Taking a class with Stephen Mosher, professor of sport management and media, is an experience unto itself. From his eccentric mannerisms to his penchant for dropping f-bombs in class, he has a style all his own.

But how do you prepare for a Mosher class when you’ve never even set foot on the Ithaca College campus? Ask Cornell junior Jason Hartford. A basketball player, Hartford is taking his first Mosher class — Sport, Politics and Colonialism — through the Cornell University-Ithaca College exchange program.

Hartford joined the class, which meets Tuesdays, the second week into the semester. Mosher immediately called him out for being a Cornell basketball player, which, in Division-I terms, means not very good. Credit Hartford for taking the abuse in stride.

“I’d have to say, [getting called out in class] is a first,” he said. “But I play basketball, and I get called out by my coach all the time.”

Of course practice and class are supposed to be different. Coaches are paid to run players into the ground, and teachers are paid to nurture students and help them grow — or so you would think. But anyone who takes a Mosher class knows that his nurturing constitutes being yelled at — in a good-natured, educational way.

Hartford, a communications major, said he looked into taking classes at Ithaca because Cornell doesn’t have any sports classes (take that, Ivy Leaguers), and he wants to pursue a career in that field. But while Ithaca has a slew of sports classes, it was Cornell assistant basketball coach Zach Spiker ’00 that steered Hartford toward Mosher.

“[Spiker] said to be prepared,” Hartford said. “He said that Mosher has a unique teaching style.”

Talk about an understatement, but by now Hartford is getting used to Mosher’s style and growing to like it.

“He looks like a good teacher,” he said.

It also helps that, for Hartford, this class of 28 kids is likely the smallest he’ll take in college. At Cornell, lectures usually have around 500 kids, making it easy to, as Hartford put it, fall asleep without anyone noticing.

“Here I can see students getting more involved and learning more,” he said.

Hopefully, Hartford will take advantage of the exchange program and take more Mosher classes in the future.

After all, he won’t find classes like Mosher’s anywhere at Cornell.