For 40 years until his retirement in 1982, Dr. Whitney T. "Pete" Corey was a familiar face on the Cortland campus. A native of Mohawk, N.Y., Corey enrolled at Cortland in 1939 and received a B.S.E. from the College in 1943. As an undergraduate, he played basketball, football, baseball and tennis. Corey was one of the first T-formation quarterbacks playing college football in the East.
He later earned a master's degree from Columbia University and a Doctor of Education from Syracuse University. He was a Danforth Teaching Fellow in 1954.
Corey became a member of the SUNY Cortland faculty in 1947, when he joined the Department of Men's Physical Education. A backfield coach in football and an assistant coach in baseball, Corey headed both the varsity golf and basketball programs. It was as coach of the latter that he would achieve his greatest fame in the world of sports.
In 11 seasons, the Corey-led Red Dragon basketball squads posted a combined record of 146 victories and 77 losses, a 65.4 winning percentage. No other Cortland basketball coach won as often or as many contests as Corey and his squads did during the 1950's and 1960's. Under Corey, the Red Dragons captured two SUNY Athletic Conference basketball titles, including the first SUNYAC hoop championship in 1958-59.
Corey served as assistant director of athletics for three years and as athletic director for four years. He was chairman of the Men's Physical Education Department from 1952 to 1967. He then became dean of the Division of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, a post he held from 1968 until 1970, when he became acting vice president for academic affairs. From June 1971 to July 1982, Corey was provost and vice president of academic affairs. He served as acting president of SUNY Cortland during the second semester of the 1973-74 academic year.
An outstanding, versatile student-athlete while at Cortland, Corey was one of the six charter members inducted in 1969 into the College's C-Club Hall of Fame, which recognizes former outstanding athletes who have achieved success in their chosen professions.
In 1975, Corey received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association. The citation accompanying the award noted that Corey had devoted his life "to the advancement and refinement" of the College.
On Jan. 29, 1983, the gymnasium in the Bessie L. Park '01 Center was formally dedicated as the Whitney T. Corey Gymnasium, the ultimate honor for Cortland's greatest basketball coach.
Corey and his wife, Lillian, also a Class of 1943 graduate, have two children: Stephen and Betsy; four grandchildren: Corey, Adam, Joseph and Jason; and one great-grandchild: Grace.
UPDATE: Corey passed away on January 5, 2008. at age 88.
