154 Fun Facts About Syracuse

In the 1851 'Jerry Rescue', a Syracuse crowd stormed a police office to free a man held under which law?

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 let federal marshals seize William 'Jerry' Henry, a cooper who had escaped slavery, on 1 October 1851; the crowd broke him out the same day, and he was smuggled to freedom in Kingston, Ontario.

Syracuse, New York, was named in 1820 after an ancient Greek city on which Mediterranean island?

Sicily: the name was proposed by a villager who had read a poem about ancient Syracuse, which, like the New York settlement, faced water and had salt flats nearby; the village became a city in 1848.

Which famous mathematician was born in the original Syracuse and died during its Roman siege in 212 BC?

Archimedes, born in Syracuse about 287 BC, designed the war machines that defended the city; a Roman soldier killed him when the legions finally broke in during 212 BC.

Colonists from which Greek city founded the original Syracuse in the 8th century BC?

Corinth: its settlers, led by Archias, founded the colony in the 730s BC, and four centuries later the mother city sent its general Timoleon to free Syracuse from its tyrants.

Which two interstates intersect in Syracuse?

I-81 and I-90: the north–south I-81 meets the east–west New York State Thruway at Syracuse; in the 1960s urban renewal and I-81's elevated downtown stretch swept away the 15th Ward, the centre of the city's Black community.

Destiny USA, in Syracuse's Lakefront neighbourhood, holds what distinction?

Destiny USA is the largest shopping mall in New York State; the name dates from a 2001 plan to triple the mall's size, of which only one addition, opened in 2011-12, was ever built.

What was Destiny USA called when it opened in 1990?

Carousel Center: the mall opened in October 1990 on a former scrap yard beside Onondaga Lake and took its name from the antique carousel that still runs inside; it was rebranded Destiny USA in 2012.

Which two snow sources give Syracuse more than ten feet in a normal winter?

Lake Ontario and Atlantic nor'easters: cold winds crossing the lake drop band after band of lake-effect snow on the city, and coastal storms add their own, for a seasonal normal of about 128 inches.

What is the annual prize for the snowiest large city in Upstate New York, usually won by Syracuse?

The Golden Snowball began in the late 1970s as a friendly contest run by Rochester weather forecasters, lapsed in the 1990s and was later revived; Syracuse has won it far more often than Buffalo, Rochester, Albany or Binghamton.

What is unusual about the traffic light on Tipperary Hill?

The green is on top: by neighbourhood tradition, Irish-American youths in the 1920s kept breaking the 'British' red lens hung above the Irish green until the city agreed to turn the signal upside down.

What is painted on the road beneath the Tipperary Hill traffic light each St Patrick's Day?

A shamrock is painted on the street under the signal at Tompkins Street and Milton Avenue at midnight as St Patrick's Day begins, and flags are raised at the same light on the day itself.

Salt potatoes, the Syracuse summer staple, were originally the daily lunch of which labourers?

Irish brine-vat crews: 19th-century salt workers boiled small unpeeled potatoes in the brine for lunch; the salt crusts the skin, and the hotter boil of very salty water cooks the inside creamier.

Which barbecue-and-blues chain opened its first restaurant on Willow Street in downtown Syracuse in 1988?

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que began in 1983 as a mobile stand feeding bikers at motorcycle rallies, spent five years on the road, then settled on Willow Street in 1988; it later opened in Rochester, Harlem and beyond.

The nation whose homeland surrounds Syracuse holds what role in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy?

The Onondaga are Keepers of the Fire: the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy meets on Onondaga territory, the central of the original five nations between the Mohawk and Seneca.

What dubious title did Onondaga Lake, beside Destiny USA, hold for decades?

Onondaga Lake was often called the most polluted lake in the nation after a century of industrial waste and sewage; a 15-year cleanup that dredged and capped parts of the lake bottom was completed in 2017.

Which Syracuse car maker, active 1902-1934, was famous for air-cooled engines?

Franklin built only air-cooled cars in Syracuse from 1902 to 1934; Herbert H. Franklin's company favoured light aluminium construction, and Depression-era luxury sales collapsed before it could recover.

Syracuse China, which closed in 2009, began in 1871 under what name?

The Onondaga Pottery Company, organised in 1871, sold its hotel and railroad dinnerware under the Syracuse China name, and the line grew so well known that the firm renamed itself after it in 1966.

Which air-conditioning company was long headquartered in Syracuse and had a stadium named after it?

Carrier's $2.75 million gift put its name on Syracuse University's new stadium in 1980, yet the Carrier Dome went without air conditioning until a renovation four decades later; JMA Wireless took over the name in 2022.

Which furniture maker's handmade empire was centred on Syracuse's Craftsman Workshops?

