Albright College

Berks County's oldest institute of higher learning, Albright College traces its founding to 1856 when Union Seminary opened. Present-day Albright was formed by the mergers of several institutions.

Albright Collegiate Institute opened in 1895 and was renamed Albright College three years later. Union Seminary became Central Pennsylvania College and, in 1902, merged with Albright College. Schuylkill College, previously called Schuylkill Seminary, merged with Albright College in 1928. Albright's campus relocated from Myerstown, to Schuylkill College's campus, which is the present location of Albright, at the base of Mount Penn in Reading.

The College is named for Pennsylvania-German evangelical preacher Jacob Albright, who founded the Evangelical Association (later known as the Evangelical United Brethren Church). Born in 1759 in Douglass Township, (now Montgomery County) with the given name of Johannes Jacob Albrecht, the family changed their surname to "Albright" following Jacob's 1808 death.[6]

Albright College 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 10 locations throughout Pennsylvania.

Albright offers liberal arts and pre-professional programs. It created one of the first undergraduate psychobiology programs in the nation in the 1960s. The college's liberal arts curriculum has an interdisciplinary focus that allows students to create an individualized education. Fully half of Albright students have concentrations that combine two or three fields of learning.[6]

Three Albright programs that have received national attention in the past decade are fashion, theatre, and music.[7] Albright was named one of the nation's top private fashion merchandising schools in 2015, 2016 and 2017 by Fashion-Schools.org.[8][9][10] The theatre program has been honored by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival consistently for the past 12 years.[7] Albright's Domino Players have been invited to perform at Kennedy festival II 10 times in the last 15 years (2004, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019). “Waiting for Godot” (2007) was one of only four productions chosen to perform for the National KCACTF Conference. “Clybourne Park” (2016) and “A Raisin in the Sun” (2019) were named “Outstanding Production of a Play” – recognizing them as the best college production of their years. “A Raisin in the Sun” also received eight other national awards, for distinguished performance, scenic and lighting design, director and performances.[11][12] The Music Industry Studies program at Albright College has been recognized as one of the top 35 music business programs in North America by Billboard magazine. [13]

The Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE) is a multi-disciplinary program that affords undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct research or pursue creative endeavors during the three-week January Interim or summer break. The students, who work one-on-one with faculty members, can be from any discipline, from STEM subjects to the humanities.[7]

Albright College athletic teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III as a member of the Middle Atlantic Conferences.

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.[20]

Doggie Julian was the head football coach at Albright from 1929 to 1930. Clarence Lester "Biggie" Munn was the head football coach at Albright College from 1935 to 1936, before coaching Syracuse University (1946), and most notably Michigan State College (1947–1953), where his 1952 squad won a national championship.

William "Lone Star" Dietz was the Director of Athletics and head football coach at Albright from 1937 to 1942. Dietz led the football team to their first undefeated season in 1937. He previously led Washington State to 1916 Rose Bowl victory. In the National Football League, Dietz had coached the Boston "Redskins" (1933–1934), the forerunner of the Washington Redskins. Dietz is in the Albright College Athletic Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.[21]

In 1948, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) and Albright College played the first intercollegiate football game between an Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) institution and a majority-white institution.[22]

The Philadelphia Eagles held pre-season training camp at Albright from 1968 through 1972.[23]

Dr. Wilbur G. Renken was athletic director and basketball head coach for 38 consecutive seasons. A highly regarded figure in collegiate athletics in general and specifically basketball, Renken was the president of the United States Olympic Basketball Team Selection Committee for the 1976 Olympic Games.[24] He also served as the president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) in 1979–1980.[25]

On October 11, 2017, sophomore backup quarterback Gyree Durante was dismissed from the football team for kneeling during the national anthem before the team's game against Delaware Valley University, going against a collective team decision made before the game to kneel for the coin toss and stand for the anthem.[26] President Fetrow later offered reinstatement to the team to Durante (and two other players who did not fully kneel during the coin toss), saying that further review of the details surrounding the game's events found that "what we understood to be shared agreement among players, student leaders and coaches has not been adequately supported.”.[27] Durante, however, declined reinstatement, citing his former teammates' stated lack of trust in him.[28]

Albright's campus radio station, WXAC 91.3 FM[29] is a student-operated college radio station. The initial call name was WALC, but was later changed to WXAC on March 8, 1965. WALC had been the same call name for the Alcoa Steamship Lines.

• Haps Benfer '14, College football, basketball, and baseball head coach
• Joseph E. Coleman '48, politician, attorney and chemist; first African-American elected president of Philadelphia City Council
• Edwin Erickson '60, State Senator, Pennsylvania
• Craig Fass '96, chef, and creator with Mike Ginelli '95 and Brian Turtle '95, of the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,[30] which inspired Kevin Bacon to create the charitable organization, SixDegrees.org
• Jacquelyn S. Fetrow '82, computational biologist and current president of Albright College, former Provost and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Richmond
• John Fetterman '91, 34th Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, 2019-
• Doris Freedman '50, pioneer in the field of public art
• Robert Gerhart '41, Pennsylvania State Senator for the 11th district from 1969 to 1972
• Robert P. Hollenbeck (born 1931), politician who served six terms in the New Jersey General Assembly from the 36th Legislative District.[31]
• Ralph I. Horwitz, MD '69, Director of the Institute for Transformative Medicine at Temple University, Harold H. Hines, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Epidemiology at Yale University[32]
• Brent Hurley '01, director of finance and operations of YouTube[33]
• Thomas R. Kline, Esq. '69, leading trial lawyer
• Casey Lawrence '10, professional baseball pitcher for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball
• Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ '94, Kenyan poet and author, Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies at Cornell University
• Hidy Ochiai '66, author and actor, introduced the Washin-Ryu style of karate in the United States[34]
• Anthony Portantino ’83, State Senator, California
• Bob Spitz '71, celebrity biographer
• Matthew Urbanski '85, landscape architect
• Russell Weigley '52, Distinguished University Professor of History at Temple University
• Victor Yarnell '51, 41st Mayor of Reading, Pennsylvania

Wikisource has the text of the 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article Albright College.

• Albright College website
• Albright College Athletics website