The earliest commercial broadcast of a Rutgers football game result was on November 7, 1922 when the Westinghouse Electric Company made arrangements through WJZ (833 AM), Newark, NJ, the nation’s second commercially licensed radio station, to send out details by radio of the Rutgers 25-0 win over Louisiana State.  In the radio listings in that day’s Daily Home News, “2:00 p.m. - Play-by-play results of Louisiana vs. Rutgers football game broadcast directly from the Polo Grounds by Mr. (Walter S.) Flitcraft…” 

The November 18, 1941 New York Times said Flitcraft was a sports writer with the New York Globe until 1923 and then worked briefly for the New York Times before a 17-year stint on the sports staff of the Newark Evening News. Through the Western Union Telegraph Company, Flitcraft would receive game reports in WJZ’s studio and relay a vivid description of the play to a listening audience.  Crowd microphones would pick up the college yells, songs and cheering of the crowd back at the Polo Grounds. A year later, WEAF (610 AM), New York originally listed the Rutgers-West Virginia Election Day game for coverage but failed to cover it.After shifting positions on the dial, WJZ’s decendant is WABC (770 AM) and WEAF was WNBC (660 AM) which is now all-sports radio WFAN-AM and owned by a different company.

- Steve Greene