 The Board of Trustees officially made scarlet the school color in 1900.In its early days, Rutgers athletes were known informally as "The Scarlet" in reference to the school color, or as "Queensmen" in reference to the institution's first name, "Queen's College".In 1925, the mascot was changed to Chanticleer, a fighting rooster from the medieval fable "Reynard the Fox" ("Le Roman de Renart") which was used by Geoffrey Chaucer's in the "Canterbury Tales".