Rutgers Remembers College Football Hall of Famer Alex Kroll

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers mourns Alex Kroll, who passed away Dec. 17 at age 87. Kroll is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, earned consensus First Team All-America status and captained Rutgers to the memorable undefeated 1961 season.

After beginning his career at Yale and serving two years in the Army, Kroll transferred to Rutgers in 1960 and helped the team to a 17-1 combined record the next two seasons at center and linebacker. Under coach John Bateman, the Scarlet Knights went 8-1 in 1960 and followed up with the school’s first undefeated campaign, going 9-0 in 1961.

Team captain of the lauded 1961 squad, Kroll was a two-time first-team All-ECAC choice and merited First Team All-American honors from Associated Press, United Press International, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Look and the American Football Coaches Association. Known as a “coach on the field,” he was credited with making the quarterback sneak an offensive weapon as Rutgers scored seven touchdowns on that play in 1961 with Kroll clearing the way into the endzone for the signal-caller. Overall, 1,968 of the team’s 2,612 yards of total offense came on the ground.

Rutgers ranked No. 15 in the final AP Poll and joined national champion Alabama as the only undefeated and untied teams in the country. The team was enshrined in the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.

Kroll, a native of Leechburg, Pennsylvania, was also a first-team All-East choice by the AP in 1961 and played in the North-South game and the Senior Bowl. In 1960, he was an honorable mention All-American. Following his senior season, he was a second-round draft pick of the New York Titans, playing for one season in 1962.

Kroll earned a BA in English Literature in 1962 and was a Henry Rutgers Scholar with a perfect grade point average in his major. He received a National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Post-Graduate Scholarship in 1961. In 1986, he was awarded the Silver Anniversary Award from the National Collegiate Athletic Association for his collegiate achievements. Kroll was inducted into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame in 1988 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997.

Immediately following his last game with the Titans, he joined the workforce at Young & Rubicam, the world’s largest independent advertising agency, as a copywriter. After a succession of writing and supervisory jobs in the creative department, he was named executive vice president and worldwide creative director in 1970….