Day 56: Bert Bondi

Bert Bondi came to us from De La Salle Collegiate outside Detroit



Tight end Bert Bondi '99 wasn't as much of a key part of the 1996 8-2 Lions team as Brian Bassett was for the 1994 squad... but he was damn close. And he also owns a nice piece of the Columbia record book.

Bondi came to Columbia in 1995 from Sterling Heights, Michigan and De La Salle High School where he was a standout defensive player. Head Coach Ray Tellier first envisioned Bondi fitting in at outside linebacker, but when he broke into the varsity starting lineup in '96, he was moved to tight end.

Bondi make a great impression right away, catching 48 passes for 483 yards and three touchdowns. He scored a key touchdown in the opening win over Harvard and kept it going from there.

His biggest game was the week 9 win over Cornell where he caught a team record 14 passes, (that's still the record), two of them for touchdowns.

Bondi's '96 numbers were somehow not good enough for any All Ivy honors, but that changed his junior year when he caught 39 passes for 516 yards and three TD's. For 1997, he was 1st Team All Ivy.

1998 saw Bondi splitting his time at tight end with some of the younger guys coming up through the program, but he still tied for the receiving lead on the team with 30 catches for 315 yards and he grabbed Honorable Mention All Ivy accolades.