Political science professors Jonathan ‘Doc’ Bradley, Leigh Raymond and Peter Von Doepp began watching Catamount women’s basketball together in 2023.
“When I came to Vermont, I was very excited to get a chance to see UVM basketball in action, and was lucky enough to have people like Peter and Jonathan who were pretty regular attendees,” Raymond said.
Chairperson of the Department of Political Science, VonDoepp has been attending the games with his spouse for over half of his 20 years at UVM. But it was the love of basketball that Raymond and Bradley brought with them to Vermont that pulled the three together.
“I think it was really Leigh and Doc that were kind of the gravitational force to kind of get us all paying attention a lot more,” VonDoepp said.
Bradley came to Vermont from the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2020. Raymond did the same from Purdue University three years later — the same season that the Cats defeated Purdue in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament quarterfinals.
“I came here from Purdue University, in the Big 10, where I had season tickets with a group of people in the political science department there to women’s basketball,” he said.
When Raymond made the move to Vermont, now-retired political science professor Bob Pepperman Taylor took him to his first basketball game in Catamount Country.
After Raymond suggested that he and Bradley start going to games together, they found out that VonDoepp and Taylor were longtime regulars.
“It’s been two years. I remember sitting in the stands with them when we got our hearts crushed,” VonDoepp said, referring to the WNIT semifinal loss to Saint Louis University.
Attending has become more than a means of entertainment to these professors. For Bradley, going to games has helped him feel at home at a new university.
“I came from a department that… was really isolated,” Bradley said. “So one of the things I like about this department here at UVM is the camaraderie we have.”
The professors also instruct some of the athletes in their courses, deepening their investment in each player’s growth. When the women’s basketball roster changes each season, fans have front-row seats to athletes’ journeys as they cycle in and out of Vermont.
“You really are watching these young people change right before your eyes. And it’s kind of amazing,” Raymond said.
Patrick Gym’s roughly 3,200 seats — compared to venues like Purdue’s Mackey Arena with 14,222 — brings a level of intimacy to games that can be hard to find in college basketball.
“It’s real. It’s very accessible,” Raymond said. “[It’s] also not a huge money thing that some DI men’s basketball has become, which has kind of taken, for me, a lot of the fun out of it.”
Looking forward, Raymond, Bradley and VonDoepp hope to see women’s basketball make it to the 2026 NCAA tournament — a potential third March Madness appearance since the group started attending together.
“It’s a gathering, it’s fun, it’s social,” Bradley said. “It humanizes the department quite a bit and also builds a lot of spirit for the school. It’s not just a workplace, it’s someplace we’re invested in.”
