PISCATAWAY -- The phone call came to the Princeton University wrestling office, and Chris Ayres was instantly intrigued.

"I'd like to think that I came up with it, but I didn't,'' Ayres said, explaining how the concept of an outdoor wrestling match between Rutgers and Princeton originated from a phone call from Scarlet Knights coach Scott Goodale. "It was just one afternoon in the office, nothing out of the ordinary, and then Goody calls us and says, 'Hey, do you want to wrestle us in the football stadium?' At first you're like, 'Wow, okay.' ''

But then, Ayers said, there was the matter of hammering out the details that come with staging the unique event. Could they actually contest it inside a football stadium? Would the weather conditions be ideal enough for it? How do you get fans interested in it?

"We got both staffs on the phone, put everybody on conference (call), and at the end of the day we said we (both) said we'd try to fill the stadium as much as we could,'' Ayers recalled. "And then it was like, 'Yeah, let's do it.'''

Six months after the outdoor wrestling match was announced, Rutgers officials are putting the finishing touchdowns on an anticipated doubleheader Saturday that will include the Scarlet Knights football team matching up with Penn State in an 8 p.m. kickoff at High Point Solutions Stadium.

Seven hours before the Big Ten football game, at 11 a.m., the Princeton and Rutgers wrestling teams will square off on a mat placed in the north end of the stadium.

While the football game is expected to draw more than 50,000 fans, nearly 14,000 tickets have already been sold for the wrestling match between longtime Central Jersey rivals.

"We want to be involved in huge events and you have to showcase the sport -- that's what I've been preaching the whole time,'' Ayers said.

Said Goodale: "I think the best thing about being in Jersey is that we're able to do this in front of, hopefully, 20,000 people. You can't do that everywhere. You can do it in State College, Pa., you can do it in Stillwater, Okla., maybe you could do it in Minnesota, and obviously you could do it in Iowa.

"But you can do it in New Jersey.''

Rutgers and Princeton have had a long rivalry in all their sports, with their football teams staging what's regarded as the first intercollegiate football game on Nov. 6, 1869 over a patch of sod in New Brunswick where the College Avenue Gymnasium now stands.

It's why Rutgers proclaims to be the "Birthplace of College Football.'' And it's also why Rutgers officials labeled the outdoor wrestling match as the "Battle at the Birthplace.''

"I'm a huge, huge college football fan,'' Goodale said. "I know when they threw that name out, it was pretty cool and I thought of college football and all the history that's gone on here, and the history with Princeton. It just made sense. It's kind of neat. It'll be a great atmosphere, and it's just a neat out-of-the-box thing, and it's what has us excited.''

The Rutgers and Princeton wrestling teams have met 79 times since first meeting on Jan. 14, 1931, with the Scarlet Knights winning 20 straight bouts to take a 41-33-5 advantage in the series.

"I don't think Scott envisions his program anywhere else but being in the top 10 consistently every year,'' Ayers said. "I think we can do the same thing. So I feel like this is the starting point to have a really good rivalry between two top 10 teams. So it's going to be more exciting down the road.''

RU's 1st sports event came 150 years ago