Overview
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's lacrosse team represents Rutgers University main campus in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college lacrosse. The program first started at the varsity level in 1887. The coach is currently Brian Brecht, who is in his eighth year at that position and who joined Rutgers after previously coaching at Siena College. The team plays its home games at SHI Stadium. On July 1, 2014, Rutgers joined the Big Ten Conference in all sports.
History
Rutgers began playing lacrosse in 1887. The team lasted 3 years, folding in 1889 after it 2–1 season. The program was re-instated in 1920 due in part to the efforts of Harland W. “Tots” Meistrell. In 1926 Fred Fitch took over the program and began a period of national prominence. The team joined the USILA and in 1928 was awarded one of the association's gold medals as an outstanding team, along with three other teams that also shared the championship (Johns Hopkins, Maryland, and Navy). In 1932 the Rutgers team, led by “the best attack pair in the country” George Latimer and Frenchy Julien participated in the U.S. Olympic team tryouts. During Fitch's 22 seasons the team posted a record of 106–71–8. Al Twitchell took over the reins in 1950 with the retirement of Fitch. In 1955 he guided the team to a co-national championship of the USILA's Laurie Cox (Class B) Division.
Rutgers plays Princeton for the Meistrell Cup in honor of Harland (Tots) Meistrell who in addition to re-instating the lacrosse program at Rutgers, he also restarted the dormant lacrosse program at Princeton in 1921. Rutgers also plays Penn State for the Friendship Cup which is a symbol of the friendship of four friends from Sewanhaka High School on Long Island who went off to college splitting two ways; one pair attending Penn State, and the other heading off to Rutgers.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).