The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the athletic teams that represent Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus. In sports, Rutgers is famously known for being the "Birthplace of College Football", hosting the first ever intercollegiate football game on November 6, 1869, in which Rutgers defeated a team from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) with a score of 6 runs to 4.
Among the first American schools that participate in intercollegiate athletics, Rutgers currently fields 24 teams in the Big Ten Conference, which participates in Division I competition, as sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the following sports: baseball, basketball, cross country, field hockey, football, golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, swimming and diving, wrestling, and volleyball. The athletic programs compete under the name Scarlet Knights, after the Rutgers University mascot that was chosen in 1955 by the student body.
The Rutgers campuses in Newark and Camden also participate in intercollegiate competition — under the names Scarlet Raiders and Scarlet Raptors, respectively — in NCAA Division III.
