Alex Kroll, a College Football Hall of Famer and one of the greatest players in Rutgers football history, died on Dec. 17, according to an obituary posted Sunday. He was 87.

Kroll led the Scarlet Knights to a combined 17-1 record during his two seasons with the program, including the legendary 1961 team that went 9-0, was ranked No. 15 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll and joined national champion Alabama as the only undefeated teams and untied teams in the country. The team was inducted into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.

“There aren’t a lot of teams that ever (go undefeated). For Rutgers, it never happened,’’ Kroll told NJ Advance Media’s Keith Sargeant at the time. “It was like the Curse of the Bambino. I could understand the curse that haunted the Red Sox, trading Babe Ruth certainly deserves some sort of punishment, but it’s hard to figure out what it was about Rutgers that would induce it. There were 90-something years of football, Rutgers started the whole thing along with Princeton, and they couldn’t do it.

“The reason why I’m so touched by the honor for them is because they honored Rutgers in two ways. One, because in 1961, they rose above whatever cosmic or demonic interference that was keeping Rutgers away from an undefeated season. And they’ve honored Rutgers by what they’ve done after they left.”

Playing at both center and linebacker, Kroll was named a consensus first team All-American in 1961 by the Associated Press, United Press International, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Look and the American Football Coaches Association. He was credited with “making the quarterback sneak an offensive weapon,” according to ScarletKnights.com, with Rutgers scoring seven touchdowns on that play in 1961 with Kroll at center.

The Leechburg, Pennsylvania, native began his college career at Yale, and after two years of service in the Army’s military police, transferred to Rutgers for his final two seasons of college. His contributions in Piscataway earned him a spot in the Rutgers Athletics and College Football Hall of Fames.

Kroll was drafted by the New York Titans in the second round of the 1962 AFL Draft. He played one season of professional football before moving onto a career in advertising, rising from copywriter to Chairman and CEO of prominent agency Young & Rubicam. He retired in 1994 and relocated to Vermont, where he lived the remainder of his life.

Kroll was survived by his wife of 63 years Phyllis, his daughter Alicia, his two sons, Alex and Michael, as well as his grandchildren, Zane, Stella and Cooper.

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Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.