ITHACA COLLEGE - College Football Dvds-Media Guides Project

ITHACA COLLEGE
ITHACA COLLEGE Section head
in 1979, 1988 and 1991, Butterfield was presented
the Stan Lomax-Irving T. Marsh Award as Eastern
coach of the year by the New York Football Writers
Association. The 1988 season also brought him Division
III coach of the year recognition from Chevrolet.
National recognition came to his players as well,
with 85 of his Bombers winning 149 all-American
spots.
Already a member of the Ithaca
College Athletic Hall of Fame,
Butterfield added to his long
list of accomplishments in 1997
when he became the first member
of the Bomber football program
to earn induction into the College
Football Hall of Fame.
LEONARD SCHRECK Ithaca’s football program began
in 1930, under coach Leonard
Schreck. At that time, Ithaca
played a five-game schedule that
included freshman teams from
St. Lawrence and Colgate, and
varsity teams from Mansfield,
Hartwick and Cortland.
Coach Bucky Freeman took
over in 1931 and led the Bombers
to their first winning season, a 3-2
mark. His 13-year tenure featured
nine winning seasons. Freeman
coached back Ken Patrick, who still ranks among
the program’s rushing leaders with 1,500 yards.
Football was discontinued from 1943-45. Between
11 4 Football 2008
BUCKY FREEMAN
1946 and 1957, Pete Hatch, Joseph Hamilton and
Art Orloske served as Ithaca’s head coaches.
The hiring of Dick Lyon in
1958 produced a resurgence in
the program. On the heels of a 2-5
season, Lyon’s first team posted a
6-1 record in 1958. That team, captained
by lineman John Fasolino,
a member of the Ithaca Athletic
Hall of Fame, held the opposition
to eight points or fewer in six of
DICK LYON
seven games.
In 1959 an incentive was added
to the already competitive Ithaca-Cortland rivalry.
Team captains Dick Carmean from Ithaca and
Tom Decker of Cortland joined to donate a traveling
trophy, named the Cortaca Jug, to be presented
to the winning team each year. Today the matchup
is one of the most prominent in Division III. The last
eight Cortaca Jug games held in Ithaca have attracted
crowds of 9,500 or more.
Ithaca posted three straight 6-2 records from
1962-64. Among the standouts of the period were
1962 all-American running back Bill O’Dell and
Sam Curko, a guard, linebacker and kicker who earned
all-America honors in 1963. In 1965 the Bombers
finished 8-0 for the program’s first undefeated season.
Quarterback James Harris passed for 1,269
yards and nine touchdowns that year.
Lyon’s teams posted a winning record every
season. In 1967 he joined the football staff at Army,
opening the door for the arrival of Butterfield.
Doug Bencsko (16) is interviewed by John Dockery of ABC Sports following Ithaca’s win in the
1979 Stagg Bowl while Jim Butterfield holds the school’s first national championship trophy.