Gustav Stickley built his plain oak Craftsman furniture, popularly called Mission style, on what is now Syracuse's east side; the cost of a twelve-storey showroom building in Manhattan pushed him into bankruptcy in 1915.

Which chip maker announced up to $100 billion of fabs in Syracuse's northern suburb of Clay in 2022?

Micron announced the plan in October 2022, two months after the CHIPS and Science Act put federal subsidies behind American chip plants; it chose a site in Clay, just north of Syracuse, for a complex of memory-chip fabs.

Which NBA team began life as the Syracuse Nationals and won the 1955 title?

The 76ers: the Syracuse Nationals, NBA champions in 1955, played 17 seasons in the NBL and NBA before moving to Philadelphia in 1963 and taking the 76ers name.

Which 1869 hoax began with a 'petrified man' dug up on a farm near Syracuse?

The Cardiff Giant, a carved figure ten feet tall, drew such crowds on show in Syracuse that P. T. Barnum tried to buy it; when its owners refused, he had a copy made and exhibited that in New York as the real thing.

What is Syracuse University's mascot?

Otto the Orange: cheerleaders named the fuzzy orange Otto in 1990, rejecting 'Opie' because it rhymed with dopey, and the university later made him official.

What original Syracuse mascot grew out of a 1931 student-magazine hoax?

The Saltine Warrior: the 1931 hoax claimed that the remains of a 16th-century Onondaga chief had been dug up on campus; the mascot was retired in 1978 after Native American students objected to it.

In which athletic conference did the Syracuse Orange compete in 2025-26?

The ACC: Syracuse and Pittsburgh accepted the Atlantic Coast Conference's invitation together in 2011, and Syracuse began play there in 2013 after 34 seasons in its previous league.

Which famous television writer, later raised in Binghamton, was born in Syracuse in 1924?

Rod Serling was born in Syracuse on 25 December 1924, but his family moved to Binghamton when he was a toddler; the creator of The Twilight Zone is honoured there with a statue unveiled in Recreation Park in 2024.

What nickname did Syracuse's Dome earn soon after it opened in 1980?

The Loud House: the Dome's original air-supported Teflon-coated roof trapped and bounced crowd noise, making it notoriously deafening; a fixed roof replaced it in 2020.

Which rival's 2019 visit drew 35,642 fans to Syracuse's Dome, an on-campus record for college basketball?

Duke drew the record crowd on 23 February 2019 even though its star, Zion Williamson, sat out with a knee injury suffered three days earlier when his shoe split open.

Which venue stood on the Dome's site from 1907 until 1978?

Archbold Stadium, paid for by oil executive John D. Archbold, was one of the first all-concrete stadiums in the country when it opened in 1907; it was closed after the 1978 season so the Dome could rise on the same ground.

Which freshman led Syracuse to the 2003 NCAA basketball championship?

Carmelo Anthony had 20 points and 10 rebounds in the 2003 final and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, then left after that single season as the third pick in the NBA draft.

Which Indiana guard's last-second jump shot beat Syracuse 74-73 in the 1987 national final?

Keith Smart hit his jumper with four seconds left, moments after Syracuse freshman Derrick Coleman missed a free throw that could have stretched a one-point lead; Indiana won 74-73.

Which Brooklyn playground legend, the nation's top-rated recruit in 1983, became Syracuse's star point guard?

Dwayne 'Pearl' Washington got his nickname at eight, in a playground comparison to Earl 'The Pearl' Monroe; at Syracuse the Boys and Girls High star was known for a 'shake and bake' move that left defenders standing still.

Which penalty did Syracuse basketball impose on itself in 2015?

A postseason ban: Syracuse sat out the 2015 tournaments, and the NCAA went on to vacate 101 of the programme's wins and suspend head coach Jim Boeheim for nine games.

Jim Boeheim's second Hall of Fame induction, in 2025, came as an assistant coach with which USA squad?

The 2008 Redeem Team, on which Boeheim assisted Mike Krzyzewski, won Olympic gold in Beijing and took its nickname from the bronze-medal disappointment of 2004; he had entered the Hall on his own in 2005.

What was Syracuse halfback Ernie Davis's nickname?

The Elmira Express: the nickname came from a sportswriter in Elmira, where Davis starred at Elmira Free Academy; the 2008 biopic The Express, starring Rob Brown as Davis, took its title from it.

Syracuse football's 1959 national champions beat Texas in which New Year's bowl?

Cotton: at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas the unbeaten 1959 team beat Texas 23-14, after sophomore Ernie Davis caught an 87-yard touchdown pass in the second minute; he was named the game's most valuable player.

Which coach led Syracuse football from 1949 to 1973, coaching Ernie Davis and Larry Csonka?

