Athletics Unveils Legacy Sports Webpages
Sep 06 | Lightweight Football
Rutgers Athletics is proud to announce the unveiling of a set of brand new "Legacy Sports" webpages here on scarletknights.com. These new webpages detail the long and proud histories, including archival data, results, photo galleries and more, of several former Rutgers sponsored sports.
In 2006, the University made the extremely difficult decision to discontinue the men's and women's fencing, men's crew (heavyweight and lightweight), men's swimming/diving and men's tennis programs.
A new webpage specifically highlighting the history of the Rutgers Lightweight Football program, which was discontinued in 1990 after being in existence from 1932-1989, has also been created.
Aiding this process greatly was a labor of love invested by a pair of former Rutgers Lightweight Football letterwinners, Gary Way and Alton Dixson, the latter of whom over the course of several years spent countless hours in the bowels of Alexander Library researching the sports' nearly 60-year history. The hard work put in by Dixson and Way helped compile the foundation for what became the lightweight football webpage.
"There were a couple inflection points that kind of got us going and the first one was when the Rutgers Football Letterwinners Association opened membership to lightweight football alumni and we were all excited about that," said Way, who, following his 1980 Rutgers graduation, would go on to earn a law degree from New York University and eventually enjoy a long career at Nike, where he served as General Counsel for the company's Jordan Brand.
"Playing lightweight football was really one of the great joys of my college life," said Way. "To just have the opportunity to strap on the helmet and play another four years of football after high school, was so special. I think most people of our size would have assumed that high school was the last time we were ever going to play, so that's one piece of it. But the other piece is the connection that a lot of us had to the guys that were playing on the regular heavyweight team, and being part of that milieu, able to share the locker room and share the same facility."
"It was very meaningful when the Football Letterwinners Association reached out and told us we were a part of the family," said Dixson, who, following his RU graduation, would go on to pursue a successful career as a property and auto insurance claims adjuster. "This spurred Gary, I think, to try and find out more information about our history.
"So now, we've started to go to some of the same events, side by side with the guys from the varsity team, " Dixson continued. " And some of them recognized who I was from before and obviously I recognized who they were. So with this website now in place, we have a touchstone and we're very grateful for that."
In the summer of 2023, the athletic department secured my services to proverbially pick up the ball left by Dixson and Way. As a former longtime Rutgers Athletic Communications staff member, I spent years researching the department's achievements and this project seemed like a natural fit.
In addition to further researching Rutgers' Lightweight Football's past, I was tasked with going back and bringing into the light archival data from the rich history of the programs no longer in competition.
Every effort has been made to make new webpages easy to navigate. While decades of records, results and photos were uncovered, as one might imagine, there is information that was not tracked down and remains within the history of these discontinued sport programs.
As Rutgers fans, letterwinners and other alumni peruse these pages in the coming weeks, months, and years, we offer them an opportunity to provide information that is missing. The Rutgers Athletic Department's fervent hope is that these webpages will act as a spark to reengage former RU letterwinners in a ripple effect that will hopefully lead to the collection of further historical material related to these sports.
If you are in possession of any information that may add value to this site, or can point us in the direction of others who might have access to additional information, or if have any corrections, please contact the office of Athletic Communications at athleticcommunications@scarletknights.com.
John Beisser ('86) is an award-winning writer who served as an assistant director in the Rutgers Athletic Communications Office from 1991-2006. In this role, he served as managing editor for nine publications that received national/regional citations from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). While an undergraduate at RU, Beisser was sports director of WRSU-FM and a sportswriter for The Daily Targum. He's also a former longtime assistant athletic director at Wagner College, where he was the recipient of the 2019 Met Basketball Writers Association "Good Guy" Award. Beisser resides in Piscataway with his wife Aileen (RC '95), a four-year Scarlet Knight women's lacrosse letterwinner, and their 14-year old daughter Riley.
In 2006, the University made the extremely difficult decision to discontinue the men's and women's fencing, men's crew (heavyweight and lightweight), men's swimming/diving and men's tennis programs.
A new webpage specifically highlighting the history of the Rutgers Lightweight Football program, which was discontinued in 1990 after being in existence from 1932-1989, has also been created.
Aiding this process greatly was a labor of love invested by a pair of former Rutgers Lightweight Football letterwinners, Gary Way and Alton Dixson, the latter of whom over the course of several years spent countless hours in the bowels of Alexander Library researching the sports' nearly 60-year history. The hard work put in by Dixson and Way helped compile the foundation for what became the lightweight football webpage.
"There were a couple inflection points that kind of got us going and the first one was when the Rutgers Football Letterwinners Association opened membership to lightweight football alumni and we were all excited about that," said Way, who, following his 1980 Rutgers graduation, would go on to earn a law degree from New York University and eventually enjoy a long career at Nike, where he served as General Counsel for the company's Jordan Brand.
"Playing lightweight football was really one of the great joys of my college life," said Way. "To just have the opportunity to strap on the helmet and play another four years of football after high school, was so special. I think most people of our size would have assumed that high school was the last time we were ever going to play, so that's one piece of it. But the other piece is the connection that a lot of us had to the guys that were playing on the regular heavyweight team, and being part of that milieu, able to share the locker room and share the same facility."
"It was very meaningful when the Football Letterwinners Association reached out and told us we were a part of the family," said Dixson, who, following his RU graduation, would go on to pursue a successful career as a property and auto insurance claims adjuster. "This spurred Gary, I think, to try and find out more information about our history.
"So now, we've started to go to some of the same events, side by side with the guys from the varsity team, " Dixson continued. " And some of them recognized who I was from before and obviously I recognized who they were. So with this website now in place, we have a touchstone and we're very grateful for that."
In the summer of 2023, the athletic department secured my services to proverbially pick up the ball left by Dixson and Way. As a former longtime Rutgers Athletic Communications staff member, I spent years researching the department's achievements and this project seemed like a natural fit.
In addition to further researching Rutgers' Lightweight Football's past, I was tasked with going back and bringing into the light archival data from the rich history of the programs no longer in competition.
Every effort has been made to make new webpages easy to navigate. While decades of records, results and photos were uncovered, as one might imagine, there is information that was not tracked down and remains within the history of these discontinued sport programs.
As Rutgers fans, letterwinners and other alumni peruse these pages in the coming weeks, months, and years, we offer them an opportunity to provide information that is missing. The Rutgers Athletic Department's fervent hope is that these webpages will act as a spark to reengage former RU letterwinners in a ripple effect that will hopefully lead to the collection of further historical material related to these sports.
If you are in possession of any information that may add value to this site, or can point us in the direction of others who might have access to additional information, or if have any corrections, please contact the office of Athletic Communications at athleticcommunications@scarletknights.com.
John Beisser ('86) is an award-winning writer who served as an assistant director in the Rutgers Athletic Communications Office from 1991-2006. In this role, he served as managing editor for nine publications that received national/regional citations from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). While an undergraduate at RU, Beisser was sports director of WRSU-FM and a sportswriter for The Daily Targum. He's also a former longtime assistant athletic director at Wagner College, where he was the recipient of the 2019 Met Basketball Writers Association "Good Guy" Award. Beisser resides in Piscataway with his wife Aileen (RC '95), a four-year Scarlet Knight women's lacrosse letterwinner, and their 14-year old daughter Riley.
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