Albright College

Albright College
Motto	Veritas et Justitia
Motto in English	Truth and Justice
Established	1856
Type	Private
Religious affiliation	United Methodist Church
Endowment	$38.0 million[1]
President	Lex O. McMillan, III
Students	2,334
Undergraduates	1,660 traditional day and about 600 accelerated degree program
Postgraduates	100
Location	Reading, Pennsylvania, USA
Campus	Suburban 118 acres (48 ha)
Colors	Red and White
Athletics	23 varsity/club sports[2]
Mascot	Lion
Website	www.albright.edu

Albright College is a private, co-ed, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1856 and is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States.

Overview

Albright College is a private college that offers a liberal arts curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus. Albright College is accredited by the Middle States Association, and offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees, as well as a Master of Arts and Master of Science degrees in education. The college also offers accelerated degree programs.

With a student/faculty ratio of 12:1, Albright College enrolls some 1,660 undergraduates in traditional programs, about 600 students in accelerated degree programs in nine locations and about 100 students in the master’s program in education.

Albright's hallmarks are connecting fields of learning, collaborative teaching and learning, and a flexible curriculum that allows students to create an individualized education. In 2011, more than half of students have a dual, combined or interdisciplinary concentration, with as many as 200 different combination in a given year.

For the entering class of 2012, Albright received more than 7,000 applications for a spot the class of approximately 500 students. Albright does not require applicants to take the SAT or submit SAT scores: submission of these scores is optional.

Curriculum

Albright offers liberal arts and pre-professional programs. The college emphasizes the ability of students to combine fields of learning to create individualized and interdisciplinary majors. Albright has focused on interdiciplinary learning for decades. It created the first undergraduate psychobiology program in the nation in the 1960s. The college also created the first undergraduate biochemistry program in the region.

The decades since have seen the creation of interdisciplinary programs such as child and family studies, environmental studies, optical physics (the only such program nationwide at a small college), and three Johnson Centers for Interdisciplinary Studies. In addition to 11 interdisciplinary areas of concentration such as psychobiology, biochemistry, crime & justice, and Latin American studies, there are a number of combined concentrations, for example, music business.

Athletics

Albright College athletic teams compete in the Commonwealth Conference of the Middle Atlantic Corporation. Albright's football team was ranked #24 in the country in the 2008 USA Today Division III preseason poll and followed this accolade by sharing a MAC Championship and winning the ECAC Bowl Championship. In 2009, the football program made it to the NCAA National Quarterfinals and finished with a 11-2 record, the most wins in program history. Additionally, both its swim teams have a reputable name in Division III swimming, with the women's team being conference championships four years in a row. Albright men swimmers have also achieved NCAA provisional cuts over the years.

Notable individuals and events

Charles "Pop" Kelchner founded the Men's Basketball team in 1900 and was Athletic director at Albright College for 21 years. He was involved in aspects of major league baseball for over 50 years. Albright College dedicated the baseball field as Kelchner Field in 1952. Branch Rickey gave the dedication speech; with Connie Mack in attendance. Kelchner was a graduate of Lafayette College with two degrees and was proficient in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Classical Latin and Greek. He served as Professor of Languages and Athletic director.^[3]

Clarence Lester "Biggie" Munn got his first head coaching job at Albright College in Reading, Pa. in 1935. He held the position for two seasons. He is most notable for coaching at Michigan State University (MSU) from 1947-1953. He then became MSU's athletic director and held that position for 18 years (1953-1971).

William "Lone Star" Dietz was the Director of Athletics and Head Football Coach at Albright from 1937-1942. Dietz led the football team to their first undefeated season in 1937. He previously lead Washington State to 1916 Rose Bowl victory. In the NFL, Dietz had coached the Boston "Redskins" (1933-1934), the forerunner of the Washington Redskins. Dietz is in the Albright College Athletic Hall of Fame.^[4]

In 1948, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) and Albright College played the first intercollegiate football game between an Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) institution and a majority-white institution.^[5]

Dr. Wilbur G. Renken was Athletic Director and basketball head coach for a remarkable 38 consecutive seasons. A highly regarded figure in collegiate athletics in general and specifically basketball, Dr Renken was the President of the United States Olympic Basketball Team Selection Committee for the 1976 Olympic games.^[6] He also served as the President of the NABC (National Association of Basketball Coaches) in 1979-1980^[7]

Fight song

The "Albright Fight Song" is the fight song for Albright College. The lyrics are:
Fight to win for Albright,
Knock them in for Albright,
And bring us the victory.

Wake another score, boys,
Wipe them in their gore, boys,
For Albright and victory.

Onward, onward, battle with the foe,
Forward, forward, the Red and White must go,

Fight to win for Albright,
Knock them in for Albright,
You must win the victory. FIGHT! Go Albright Lions, Go!

Alma Mater

These are the lyrics for Albright College's Alma Mater.

Come cheer Alma Mater, with song and with laughter And fling abroad her colors Red and White O'er hill, dale and valley, Now bid the echoes rally And sing aloud the praises of Albright

Hail! Hail! The Red and the White Hail Alma Mater with a cheer With eyes bright and glancing, The Red and White advancing, We'll sing the praise of Alma Mater dear

Hail! Hail! The Red and the White Hail Alma Mater with a cheer With eyes bright and glancing, The Red and White advancing, We'll sing the praise of Alma Mater dear

WXAC

Albright's campus radio station, WXAC-FM is a student-operated college radio station serving the Berks County and Reading, Pennsylvania, area. The station broadcasts at 91.3 MHz on the FM dial at 219 watts and is owned and operated by Albright College. WXAC is the only local station that provides Spanish-language programming to Berks County, with about 50 hours per week hosted by volunteer DJs from the local community.

Notable alumni

• Lauren Ashburn, managing editor, USA Today Live^[8]
• Haps Benfer, All-American halfback selected as Albright's greatest athlete
• Michael Matz, Hall of fame equestrian, trainer of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro
• J.J. Dillon (real name: Jim Morrison), professional wrestler, manager, and executive
• Leo Disend, NFL player
• Jon Dough (real name: Chester Anuszak), pornographic actor and director^[9][10]
• Patrick Gibney, filmmaker ^[11]
• F. Wilbur Gingrich, Greek scholar
• Brent Hurley (2001), YouTube co-founder^[12][13]
• Sheryl Davis Kohl, former member of Maryland House of Delegates
• Harry Martin (1973), co-anchor of My9 News at 11pm on WWOR-TV and anchor of Fox 5 News at 6pm on WNYW-TV^[14]
• George "Stormy" Petrol, played professional football for the Providence Steamrollers, coached at University of New Mexico for almost 40 years in four different sports (baseball, swimming, football and golf)^[15]
• David Quentin Voigt, baseball historian, author of five books on baseball history (American Baseball),^[16] retired professor at Albright College

It should also be noted that in 1994, Craig Fass (1996), Brian Turtle (1995), and Mike Ginelli (1995) invented the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.^[17]

References

External links

• Official website

Coordinates: 40°21′36″N 75°54′43″W / 40.360°N 75.912°W / 40.360; -75.912