Ben Schwartzwalder, a paratrooper who jumped into Normandy on D-Day, coached Syracuse from 1949 to 1973 and won the national championship with an unbeaten team that had sophomore Ernie Davis in its backfield.

Which running back, a 1956 All-American at Syracuse, is often called the greatest player in NFL history?

Jim Brown led the NFL in rushing in eight of his nine seasons with Cleveland, then retired at 30, still at his peak, to act in films.

Which Syracuse pass rusher entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2024?

Dwight Freeney, short for a defensive end at 6-foot-1, used his low leverage to slip blockers with a spin move that became his trademark, and won Super Bowl XLI with the Indianapolis Colts.

Which US president graduated from Syracuse University's College of Law?

Joe Biden finished near the bottom of his class at Syracuse University's College of Law in 1968, then went home to Delaware, where he was a 29-year-old county councilman when he ran for the US Senate in 1972 and won.

Which president dedicated Syracuse's Newhouse School with a speech defending US air strikes on North Vietnam?

Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated the Newhouse School on 5 August 1964, the day after telling the nation he had ordered air strikes over the Gulf of Tonkin attacks, and used the ceremony to explain them.

Which of these broadcasters studied at Syracuse's Newhouse School?

Bob Costas studied at Syracuse's Newhouse School and called minor-league hockey for a local station, then left in 1974 for KMOX radio in St. Louis; he later endowed a Newhouse scholarship whose first winner was Mike Tirico.

Which Oscar-winning screenwriter, known for rapid 'walk and talk' dialogue, earned a musical theatre degree at Syracuse?

Aaron Sorkin came to Syracuse to be an actor and graduated in musical theatre in 1983; he turned to writing only later, after sitting down at a friend's typewriter while struggling for acting work in New York.

Which distinction does Syracuse's New York State Fair hold among American state fairs?

The oldest: the nation's first state fair was held in Syracuse over two days in September 1841; it then travelled among eleven cities for nearly half a century before settling in Syracuse for good.

What rare property do Green Lake and Round Lake, in a state park near Syracuse, share?

Their layers never mix: both lakes are meromictic, so the water below about 55 feet stays without oxygen and the bottom lies undisturbed, keeping a record of ancient plant and animal life.

Which architect designed Syracuse's Everson Museum of Art, opened in 1968?

I. M. Pei made the Everson his first museum and shaped it as a sculpture in its own right, not a mere container for art; two decades later he put the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre.

Which downtown district has replaced South Salina Street as Syracuse's main dining and nightlife area?

Armory Square, named for the former Syracuse Armory at its heart, was a languishing commercial and industrial district until a 1980s plan filled it with shops, restaurants and nightlife during the 1990s.

What is Syracuse's major daily newspaper?

The Post-Standard, which traces its roots to 1829 and is produced by Advance Media New York, the company behind syracuse.com, is the city's paper of record.

Which city is one of only four in New York State larger than Syracuse?

Yonkers counted 211,569 residents in the 2020 census, edging past Rochester by just 241 people to become the state's third-largest city; Syracuse, with 148,620, ranked fifth.

Who proposed the name 'Syracuse' to fellow townsmen on February 4, 1820?

John Wilkinson, the village's first postmaster, suggested Syracuse after reading a poetic description of the ancient city's mingling salt and fresh water; the townsmen adopted it and the post office followed.

The village of Solvay commemorates the inventor of a process for making what?

Soda ash (sodium carbonate): Ernest Solvay's ammonia-soda process displaced the older Leblanc method, and the Solvay Process Company's 1884 plant gave the village west of Syracuse its name.

Which company, heir to the old Solvay chemical works through mergers, paid to clean up Onondaga Lake?

Honeywell inherited the job in 1999, when AlliedSignal, the last owner of the Solvay works, bought the thermostat maker and took its better-known name; the dredging and capping it paid for ended in 2017.

What nickname is given to the Tipperary Hill youths said to have kept smashing the red traffic lamp?

Stonethrowers: by neighbourhood tradition they stoned the 'British' red lens until the city gave in; Stone Throwers Park, built beside the signal in 1997, has a bronze family whose son carries a slingshot in his back pocket.

What did Syracuse's Charles Brannock invent in the 1920s that shoe stores still use today?

The foot-measuring device: Brannock, a Syracuse shoe-seller's son, spent two years on the idea as a university student, patented it in the 1920s and founded a company in the city to build it.

Which drug did Bristol-Myers begin mass-producing in East Syracuse in the 1940s?

Penicillin: Bristol-Myers bought Cheplin Laboratories in 1943 and turned its plant to mass-producing the new antibiotic for Allied forces; the site went on making penicillin until the mid-2000s.

Syracuse lies about halfway by road between New York City and which Canadian city on Lake Ontario?

