The method you describe is similar to how you integrate backbone.js into a rails application, and it seems to work very well
https://github.com/codebrew/backbone-rails
The highway is stored here
//JavaScripts//
//JavaScripts///
//JavaScripts///
script,
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
window.router = new Blog.Routers.PostsRouter({posts: <%= @posts.to_json.html_safe -%>});
Backbone.history.start();
});
</script>
, sproutcore