In 1959, Ithaca College football captain Dick Carmean ’60 and SUNY-Cortland football captain Tom Decker purchased a jug as a way to foster a rivalry between their two football teams. They had no idea that 50 years later their $2 jug would be the symbol of one of the longest and most storied college rivalries in the country.
This Saturday, the 50th Cortaca Jug game will be played at the SUNY-Cortland Stadium Complex in Cortland, N.Y. Once dubbed “the biggest little game in the country” by Sports Illustrated, the Cortaca Jug represents an intense rivalry between two schools separated by a 20-mile stretch on Route 13.
“[Cortaca] was sort of monumental in the sense that we’re so close, but there was such a bitter rivalry there,” said Michael Scott ’89, a senior on the 1988 national championship team.
Cortland and Ithaca began playing each other in 1930, but back then the game was for nothing more than bragging rights. Carmean said when the jug was introduced, the game escalated to a new level.
“We were just sitting there one day, and we said, ‘We ought to get something started between the two schools,’” Carmean said. “We discussed a number of things and we ended up on a jug. Then Tom Decker purchased the jug, and we found someone to do the painting for us. We went to the schools, and they agreed that maybe this would be a good thing to start so we started it.”
Ithaca holds a 32–17 lead in the series and currently has possession of the jug after last year’s 40–17 romp. But Carmean said the game has not always been the spectacle it is now.
“The first year it was nothing,” he said. “It wasn’t built up very much in those years. As the years went on and you got past 25 years it got to be a very serious thing.”
The 1988 game has been looked at as the defining moment in the rivalry. Cortland won the Cortaca Jug, but both teams entered the playoffs and met on South Hill in the first round.
“Because we previously played at Cortland, home field advantage had changed, so we had to play at Ithaca,” Scott said. “It was a decision made by NCAA, it wasn’t anything that [Head Coach Jim Butterfield] or the Cortland coach came up with, but it made for an interesting game in the fact that the Cortland fans thought we were getting some favorable treatment.”
Because of the immense animosity between the two fan bases, the game is more than just 60 minutes on a football field. It has morphed into a daylong event, with most students beginning the festivities in the morning and carrying on well into the night. All the energy from the students and fans creates a unique on-field experience for the players.
“You’re basically on a high,” Scott said. “It’s probably one of the best feelings you could have because you’re part of something that’s bigger than any one game you’ll ever play. Our national championship game wasn’t as tough fought and on an emotional high as that Cortaca Jug game.”
When the Bombers meet the Red Dragons, season records and standings get thrown out the window. Scott said it did not make a difference what his team’s record was when it came time for Cortaca. Bringing the jug to South Hill was the most important thing.
“Whether [we] were a losing team or had a losing record or not didn’t matter,” he said. “It meant bragging rights in that part of the state.”
Fifty years since Carmean and Decker’s jug was painted blue, gold, red and white, the rivalry still marches on. Senior captain and tight end Brian Weverbergh said winning against Cortland is a feeling that cannot be beat.
“There’s a lot of pride involved,” Weverbergh said. “It’s definitely nice when you’re at the mall to see the Cortland kids and have a one-up on them.”
Freshman linebacker Ryan Clarke has yet to experience a Cortaca Jug game but said he still understands the importance of it.
“Once I started getting recruited I heard a lot about it,” he said. “I heard it is one of the rowdiest games ever. It’s a rivalry game. It’s bragging rights. It just makes everyone feel good to go to Ithaca.”
Though it started as a somewhat friendly rivalry, today’s games are filled with evident displays of hatred from both fan bases. Students from each school have T-shirts, signs and chants demeaning the other side. The Ithaca College Bookstore has even gotten in on the rivalry, selling T-shirts with anti-Cortland messages.
When Weverbergh was a freshman in 2005, he realized the significance of the game as soon as he took the field against the Red Dragons.
“I’m from Connecticut, so I didn’t even know what SUNY-Cortland was,” he said. “So, when I got here I didn’t really understand the hatred between the two schools. By the time pregame warm-ups were over and everyone in the stands was cursing me out, I understood what it meant to the communities and the school.”
Hatred aside, Scott said the game is so important to both programs that it has the potential to be played for another 50 years.
“That rivalry and that game will go on indefinitely,” he said. “They may be playing on the moon, but they’ll be playing.”
No comments:
Post a Comment