The Ithaca College Bombers and the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons have had a football rivalry since their first match-up in 1930, lasting for over a century.
The annual Cortland-Ithaca football game, nicknamed “the largest little game in the nation” by Sports Illustrated, has been a Cortland tradition for more than 50 years and one of the top attractions in NCAA Division III football for decades.
The Cortaca game routinely sells out, drawing thousands of fans. The teams competed in front of an NCAA Division III record 45,161 spectators in 2019 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, while the 2022 match is set to take place in Yankee Stadium.
Thousands more people attend watch parties at places around the nation, while students and alumni from both institutions often travel to watch the game in person.
The names of the two schools are combined to form the name “Cortaca.” The letters “cort” and “aca” are derived from SUNY Cortland and Ithaca College.
In 1959, the captains of the two teams added the Cortaca Jug to the already heated rivalry between Ithaca and Cortland. Tom Decker, the captain of the Cortland football team, was traveling through Homer when he pulled over at a yard sale and paid a local farmer named Freddy Testa $2 for a ceramic milk jug that he felt could be used as a trophy for the yearly matchup between the two teams. After meeting up with friend and Ithaca football captain Dick Carmean, the two honored both schools by painting the jug blue, gold, red, and white. Cortland was the first to win the trophy in 1959 following their 13-7 win over Ithaca.
Since then, the first Jug ran out of room for scores in the mid-1980s, necessitating a second Jug that sports the most recent results. After 2015, Cortaca Jug II was also full, and we are now on Cortaca Jug III.
As 31 of the Cortaca Jug games were won by a touchdown or less, the games frequently lived up to the anticipation. Long sections of the series have been controlled by both universities.
Ithaca didn’t lose a home Cortaca Jug game between 1969 and 1995. From 2010 through 2016, SUNY Cortland won seven straight games, including a thrilling 23-20 victory in 2014 that headlined SportsCenter that evening and was included in ESPN’s selection of the best 10 college football plays of the year.
On Saturday, November 12, Yankee Stadium will host the 2022 Cortaca Jug game.
There are still a few open-to-the-public tickets available. Mobile presentation will be the only way to enter, and all tickets will be supplied digitally.
The country’s most popular regional sports network, the YES Network, will air the 2022 Cortaca Jug game for those choosing not to attend in person. Kickoff for the Division III game on November 12 was pushed back one hour, from 1 p.m. to noon, to allow for the broadcast.