Cortaca Jug watch parties doubled

11/15/2024

A record 27 Cortaca Nation viewing parties organized by SUNY Cortland’s Alumni Engagement office witnessed Red Dragon football's 28-to-17 point victory against the Ithaca College Bombers on Nov. 16.

The game was sold out at the James J. Grady '50, M '61 Field at SUNY Cortland’s Stadium Complex.

Yet when SUNY Cortland’s 65-year-old rivalry with Ithaca College, the Cortaca Jug, ended, an estimated 2,000 sets of eyeballs enjoyed the livestreamed game at venues in their home cities from as far away as the Los Angeles area and Ontario, Canada. SUNY Cortland streamed the game live through the Red Dragon Sports Network, as well as provided live stats.

The number of viewing parties this year more than doubled compared to last year’s 13, said Jake LeBlanc ’19, assistant director of alumni engagement and the primary contact for the Cortaca watch parties for both this year and last. That outstripped Alumni Engagement’s all-time number of 20 such gatherings.

Last year’s virtual attendance at least doubled, and clearly the Red Dragons’ national championship victory, its best season ever, inspired many first-time watch party hosts. This year's win brings the team to 10-0.

In the weeks leading up to the big game, LeBlanc reached out to both 2023 watch party groups — 13 for Cortaca and 20 for the championship game — to encourage them to continue their support for the 2024 Cortaca Jug.

“The championship game enthusiasm kind of blew everything up,” LeBlanc said. “We’ve more than doubled what we had for Cortaca last year.”

In 2023, quite a few alumni hosted watch parties for both games, he said. However, many fans chose to attend the Stagg Bowl game in person in Salem, Virginia.

In El Segundo, California, fans could cheer the 2024 team thanks to first-time Cortaca watch party host Patrick Cox ’78, owner of the Brewport Tap House & Kitchen. Guests arrived at 8:30 a.m. and started with a “nice, light brunch menu,” inspired with California’s 3-hour time difference in mind.

During the late 1970s, Cox helped pioneer live radio play-by-play broadcasts of Red Dragon sports. A recent Alumni Reunion where he met many former classmates motivated Cox to reconnect.

“The first watch party we hosted was the national championship game. We had a nice turnout, and it was great to meet people who experienced living and going to Cortland State University.”

Cortaca Jug watch parties also went international this year when fans of SUNY Cortland football living in the small community of Napanee, Ontario, Canada, reached out to Alumni Engagement for the first time.

“We are having a group of 10 to 15 of Canadian Red Dragons fans at the Queens Tavern,” Darcy Murphy said before game day.

“A few of us went to school in upstate New York and are big football fans,” Murphy explained, naming companions Clive Nickel, James Griffin and Curtis Leonard.

They’re all graduates of nearby Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., or Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

“We found out about the Cortaca Jug and have been Red Dragon fans ever since. We decided to have the watch party as we are bandwagon jumpers and have fully bought in to SUNY Cortland. We are hoping to get to the game next year, but the watch party will be a close second place.”

Social media, namely Facebook, created a partnership between first-time hosts Jody Sirota Williams ’93, a newcomer to Atlanta, Georgia, and Evan Kaschura ’14, manager of Loyal Tavern, the watch party’s sports bar location in nearby Roswell, Georgia.

“To be honest, the whole thing started because I posted in the Alumni Page and asked if anyone was having a watch party in Atlanta,” Williams said. “I just moved here in July.”

Kaschura replied, and the rest is Nov. 16 school spirit history, as Williams pulled in RSVPs from the region’s numerous alumni.

Closer to home, in Horseheads, N.Y., this year’s host Stacy Whiting Richmond '93, M '94 C.A.S. '01 said that, until this year, a growing neighborhood group of graduates with their family and friends and the odd Bombers fan had arranged for trips to pubs in and around Cortland for almost 20 years. Last year, a bus took about 40 people to root for Red Dragons at the Cortland Brewing Co.

On Sept. 1, Richmond, an assistant school principal, and her husband, a school counselor, opened a self-serve style tavern named Latitude 42 Taphouse. Now they are starting a new era in local football fandom.

“Initially, it was one of our neighbors who organized it, neighbors who didn’t recognize we had all gone to Cortland,” she said of the informal party’s long history.

“A lot of our friends have become Cortland fans just because of our neighborhood. There’s one Ithaca grad who comes and we have other neighbors go to Ithaca.”

Their children, who aren’t alumni, travel from Illinois and Virginia to avoid missing the big neighborhood event.

In the Buffalo area, Patrick Lalley ’98 decided to host a Cortaca Nation event after inviting the Red Dragon team to come dine after a game at his Blackthorn Restaurant & Pub in South Buffalo.

“He posted on social media about the team at his pub,” LeBlanc said. “The team put up a bunch of pictures on Instagram of that.”

A Cortaca Nation viewing party in the same location is the natural next step.

This year, new viewing parties also came to Malta, N.Y., and Oyster Bay, N.Y., as well, LeBlanc said.

Meanwhile, Kristin Jamieson LaBar ’07, M ’08 and her husband Tonee LaBar are 10-year Cortaca Nation viewing party pros, who only missed hosting Watertown, N.Y.’s “North Country Jug” at Time Warp Tavern once to attend the game when it was held at Yankee Stadium.

Why do they keep doing it?

“We have a lot of alums and even some former (Red Dragon) football players that live in the area, so we always have a good time,” said LaBar, who teaches kindergarten and sells real estate.

“The alum football players wear their jerseys and it’s a blast from the past! Last year we were able to host watch parties for the playoff games and the National Championship games. We had huge turnouts for those. It was super enjoyable. The National Championship was after the semester had let out, so we had a lot of current college students attend the watch party. ... super neat!”

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