Toronto: Syracuse is about 245 miles by road from both cities, and Amtrak's daily Maple Leaf between New York and Toronto stops there on its twelve-hour run.

Which lake, clean enough to be piped to the city unfiltered, is Syracuse's main water source?

Skaneateles Lake lies higher than Syracuse, so its water reaches the city by gravity; to keep the supply unfiltered, the city employs inspectors who check septic systems and other risks across the lake's watershed.

The Labor Day Storm that tore through Syracuse and its State Fairgrounds in 1998 was what kind of storm?

A derecho, a fast-moving line of straight-line winds, reached Syracuse just after 1 a.m. with gusts estimated at up to 115 mph; three people were killed and ten injured, mostly at the State Fairgrounds.

Syracuse sits at the northeastern corner of which New York wine region?

The Finger Lakes: glaciers deepened eleven long, narrow valleys into the lakes that give the region its name, and it is now New York's largest wine-producing area.

Which 1993 blizzard buried Syracuse under 43 inches?

The Storm of the Century shut every major airport on the East Coast at some point in its passage; Syracuse's 42.9 inches helped make 1992-93 the city's snowiest winter on record.

Roughly how much snow did the 1993 'Storm of the Century' dump on Syracuse in 48 hours?

43 inches: the blizzard of 13-14 March 1993 buried Syracuse under 42.9 inches, the city's record for a single storm, and shut down the airport and the Thruway.

Syracuse's population peaked at over 220,000 in which census year?

1950: the census counted 220,583 residents, Syracuse's all-time high; the city then shrank for six straight decades before the 2020 count showed its first decennial increase since.

Which artist's first museum retrospective, 'This Is Not Here', opened at Syracuse's Everson Museum in 1971?

Yoko Ono arrived with her husband, John Lennon, and the show was besieged by excited Beatles fans, who left damage behind them at the museum.

Which institution was Central New York's largest employer as of 2025?

SUNY Upstate Medical University led the region with more than 11,000 jobs, a mark of how a city built on factories now runs on hospitals and higher education.

Which building has been the tallest in Syracuse since the late 1920s?

The State Tower Building, an Art Deco tower of about 312 feet, was faced in brick that grows lighter towards the top, a trick to make the city's first skyscraper look taller still.

Which former village, now a Syracuse neighbourhood, calls itself 'the village within the city'?

Eastwood stayed an independent village until 1926, when Syracuse took it in during the city's last round of annexations; it still trades on a village feel along its James Street shops.

Which Syracuse neighbourhood hosts a Street Cultural Fair each September?

Westcott, the bohemian quarter east of Syracuse University, started its Westcott Street Cultural Fair in 1991 as a statement of neighbourhood pride; the one-day fair opens with a parade at noon.

Which immigrant group dominated Syracuse's North Side in the 19th century, before newer arrivals all but supplanted them?

German families held the North Side until labourers who came in 1883 to build the West Shore Railroad settled around Pearl Street and, by 1899, had all but supplanted them.

Which orchestra replaced the bankrupt Syracuse Symphony in the early 2010s?

Symphoria was launched in December 2012 by players of the Syracuse Symphony, which had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2011; in 2024 it renamed itself The Syracuse Orchestra.

Syracuse's MOST museum is devoted to what?

Science and technology: the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology, the MOST for short, closed its domed IMAX theatre in 2021 and opened the laser-projection ExploraDome in its place a year later.

Syracuse's Burnet Park holds the Rosamond Gifford Zoo and which other attraction, built in 1901?

Public golf course: the par-three course went in fifteen years after Major John Burnet gave the city his hilltop farmland for a park, and it is among the oldest municipal courses in the country.

What is the two-mile holiday drive-through light show at Onondaga Lake Park called?

Lights on the Lake began on Thanksgiving Day 1990 as a half-mile display called Holiday in Lights, and has since grown to four times that length along the shore in Liverpool.

Syracuse Nationals owner Danny Biasone is credited with introducing what to the NBA in 1954?

The 24-second shot clock, championed by Nationals owner Danny Biasone and adopted for the 1954-55 season, ended stalling; league scoring jumped about 14 points a game.

Which Hall of Famer made his pro debut for the Syracuse Nationals and led them to their first winning record?

Dolph Schayes picked Syracuse over the New York Knicks, who had drafted him fourth overall, because the Nationals offered more money; they went 40-23 in his first season, 1948-49.

Who was elected in 2017 as Syracuse's first independent mayor in over a century?

Ben Walsh won with no major-party line, the first to do so since Louis Will in 1913, even though his father and grandfather had both won office in Central New York as Republicans.

Who was elected in 2009 as Syracuse's first female mayor?

