The Knights Watchman

Rutgers University, the football team, and Director of Athletics Pat Hobbs unveiled the Marco Battaglia Practice Complex on Friday, August 6, 2017. Made possible by an extremely generous donation from Jeff and Amy Towers, the facility gives Rutgers one of the premier complexes in the country. Having been a Rutgers student during Battaglia's time on the Banks, I can attest to the fact that there's not a better representative and player in Rutgers football lore to have named the complex after. It's been a blessing that Marco has been involved with the athletics department again over the past few years. Congratulations to everyone involved for pulling off the construction of this state-of-the-art facility in less than six months. Below is a time-lapse video of the construction, as well has a video honoring the Battaglia's playing career. Each of these videos can also be found at scarletknights.com and at the RVision1766 YouTube channel.

On Monday, Pat Hobbs announced in a press release that Rutgers all-time great Marco Battaglia had been upped to Assistant Athletic Director for Development. For the past few years, Battaglia has been instrumental in establishing relationships with donors and increasing financial support for the Rutgers athletics programs. According to the press release he will also aid in "strategic planning, specifically serving on a task force selected by Hobbs to outline the future vision for Rutgers athletics." Congrats to Battaglia, one of my favorite Scarlet Knights, especially since his playing years coincided with my undergrad years. His time on the Banks ended the same year as Doug Graber, and we know what happened after that. Four years with Battaglia and Graber, a competitive 20-23-1. The four years after, 8-36. I look forward to Marco brainstorming the future vision for Rutgers athletics as he looks out over the practice fields named in his honor.

Rutgers Athletics has posted the following video showing that the Marco Battaglia Practice Facility is coming along nicely. The grand opening is scheduled for August 6th. But what I want to know is how I can get my hands on one of them sod rollers! And speaking of greens, congratulations to head coach Chris Ash for raising over $75k through his Charity Golf Classic. You can read about it here .