Albert Lewis Barthelme Sr. (October 10, 1919 – March 4, 2004) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach at the high school, college and professional levels. Barthelme coached the Loyola College Greyhounds basketball team for the 1944–1945 season, playing for the team the following season. From 1946 to 1950 he was athletics director, basketball and football coach at

Towson Catholic High School Towson Catholic High School was a private Catholic, co-educational high school in the Baltimore suburb of Towson, Maryland, whose closing was announced in July 2009. At its peak enrollment in the 1960s and 1970s, more than 400 children attende ...

where one of his students was future NBA player and coach

Gene Shue Eugene William Shue (December 18, 1931 – April 3, 2022) was an American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Shue was one of the top guards of the early days of the NBA and an influential figure ...

. Barthelme was head basketball coach at the

University of Baltimore The University of Baltimore (UBalt, UB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland. It is part of the University System of Maryland. UBalt's schools and colleges provide education in business, law, public affairs, and the applied arts and sc ...

from 1950 to 1954. Using an offense-dominated approach dubbed "firehouse" basketball, he was the subject of numerous newspaper stories about the high-scoring games. Seven games into the 1953–1954 season, the team was averaging well over 100 points per game. An assistant coach and publicist for the Baltimore Bullets 1954–1955 season, Barthelme was named head coach on November 20, 1954 but would only coach three games before the club went out of business on November 27. In 1961 Barthelme coached basketball for St. Mary's Seminary Junior College and Patuxent Naval Base.
Following his brief NBA stint, Barthelme worked in public relations at Carling Brewing Co., later becoming a beer distributor in 1962. From 1966 to 1985 he served as supervisor of the St. Mary's County, Maryland Youth Commission which later became the Department of Parks and Recreation. Barthelme was survived by his second wife, five sons, a daughter, and 11 grandchildren, and predeceased by his first wife and one son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barthelme, Albert 1919 births 2004 deaths American men's basketball players Baltimore Bees men's basketball coaches Baltimore Bullets (1944–1954) head coaches Basketball coaches from New York (state) High school basketball coaches in Maryland High school football coaches in Maryland Loyola Greyhounds men's basketball coaches Loyola Greyhounds men's basketball players People from Blue Point, New York Basketball players from Suffolk County, New York