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!

Cortaca 2019

When it was first announced nearly a year ago that the 61st annual Cortaca game between Ithaca College and SUNY Cortland was to be played at MetLife Stadium just outside New York City, I was a little skeptical. Sure, it seemed like a unique opportunity to have this game take place somewhere new in the hopes of setting a Division 3 attendance record, but how many students, faculty, and staff would travel from central New York to East Rutherford, New Jersey? Were there enough alumni in the NYC area to justify moving this game 200+ miles?

It was this uniqueness that got me and my friends on board. Living in Northern Virginia, a drive to New York City/New Jersey is much easier than driving to Ithaca or Cortland. So for the first time since 1996, I planned to see an Ithaca College football game. And as the date approached, I got more and more excited about the trip. I took 8 year old The Moose with me and was joined friends that I first met over 25 years ago.

The Moose got to witness his first ever football tailgate as we walked from the parking lot to the stadium entrance. This included seeing a woman vomiting into a bag being held by I assume a really good friend. The best explanation I could come up with when he asked why she was throwing up is that this woman had too many adult beverages and wasn’t being responsible. Fortunately, there were no follow up questions.

MetLife Stadium set up an area where kids (and adults) could pass, kick, catch, and more. Here are a few pictures of The Moose in action.

The Moose needed to be about 9' 10" to catch this pass!

Very cool ceremony to start the game.

The Bombers about to score a touchdown.

The half-time show should have been Ithaca College graduate Tony DeSare or Ithaca College student (but not graduate) Gavin DeGraw, but instead we got several Ithaca College and Cortland groups. While they were good and I enjoyed their performances, a headliner would have been nice. Even David Muir (who it turns out may have been in a class with me) and David Boreanaz doing cartwheels at midfield would have been fine!

Credit to my friend T for taking this picture below. Why no Heinz ketchup? I have a friend who believes that there is an NFL conspiracy between the Mara (owner of the Giants) and Rooney (owner of the Steelers) families since they are related somehow. If they were truly linked, MetLife Stadium would serve Heinz. (By the way, I'm pro-French's mustard, so I didn't get as upset about this as I would have if they offered Hunt's.)

With about five minutes to go in the game, and Cortland cutting the deficit from 26-6 to 26-20, I mentioned to my friends that I was much more invested in the game’s result than I thought I would be. The point of the trip was to hang out with friends and take The Moose to a game I knew he would enjoy. At that point in the fourth quarter, I realized that I wanted (needed?) an Ithaca College victory too!

Ithaca got the ball back, and I'll let Ithaca Athletics explain:

Cortland would answer after the missed field goal and found the end zone just 1:32 later to pull the Red Dragons to within a score at 26-20 with 6:53 to go. On the 7-play, 80-yard drive, Ithaca was flagged for three separate 15-yard penalties, which allowed the Red Dragons to move down to the Ithaca 27-yard line. Segala then hit Burgess for a 24-yard gain and Tripodi capped off the drive with a 3-yard run.

Sean's note: I don't want to get into the penalty calls.

Now in a fight with 6:49 left in the game after the kickoff, Ithaca needed another sustained drive, which is exactly what the Bombers did. Garcia began the drive with a 2-yard run and then Germinerio notched five straight carries for 27 yards. After two more runs by Garcia and Germinerio, Cortland burned two timeouts with 3:14 to go and Ithaca faced a third-and-six at the Red Dragon 46-yard line.

Out of the timeout, Ithaca pulled out a play for the ages with a pair of fake handoffs to stretch the Cortland defense and Germinerio threw a perfect pass to a wide open Vito for a 46-yard touchdown with 3:06 left to give the Bombers a 32-20 lead after an unsuccessful two-point conversion.

D3 Football used less words.

The Red Dragons scored on another Tripodi run with 6:53 left in the game to make it 26-20.

But Germinerio, who had picked up a bunch of yards running the ball, found Andrew Vito streaking behind the defense on a bit of razzle-dazzle, and Vito ran the rest of the 46 yards to the end zone to seal the game with 3:06 left.

And here's the play:

Nice TD #5 Andrew Vito helping seal a victory for the Ithaca Bombers! Great effort by all. pic.twitter.com/MxgQJLJqG1

— Andrew Vito (Senior) (@Andrewvito11) November 17, 2019

The ball was in the air for what seemed to be about 8 minutes! Ithaca's wide receiver was so open, you just hoped he wouldn't drop it. Great way to basically end the game.

And there was great celebration throughout the land!

Several people in my section started a “State School” chant a few times during the game. This is apparently a chant to try to denigrate the education students receive at Cortland compared to at Ithaca. I’ve always hated this chant. First, Cortland students are continuing their education after high school to become more educated and to increase their employment prospects. This is a good thing. As a country, I think we can agree that we want people to continue in education whether this is at a “traditional” school or in vocational programs. A better educated society is a better society. We also generally want more government funding to go to education. That’s (at least historically) one of the hallmarks of public education. Basically, what I’m writing is that the state school chant is garbage and needs to go. Rant over.

