SCARLET RAPTORS

Rutgers University-Camden athletic teams, paralleling the nickname of the main campus in New Brunswick, are known as the Scarlet Raptors. Rutgers-New Brunswick has been popularly known as the home of the Scarlet Knights. Both Rutgers-Camden and Rutgers-Newark nicknames were changed in the mid-90s to include the word Scarlet. Newark, formerly the Red Raiders, are now known as the Scarlet Raiders.

Why the Raptors at Rutgers-Camden?
At the time of the name change during the 1997-98 school year, Associate Provost for Student Life Cal Marradonna noted, "We've been talking about this the past couple of years. Our previous nickname was the Pioneers and the students were never really excited about it. Widener and William Paterson were also known as the Pioneers.

"We wanted something different that would still go along with the Knights," Maradonna said. "A Raptor is really a bird of prey. We had a whole group of people kicking a lot names around and everybody liked it."