SUNY Cortland Athletics

Following his senior year at Cortland, Joseph Cummings, who died November 16, 1993, brought prestige to the relatively new Cortland Physical Education Department when he was chosen to represent the U.S. at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He was one of an elite 27-member delegation of physical education students from across the nation.

Cummings lettered in football, basketball and track at Cortland. He won the Honor Award on the undefeated 1935 gridiron unit.

A Navy lieutenant during World War II, he was known as "the original Red Raider" in Fairport, N.Y. For 36 years, he coached nearly every sport in Fairport, where he taught physical education. He became the Fairport School District's first athletic director in 1960 and retired in 1973. Cummings founded the annual Little Brown Jug football game between Fairport and East Rochester that continued for four decades. A former Rotary president, he helped initiate a recreation program in Fairport.