Correction: In a previous version of this article, John’s choice of groomsmen was misstated. Tom made sure that his groomsmen were primarily made up of SU alumni. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

In honor of Syracuse University’s upcoming 144th birthday, the Orange Traditions series highlights the lasting influence and importance of SU in the lives of students and alumni.

For the Marczak family, the love of the Orange spans further than the typical four years. Their Syracuse University love affair has lasted more than a century.

Almost every living member of the family has attended Syracuse and has found their spouse amongst the snow-capped hills of campus.

It all started with Jay Gregory. He studied as an undergraduate student and also studied at the College of Law from 1894–1900, and played catcher for the SU baseball team in 1898; he met a music major, Maude Kaufman, who attended SU from 1896–1898. It was love at first sight.

“I was always told that, in the early 1900s, my grandfather saw my grandmother from afar, and said, ‘That’s the girl I’m going to marry,” said Ginny Marczak, a 1969 home economics and education alumna.

Years later, Jay and Maude had a child, Janice, who transferred to SU for her junior year and graduated in 1936 with a degree in chemistry. Next in the line came Janice’s daughter, Ginny, and the tradition continued: Ginny met her husband, Larry Marczak, a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in science.

The couple had three children: Liza, Tom and John, and two out of three came to SU. Liza, the eldest child, ultimately decided to go to Indiana University, and there’s an air of playful rivalry among the three.

“I sometimes like to think of her as the black sheep of the family,” Tom said jokingly.

Tom and John both graduated from SU in 2000, in television, radio and film production, and information management and technology, respectively. In honor of their graduation, which was also the 100-year anniversary of their great-grandfather Jay Gregory’s graduation, the family purchased a block in the Orange Grove.

The Marczaks’ academic interests are diverse, which Ginny said is part of the reason why they seem to keep coming back — she referred to SU as a “one size fits all” university, and Tom agrees.

“It was a great mix in the educational compartment for all of our academics. We could have gone to a more specific for their major, but wouldn’t have had the whole package,” Tom said. “Originally, Syracuse wasn’t at the top of my list. I was dead set on Duke, and then Virginia. But I had been (to the SU campus) so much growing up.”

When John and Tom were young, the family would come to the campus each year and have a picnic on the Quad.

“Then I thought, ‘Why would I go anywhere else?’ Just from day one, it was literally a perfect fit,” Tom said.

John reminisced as well, remembering his long summer days up on the hill, ambling through Marshall Street and having a slice of pizza at Cosmos Pizza and Grill. They agreed that the campus was a major part of their childhoods.

Though each family member stressed that their time at SU was never forced, it was almost inevitable, since the campus was so familiar to them.

While a student at SU, Ginny said she felt teachers took a personal interest in her education. Within of the first two weeks of school, the dean of the College of Home Economics knew her, making Ginny feel both touched and valued in class.

While looking back, Ginny said Syracuse still stays with her.

“When I was faced with a problem in my first years of teaching, I would push myself by saying, ‘Hey, I graduated from Syracuse. I can figure this out.’  So, I guess you could say, my years there gave me the confidence to face problems later in life,” Ginny said in an email.

And even though four generations of Marczaks have come and gone, they’re still a Syracuse-centric family.

Some of Tom’s closest friends to this day are the friends he made from his freshman-year dorm. Tom even made sure to represent the Orange at his wedding: all of his groomsmen, primarily made up of SU alumni, wore orange-and-blue striped ties.

As time goes on, they always make the trip back to campus whenever they get the chance. 

“I have my banner for the game for the front of the house for every football game and basketball game. And of course we have to go back every year to get the new T-shirt!” Ginny said. “I just love the camaraderie I feel when I go back on campus.”

Published on March 19, 2014 at 12:17 am

Contact Madysan: mgfoltz@syr.edu | @madysangabriele