Famous Ithaca College Alumni

Gavin MacLeod, best known for playing Captain Stubing on The Love Boat as well as being a regular cast member on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and McHale's Navy passed away in May. If you're over 45 or 50, he's probably the best-known Ithaca College graduate. This got me thinking about a blog post I wrote a decade ago listing the most famous Ithaca College alumni. I think now is a perfect time to update the list. 

Please note that this is in no particular order. It's very possible that I missed several notable graduates, so please contact me if there's someone that should be here. I also only included graduates. Therefore, even though actress/TV host Ricki Lake, singer Gavin DeGraw, and Emmy-award winning actor Jharrel Jerome all attended Ithaca College, they didn't make the list.

David Muir - Anchor of ABC World News Tonight.

David Boreanaz - Actor on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Bones, and Seal Team.

CCH Pounder - Actress on The Shield, ER, and NCIS: New Orleans.

Bob Iger - Former CEO of The Walt Disney Company

Jessica Savitch - One of the first national female anchors (and her story helped inspire Anchorman).

Mark Romanek - Film director of One Hour Photo and Never Let Me Go and Grammy and MTV Video Award winning video director. I highly recommend going down the rabbit hole of seeing how he works as a director and then watching some of the videos he directed. He's responsible for some of the most iconic videos of all time.

Karl Ravech - ESPN journalist.

Kevin Connors - ESPN journalist (and fellow member of the class of '97).

Aaron Tveit - Tony-nominated actor for Moulin Rouge who is likely going to be a Tony-winning actor for Moulin Rouge though it's still not a guarantee. 

Barbara Gaines - Former executive producer of The Late Show with David Letterman.

Time to take a look at Ithaca College graduates in the Pittsburgh sports community:

Lanny Frattare - Former Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster.

Jenna Harner - Sports anchor on WPXI.

Josh Getzoff - Pittsburgh Penguins broadcaster.

John Ross Bowie - Actor best known as Kripke on The Big Bang Theory and Jimmy DiMeo on the gone-to-soon show Speechless.

Ben Feldman - Mad Men and Superstore actor.

Jeremy Jordan - Tony-nominated actor also known for his TV work on Smash and Supergirl.

Robert (Bob) Marella - National Wrestling Hall of Famer better known as Gorilla Monsoon. 

Eileen Filler-Corn - Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and first woman to serve in this position.

Meghan Musnicki - Gold medal winning rower at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

Tim Locastro - Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder.

The Birthday Boys - 6 of the 7 members of this sketch comedy group are IC graduates, and they had a show on IFC with some guy named Bob Odenkirk. 

Dane Fischer - William & Mary's men's basketball coach (and someone I interviewed!)

Zach Spiker - Drexel's men's basketball coach.

Ryan Bamford - UMass athletic director.

Liz Tigelaar - Executive Producer for Little Fires Everywhere, The Morning Show, and Nashville.

Ithaca has also produced these sports broadcasters:

Brandon Burke - Television play-by-play announcer for the New York Islanders.

Ed Cohen - Radio voice of the New York Knicks.

Drew Goodman - Television play-by-play broadcaster for the Colorado Rockies.

Nick Nickson - Los Angeles Kings' broadcaster.

Andrew (Andy) Daly - Seemingly the busiest actors in Hollywood. You might not know his name, but as soon as you see his picture, you know him (from Review, Modern Family, and even CarMax commercials).

Larry Teng - Television director and producer of Nancy Drew, Ed, and Medium.

Q Smith - Broadway actress in Mary Poppins and in the original cast of the incredible musical Come From Away.

Jan Singer - Former CEO of J. Crew and Victoria's Secret.

Bill D'Elia - Executive producer of Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and How To Get Away with Murder.

Ed Glazer - Co-owner and co-chairman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

Finally, Giorgio Tsoukalos. Who? This guy!

Steelers-Browns Recap

Can we pretend that the second half didn't happen? Wouldn't you feel so much better about the Steelers if this game ended after 30 minutes? Let's start with the fact that the Steelers defeated the Browns and are now 1-0. This is also the first time since the 2010 season that the Steelers started 1-0. In the big picture, the Steelers are 1-0 and have a win against a division opponent. Woo!

Now, here are my notes from the game:

- The Steelers led Cleveland 27-3 at halftime and outgained Cleveland 364-101 yards and had five plays of 30+ yards. Wow!

- To paraphrase Meatloaf, Antonio Brown would do anything to win a football game, but he won't do that (well he shouldn't have done this):



I was all prepared to compare Antonio Brown's kick to The Karate Kid, but nearly everyone on the internet already beat me to this observation.

- For the second half, I feel like the Steelers coaches probably told the players simply to keep doing what you're doing while the Browns actually made adjustments. Meanwhile, did the Steelers players think the game was over at the half? I feel like the players and coaches were equally responsible for the poor second half performance.

- How much did Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey make for the Lincoln MKC commercial? It has to be 7-figures, right? Unfortunately, he didn't end the commercial by saying, "I get older, they stay the same age."



- Steelers RS Le'veon Bell is good.

- I love the fact that announcer Ian Eagle stated that the Steelers avoided testing Cleveland all-pro cornerback Joe Haden, and then as soon as he stopped talking and the play started, Brown beat Haden for a touchdown.

- I was impressed by Steelers wide receivers Markus Wheaton & Justin Brown. I had low expectations for both of them, but they certainly looked like they belong in the NFL.

- The Steelers offense allowed 4 sacks while the defense gave up 183 rushing yards. Browns rookie RB Terrance West had 100 yards. The team needs to allow less sacks and rushing yards if they want to be successful this season.

- Am I the only one who thinks of the song Broken Wings by Mr. Mister whenever new Steelers punter Brad Wing takes the field?



- I've been a big Ike Taylor defender over the years. Sure, he has trouble catching the ball, but throughout his career, he generally prevents opponents' top wide receivers from having big games. Taylor didn't look good against a Browns team on Sunday without Josh Gordon or any other "scary" wide receivers.

- Good luck to Ithaca College graduate CCH Pounder on her new show CSI: New Orleans. I just wish CBS would promote the show more and give it some exposure.

The Steelers play again in 3 days against the Ravens. 3 days!

P.S. Quote of the day about the Steelers game goes to the terrific writer/reporter Dejan Kovacevic: I’ll repeat my summer-long plea for more Gay. Yes, I'm still 12 sometimes.

h/t Mikey for the video.

It's Good To Be A Bomber

Ithaca College and its most famous graduates are doing well right now. Gavin MacLeod, best known for his role on The Love Boat, recently released a book titled This Is Your Captain Speaking. (I'll have a review of the book sometime soon.) He's been making the rounds promoting his book including a stop on The Today Show. Meanwhile, David Boreanaz is back for another season of Bones as well as starring on DirecTV's Full Circle.

The Birthday Boys, of a new sketch comedy show with the same name on IFC is funny and seems to be doing well. (They even scored an interview with the newspaper of the other college in Ithaca.)

CCH Pounder has had a recurring role on Suns of Anarchy all season.

David Muir is the weekend anchor for ABC News' "World News" and co-anchor of "20/20."

Ithaca's athletic teams are also doing well. The football team hosts Framingham State University in the Division 3 playoffs on Saturday. The women's soccer team is the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA tournament and faces Messiah (not frequent reader and collaborator Messiah) this weekend.

Finally, I went to a Northern Virginia blogger event last night (more on that soon), and, um, am more than 2/3 of the way through NaBloPoMo. Yes, it's good to be a Bomber!