Springfield College, Springfield, Mass (61510)

Springfield College is a

private college Private universities and private colleges are institutions of higher education, not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. They may (and often do) receive from governments tax breaks, public student loans, and grants. D ...

in Springfield, Massachusetts. It confers undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is known as the birthplace of basketball because the sport was invented there in 1891 by Canadian-American instructor

James Naismith James Naismith (; November 6, 1861November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United States, he wrote ...

. The college's philosophy of "humanics... calls for the education of the whole person—in spirit, mind, and body—for leadership in service to others."

History

Founded in 1885, as the

Young Men's Christian Association YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

department of the School for Christian Workers in Springfield, the school originally specialized in preparing young men to become General Secretaries of YMCA organizations in a two-year program. In 1887, it added a Physical (''i.e.'',

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorat ...

) department. In 1890, it separated from the School for Christian Workers and became the YMCA Training School and in 1891, the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School. In 1905, the school became a degree-granting institution.Glenn T. Miller, ''Piety and Profession: American Protestant Theological Education, 1870–1970'', 2007. , p. 289 In 1912, it took the name International YMCA College and in 1954, Springfield College.

Presidents

Springfield College has had 13 leaders:

Academics

Springfield College offers bachelor's degrees in more than 40 majors, master's degrees in a variety of different fields, and doctoral programs in counseling psychology, physical therapy, and physical education. The student-to-faculty member ratio is 11 to 1. The college comprises four schools. The School of Arts and Sciences grants degrees in the liberal arts, science, business, and education, including 59 undergraduate majors and concentrations and eight graduate programs. The School of Physical Education, Performance, and Sport Leadership offers undergraduate and graduate programs in health and wellness occupations, including applied exercise science, nutritional science, athletic training, physical education and health education, recreation management, and sport management. It is a member of the American Kinesiology Association. It incorporates the Springfield College East Campus outdoor learning center. Organized in 2005, the School of Health Sciences offers undergraduate and graduate programs in physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant studies, communication sciences and disorders, and health science, in addition to related certification programs. The school is a member of the Association of Schools of Allied Health Professionals. The School of Social Work and Behavioral Sciences offers undergraduate degrees in psychology, rehabilitation and disability studies, and human services and professional graduate programs in social work, psychology, counseling, and student affairs administration. Springfield College offers bachelor's degree completion programs and master's degrees in human services, business, education, and counseling that are geared toward working adult students at its four regional campuses, its main campus, and online. The college is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE).

Campuses

Springfield College consists of one main campus, located in Springfield, Mass., and two regional campuses in Boston and Houston. The main campus spans and contains ten residence halls, recreational and fitness facilities, science and academic facilities, a performing arts center, and the Richard B. Flynn Campus Union, which includes a food court, activity and lounge space, and College bookstore. Springfield College's East Campus, which encompasses of forest ecosystem, is located about one mile from the main campus. This location provides rustic facilities for conferences and meetings, and space for outdoor research and recreation. East Campus is also home to the Springfield College Child Development Center, which provides early education services for children of members of the faculty and staff, students, and families in the community.

Athletics

Springfield College's athletic teams have been known since 1995 as the Pride; the teams were nicknamed the Chiefs from 1968 through 1994, and prior to that were known as the Gymnasts or Maroons. The college is a member of

National Collegiate Athletic Association 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 ...

(NCAA)

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

and most teams compete in the

New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of Connecticut and ...

(NEWMAC). Springfield's football team joined the NEWMAC when it began sponsoring football in 2017. The men's soccer, men's golf, cross country and gymnastics teams are affiliate members of the

Eastern College Athletic Conference The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location fr ...

