December 27, 2005: For the 1st time, the football team at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, plays in a real postseason "bowl game."
It wasn't actually the first one. In 1978, frustrated over not having been selected for bowl games despite some fine seasons -- 8-1 in 1958, 8-1 in 1960, 9-0 in 1961, 8-2 in 1968, 7-4 in 1972, 7-3 in 1974, 9-2 in 1975, 11-0 in 1976, 8-3 in 1977 and finally 9-3 -- mainly due to a weak schedule, Rutgers started its own bowl, the Garden State Bowl, at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey.
The Scarlet Knights invited Arizona State, which had faced a similar level of disrespect, because they had dominated the weak Western Athletic Conference, and had just joined the Pacific-8, making it the Pac-10. Maybe they should've invited a weaker team than Frank Kush's Sun Devils: They lost, 34-18.
That was a badge of dishonor: The Scarlet Knights couldn't even win a bowl on their secondary home field. So, again, they weren't invited to bowls, despite going 8-3 in 1979, 7-4 in 1980, 7-3 in 1984, 6-4 in 1986, and 7-4 in 1992. In '92, a loss to Boston College really stung, not just because their quarterback, future New York Jet Glenn Foley, had been a Jersey Boy, from Cherry Hill, but because he told the postgame media, "The only bowl Rutgers is going to is the one I just got off of."
The new Rutgers Stadium (now SHI Stadium) opened in 1994, but, having joined the Big East Conference, RU was not putting up bowl-worthy seasons. Greg Schiano was hired in 2001, and it took him until 2005 to put up a winning season, 7-4.
Finally, a bowl came calling. It wasn't a major bowl. It was the Insight Bowl, named for an Internet company. It had gone through several names: The Copper Bowl from its 1989 establishment until 1996, the Insight.com Bowl starting in 1997, just the Insight Bowl starting in 2002, the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in 2012, the Cactus Bowl starting in 2015, the Cheez-It Bowl in 2018 and 2019, and the Guaranteed Rate Bowl starting in 2020.
It was held at the University of Arizona's Arizona Stadium in Tucson from 1989 to 1999, then the Arizona Diamondbacks' Bank One Ballpark/Chase Field in Phoenix from 2000 to 2005, the Arizona State University's Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe from 2006 to 2015, and Chase Field again ever since. It is the Phoenix area's secondary bowl game, behind the Fiesta Bowl, which was played at Sun Devil Stadium from 1971 to 2006, and has been played at the Arizona Cardinals' home, now named State Farm Stadium, in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, since 2007.
So being invited to the Insight Bowl was not much respect. But it was more than Rutgers were used to, and it was a chance to spend Christmas week someplace considerably warmer than New Jersey, so they accepted the bid. As fate would have it, the opponent was the same as in the 1978 Garden State Bowl: Arizona State. The Sun Devils would be traveling 11 miles, so this would be more or less a home game for them. The Scarlet Knights would be traveling 2,386 miles.
At first, the long roadtrip didn't seem to faze Rutgers: Ryan Hart threw a touchdown pass to Clark Harris to give them a 7-0 lead. Arizona State answered with their own touchdown pass, but Hart threw another to Brian Leonard. Just before the 1st quarter ran out, Jeremy Ito kicked a 25-yard field goal. RU were up 17-7. Things were looking good.
The Sun Devils kicked a field goal to make it 17-10. Leonard ran for a touchdown to make it 24-10 Rutgers. But the Sun Devils scored to close to within 24-17 at the half.
In the 3rd quarter, Arizona State scored a tying touchdown, but Ito kicked another field goal to put RU back up, 27-24. Arizona State scored a touchdown to take their 1st leads, 31-27. Just before the end of the quarter, Ito kicked another field goal to make it 31-30 Sun Devils. Early in the 4th quarter, he kicked another to make it 33-31 Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers had a 4th quarter lead in a bowl game, in what was essentially a home game for the other team. This wasn't quite living the dream, but it sure looked like a building block toward reaching the dream.
But you can almost set your watch by the Rutgers defense collapsing. The Sun Devils scored a touchdown and a 2-point version, then with another touchdown and a failed 2-point conversion. It was 45-33 Arizona State.
With 2 minutes left, Hart threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Tres Moses, closing RU to within 45-40. But they failed to recover the onside kick, and Arizona State ran out the clock to seal the win.
It was yet another failure for Rutgers, one of the most underachieving programs in college football. On the other hand, they had been invited to a bowl, and scored 40 points against a hometown team. That was something to take with them into the next year.
In 2006, Rutgers went 10-2, finishing 2nd in the Big East. They were invited to the Texas Bowl. It wasn't the biggest bowl in Texas -- that remains the Cotton Bowl in Dallas -- but at least, unlike the Insight Bowl, it was the biggest bowl in its own metropolitan area, Houston. Rutgers won this game rather easily, 37-10, for their 1st-ever bowl win.
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December 27, 2005 was a Tuesday. One other bowl game was played that day, the Champs Sports Bowl. This was also a secondary bowl, the 2nd-biggest at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, behind the eponymous Citrus Bowl. Clemson beat Colorado, 19-10.
There were 8 games played in the NBA that night:
* The New Jersey Nets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 96-91 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands. LeBron James scored 31 points, but it wasn't enough for the Cavs.
* The Charlotte Bobcats (now the new Charlotte Hornets) beat the Atlanta Hawks, 93-90 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.
* The Miami Heat beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 109-98 at the American Airlines Arena (now the FTX Arena) in Miami. Dwyane Wade scored 35.
* The Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, 82-74 at the Toyota Center in Houston.
* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Indiana Pacers, 99-86 at the SBC Center (now the AT&T Center) in San Antonio.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Toronto Raptors, 113-106 at the Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. Chris Bosh scored 37 in defeat.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Denver Nuggets, 108-106 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver. Carmelo Anthony scored 45 to lead all scorers on the night, but the Nugs still lost.
* The Sacramento Kings beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 110-93 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. Mike Bibby scored 38 for the Kings.
There were 4 games played in the NHL that night. None involved any of the New York Tri-State Area teams:
* The Boston Bruins beat the Washington Capitals, 4-3 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington. Brad Stuart scored the winning goal, 2:04 into overtime.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 at the Mellon Arena (usually named the Civic Arena) in Pittsburgh. Tomas Kaberle scored the winning goal, 2:26 into overtime.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Dallas Stars, 4-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
* And the Nashville Predators beat the Calgary Flames, 4-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.