Tag: Binghamton University

The Baldwins Are Taking Over Everything I Like

17 November, 2010 / Kat

The Baldwin family is taking over my life.

Tuesday afternoon, I received an email from Billy Baldwin, Binghamton class of 1985. Not exclusively to me, of course, but to me and thousands of my fellow Binghamton alums. Billy, who is the lesser known Baldwin by far (at Binghamton, when anyone would ask what he had been in, the stock answer always was, “the guy that dies in Backdraft“), has taken quite the shine to his alma mater as of late. His biggest contribution of note was when he led a successful campaign to save the wrestling program when America East stopped sponsoring the sport.

Now, Billy “Backdraft guy” Baldwin has emailed his fellow alums to lobby us to give to the Binghamton capital campaign. (Video wasn’t embeddable, so here is a linked screenshot.)

My first reaction: shouldn’t he be lobbying for himself? You really don’t see him in much anymore. Then I realized his more famous brother probably helps him out.

My second reaction: Paul Reiser wasn’t available? Tony Kornhesier? Heck, Progressive Insurance Flo? (Yes, all Bearcats.)

But that being said, it’s a good cause, given the dire straits outgoing NY governor Patterson has left the SUNY system in. Kudos to Backdraft Baldwin.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Twitter account shared a blog post about the new Wegmans (the greatest grocery store in the history of mankind) commercials, starring…30 Rock’s Alec Baldwin.

According to the Democrat and Chronicle, the Baldwin-Wegmans collaboration came about when Baldwin mentioned to late night talk show host David Letterman that his mother refuses to live anywhere without a Wegmans close by, and then went on to pontificate about the wonders of the store.

This is a big get for the store so wonderful it was my baby brother’s first word. (You think I’m joking.) But the way this week is going, I half expect to get a video of Stephen Baldwin asking me to buy Buffalo Bills tickets next.

Strike Three, Shame On Me

24 September, 2009 / Kat

09photo-home_260 No one knew where I went to college until the basketball players started stealing condoms and dealing drugs.

I am not exaggerating. I have lived in Boston for five years, and only twenty percent of those I run into have actually heard of Binghamton University, the State University of New York branch I graduated from. That is, until the university hired men’s basketball coach Kevin Broadus, and his prize recruits started finding themselves in the back of police cars. Continue reading

People Now Have Heard of Where I Went to College: My Bearcats Are Dancing

15 March, 2009 / Kat

"Even SUNY Programs Need 2 Dance" (Photo: Pressconnects.com)

Now the rest of the country knows my little school. Binghamton University won the America East Men’s Basketball Championship yesterday, securing their first NCAA Tournament bid. Over 5,000 fans packed into the Events Center to watch the game, and the ESPN2 announcers couldn’t heap more praise onto my trusty little alma mater that could.

“I’ve covered a lot of games,” said one of the announcers. “But this has to be one of the most electric atmospheres I have ever seen for a game.”

Countdown to Senior Night: The Battle of the BUs – A Senior Day in Every Sense

3 March, 2009 / Kat

This week at …On Being a Sports Girl, we have a series that I am hastily trying to put together called, “Countdown to Senior Night.” (And when I mean hastily put together, I mean it came to me as I was down in the Food Court getting lunch 45 minutes ago.) Originally hatched to be a review and reflection upon this year’s Boston University hockey senior class, I decided to open it up to posts about senior days or nights in every winter sport, since we are in the midst of a whole host of them. Of course, we’ll have a post or six about this year’s Terrier senior class, which have cemented their places in BU hockey lore for years to come.

To kick off our series, I am reposting an oldie-but-a-goodie I wrote about Senior Day for the Binghamton University men’s basketball team in 2004. I was a senior about to head off to Boston University for graduate work, and the Bearcats’ opponent that day was the Terriers. The original post – edited to take out the non-basketball stuff that followed the original post – is after the jump.

If you are interested in contributing a piece to the series – be it about senior days for your team or about this year’s Terrier seniors, email me at sportsgirlkat@gmail.com.

Finding Their Identity: What the America East Championship Means to Binghamton University

1 March, 2009 / Kat

The artsy, older girlfriend of the emo guitarist I had a crush on who lived on the second floor of my residence hall and I got into an argument one day back my senior year of college at Binghamton University. We were in a friend’s car, and we were all about to go our separate ways after a Sunday afternoon brunch; I, to a Bearcats men’s basketball game, artsy girlfriend to a poetry reading, and the rest of the group to study – which meant watch cable TV with books open on their laps, the number one symptom of senioritis.

As the car prepared to turn into the gym parking lot, artsy girlfriend said to us all, filled with self-importance, “I wish people wouldn’t go to the basketball games. Binghamton doesn’t need sports.”

I took the bait. “Oh, of course we do. It puts the university on the map to the general public.”

“I didn’t hear of Binghamton through sports, ” huffed artsy girlfriend.

“Well, neither did I, but we also live in New York State. What about those in other parts of the country? They don’t know Bingo from Adam.”

“Well,” she pointed to me. “I don’t want those people, people that only find out about colleges because of their basketball teams, to come to my university. They don’t contribute anything.”