Stephanie Miner, a Democrat, won in 2009 as the first woman elected to lead Syracuse and served two terms; in 2018 she left the party line to run for governor against Andrew Cuomo, and lost.

What is Syracuse University's independent student newspaper called?

The Daily Orange, first printed in 1903, cut its ties to the university in 1971 after administrators refused to back it in a libel suit and tried to install an editor of their own.

What is the name of Syracuse's regional bus system?

Centro, the bus arm of a regional authority formed in 1970, times its routes to reach the downtown hub together so riders can change buses, and also runs service in Oswego, Auburn and Utica.

What was Syracuse's short-lived commuter rail service, launched in 1994, called?

OnTrack ran secondhand diesel railcars between the lakefront mall and Syracuse University, but ridership fell to about 50 a day, a tenth of what it needed, and regular service stopped in 2007.

What was I-81 through Syracuse known as when first built?

The Penn-Can Expressway, also written Penn-Can Highway, was one of four expressways New York proposed in 1953 and became I-81 in 1957; a 1976 shopping mall north of the city borrowed its name.

Syracuse's Community Grid project, chosen in 2019, replaces the downtown I-81 viaduct with what?

A boulevard: the Community Grid plan tears down the elevated I-81 viaduct through downtown, replaces it with a street-level Business Loop boulevard, and shifts through traffic onto the I-481 loop.

Syracuse University was founded with roots in which church?

Methodist Episcopal: the church's Genesee College won state approval to move from Lima to Syracuse, but Lima got a court injunction, so its backers chartered a brand-new university instead.

Syracuse University's memorial wall to the Pan Am Flight 103 victims stands in front of which campus building?

The Hall of Languages, the first building on campus, rises behind the semicircular wall, which was dedicated on 22 April 1990 and carries the names of the 35 students who were killed.

What are the 35 Syracuse seniors who receive scholarships in memory of the Lockerbie bombing victims called?

Remembrance Scholars number 35 because Syracuse lost 35 students, flying home from a semester abroad, when Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed in 1988; each scholar represents one of them.

Syracuse University's first colours, chosen in 1872, paired rose pink with which other shade?

Pea green and rose pink lasted barely a year; later a committee found that no other college had claimed orange on its own, and Syracuse made that its single official colour.

L. Frank Baum, who grew up on an estate just north of Syracuse, wrote which children's classic?

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz came out in 1900; Baum had bred poultry as a young man, and fourteen years earlier he published a very different book, a guide to raising Hamburg chickens.

Which jersey number, worn by three College Football Hall of Famers, did Syracuse retire in 2005?

44 was worn by three star running backs and grew so tied to the school that the campus ZIP code is 13244; football retired the number in 2005 and brought it back ten years later.

Which three-time All-American Syracuse running back went sixth overall to Denver in 1967?

Floyd Little became 'The Franchise' because his choice to sign with Denver was credited with drawing enough fans to keep the Broncos in town; he reached the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

Which Philadelphia Eagles quarterback starred for Syracuse in the 1990s?

Donovan McNabb was his conference's Offensive Player of the Year three times at Syracuse, yet when the Eagles took him second overall in 1999 a group of their own fans booed him on the draft stage.

In which small town west of Syracuse did coach Jim Boeheim grow up?

Lyons, the Wayne County seat, is where the Boeheim family ran a funeral home; he turned up at Syracuse in 1962 as a walk-on and stayed for six decades.

Which defence became Jim Boeheim's trademark during his 47 seasons as Syracuse's head basketball coach?

The 2-3 zone was his signature: Boeheim mixed his defences in his early years, then went almost exclusively to the zone from the mid-1990s while most leading coaches stayed with man-to-man.

Which former Syracuse point guard took over from Jim Boeheim as head coach in 2023?

Adrian Autry got the job only because Mike Hopkins, long the designated successor, had left in 2017 for a head-coaching job elsewhere; Autry lasted three seasons before Syracuse fired him in March 2026.

Which coach, Jim Boeheim's predecessor and former boss, led Syracuse to its first Final Four in 1975?

Roy Danforth took Syracuse to the 1975 Final Four, where it lost in the semifinal; a year later he left for Tulane and his assistant got the job he would keep for 47 seasons.

Syracuse was a founding member of which conference in 1979?

The Big East grew out of talks among four independents, Syracuse, Georgetown, St. John's and Providence, after new NCAA scheduling rules made life outside a conference harder.

Georgetown snapped a 57-game Syracuse home winning streak in the last game at which arena?

Manley Field House closed with a 52-50 upset in February 1980, after which Georgetown coach John Thompson declared 'Manley Field House is officially closed', the taunt credited with igniting the rivalry.

Syracuse won its 2003 national title with an 81-78 win over which team?

