Dale R. Sprankle

Dale R. Sprankle
Biographical details
Sport(s)	Basketball, cross country, football, track and field
Born	August 4, 1898 Beach City, Ohio
Died	November 11, 1963(1963-11-11) (aged 65) Albion, Michigan
Playing career
1917–1921	Mount Union
Position(s)	Baseball, basketball, football
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1936–1958	Albion
1923–1936	Adrian
Head coaching record
Overall	Basketball: 130–122 Football: 91–84–12
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
Basketball: 0 Cross country: 10 Football: 2 Track and field: 11

Dale R. Sprankle (August 4, 1898 – November 11, 1963) was a sports coach and athletic director at both Adrian College and Albion College in Michigan. Over the course of his 35-year career, Sprankle won 23 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) conference championships in four sports, making him one of the winningest coaches in that conference's history.

Early life

Dale R. Sprankle was born on August 4, 1898 in Beach City, OH. He was the younger brother of LeRoy Sprankle, who would also become an athletics icon, most notably in Eastern Tennessee and South Florida. At the age of 12, his family moved to Canton, OH where he participated in athletics and attended high school. Upon graduation, Sprankle completed his education at the nearby Mount Union College.

Coaching career

In 1923, Sprankle was hired as the director of physical education (athletic director) at Adrian College in Adrian, MI. From 1923 to 1936, he was the head coach of basketball, cross country, football, and track and field at the college, compiling a 55-51-8 record in football and a .516 winning percentage in basketball. In 1936, he left to become the assistant athletic director and head coach of cross country, football, and indoor and outdoor track at Albion College. Five years later, Sprankle was promoted to athletic director, the position from which he served at the college until his retirement in 1958. Over the course of the 22 years he coached at Albion, his teams won 23 MIAA championships which is currently tied for 7th all-time in that conference. In the nine seasons that he coached football, between 1936 and 1946, the team went 36-33-4 and won two MIAA championships. In indoor track, Sprankle coached the team for five years and won MIAA championships in each. His outdoor track team also had great success, winning six MIAA championships over the course of eight years. Sprankle's greatest success, however, came with the cross country team which won 10 MIAA championships in his 12 years of coaching it from 1947-58. In 1958, due to declining health, he retired from his position, but still kept up a close relationship with the school. Dale R. Sprankle died on November 11, 1963 at the age of 65 of a four-year illness.^[1] His legacy lives on however. In 1976, the football stadium at Albion College was officially renamed Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium in honor of the school's two greatest sports coaches. Thirteen years later, in 1989, Dale R. Sprankle was officially inducted into the Albion College Sports Hall of Fame.^[2]

Notable players coached

Name	Graduation year: sports	Achievements after college
Louis Black	1949: cross country, basketball, football	Played professional basketball with the Detroit Vagabond Kings (NBL)
James L. Chapman	1956: cross country, track	President of West Liberty State College (1970–84)
Theodore E. Hagadone	1951: cross country, track	Superintendent of schools in Vanderbilt, Iron Mountain, Milford, and Riverview, Michigan
Lewis F. Moon	1948: baseball, basketball, football, track	Played with Cardinal's minor league franchise, AD at Lawrence Tech (1964–89)
Gary R. Noble	1957: cross country, track	Rhodes Scholar, deputy director at the CDC, asst. surgeon general in the U.S. Public Health Service
Raymond A. Wauthier	1946: basketball, football	head baseball and basketball coach at Iowa Wesleyan College (1946–48), head baseball and golf coach at Kansas State (1949–86)

^[3]

References

↑ The Holland Evening Sentinel, Tuesday, November 12, 1963, Holland, Michigan, United States Of America
↑ "1989 Inductees". Albion College Sports Hall of Fame. Albion College. 9 Aug. 2008. http://www.albion.edu/sports/halloffame/1989.asp
↑ Albion College Sports Hall of Fame. Albion College. 9 Aug. 2008. http://www.albion.edu/sports/halloffame/.asp

External links

Dale R. Sprankle at the College Football Data Warehouse

Albion Britons head football coaches

Springer (1883–1884)
Hagle (1885–1886)
No coach (1887–1892)
Atwood (1893)
Gage (1894–1895)
Howe (1896)
Niles (1897)
Jacobs (1898)
Chester Brewer (1899–1902)
Nufer (1903)
Walter S. Kennedy (1904)
W. D. Chadwick (1905–1906)
Walter S. Kennedy (1907–1911)
Gill (1912)
Otto Carpell (1913)
Walter S. Kennedy (1914–1917)
Walter S. Kennedy & Guyselman (1918–1919)
Walter S. Kennedy (1920)
John F. Miller (1921–1923)
R. W. Bechtel (1924–1925)
Bud Daugherty (1926–1935)
Dale R. Sprankle (1936–1942)
No team (1943–1944)
Dale R. Sprankle (1945–1946)
Dean Rockwell (1947)
Del Anderson (1948–1953)
Morley Fraser (1954–1968)
Tom J. Taylor (1969–1972)
Frank Joranko (1973–1982)
Pete Schmidt (1983–1996)
Craig Rundle (1997– )

Adrian Bulldogs head football coaches

Unknown (1892–1902)
E. E. Tarr (1903–1904)
Unknown (1905)
Huffstrater (1906–1910)
Tom Leith (1911–1912)
Brown (1913)
Frank Coombs (1914)
Bill Dague (1915)
Perry Grimm (1916–1917)
No team (1918)
Harvey E. Orwick (1919)
B. M. Allman (1921–1922)
Dale R. Sprankle (1923–1935)
Frank Ballenger (1936–1937)
Harve A. Oliphant (1938–1941)
No team (1942–1945)
Lyman E. Abbott (1946–1949)
John Darnton (1950)
Theodore Boyett (1951–1952)
Joe Fortunato (1953–1955)
Robert Gillis (1956–1958)
Les Leggett (1959–1961)
Charles Marvin (1962–1967)
William C. Davis (1968–1972)
Tom Heckert Sr. (1973–1981)
Ron Labadie (1982–1989)
Jim Lyall (1990–2010)
Jim Deere (2011– )

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