J. I. Albrecht (February 15, 1931 – March 11, 2008) was an American-Canadian executive who worked in college and professional sports for 53 years, notably as a general manager and several key director spots in the
CFL
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
. He also worked in
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
,
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
, and
NASL.
Background
Albrecht was the son of wealthy
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
businessman
Herman Albrecht
Herman Albrecht VC (1876 – 6 January 1900) was a Cape Colony recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Details
Al ...
. Born in
St. James, New York, Albrecht grew up in
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
and
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
and attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. He went on to attend
Georgia Military College
Georgia Military College (GMC) is a public military junior college in Milledgeville, Georgia. It is divided into the junior college, a military junior college program, high school, middle school, and elementary school. It was originally known as M ...
where he lost an eye in an accident. Because of this, he decided to pursue the closest thing to war, which to him at the time was football.
Name
Albrecht has claimed over the years that his initials have stood for nothing. However, in an interview with the ''Ottawa Sun'' he revealed that they stand for Just Incredible. When he was born, he said, there were complications which led the delivering doctor to fear that he or his mother would die at his birth, and asked his father who he wanted to live, the baby or the mother. His father said "both." Both mother and son survived, and in commemoration the parents selected the unusual name. However, they were not allowed to use it on his birth certificate, and thus he went by his initials all his life.
Early career
Albrecht went on to work under General
Robert Neyland
Robert Reese Neyland (; February 17, 1892 – March 28, 1962) was an American football player and coach and officer in the United States Army, reaching the rank of brigadier general. He served three stints as the head football coach at the Univ ...
whom he named his second son, Hunter Joseph Neyland after. At the
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...
he won his first national championship. He then went on to recruit for several other NCAA teams and served for one season as the general manager of the
Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name ''Harlem'' because of i ...
. Albrecht then worked for the
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...
,
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...
,
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...
, and the
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...
of the NFL. In Canada he worked for the
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...
where he got his first Grey Cup as part of the 1970 team. He was fired by
Sam Berger
Samuel Berger, (January 1, 1900 – July 24, 1992) was a Canadian owner of the Canadian Football League's Ottawa Rough Riders and Montreal Alouettes and president of the CFL.
Life
A lawyer by profession, he was an early football fan who be ...
in Montreal and went to work for the New England Patriots of the NFL. After a few years with the Patriots during the
Grogan -
Plunkett
Plunkett is an Irish surname derived from the Gaelic Ó ''Pluingceid''. It is associated with Ireland, and possibly of Norse or Norman origin; it may be spelled O'Plunket, Plunket, Plunkit, Plunkitt, Plonkit, Plonkitt, Plonket, Plonkett, or Ó Plu ...
years he was hired by Bill Hodgson, owner of the Old Mill in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and the
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...
to serve as the team's general manager. After the Argos he went on to be the general manager of the
Toronto Metros Croatia where he developed a love and respect for the game of
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
and the
Croatian people.
Montreal Alouettes
Albrecht served as the general manager of the
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...
during the 1970s and hired
Marv Levy
Marvin Daniel Levy (; born August 3, 1925) is an American former football coach and executive who was a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for seventeen seasons. He spent most of his head coaching career with the Buffalo Bills, lea ...
as head coach of the team. He guided the Alouettes to the
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...
championship in
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...
,
1974
Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...
, and
1977
Events January
* January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
* January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...
. He had a special love for the city of Montreal and his best friend,
Herb Trawick
Herb Trawick (February 22, 1921 – September 16, 1985) was a professional Canadian football player and was the first African American to play professional Canadian football. Trawick spent his entire 12-year career as an offensive lineman and def ...
, played for the Alouettes. Albrecht was named as the Montreal Alouettes all-time general manager for the 20th century in a fan vote. He brought many outstanding players to Montreal, many who were successful on the field, then as coaches and in business. Almost 40 years after their time in Montreal, many players still kept in touch with Albrecht. Players whom he recruited and signed include
Wally Buono
Pasquale "Wally" Buono (born February 7, 1950) is the vice president of football operations, alternate governor and the former head coach of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and one of the most successful head coaches in leag ...
,
Larry Smith,
Junior Ah You
Miki "Junior" Ah You (born December 30, 1948) is a former college and professional Canadian and American football player who played primarily at the defensive end position. Ah You enjoyed most of his professional career success with the CFL Montr ...
,
Gordon Judges
Gordon Judges (born July 30, 1947) is a former professional Canadian football defensive lineman for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League.
Judges played his amateur football with the Scarborough Rams. He had a 14-year career with ...
,
Steve Smear
Steve Smear (born May 18, 1948) is a former defensive end and linebacker for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was a CFL All-Star in 1970 and was a part of a Grey Cup victory for the Alouettes.
He was named an All- ...
,
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...
winner
Johnny Rodgers
Johnny Steven Rodgers (born July 5, 1951) is an American former football player. He played college football for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and won the Heisman Trophy in 1972. Rodgers played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL) ...
,
Dan Yochum
Dan Yochum (August 19, 1950 – August 26, 2020) was an American professional football player who was an offensive lineman for the Montreal Alouettes from 1972–1980 and the Edmonton Eskimos in 1980 of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He wo ...