Kansas: in the 2003 final in New Orleans, Gerry McNamara hit six first-half three-pointers and Hakim Warrick blocked a late three to seal Syracuse's 81-78 win over the Jayhawks.

Which team beat Syracuse 76-67 in the 1996 national final?

Kentucky, a 34-2 side stacked with future NBA players, won 76-67 even though Syracuse's John Wallace outscored everyone on the floor with 29 points.

Which rival did Syracuse outlast 127-117 in a six-overtime conference tournament game in 2009?

UConn never trailed through five overtimes, in which Syracuse did not once hold the lead, before the Orange pulled clear in the sixth of a game that ended at 1:22 in the morning.

Which future NBA Hall of Famer starred for Syracuse from 1963 to 1966 as Jim Boeheim's teammate?

Dave Bing was Syracuse's first consensus All-American in 39 years and roomed with Boeheim; after his playing days with the Pistons he built a steel business and was elected mayor of Detroit in 2009.

Which race did Syracuse University student Kathrine Switzer enter in 1967 as its first officially registered woman?

The Boston Marathon had never given a woman a number; she signed her entry 'K. V. Switzer', and when an official tried to tear the number off her mid-race, her boyfriend knocked him down and she ran on to finish.

Under what nickname do the teams of Syracuse's Le Moyne College, new to NCAA Division I in 2023, play?

The Dolphins left Division II for the Northeast Conference, a jump that shut them out of the NCAA tournament for their first seasons while the Jesuit college served out its transition.

Syracuse's Upstate Medical University traces its roots to the college where which woman earned her 1849 MD?

Elizabeth Blackwell got into Geneva Medical College because the faculty left her admission to a vote of the all-male students, who said yes as a joke; two years later she had her degree.

Before becoming the Mets, Syracuse's Triple-A club was long known by what name?

The Chiefs took the name in 1934, became the SkyChiefs in 1997 to move away from Native American imagery, went back to Chiefs with a steam locomotive logo, and turned into the Mets in 2019.

Which MLB club was Syracuse's Triple-A parent from 1978 to 2008?

The Toronto Blue Jays kept their top farm club in Syracuse for 31 seasons from 1978, and many of the players who won Toronto's World Series titles in 1992 and 1993 came up through it.

The Syracuse Crunch were the AHL affiliate of which NHL team in the 2025-26 season?

The Tampa Bay Lightning have been the Crunch's NHL parent since 2012; the franchise arrived from Hamilton, Ontario, in 1994, and fans picked its new name in a public vote among five choices.

The New York State Fair's rotating sculpture, a fixture since 1969, is carved each year from 800 pounds of what?

Butter: the sculpture turns at the centre of the fair's Dairy Products Building, and once the fair closes it is recycled into fuel instead of being eaten.

The New York State Fairgrounds sit in which town on the shore of Onondaga Lake?

Geddes: in 1890 the Syracuse Land Company gave the fair's organisers 100 acres there, crossed by railways that made hauling exhibits easy, and the roving fair settled by the lake for good.

Salt potatoes gained popularity in 1904 at clambakes held where?

Hinerwadel's Grove in North Syracuse served the potatoes at its popular clambakes, and the family firm later put its name on the bagged kits, salt packet included, sold in local stores.

Which company shut the Syracuse China factory in 2009 after 138 years?

Libbey, the Toledo glassmaker, shut the Lyncourt factory in April 2009, put its 275 workers out of a job and moved all Syracuse China production out of North America.

Syracuse's Landmark Theatre opened on South Salina Street in the late 1920s under what name?

Loew's State Theatre: the Thomas Lamb movie palace opened with an ornate Indo-Persian interior and was renamed the Landmark after a 1970s campaign saved it from demolition.

Syracuse's Erie Canal Museum occupies which 1850 structure, the last of its kind?

The Weighlock Building worked as a giant scale: canal boats floated in and were weighed to set their tolls, until New York stopped charging tolls in 1883.

Which title, always held by an Onondaga leader, belongs to the presiding officer of the Haudenosaunee Grand Council?

Tadodaho, in the oral tradition, was a feared Onondaga leader whom Hiawatha and the Peacemaker won over when the league was founded; his name then passed to each man chosen to preside.

Why was fishing banned in Onondaga Lake in 1970?

Mercury contamination: a chemical works on the shore had been letting mercury waste run straight into Onondaga Lake, and in 1970 the state and federal governments banned fishing there.

Which developer built the lakefront mall that became Destiny USA?

The Pyramid Companies, the Syracuse-based developer run by Robert Congel, cleared oil tanks and scrap yards on the lakefront to build the mall, which opened in 1990.

The historic centre of the original Greek Syracuse sits on which island?

Ortygia, a small island joined to the mainland by bridges, holds the old city of Syracuse, the Fountain of Arethusa and a cathedral built into a Greek temple of Athena.

