Sport management professor writes 400-page history of Cortaca

11/12/2026

Ryan Vooris '08 never played in a Cortaca Jug game, but he's writing the book on it - literally.

Vooris, associate professor and chair of SUNY Cortland's nationally recognized Sport Management Department, is co-author of The Biggest Little Game in the Nation: The History of the Cortaca Jug Game, a forthcoming publication with more than 300 pages of original writing that highlights never-before-told stories associated with the Division III football rivalry.

What started as a passion project has morphed into something much larger, relying on his academic background across disciplines as well as countless hours of research and interviews with former players and those with close connections to the game.

"This has turned into a much bigger project than I expected, but also one I care about a lot," said Vooris, who shares a unique connection to the rivalry.

He spent two 1/2 years as a history and political science major at Ithaca College before eventually transferring to Cortland and earning a bachelor's in sport management in 2008. He went on to Indiana University for his Ph.D., taught previously as an adjunct faculty member at Ithaca and joined SUNY Cortland as a full-time faculty member in 2015.

"I've got one foot on both sides of the rivalry," he said, passing praise to co-author Patrick Bohn, an Ithaca graduate who now serves as the college's assistant director of news strategy and operations. "At the end of the day, the story of the book is really about a story of rivalry and family and community."

At Cortland, Vooris has earned a reputation for his support of students, his service across campus and his emphasis on social media, storytelling and sport history. He spoke about the manuscript project leading up to the university's first-ever Sport Industry Summit in New York City ahead of the Cortaca Jug game, presented by Visions Federal Credit Union, at Yankee Stadium.

Talk about the motivation behind this project. What led you to pursue it?

I lived it from both sides. … I'm just so fascinated by the nature of rivalry, especially in college sports. I think there's something special about college sports rivalry because the people that are in the stands are connected to the two schools. I think that's what gives college rivalry that extra ounce of passion.

So it was that, and I love Cortland football at the end of the day. As a longtime observer and fan, I really wanted to do extensive research. The Cortaca rivalry seemed like a good entry point because it means so much to Division III. It means so much to both schools and the alumni bases, and it's "the biggest little game in the nation," so it seemed like a good title for a book.

When did the idea begin to take shape?

I had this idea probably 10 years ago, but I wanted to get tenure first. My friend and co-author, Patrick Bohn, we wanted to do this back in 2019 when we were playing Cortaca at MetLife Stadium. That was obviously a very big deal because we set the attendance record for a Division III athletic event. But it wasn't until I went on sabbatical last semester that I really had the time to dive into it and do the type of research and the type of writing that was needed - because it was a lot of research.

It was going through all the old campus newspapers at Cortland and Ithaca; the Cortland Standard, which is still on microfilm at the Cortland Public Library … I would say we hit the ground running in January 2026, and hopefully we have it out within the next couple months.

Cortaca is probably impossible to narrow down to a single game or story or interview. If you had to highlight a few interesting stories or little-known facts about the history of the game, what would you say?

Learning more about Tom Decker '61, the Cortland captain who created the Cortaca Jug with Ithaca captain Dick Carmean. I talked to one of his sons, and that was one of my favorite interviews, to learn about the rest of his life. They should do a movie about Tom Decker and the life that he lived. The Cortaca Jug isn't even in the top 10 things that he created in his life.

And then I think a lot of it starts with 1988. Two undefeated teams, upstate game of the century, Cortland wins in the regular season. Then, of course, they meet again that year in the playoffs and there's a huge controversy. Cortland's undefeated and the No. 1 seed, we beat them head-to-head, but the game is put in Ithaca by the NCAA Division III Committee, and Ithaca goes on to win the national championship. Doing research about that and talking to people about why that happened is one of the most fascinating things in the book. It's one of the longest chapters because we were able to find out some stuff that people didn't know beforehand.

More recently, Zac Boyes '25 is the quarterback of Cortland's national championship team. His dad, Jerry, played at Ithaca, coached at Ithaca, he was the quarterback in Ithaca's first two Stagg Bowl appearances. You can't write a script for an HBO show with that kind of family entanglement. Now, Jerry's son-in-law, Jack Mrozinski, is Cortland's defensive coordinator. He coached at Ithaca. And, of course, (Cortland) head coach Tom Blumenauer played at Ithaca.

Larry Czarnecki is another great example. He graduated from Ithaca, coached for a long time at both schools, was the head coach here, and now the MVP trophy for the game is going to be named after him. The are lots of little stories like that about the entanglement between the two programs.

Are there lessons you hope that your sport management students can take from your experience writing the book?

You know, colleges have history, and that history is important. One of my favorite things was reading all the old student newspapers and seeing these names like Woods and DeGroat and Wallace and Chugger Davis - names that have buildings named after them at Cortland - and having those names really come alive. Those connections still exist today. Dick Speckmann '67, who played in the 1960s and is in our C-Club Hall of Fame, his grandson is a current sport management major in our department.

When you're at a college, especially one like Cortland that's been playing football since 1893 and been around since 1868, there's history in our walls. I hate to get sentimental about it, but I feel like that history does echo down through the generations and connects us to something deeper than ourselves.

Most importantly, who will you be rooting for on the day of the Cortaca Jug game?

I'm a Red Dragon through and through. Don't let there be any doubt about that.