SUNY Cortland Athletics

An inspirational scholastic and collegiate gymnastics champion on the parallel bars, Richard “Rick” Suddaby ’79 has constructed a women’s gymnastics dynasty as the Ithaca College head coach during the past quarter-of-a-century.

The Baldwinsville, N.Y., native captured the high school state title on parallel bars. At SUNY Cortland, he became the first-ever Red Dragon gymnast to qualify for the NCAA championships in 1978 and finished seventh on the bars at the NCAA Div. II meet a year later. As the North Atlantic Gymnastics League (NAGL) parallel bars champion, he helped lead Cortland to its first conference title as a senior team co-captain.

Suddaby, whose twin brother, Wayne ’79, was also a Red Dragon gymnastics standout, received the T. Fred Holloway Award in 1979 for demonstrating outstanding leadership in the field of physical education. That year, he also competed internationally at the Olympic Sport Club in Berlin, Germany.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Cortland, Suddaby entered the private gymnastics teaching arena and became an innovative clinician. In 1983-84, he started his collegiate coaching career at SUNY Cortland, where he led the Red Dragon women gymnasts to qualify for their first National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) championships.

Suddaby coached for a season at Fayetteville-Manlius High School before joining the Ithaca College professional staff in August 1985. A two-time NCGA Coach of the Year, he has served as Ithaca’s head gymnastics coach since 1986. He led the Bombers to 21 straight trips to the NCGA championship meet from 1987-2007, winning the 1998 national title and finishing as national runner-up in 1987, 1997 and 2004. Under Suddaby, Ithaca has recorded nine top-four finishes at the NCGA meets and 22 top-three finishes at the ECAC Championships, including capturing 12 ECAC crowns.

Five Ithaca gymnasts have won nine individual NCGA championships, 23 have claimed a total of 57 All-American honors and 37 have received NCGA all-academic recognition with Suddaby at the helm.

Suddaby spearheaded the ranking and promotion system and employment document for Ithaca College coaches as chair of the Athletic Human Resources Committee. In 1997 he participated in an NCAA Youth Education through Sports (YES) gymnastics clinic at the University of Florida.

The NCGA chair since 1994, Suddaby has directed several youth gymnastics camps at Ithaca College and SUNY Cortland. A former member of the Burdett (N.Y.) Methodist Church Board of Trustees, he was inducted into the Otis E. Sennett ’50 Baldwinsville Athletic Hall of Fame.