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!

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.

Kripke Vs. Slash

I'm sure that many famous people read this blog. While I can't prove that President Obama, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, David Cameron or Andrew McCutchen read Sean's Ramblings, they probably do. With that written, it's already documented that former Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kordell Stewart read this blog. Now, I have proof that Big Bang Theory actor John Ross Bowie read Sean's Ramblings.

@seansramblings knew about Feldman, did not know about Jordan. Cool!

— JohnRossBowie (@JohnRossBowie) April 12, 2013

@johnrossbowie Thanks for the reply. Go Bombers!

— Sean's Ramblings (@seansramblings) April 12, 2013

So just for fun, of these two, who is the most famous person to admit to reading Sean's Ramblings?

Kordell Stewart

- 11-year NFL career
- 2001 Pro Bowl QB
- Formerly married to a Real Housewife of Atlanta
- Co-host of Atlanta radio station 92.9 The Game's Gametime with Dukes, Slash & Rachel
- University of Colorado graduate and part of one of the most memorable plays in college football history

John Ross Bowie

- Plays Barry Kripke on The Big Bang Theory, the top-rated American comedy and the most-watched entertainment television show in Canada
- Member of Naked Babies sketch comedy troupe.
- Appeared in The League, Happy Endings, Bones, Childrens Hospital, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Family Guy, Monk, Heroes and Arrested Development.
- Has a Tumblr Page
- Ithaca College graduate

So who is more famous: Kordell Stewart or John Ross Bowie? More importantly, will either or both of these individuals allow me to interview them for a future blog post?

Random Ramblings

- Today is the last day to purchase the Super Early Bird discounted tickets for Celebrate Fairfax. It's only $7 for a ticket to see the Summerland Tour (Everclear/Live/Filter/Sponge), the B-52s or the Spin Doctors.

- Remember my list of the most famous Ithaca College graduates? There are a few more folks to add to the list. Ben Feldman, an Emmy nominee for playing Michael Ginsberg on Mad Men, Jeremy Jordan, a Broadway star who is on this season of Smash, and John Ross Bowie. You may not know JRB, but you know his character Kripke on The Big Band Theory.

- I have a challenge for you: If you're in a car in a metropolitan area, turn your radio to any FM station and hit the scan button. Can you go five minutes without hearing a Kelly Clarkson or Katy Perry song? As an added challenge, can you go two minutes without hearing a Clarkson, Perry, Maroon 5, Rihanna or Taylor Swift song? I think both are impossible unless you're in a tunnel. (These performers plus Bruno Mars, Train, Pink, fun., & Lady Gaga seemingly covers every song on the radio.)

- The Pittsburgh Pirates signed Kurt Yacko. Now they need to sign Wakko and Dot!

- I found out that my 20-year high school reunion is during the same weekend as a work meeting. I guess I'll have to wait for the 25-year reunion.

- Kate of Yinzpiration won the Pittsburgh Bloggers March Madness Bracket Challenge. (I lost the tiebreaker.) Since Kate won, we're writing about her favorite Pittsburgh non-profit, Pulse. I know nothing about Pulse, so read all about the organization from I Heart Pgh's description.

Have a good Friday and weekend!