Albion

Called the "most unique" name for a stadium in college sports, Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium was named in 1976 for a pair of Albion College athletic and academic legends: Dale Sprankle, who won 23 MIAA championships in four sports over a 26-year span as a teacher, coach, and athletic director; and Walter Sprandel, a championship coach in track and basketball while at Olivet and Albion, and later Albion's dean of students for parts of two decades.

Home-Field Advantage

Always a "packed house" for home football games, crowds often line the iron fence and mingle in the plaza to the west of the stands. The Albion marching band, The British Eighth, performs for all college home football games, providing a new show for each football appearance. With an average attendance of nearly 3,000 spectators per game, Albion is annually among the top Division III colleges in average attendance each season. In 1999, Albion drew 5,114 spectators as Albion took on two-time defending Division III national champion, Mount Union, during the regular season opener that year. The crowd and the stadium give Albion a definite home-field advantage. The Britons have also won the league title 15 times in the 26 year history of Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium. (Albion has won 33 league titles overall, the most among all Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association members.)

What A View!

In With The New

Built in 1976, the stadium provides not only permanent seating for some 4,244 spectators, but also a pressbox, locker rooms and a concession stand. In 1999, Albion renovated much of the stadium. A new building in the stadium's northeast corner includes a visiting team locker room for football. The facility, when football is not being played at Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium, is used to house visiting teams for soccer, track and field, baseball and softball. On the top floor of the building are public restrooms and a concession stand. Included in the project was a brick walkway, new fencing and the addition of a plaza at the west end of the stadium. Inside the stadium, the varsity locker rooms were also renovated. Prior to the Homecoming game against Ohio Wesleyan University in 2002, the stadium field was renamed in honor of legendary Briton football coach Morley Fraser. In his 15 seasons as head football coach, the Britons won five MIAA titles. Thanks to donations as part of an alumni effort for Morley Fraser Field, the field playing surface undergoes a soil massage in the off-season in hopes of assisting in the drainage process. The process, similar to aerating, included Vertidrain plugs with one inch diameters that were plugged as deep as a foot into the ground. The plugs were vacuumed, and the holes were plugged with sand creating a vertical shaft for moisture to drain. "The massage was very aggressive soil disruption," Albion College grounds supervisor Mark Frever said. "You could drop a pencil down a shaft and lose it." Even with all the changes to the stadium over the years, the field itself has remained virtually unchanged for one-hundred years.

A Century on Alumni Field

During the spring of 1900, Albion College received donations for the purchase of land for athletics. Immediately after purchasing land north of the Kalamazoo River, the college began preparing the field for the following football season. The original field was located on the northern section of the property. The new field, known as Winter-Lau Field, was officially opened for league play October 6, 1900, as the home crowd watched Albion shutout Michigan Agricultural College (later known as Michigan State University), 29-0. By 1902, a baseball diamond, a quarter-mile oval track surrounding the gridiron, and a covered grandstand on the north side of the football field were erected. A rough board fence soon surrounded the north and west sides of the property. The following two decades brought major changes to the athletic facilities of the college. Alumni and students, alike, were calling for the replacement of the wooden fence, now rotted, weather-beaten, and covered in advertising signs. In 1914, the announcement that the fence would be replaced by a concrete wall brought a sigh of relief from alumni who had pushed for the project. The wall would be built panel by panel as funding became available. An "artistic entrance" complete with wrought iron swinging gates was the senior gift of the class of 1914. At the dedication ceremony it was announced that the field would be renamed "Alumni Field." Completed in 1919, the wall still surrounds the Albion athletic fields today. The grandstand was destroyed by fire in 1918, however, work had already began to move the gridiron to the south and closer to the Kalamazoo River. The new field was dedicated during the first game of the 1919 season. Also, during the 1919 school year, Albion adopted Purple and Gold as the school colors.

During the summer of 1930, lights were added to the gridiron at Alumni Field. The nickname "Britons" was added to the athletic teams during the 1933 season. The pressbox and home seating stood on the south side of the field from the late 1940's until Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium was built. Pressbox size tripled between 1946 and 1950. After the construction of the Herrick Speech and Theatre Complex , the outdoor track, still on the northern part of the property, was moved to its present location around the football field. The field was shifted slightly north to make room for this change. A need for permanent seating and for on-site locker rooms led Albion to erect Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium in 1976. In previous years, teams had a three-block trek across campus to the locker rooms at Kresge Gymnasium.