(ECAC). The men's volleyball team competes as an independent. Springfield College is known as the "Birthplace of Basketball", a game created by alumnus and faculty member

under the founding head of the Physical Education department Luther Gulick Jr. in 1891. Gulick is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, which is named for Naismith. Alumnus William G. Morgan invented the game of

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

. Stagg Field serves as the college's main athletic field; it was named after former coach,

Amos Alonzo Stagg Amos Alonzo Stagg (August 16, 1862 – March 17, 1965) was an American athlete and college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He served as the head football coach at the International YMCA Training School (now called Springfiel ...

who briefly coached Springfield and went on to play a pivotal role in the development of modern football. The

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

team plays at Berry-Allen Field. The Springfield softball team appeared in one

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

in 1977. The Springfield College women's gymnastics team won the first intercollegiate

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

in 1969 and three of the first four (1971 and 1972). In 1940 Springfield was one of eight teams to make the

1940 NCAA basketball tournament The 1940 NCAA basketball tournament involved eight schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the participating champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. The second edition of the tournament began on March 20, 1940, and ...

, losing to eventual champion

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

48–24 in the regional semifinals held at

Butler Fieldhouse Hinkle Fieldhouse (named Butler Fieldhouse from 1928 until 1966) is a basketball arena on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. Completed in early 1928, it was the largest basketball arena in the United States until 1950. The ...

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...

. In 2006 and 2007, the school hosted the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Final Four. The men's volleyball team has six non-NCAA national titles in the now-defunct Molten Invitational championship, an event for NCAA Division III schools that ran from 1997 through 2011, and also won the first three

NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championship The NCAA Division III men's volleyball tournament is a championship event officially sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the main governing body for U.S. college sports. Open only to schools in Division III of the N ...

s in 2012 through 2014. All nine championships were won under Head Coach Charlie Sullivan. The Springfield College Women's Basketball team of 2004–2005, made the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division III basketball tournament. Women's basketball has won several conference tournament championships, including the season of 2006. Springfield College graduates Rusty Jones G '86 and Jon Torine '95 participated in Super Bowl XLI as the Head Strength and Conditioning coaches of the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts, respectively. The Springfield College Women's Field Hockey Team has won the NEWMAC (New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference) title for five consecutive years (2004–2008). The men's lacrosse team won six straight titles (2008–2013) in the now-defunct Pilgrim Lacrosse League, which has since been absorbed by the NEWMAC. Springfield's Women's Swimming and Diving Team has won the NEWMAC Conference title for ten consecutive years (2001–2010) in the Division III Conference. Springfield's Men's soccer team were voted National College Champions by the Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association in 1946, 1947 and 1957. This was before the NCAA championship soccer tournament in 1959.

Rankings

''U.S. News & World Report'' ranked Springfield College #26 for Best Regional Universities—North Region for 2021, the sixth consecutive year that it has been in the top 30. ''U.S. News'' also ranked Springfield College #18 among Best Value Schools for Regional Universities—North, the school's fifth consecutive year on the list. This ranking takes into account a college's academic quality and net cost of attendance. Springfield College is the recipient of the 2016 Presidential Award in the education category of the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. This honor is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement. Since 2009, ''Diverse Issues in Higher Education'' has ranked Springfield College's School of Professional and Continuing Studies, formerly the School of Human Services, among the top three U.S. institutions for the number of bachelor's degrees awarded to African Americans in public administration and social services. The Carnegie Foundation recognized Springfield College as one of a select group of colleges and universities throughout the U.S. that have earned the foundation's Community Engagement Classification in 2015. Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield's (ACCGS) awarded Springfield College a 2014 Super 60 Award for revenue for the tenth consecutive year. The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) named Springfield a finalist for the President's Award for Community Service in 2014. Springfield College was named a 2016–17 College of Distinction for providing an innovative, teacher-centered undergraduate education with a strong record of preparing its graduates for real-world success. ''U.S. News'' ranked Springfield College #8 for schools with the highest percentages of alumni enrolling in a graduate school in 2013.

Notable alumni and faculty

Harold Amos Harold Amos (September 7, 1918 – February 26, 2003) was an African American microbiologist and professor. He taught at Harvard Medical School for nearly fifty years and was the first African-American department chair of the school. Early life Am ...

