My father—who has worked at the college since 1980—brought me to my first IC football games during the 1988 season, when I was five, and the Bombers were one of the best teams in the country. My two favorite players were fullback Paul Parker ’90 (left), and running back Mike Scott ’89 (I really liked that Scott did backflips when he scored long touchdowns).

One day, my parents told me to wear my Bombers shirt to school because my dad had a surprise for me. He took me to his office that afternoon, and when I opened the door, I couldn’t believe my eyes: there was the dynamic duo, right in front of me!

Both of them couldn’t have been nicer to an overexcited five-year-old pestering them with questions. My dad snapped this photo, which I’ve held onto for three decades.

As fate would have it, the Bombers won the Stagg Bowl that year, coincidentally enough, on my birthday. But it was the meet-and-greet in my father’s office that cemented a love of Ithaca College football in me that still exists more than 30 years later.