Name-a-Day Calendar, January 29: Fairleigh Dickinson Knights
Page 84 of 365
Chosen in: Sometime in the 1940s; definitely by 1949
Chosen by: Probably founding president Dr. Peter Sammartino
In 1868, local land developer Lloyd W. Tomkins purchased a plot of land in Rutherford, New Jersey, and built a modest two-story, single-family home on it. He sold the house in 1887 to American Book Company president David Brinkerhoff Ivison, who had grand plans for the property. Ivison had always subscribed to the old adage “my house is my castle”. To most people, this is a figure of speech, but to Ivison, it was an opportunity: he immediately expanded the house to three stories and remodeled it to look like an actual medieval castle.1 It was whimsical, like nothing else in the area, and quickly became known as “Iviswold Castle”.
Ownership of Iviswold Castle would change hands several times before settling on a long-term owner. Dr. Peter Sammartino would always pass by the castle while visiting his future wife, who lived in the neighborhood, and imagined founding a college on the property. In 1942, with the help of a few benefactors, he purchased the building and did just that. He’d name the school, originally a junior college, after primary benefactor Fairleigh Dickinson and construct a few more buildings around Iviswold Castle to form a true campus.
Dr. Sammartino liked to get creative with the campus’ medieval aesthetic, occasionally dressing in a suit of armor and encouraging his students to do the same. The “knight” motif had been firmly established in the campus culture before the school began playing intercollegiate sports. That day would come soon after the school expanded from a two-year school to a four-year school in 1948; Fairleigh Dickinson’s first intercollegiate basketball team took the court the next year.
According to alumnus Sam Convissor ‘53, who played on the basketball team all four years dating back to its inaugural 1949-50 season, the team was always known as the Knights for what he thought were obvious reasons. He and his teammates had always just assumed it was because of the literal castle that served as the main campus building.
But Iviswold Castle wouldn’t always be the centerpiece of Fairleigh Dickinson University.2 The school acquired the former Bergen Junior College in 1954 and eventually moved most of its primary operations to that campus, which straddles the Hackensack River between Hackensack and Teaneck. In 1994, the university officially shuttered the Rutherford campus, and it lay dormant for three years before they sold it, castle and all, to Felician College.3
Despite this, almost three decades later, Fairleigh Dickinson’s teams are still known as the Knights and the school’s academic logo still features a castle turret. Iviswold Castle lives on forever.
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P.S. Fairleigh Dickinson would also purchase a campus on the western outskirts of the metro area in 1958. This Florham campus, which is split between Madison and Florham Park, operates its own athletic department whose teams compete at the Division III level and are called the Devils.
Special thanks to Florham Campus Research & Instruction Librarian Eleanor Friedl for helping dig up most of the relevant information for this page.
The city planning degree on my bedroom wall just became sentient and started barking about how many zoning laws this would break today.
Naming mumbo-jumbo: it was Fairleigh Dickinson Junior College from 1942-1948, then Fairleigh Dickinson College until 1956, when it was recognized as Fairleigh Dickinson University by the New Jersey State Board of Education.
Felician College became Felician University in 2015. It competes at the Division II level and doesn’t even do any cool branding with the actual castle on their campus. Its teams are known as the Golden Falcons.