Wear red Friday to celebrate Cortland’s champions

01/24/2024 

The message below was sent to the SUNY Cortland campus community on behalf of President Erik J. Bitterbaum

Dear campus community members,

With the first week of classes underway, it’s easy to feel the pride and spirit that our students, faculty and staff have brought back to campus after the winter break.

Today, I want to take a moment and encourage everyone to celebrate a fall semester that featured remarkable success for our Red Dragon athletic teams, with five conference titles and a first-ever national championship for our football team. 

This Friday, Jan. 26, I hope you will join me in wearing red or your championship gear to celebrate an unprecedented fall season and how truly special it is to be a Red Dragon. I also would encourage you to wear red to all of this weekend’s home athletics contests:

• Women’s ice hockey: On Friday night, our nationally 15th-ranked Red Dragons host Oswego at 7 p.m. 

• Women’s and men’s basketball: Saturday afternoon features a basketball doubleheader as the women’s and men’s teams host Oswego at 2 and 4 p.m. respectively.

• Men’s ice hockey: Our Red Dragons host Anna Maria at 5 p.m. Saturday evening. Members of the Cortland football team will join a ceremonial puck drop and lead a t-shirt toss promotion during the game’s first period.

In the weeks after the fall semester ended, I heard from so many alumni, friends and supporters of the university about how proud they feel to be associated with SUNY Cortland. Our conversations about athletics always shifted to the value of a Cortland education, and the excellence that extends from our classrooms, across campus and into our community.

I hope to see your Red Dragon spirit this weekend, and encourage you to take pride in all that you do this spring semester.

All the best,

Erik J. Bitterbaum
President