, &
Ed George.
Atlantic Schooners/Cape Breton
In 1984 Albrecht was granted a conditional expansion team to play out of
Halifax,
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
. The
Schooners
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
folded before they played a single game because Albrecht's ownership group could not secure the financing for a new stadium. His main investor,
RB Cameron
Rb or RB may stand for:
Arts and entertainment
* Rebecca Black, an American pop singer
* Richard Blackwood, a British rapper
* Rhythm and blues, a music genre combining blues, gospel and jazz influences
* ''Rock Band'', a music video game series ...
pulled out after being unable to secure government financing for the stadium.
Albrecht had sunk several years into the project and fell in love with the city of Halifax, where he lived with his beloved dog Higgins, the English Bulldog who actually had his own article in the paper titled, "The World as Seen Through the Eyes of Higgins". He wrote in the paper, had a radio show, managed a radio station, and generally enjoyed life. It was in Halifax that he met his second wife Kathryn, who died of cancer a year after they separated. They moved together to
Cape Breton
Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
The island accounts for 18. ...
where Albrecht took over the
athletic director
An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...
's job at the
University College of Cape Breton where he launched the football program. The team started with just 21 players, where almost everyone played both ways. Albrecht brought in his lifelong friend
George Brancato
George Brancato (May 27, 1931 – October 22, 2019) was an American/Canadian gridiron football player and coach.
Both an offensive and defensive player in college, he played five games for the Chicago Cardinals during the 1954 NFL season. He rus ...
to coach the team. While at Cape Breton he brought in many players who went on to play professionally, such as
George Nimako, Mark Pearce, and several others. Though the team was shelved after one year, won their last game of the season.
Ottawa Rough Riders and Shreveport Pirates
Albrecht was a consultant/personnel director to the
Ottawa Rough Riders
The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...
during the 1992 and 1993 seasons. He later became the Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the
Shreveport Pirates
The Shreveport Pirates were a Canadian Football League team, playing at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, in 1994 and 1995. Despite a relatively strong fan base, they were one of the least successful of the CFL's A ...
.
John Huard
John Roland "Big John" Huard (born March 9, 1944) is an American business executive and a former gridiron football player and coach.
After playing college football at the University of Maine, he played professionally as a linebacker with the Den ...
, one of Albrecht's best friends, and former 2nd round draft pick at Denver, was hired by him as the head coach for the Pirates' inaugural season in
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
. However Huard was fired by team President
Lonie Glieberman before coaching a single game. Huard and Albrecht later sued the Pirates. Quarterback
Billy Joe Tolliver
Billy Joe Tolliver (born February 7, 1966) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL) for twelve seasons with the San Diego Chargers, Atlanta ...
and the City of
Shreveport
Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...
also brought legal action against the team in separate suits.
Toronto Argonauts
Albrecht came back to the team in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
when he was hired to be managing director of the Argos by new owner
Sherwood Schwarz
Sherwood Schwarz (born November, 1930) is an American businessman and founder of ''Carnegie Associates Ltd'' and was the owner of the Toronto Argonauts from 1999 to 2003.
Biography
Schwarz was born in 1930 on the Lower East Side of New York City, ...
, his first cousin. His brief term was controversial. Huard, who had been fired by the Shreveport Pirates six years earlier, became Albrecht's first choice as the new head coach of the Toronto Argonauts. His quirky, abrasive style did not endear himself to many, and he resigned from his post after a 1-6-1 record culminating with a 51-4 loss to the
B.C. Lions
The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division (CFL), West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place.
The Lions playe ...
. Despite all the disasters, Albrecht did hire player
Michael Clemons
Michael Lutrell "Pinball" Clemons (born January 15, 1965) is an American-Canadian sports executive and former running back and return specialist who serves as general manager for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He i ...
as head coach. The decision came after several hours of discussion with Schwarz and his son, Dean Albrecht, where the two decided that they should have a young insider to take over the team as head coach. His son tabled the names
Paul Masotti
Paul Masotti (born March 10, 1965) is a former professional Canadian football player and current front office executive with the Canadian Football League Toronto Argonauts. Masotti played the wide receiver position for 12 seasons with the Toronto ...
and Pinball Clemons. The elder Albrecht was emphatic about hiring Clemons, and the decision was made. Although Albrecht indicated he had been given a 10-year contract, he was fired after a single year.
Later life
Albrecht suffered a stroke in 2002 and spent the last year and a half of his life at a Toronto nursing home. After an article was written in both the Ottawa and Montreal papers, many of his old players publicly expressed their appreciation for what he had done for them in the past. He was working on his autobiography, entitled ''Just J.I: A Fisher Of Men'' and was seeking a publisher. Unfortunately, files he had been keeping for his autobiography were lost.
On March 8, 2008, Albrecht died at a Toronto nursing home at the age of 77.
[ ]
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albrecht, J. I.
1931 births
2008 deaths
New England Patriots executives
New England Patriots scouts
Montreal Alouettes general managers
Ottawa Rough Riders personnel
Toronto Argonauts general managers
People from St. James, New York