In case you're wondering, the Cortaca game did set the Division 3 attendance record.

Cody Holyoke, news anchor at KMBC in Kansas City, also highlighted the game on his newscast.

When your school plans to set a D3 attendance record, you fly to NYC Saturday, hurry back Sunday and talk about it on the news Monday morning. GO BOMBERS! #Cortaca2019 @IthacaCollege @BomberSports pic.twitter.com/8sHgGUj2UC

— Cody Holyoke (@CodyKMBC) November 18, 2019

Definitely a fun weekend. Go Bombers!

Thanks to T, Sista K, and T-Rike for many of these pictures.

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!

Ithaca College News (David Boreanaz Was a Steelers Ball Boy)

After writing such a well-received blog post about fatherhood, I didn't know how to follow it up. I don't get compliments on my writing/posts very often, so I wanted to create the perfect blog post that would appeal to everyone that reads (or stumbles on to) this blog. That didn't happen. Instead, (if you didn't figure this out from the title) I thought I would share some Ithaca College news.

- The commencement speaker for the 16th annual ceremony since I graduated was Angel himself, David Boreanaz. His speech, though not nearly enthusiastic as the one given by Dot Richardson (only two people will get this), is available below. In watching his speech, I had no idea that he was a ball boy for the Pittsburgh Steelers (10:40 mark). I wish he talked more about this. The audio seems to be a second or two off which is only distracting now that I mentioned it.



More about the 2013 Ithaca College commencement is available via the Ithaca Journal and USA Today. (Yes, Ithaca's commencement is national news!)

With two of the most famous Ithaca College graduates giving recent commencement addresses (David Muir of ABC News in 2012), I should start preparing my speech for 2014. Of course, IC could choose Kripke for next year.

-Michael Faber, a mentor and later a colleague of mine, is retiring from IC after 31 years. This is an interview with him from The Ithacan.

- The IC baseball team is headed to the Division III World Series after defeating Cortland in the New York Regional final. According to the IC athletics website, "the Bombers will make their 12th trip to the NCAA Baseball Championships and will compete in the eight-team championship weekend beginning Friday in Appleton, Wis. Ithaca will face Linfield in the opening round with a 2:15 p.m. scheduled start time." Go Bombers!

- Finally, it appears that there's going to be a movie about the Ithaca College-Cortland State rivalry better known as Cortaca. I'm trying to contact the filmmakers and will post more when I have additional information.

Famous Ithaca College Alumni

I recently learned that someone I regularly watched on television growing up was an Ithaca College graduate. I’ll get to him momentarily, but it got me thinking about the most famous Ithaca College graduate. Here are the candidates in no particular order:

Karl Ravech – ESPN

C.C.H. Pounder – Actress, ER & The Shield

David Boreanaz – Actor, Buffy the Vampire; Angel & Bones.

Gavin MacLeod – Actor, The Mary Tyler Moore Show & The Love Boat

David Muir – ABC News

Jessica Savitch – First female network anchor

Barbara Gaines – Producer, David Letterman

Robert Iger – President & CEO of Disney

Mark Romanek – Director, One Hour Photo; Never Let Me Go and dozens of music videos

Lanny Frattare – Former Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster


Please note that Ricki Lake and Gavin DeGraw both attended IC, but they are ineligible from this list since they did not graduate.

Back to the original reason for this post. Robert (Bob) Marella, a 1959 Ithaca graduate, will be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. You may know Robert Marella better as Gorilla Monsoon.



I feel like I knew that Gorilla Monsoon was an IC graduate but forgot.

Anyway, my guess is that David Boreanaz is the most famous IC graduate among people under 40. Folks over 40 will probably argue that Gavin MacLeod, Captain Stubing himself, is the most famous. Of course, Pittsburgh Pirates might say that there was "no doubt about it" and vote for Lanny Frattare. Your thoughts?


Update: There are a few more famous IC graduates missing from this list. You can see them in my April 2013 blog post.

Update: I created a much more comprehensive and updated list of Ithaca College alumni in this June 2021 post.

Random Ramblings Plus Links

If you happened to see a previous version of this post, you can thank Ziggy for stepping on the keyboard and somehow publishing this before I was finished.

- Why is it that whenever I burp my child, I end up burping myself?

- Speaking of burping, when my child burps, everyone cheers. If I burp, people stare and wonder what's wrong with me. This is a problem with society.

- We're almost finished with season four of Dexter, and season five isn't available yet on Netflix. Any recommendations on what to watch next? We're thinking about Arrested Development or Breaking Bad.

- Which Smiley Cookie is a statue and which one is the mascot? [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]



- Washington Redskins' WR Anthony Armstrong is spending the lockout as a volunteer youth soccer coach for 7 and 8 year-olds. [Washington Post]

- This could be the greatest children's book ever! [NPR]



- It's been fun following Nichole's 30-day song challenge. Day 6 = Bust a Move by Young MC! [Long and Winding Road]

Finally, ABC newscaster and Ithaca College graduate David Muir gave the commencement address at our alma mater.