Final Lap

By Patrick Bohn, May 14, 2025

On the eve of retirement, Susan Bassett ’79 reflects on a successful career of driving athletic excellence.

Playing the 2023 Cortaca Jug football game at Yankee Stadium put Ithaca College in the big city limelight (Photo by Steve Hockstein)

If you’ve been to any Ithaca College athletic events in the past dozen years, then you’ve probably observed the most active person during the game aside from players and coaches. It’s Susan Bassett ’79, associate vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics and campus recreation, who can often be seen running from one place to the next; talking with and helping spectators, coaches, and staff, and — every so often — getting a chance to watch the Bombers.

Earlier this year, Bassett announced her retirement from a career that spanned four decades. With her time at Ithaca coming to a close, she reflected on her years on South Hill, which helped raise the profile of not just the athletic teams, or even the department, but the entire college.

“I feel somewhat overwhelmed that I’ve had this legacy that I won’t fully see or feel until I’ve been away from it,” Bassett admitted. “When you’re in the middle of everything, you don’t think of all that you’ve accomplished.”

“My mindset for [Cortaca in New York City] was always focused how the entire campus community could be involved with that weekend. We had students from the Park School, the School of Music and the School of Health Science and Human Performance working. I’m proud of creating a world-class experience for those students.”

Susan Bassett ’79, associate vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics and campus recreation

Bassett’s list of accomplishments is quite extensive: the renovation of athletic facilities and addition of intercollegiate teams, the hiring of nearly every current head coach on staff, the development of a comprehensive athletic identity, the department’s Sports Leadership Academy, a conference affiliation switch, and the execution of two landmark Cortaca Jug games at Met Life Stadium and Yankee Stadium.

It's ironic then, that some of her clearest memories are not just the big events, but the smaller, more intimate moments. Take this past March, after the men’s basketball team was eliminated in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Some of Bassett's most cherished memories were the personal moments with student-athletes. Here, she speaks with men's basketball player Logan Wendell '25 following the final game of his career, at the 2025 NCAA Tournament. (Photo courtesy of Ithaca College Athletic Communications)

“After going through the handshake line, Logan Wendell ’25 goes past me, then stops and comes back,” she says. “He says ‘Thank you for letting me be a part of this program.’ That was incredibly touching, that he would think to thank me in that moment.”

Bassett also recalls watching Katherine Pitman ’17, DPT ’19 set the all-time Division III pole vault record.

“I was standing there with tears streaming down my face, thinking ‘look what this woman did,’” she said. “I got so moved by what she accomplished.”

The complete list of accomplishments of student-athletes and coaches during Bassett’s tenure includes more than 100 conference championships, 28 individual national titles won by 13 student-athletes, and too many All-Americans and Academic All-Americans to tally up.

“In athletics we operate in the public realm,” she said. “We want to win, and that’s measured every day. I have appreciated being a part of the athletics culture that strives for success.”

Bassett has always been driven by success. Coming from a working-class family, “it was a big deal for me to go to college, and to Ithaca, so I had a responsibility to do as much as I could for a career,” she said.

An exceptional athlete, Bassett competed in multiple sports and enrolled at IC with a major in Physical Education.

“I thought I’d be a town’s physical education teacher and coach several sports,” she said.

But not long after coming to Ithaca, she was involved in a tragic car accident that killed a close friend from high school and caused injuries that ended her athletic career.

Through her tenure as a coach and athletic director at multiple institutions, Bassett never lost sight of the fact that college athletics was about more than wins and losses.

“I couldn’t waste time in self-pity,” Bassett said of the aftermath of the accident. “I felt that there had to be a larger purpose behind why I survived.”

After graduating from Ithaca, Bassett earned a master’s degree from Indiana University, and, thanks in part to a phone call made on her behalf from legendary former Bomber softball coach Doris Konstrinsky, took over as the head women’s swimming and diving coach and assistant women’s soccer and lacrosse coach at William Smith, kicking off her decades-long career in higher education.

Through her tenure as a coach and athletic director at multiple institutions, Bassett never lost sight of the fact that college athletics was about more than wins and losses. Mention the 2019 Cortaca Jug, which was played at MetLife Stadium in front of a Division III-record 45,161 fans, and she’ll focus on things that had nothing to do with the final score.

“My mindset was always focused how the entire campus community could be involved with that weekend,” she said. “We had students from the Park School broadcasting the game, students from the School of Music performing in the pep band, and students from the School of Health Science and Human Performance working as athletic trainers. I’m proud of creating a world-class experience for those students.”

Bassett strove to be a "coaches' athletic director" and hired many successful coaches during her tenure, including Head Football Coach Michael Toerper.

(Photo by Perry Bindleglass)

Bassett’s also proud that some of the things she’s created for student-athletes, such as the Leadership Academy, will continue to endure, providing tailored programming for athletes to help them excel in all areas of their lives during and after college. The academy provides athletes with interactive workshops, experiential activities, observational feedback, one-on-one coaching and peer mentoring.

“The Academy is hundreds of our student-athletes across all of our sports, learning from each other and supporting each other,” she said. “And that’s something I love.”

Her final athletic season saw the addition of 10 Liberty League conference titles and a pair of individual national championships to the trophy case at the Athletics and Events Center. And now, it’s time for a deep breath and reflection.

“[Alumnus and ESPN anchor] Kevin Conners ’97 once said, ‘At Ithaca College, good enough isn’t good enough,’” Bassett recalled. “And during my time here, there was not one day when I went home and I didn’t think, ‘We could have done that better.’ I always felt like we could improve.

“But I also know I left it on the field, and have given it my best,” she continued. “What I really hope people take from my career is that passion, commitment, and perseverance set the table for achievement.”