– microbiologist and professor *

Mark Banker Mark John Banker (born January 15, 1956) is an American football coach. Banker is currently the safeties coach at Washington State University. He was previously the assistant head coach and inside linebackers coach at the University of Hawaii. Pre ...

– safeties coach for the Washington State Cougars football team * Stanley F. Battle – American educator, author, civic activist and former leader of

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public, historically black land-grant research university in Greensboro, North Caro ...

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and

Southern Connecticut State University Southern Connecticut State University (Southern Connecticut, Southern Connecticut State, SCSU, or simply Southern) is a public university in New Haven, Connecticut. Part of the Connecticut State University System, it was founded in 1893 and is ...

, 1973 *

Vaughn Blanchard Vaughn Seavey Blanchard (July 11, 1889 – November 26, 1969) was an American track and field athlete who competed in the 110 m hurdles and in the exhibition baseball tournament at the 1912 Summer Olympics. He attended Bates College in Lewiston ...

, 1912 Olympian in Track and Field and Baseball *

Rick Blangiardi Rick Blangiardi (born September 15, 1946) is an American television executive and politician from the state of Hawaii. Blangiardi was elected mayor of Honolulu in the 2020 mayoral election, and took office on January 2, 2021. He previously worke ...

, 15th mayor of

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

and former television executive *

Jeff Blatnick Jeffrey Carl "Jeff" Blatnick (July 26, 1957 – October 24, 2012) was an American super heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler and sports commentator. He won NCAA Division II heavyweight wrestling championships in 1978 and 1979 and won the Olympic gol ...

– 1984 Olympic gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling, 2015

UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

Hall of Fame inductee *

Raymond Castellani Raymond Jay Castellani (February 13, 1933 – October 18, 2021) was an American character actor. As a former alcoholic, he founded the Frontline Foundation, which serves meals to the homeless on the Los Angeles' Skid Row. Castellani was born ...

– did not graduate; actor, activist on

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– professional wrestler and film and TV actor * Nancy Darsch – Collegiate, Olympic, and WNBA coach *

Tony DiCicco Anthony D. DiCicco Jr. (August 5, 1948 – June 19, 2017) was an American soccer player and coach and TV commentator. He is best known as the coach of the United States women's national soccer team from 1994 to 1999, during which time the team wo ...

– head coach of USA Women's Soccer National Team 1994–1999, coach of the FIFA Women's Soccer 1999 Championship Team * W. Dean Eastman – educator (graduate assistant track coach 1974–76, MSE 1976, CAGS 1977) * John Forslund – TV play-by-play announcer for the

Seattle Kraken The Seattle Kraken are a professional ice hockey team based in Seattle. The Kraken compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and began play during the league's 2021–22 season. ...

of the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

* Nancy E. Gary – (ScB 1958) dean of

Albany Medical College Albany Medical College (AMC) is a private medical school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1839 by Alden March and James H. Armsby and is one of the oldest medical schools in the nation. The college is part of the Albany Medical Center, whi ...

and Executive Vice President of the

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) is a health science university of the U.S. federal government. The primary mission of the school is to prepare graduates for service to the U.S. at home and abroad in the medical corps as ...

and Dean of its F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine. *

Dave Gettleman David Alan Gettleman (born February 21, 1951) is a former American football executive in the National Football League (NFL) who was the senior vice president and general manager for the New York Giants from 2018 to 2021 and the Carolina Panther ...

– pro football executive, currently

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the New York Giants *

Wayne Granger Wayne Allan Granger (born March 15, 1944) is a former Major League Baseball right-handed relief pitcher who played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1968, 1973), Cincinnati Reds (1969–1971), Minnesota Twins (1972), New York Yankees (1973), Chicago Wh ...

– former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weat ...

and

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

saves leader in 1970 *

Don Ho Donald Tai Loy Ho (August 13, 1930 – April 14, 2007) was a Hawaiian traditional pop musician, singer and entertainer. He is best known for the song "Tiny Bubbles" from the album of the same name. Life and career Ho was a singer of Native ...