Which power launched a disastrous expedition against Greek Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War?

Athens: the expedition of 415-413 BC ended with its fleet destroyed in Syracuse's Great Harbour and thousands of prisoners penned in the city's stone quarries, where disease and hunger killed most of them.

Which painter, on the run in 1608, named the cave at Syracuse known as the Ear of Dionysius?

Caravaggio, who had just escaped from prison in Malta, was shown the cave and named it for its ear-like shape; during the same stay in the city he painted the Burial of St Lucy.

Which Roman, prosecuting the corrupt governor Verres, called Syracuse the greatest and most beautiful of all Greek cities?

Cicero said it in his speeches against Verres, the governor accused of plundering the island he ruled; Verres did not wait for the verdict and slipped away into exile.

Which Roman commander captured Syracuse in 212 BC and is said to have ordered its famous inventor spared?

Marcellus took the city after a long siege, though a soldier killed the inventor regardless, and he shipped home so many Syracusan artworks that Plutarch says Rome first learned its taste for Greek art.

What device attributed to Syracuse's inventor supposedly hoisted Roman ships out of the sea?

The Claw: ancient accounts describe crane-like beams with grappling hooks that seized the prows of Roman galleys, lifted them and dropped them; legend also credits him with a burning mirror.

Which Greek playwright was among the famous guests hosted at the Syracusan court?

Aeschylus visited the court of the tyrant Hieron I in the 470s BC, staged his Persians there and wrote The Women of Aetna for Hieron's new city; Plato later visited too.

Syracuse's airport is named after Clarence E. Hancock, who held what office?

US Congressman: Clarence E. Hancock represented the Syracuse area in the House from 1927 to 1947, and his name went on the airport in 1949, when the city opened a wartime Army airfield to civilian flights.

Who was elected in November 2025 as Syracuse's first Black mayor?

Sharon Owens was deputy to a term-limited mayor who endorsed her; she won the Democratic primary in June and the general election in a landslide, becoming the second woman in the job.

What kept the New York State Fair from being held in Syracuse between 1942 and 1947?

The grounds were a military base through the Second World War and just after, as they had been in 1917, when they served as Camp Syracuse; a shortened fair came back in 1948.

Which Hollywood A-lister, born Thomas Mapother IV, entered the world in Syracuse in July 1962?

Tom Cruise was born in Syracuse on July 3, 1962, the son of an electrical engineer and a special education teacher who had both come from Louisville.

The Brannock Device, a metal gauge long made in Syracuse by its inventor's company, measures what?

Shoe size is what the Brannock Device reads, from length and width to arch length. In 2018 Syracuse's baseball team played one night as the Syracuse Devices in its honour.

Which legendary courtier of Syracuse's tyrant Dionysius sat beneath a sword hanging by a single horsehair?

Damocles had flattered the tyrant about his good fortune, so Dionysius let him swap places for a day, with a blade dangling over the throne to show what power feels like.

Which hitmaker, born in Syracuse on July 4, moved to Texas as a boy when his father joined the Dallas Cowboys' staff?

Post Malone was born Austin Post in Syracuse, and his family left for Grapevine, Texas, when his father became the Cowboys' manager of concessions.

Syracuse abolitionists freed an arrested man in the 1851 Jerry Rescue in open defiance of which federal law?

The Fugitive Slave Act was barely a year old when a Syracuse crowd freed William Henry, known as Jerry, on the very day the anti-slavery Liberty Party held its state convention in the city.

Which defensive scheme, used almost exclusively from about 1996, became the trademark of Jim Boeheim's Syracuse teams?

The 2-3 zone sets two defenders out front and three along the baseline. Most top coaches prefer man-to-man, which made Boeheim's devotion to the zone unusual.

Which 1977 Paul Newman sports movie filmed a brawl in the stands inside Syracuse's War Memorial arena?

Slap Shot staged the scene where the Hanson brothers charge into the crowd at Syracuse's War Memorial, and the film's final villains are a goon-stocked Syracuse team.

Which Syracuse University musical theater major was crowned the first Black Miss America in September 1983?

Vanessa Williams left Syracuse after two years when she won the crown, and the university granted her a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree a quarter-century later.

Which Greek philosopher made three voyages to ancient Syracuse and tried to make its young tyrant a philosopher-king?

Plato returned to Syracuse around 366 BC to tutor Dionysius II at the request of the ruler's uncle Dion, only for the young tyrant to grow suspicious of that same uncle.

The 1938 Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse retells which Shakespeare play about two sets of twins?

The Comedy of Errors sends a master and his servant from ancient Syracuse to Ephesus, home of their long-lost twins, a plot Shakespeare had borrowed from the Roman playwright Plautus.

