Ithaca College grad, NYC sports anchor to call Saturday’s Cortaca Jug battle at Yankee Stadium

ITHACA, N.Y. — The Ithaca College and SUNY Cortland football teams are set to clash in their annual battle for the Cortaca Jug in a game set for Saturday at Yankee Stadium.

Bruce Beck, veteran sports anchor for NBC 4 in New York City and a 1979 graduate of Ithaca College, will handle the play-by-play for the 12 p.m. ET telecast on the YES Network, Ithaca College said.

Beck will work alongside a team of students from Ithaca’s Roy H. Park School of Communications for the network’s broadcast of the game.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to represent my alma mater on the airwaves,” Beck said in the school’s news release. “I am thrilled to collaborate with some talented sportscasters of tomorrow on the Cortaca Jug broadcast. For me personally, this is an assignment where the past, present, and future all collide at iconic Yankee Stadium.”

One of the most recognized names in New York sports journalism, Beck has spent the past two decades at NBC 4 New York, where he is currently the lead sports anchor. He was named 2021 National Sports Anchor of the Year by Broadcasting & Cable magazine and is the founder of the Bruce Beck Sports Broadcasting Camp.

The New York Yankees invited the Ithaca Bombers and SUNY Cortland Red Dragons to play the 2022 edition of the Cortaca Jug contest at Yankee Stadium. Sports Illustrated once referred to the Cortaca Jug matchup as the “the biggest little game in the nation.”

Saturday’s game at Yankee Stadium follows the 2019 edition, played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which set the all-time Division III attendance record with more than 45,000 fans, per the SUNY Cortland website.

A limited number of game tickets remain available for purchase at Ticketmaster and at cortacajug.com, Ithaca College said.