Note: This is the sixth story/announcement in the CoSIDA Special Awards feature series which will highlight all 2013 Special Award recipients. All recipients will be honored at the
CoSIDA Convention (June 12-15) in conjunction with the NACDA and Affiliates Convention at Orlando's Marriott World Center.
See the full list of recipients and features schedule.
by Dennis O’Donnell
Director of Athletic Communications, University of Rochester
CoSIDA Special Awards Committee member
“Hey, George. The ditto machine’s frozen. It won’t work!”
It was probably the last thing that George Cuttita wanted to hear. Union College was hosting Plymouth State College in an NCAA Division III playoff game in November, 1984. Snow fell heavily through the game. Union built a temporary press box at its new football field – a pipe structure with canvas covering the top, the sides, and the back. Nothing in front.
So, Cuttita did what sports information directors learn quickly: he adapted. He covered the machine with his sport coat. With snow covering all the yardlines, he went on the field with a walkie-talkie to spot the ball for his statisticians. “We did stats with pencil-and-paper in those days,” he recalled. Union made his day worthwhile, at least. The Dutchmen won the playoff game.
Over a 25-year career at Union, Cuttita learned to adapt numerous times. At the 2013 CoSIDA Convention, he will be recognized along with fellow professionals with CoSIDA’s 25-Year Award.
His career started in the age of manual typewriters – the first one at his desk was missing three
keys. It continued into the age of the internet – paper and pencils traded straight up for laptops. Phone calls replaced by email. And digital photos replacing black-and-white prints.
Hustle constantly. Union played a men’s basketball ECAC playoff game at Hamilton College. A Union player threw in a three-quarter court shot. Cuttita worked with several sources and managed to get a game clip to ESPN which used it as one of its Top 10 plays of the week.
He started as a sportswriter. In his freshman year at Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park, NY (just outside Albany), Cuttita wrote weekly articles for the
Commercial News. The
Albany Times-Union advertised for a part-time sportswriter. He worked there for two years, then joined the
Schenectady Gazette on a full-time basis. Cuttita married his fiancée, Terri Lynch, and she gave birth to a daughter, Kim. Eighteen months later, Terri tragically died in an auto accident.
With help from his parents and his sister, Terri, Cutttita raised his daughter as a single parent. He returned to college at the University at Albany on a full-time basis. After school, he worked at the Gazette until 1 am each morning. This lasted for a year. In January, 1980, he left the paper and was a substitute student teacher at Shenendehowa.
Union advertised for a full-time SID working out of its public relations office. “They saw the job as an entry-level position and didn’t expect anyone to stay there for a long time,” Cuttita said. Learn the craft, develop some skills, and move on. He started on July 1, 1980.
His first ‘road trip’ as an SID brought on a different sort of mishap. That winter, Cuttita rode the bus with men’s hockey down to Army. The Cadets beat the Dutchmen, 7-2. After the game, he got to a phone and started calling. “Remember,” he said, “this was way before email and web. You got on the phone and it took a while to make all the calls.” When he finished calling the TV stations and dictating game info to the three Capitol District newspapers, he went outside. The bus was gone.
The team forgot he was with them and left for Schenectady.
Army’s hockey coach invited Cuttita to spend the night at his house. Cuttita reached his men’s basketball coach by phone. Union was busing down on Saturday to play at Columbia. The men’s coach agreed to pick him up. The Army coach dropped Cuttita at the New York State Thruway toll booth. He met the Union basketball bus and wound up covering both hockey and basketball on the same weekend, although it wasn’t in his original plan when the week began.
“I always enjoyed working with the students,” he said, “especially with their writing.” That gave him the opportunity to blend his sportswriting skills with his teaching experience.
The students and the athletes appreciated his efforts. Melissa Matusewicz earned All-America honors in soccer in 2000. She made a copy of her certificate had it framed, and presented it to Cuttita along with a personal note of thanks for everything he did to spread the word about her skills. She attributed her honor to his work. The framed certificate sits in his den in his home outside Orlando.
Another student, Hannah Blum, worked in minor league hockey after graduation. When she was chasing her advanced degree, Blum dedicated her thesis to Cuttita because she did the thesis on sports information.
Cuttita remarried in the mid-1980s. He and Donna
(pictured, right, with family pet Lightening) have been together for 29 years. Long hours are a part of any SID’s life and that’s a challenge. Donna talked about working for the Walt Disney Company. Cuttita promised that if she took a job with Disney, he would leave the SID field and join her. She was hired at Disney in 2005. He kept his promise, leaving Union after 25 years.
When they review their careers, many SIDs would look fondly at three areas: the individual honors earned by athletes, the victories by the teams, and the coverage from the media. Cuttita has three more important facets.
“Meeting (and marrying) Donna,” he said. “Working for Dick Sakala when he was the athletics director, and my son, Danny. He was my confidante and my unofficial assistant.
“Those are the parts that mean the most to me.”
As they should.