Which future rock frontman studied under the poet Delmore Schwartz at Syracuse University before graduating in 1964?

Lou Reed called Schwartz the first great person he ever met, and dedicated a song on the first Velvet Underground album to his old teacher.

Which Syracuse-born basketball star led the UConn Huskies to four consecutive national championships?

Breanna Stewart was born in Syracuse and played her high school ball in its northern suburbs. She was named the Final Four's most outstanding player a record four times.

Which future US president spent much of his childhood in Fayetteville, a village just east of Syracuse?

Grover Cleveland moved to Fayetteville with his family as a small boy, and later served a two-year apprenticeship in a store there when money troubles pulled him out of school.

Which Syracuse power forward did the New Jersey Nets select first overall in the 1990 NBA draft?

Derrick Coleman went first to the Nets after four seasons at Syracuse, where Jim Boeheim said no player in the program's history had made more impact.

Whose block of a potential game-tying three-pointer sealed Syracuse's 2003 NCAA basketball championship?

Hakim Warrick used his long arms to swat away Michael Lee's shot from beyond the arc, and Syracuse held on to win the NCAA tournament for the first time.

Which sport gave Syracuse University its first national championship by a women's team, in 2015?

Field hockey delivered the breakthrough under coach Ange Bradley, seven years after the team had first climbed to No. 1 in the national polls.

Lyman C. Smith began building which office machine in his Syracuse gun factory in 1889?

Typewriters rolled out of Smith's gun factory under the Smith-Premier name, the first step toward the company the world came to know as Smith Corona.

Which Art Deco landmark in downtown Syracuse is crowned by Spirit of Light, a 28-foot winged figure of stainless steel?

The Niagara Mohawk Building went up in 1932 as headquarters of what was then the nation's largest electric utility, so its winged statue stands for the spread of electricity.

Which Syracuse University mathematics graduate became the first woman to pilot and later command a Space Shuttle?

Eileen Collins chose Syracuse for its Air Force ROTC program, and in 1999 commanded the shuttle mission that deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Which coach led Syracuse football to an unbeaten 1987 season capped by a Sugar Bowl tie with Auburn?

Dick MacPherson swept the major coach of the year awards after that 11-0-1 campaign, then left after the 1990 season to take charge of the NFL's New England Patriots.

Gary and Paul Gait, twin stars of Syracuse lacrosse from 1987 to 1990, came from which Canadian city?

Victoria, British Columbia, raised the twins, who took up lacrosse at age four and later returned to star for the hometown Victoria Shamrocks.

The 'Air Gait', a dunk-style lacrosse shot born at Syracuse and later banned by the NCAA, starts with a leap from where?

Behind the goal is where Gary Gait took off, flying over the crease to dunk the ball over the crossbar before landing on the far side.

Which three brothers from West Carthage, New York, all starred for Syracuse lacrosse around the turn of the millennium?

The Powells, Casey, Ryan and Mikey, each wore Syracuse's revered No. 22 jersey, the shirt handed to the player expected to be the team's best.

Which sculpture graduate coached Syracuse lacrosse to its first NCAA title in 1983 and later recruited the Gait twins?

The varsity passed from father to son when Syracuse's coach since 1931 handed over to Roy Simmons Jr. The son later stepped down partly to spend more time on his art.

Why did the NCAA strip Syracuse of its 1990 men's lacrosse championship, its third in a row?

A co-signed car loan undid the title: the head coach's wife had put her name to the paperwork for star player Paul Gait, and the NCAA ruled it an infraction.

Syracuse won its first NCAA lacrosse title in 1983 by erasing a 12-5 third-quarter deficit against which rival?

Johns Hopkins was playing in its seventh straight title game and led by seven, until Syracuse reeled off eight straight goals on the way to a 17-16 win.

Which annual prize for college lacrosse's outstanding player went to Syracuse attackmen in 2002, 2004 and 2008?

The Tewaaraton Award takes an Indigenous name for the game that became lacrosse, and each recipient takes home a bronze sculpture of a Native player.

Which in-state rival lost the 2009 NCAA lacrosse final to Syracuse after leading with five seconds left?

Cornell was seconds from the title when Kenny Nims scored with four seconds left to force an extra period, where Cody Jamieson won it 10-9 for Syracuse.

Which opponent led Syracuse 12-11 in the fourth quarter of the 2004 NCAA lacrosse final before falling 14-13?

Navy got the ball back with 15 seconds left but could not get a shot away, after Syracuse had outscored the Midshipmen 3-1 over the final five minutes.

Which coach won five NCAA men's lacrosse titles at Syracuse before Gary Gait replaced him in 2021?

John Desko had already spent 19 years as a Syracuse assistant coach before he took the top job in 1999.