And Still Growing . . .

During the construction of Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium, planning began for the W. Clark Dean Aquatic Center. The final location of the building was determined in April of 1977 and construction began on the north side of the stadium later that summer. The majority of the work was completed by the beginning of the following school year and the facility was opened.

In 1988, the Dow Recreation and Wellness Center was erected, encompassing the stadium, pool, and a new fieldhouse into one enclosed facility. Included in the facility are a weightroom with fitness equipment, training and rehabilitation areas, a classroom, locker rooms and the Department of Physical Education offices. The building's Bernard T. Lomas Fieldhouse contains flexible court space for intramural basketball, volleyball, badminton and tennis as well as a 1/9-mile track and two racquetball courts. The building was made possible by a gift from the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation. The Fieldhouse is named for Dr. Bernard T. Lomas, president of the College, 1970-1983.

During the summer of 1998, work began on the addition of an indoor tennis center on the north wall of Lomas Fieldhouse. Completed in spring of 1999, Ungrodt Tennis Center houses four new full-size, indoor tennis courts, two coaches offices, and an upper level mezzanine. The end result was an addition of more than 30, 000 square feet to the existing building.

Albion College baseball came back to the campus in the 1960's after spending several years in and around the Albion community. In 1970, the College settled on the northeast corner of Alumni Field as the on-campus home for Briton baseball. Albion formally opened the facility with a 3-1 victory over Michigan State, a contest featuring a Duncan Beagle one-hitter against the Spartans.

In 1995, the baseball facility was formally named Frank Joranko Field, in honor of retiring baseball coach and Briton alum (1952) Frank Joranko. A three-sport standout (baseball, basketball and football), Joranko participated in an era which some refer to as a "golden age" for the College, both in athletics and academics. Some of Joranko's Albion teammates include former NCAA President Cedric Dempsey; former Cleveland, Ohio, city councilman Arnold Pinckney; retired Eastern Michigan University President Dr. John Porter; retired NYNEX CEO Bill Ferguson; and Dow Corning Chairman Emeritus John Ludington. Joranko is Albion's second Most Valuable Player selection for football in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and is the only member of the Albion College Athletic Hall of Fame to be inducted twice, as an athlete and later, as an administrator and coach.

Work on revamping Joranko Field began in earnest in the fall of 1998 and still continues to this day.

Since 1998 Joranko Field has been upgraded with aluminum bleacher seating for up to 200 persons behind a new backstop which stretches from dugout to dugout. Atop the bleachers a press box which accomodates up to eight persons was added. The facility is the operational home to workers handling scoring, scoreboard and public address duties, as well as radio-tv and media needs. The box can handle up to three radio stations, and has both phone and data transmission capabilities.

The dugouts have been expanded, complete with new seating and storage for equipment. Artificial turf has been placed in front of both dugouts to eliminate wear and tear. Eight-foot high fencing extends from the dugouts to the foul poles in left and right field. Behind the first base (visitors) dugout is an enclosed batting cage that features artifical turf, allowing both teams extensive hitting practice prior to games.

Under the direction of grounds supervisor Mark Frever and head coach Scott Carden, the playing surface is one of the best maintained in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association. An underground irrigation system has been installed and the infield skin has seen significant improvements.

After graduation, Joranko was a teacher and coach in northern Ohio and the Detroit area prior to returning to Albion College in 1973. Joranko served as athletic director from 1974 to 1992; was head football coach from 1973 to 1982; and directed Albion's baseball efforts from 1973 to 1995. Joranko-coached teams won better than 350 contests, over 300 in baseball alone; captured 11 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships, nine in baseball and two in football; and directed teams to three NCAA Division III playoff events, football in 1977 and baseball in 1979 and 1982. When the College and the City of Battle Creek joined as hosts for the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship from 1990 to 1994, Joranko served as tournament director.

After retirement, Joranko and his wife, Joyce, moved north to Lansing where the couple currently reside.

