was RU's last season in the Big East, which was breaking up. Most of its teams ended up in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Rutgers didn't: They spent a stopgap year in The American Conference, and then, in 2014, joined the Big Ten Conference, which made no sense, either geographically (it's a Midwest-based league) or competitively (going into this weekend, their record in Big 10 games is 12-56).
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November 17, 2012 was a Saturday. These other major college football games were played:
* Number 1 Oregon was upset by Stanford, 17-14 in overtime at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. Stanford went on to beat UCLA in the Pac-12 Conference Championship Game.
* Number 2 Kansas State lost to Baylor, 52-24 at Floyd Casey Stadium in Waco, Texas. They still won the Big Twelve Conference Championship, but lost the Fiesta Bowl to Oregon, 35-17.
* Number 3 Ohio State beat Number 6 Wisconsin, 21-14 in overtime at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. But Ohio State was on probation, and ineligible for the Big Ten Championship or a bowl game. Wisconsin rebounded to win the Big Ten Championship Game, 70-31 over Nebraska. Stanford then beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.
* Number 4 Alabama beat Western Carolina, 49-0 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They went on to beat Georgia in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game.
* Number 5 Notre Dame beat Wake Forest, 38-0 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. They went into the National Championship Game at the Miami Dolphins' stadium ranked Number 1, but lost to Number 2 Alabama.
* Number 10 Florida State beat Maryland, 41-14 at Byrd Stadium in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland. They won the ACC Championship, and beat Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl.
Baseball was in the off-season. And the NHL team owners had locked the players out, so the 2012-13 season did not begin until January 19, 2013. But there were 8 games played in the NBA on November 17, 2012:
* The Boston Celtics beat the Toronto Raptors, 107-89 at the TD Garden in Boston.
* The Utah Jazz beat the Washington Wizards, 83-76 at the Verizon Center in Washington. (It's now named the Capital One Arena.)
* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 94-87 at the Time Warner Cable Arena. (The losing team is now the Charlotte Hornets, and the building is now the Spectrum Center.)
* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 103-95 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (It's now the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.)
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the New Orleans Hornets, 117-113 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. (The losing team is now the New Orleans Pelicans.)
* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Denver Nuggets, 126-100 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.
* The Miami Heat beat the Phoenix Suns, 97-88 at the US Airways Center in Phoenix. (It's now named the Footprint Center.)
* And the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Chicago Bulls, 101-80 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.