In 1996, Albion resurfaced its outdoor track and renamed the facility in honor of former athletic director and coach Elkin "Ike" Isaac, '48.

Isaac was a member of the Albion College faculty from 1952 to 1975. He also served as head basketball coach (1953-1959), head track coach (1953-1962) and head cross country coach (1962-1969). He led his teams to one MIAA basketball title, six consecutive league championships in track and three cross country championships. He also served as athletic director. He was inducted into the Albion College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989.

The Elkin Isaac Track Drive was co-chaired by Cedric and June Luke Dempsey, both '54, with indispensable assistance from Thomas Schwaderer, '56.

Ready for competition in the spring of 1997, The Elkin R. Isaac Track includes an eight lane rubberized surface. Also included in the project was the installation of a steeplechase pit. In addition to the new surface on the track, all runways for field events were resurfaced at this time.

Throwing events also received new facilities, as the college installed new shotput rings and a new discus cage.

The home of Albion College softball

Welcome to the old home and the new home for Albion College Softball. Alumni Field at Albion College. Alumni Field went from functional to fantastic as a practice and game facility during the 1999-2000 school year. As one of the final steps in the process, Almuni Field was renamed Dempsey Field, in honor of Albion alums June and Cedric Dempsey.

The Honorees

Cedric Dempsey, a 1954 Albion graduate, is the former president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. A former basketball and cross country coach at Albion, Cedric has served in a number of administrative and coaching roles for several Division I universities, including Houston and Arizona.

June Dempsey also graduated from Albion in 1954 and like her husband, has made a significant impact in the field of education. June currently serves on the College's Alumni Board. Both are members of the Albion College Athletic Hall of Fame. In addition, Cedric is a Distinguished Alumni Award winner, and both played influential roles in three College initatives; construction of the Elkin Isaac Track inside Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium; creation of the Isaac Lectureship Series which has developed into the Isaac Symposium; and the current campaign to fund and endow the Fritz Shurmur Education Institute.

One of the ways the Dempseys have supported Albion is with the upgrading of the softball field. They are the primary donors for the project, which has literally encompassed the field, located on the north banks of the Kalamazoo River and within throwing distance of venues which are home to a third of Albion's 18-sport athletic program.

Another donor for the softball field renovation is Albion resident Barbara Hill Meyer. Meyer was one of the early players in getting the renovation going. Her contribution has been in place atop the backstop since last spring. The netting in place is an aide in keeping softballs in play and out of the nearby Kalamazoo River and the thick underbrush on the north bank.

Meyer was a four-year performer in tennis and field hockey for the Britons, graduating in 1950. Majoring in English and history, Meyer is considered a key person in the establishment of a physical education minor for the College's curriculum. She is a member of the Albion College Athletic Hall of Fame.

Only the dugouts and backstop remain the same, as fans coming to Alumni/Dempsey Field notice a significant change in appearance. The field, like its baseball counterpart at the northeast corner of the A-Field, now known as Joranko Field, is nearly enclosed with portable fencing (shown above, left) across the outfield and permanent, four-foot high fences from the backstop to the foul poles along the first and third base lines. The portable fencing in the outfield -- which allows the facility multiple use in the fall as practice and warmup areas for soccer -- is the same type used at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Marietta, Georgia, and for the Michigan High School Athletic Association Softball Championship in Battle Creek.

Pitching warmup areas next to the dugouts are now semi-enclosed. A new batting cage for practices and pre-game preparation is in place near the first base dugout. Seen in this photo, from the right field corner to the first base dugout, is the batting cage, pitching warmup area and visitors' dugout, fronted by new fencing that nearly encloses the field from foul pole to foul pole.

Seating, which in the past consisted of a portable aluminum bleacher placed in foul territory along the left field line, is both upgraded and doubled with the new renovations. Permanent seating is now available behind the backstop on the first and third base sides. Between the stands is a press box (shown at right with the third-base bleachers) which handles scoreboard, statistical and media functions, including capabilities for live radio, cable and internet play-by-play.

The first games on the renovated facility were played March 23, 2000, with Albion entertaining Spring Arbor. Dedication and formal naming of Dempsey Field occurred prior to the April 15, 2000, doubleheader with Kalamazoo College.

Photos by Robin Hartman.