– Hawaiian musician and entertainer (attended for one year) * Dan Hunt – head football coach at Colgate University * Rusty Jones, strength and conditioning coach for the Chicago Bears * Dr. Lynn Lashbrook, President and Founder of SMWW * William G. Morgan – inventor of

. *

– Canadian faculty member, invented

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

in 1891 * Max Nacewicz – Professional Football Player *

Erin Pac Erin Pac (born May 30, 1980) is a former American bobsledder who competed from 2002 to 2010. She won two medals in the mixed bobsled-skeleton team event at the FIBT World Championships with a silver in 2007 and a bronze in 2008. A native of Farm ...

– bronze medal winner in bobsled at the

2010 Vancouver Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

Boris Pash Boris Theodore Pash (born ''Boris Fedorovich Pashkovsky'', Russian: Борис Фёдорович Пашковский; 20 June 1900 – 11 May 1995) was a United States Army military intelligence officer. He commanded the Alsos Mission during Wo ...

– commanded the

Alsos Mission The Alsos Mission was an organized effort by a team of British and United States military, scientific, and intelligence personnel to discover enemy scientific developments during World War II. Its chief focus was on the German nuclear energy pro ...

during World War II. *

Fernando Picó Fernando Picó Bauermeister, S.J. (August 15, 1941 – June 27, 2017) was a Puerto Rican Jesuit, historian and academic. Picó was a leading expert on the history of Puerto Rico and was considered an authority on the island's 20th century histor ...

- historian, expert on the

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Albert I. Prettyman Albert I. Prettyman (died 1963) was a coach and athletic administrator at Hamilton College (New York), Hamilton College. During his coaching career he was head coach of many sports including basketball, track and field and American football, footba ...

– head coach of the United States Hockey Team at the

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in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany * John Quinlan – model and actor, former professional wrestler *

Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Manuel Rivera-Ortiz (born December 23, 1968) is a stateside Puerto Rican photographer. He is best known for his social documentary photography of people's living conditions in less developed nations. Rivera-Ortiz lives in Rochester, New York an ...

– did not graduate; documentary photographer; attended classes at Springfield Colleges as part of the Massachusetts Migrant Education summer program, where he was offered his first courses in photography and film development. * Angela Salem – professional soccer player. *

Craig Shirley Craig Paul Shirley (born September 24, 1956) is a conservative American political consultant and author of the 2011 New York Times bestseller "December 1941", as well as four books on Ronald Reagan. Life and career Youth and education Shirley ...

– political consultant and author, associated with Ronald Reagan * Justine Siegal – baseball coach and sports educator. * Steve Spagnuolo – former head coach of the National Football League's

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– head football coach 1890–1891; later head of multiple national champion teams at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. * Sue Thomas — the first

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

person to work as an undercover specialist doing lip-reading of suspects for the

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* Tom Waddell – alumnus, physician and founder of

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Glenn Warner Glenn Scobey Warner (April 5, 1871 – September 7, 1954), most commonly known as Pop Warner, was an American college football coach at various institutions who is responsible for several key aspects of the modern game. Included among his inn ...

– president of National Soccer Coaches Association of America in 1953, head coach of the Naval Academy's men's soccer team from 1942 to 1975 * Scotty Whitelaw - former Commissioner of the

* Mike Woicik – football coach (1978–79) and strength and conditioning coach for several professional football teams * Bill Yorzyk – physician and only USA swimming gold medalist in 1956 Olympics, 200 m butterfly *

Ted Shawn Ted Shawn (born Edwin Myers Shawn; October 21, 1891 – January 9, 1972) was a male pioneer of American modern dance. He created the Denishawn School together with his wife Ruth St. Denis. After their separation he created the all-male company Te ...

– Adjunct faculty member (1932-1933); founder of the Denishawn Dance School and

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and a key figure in establishing male

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

. *Peter V. Karpovich – Professor of physiology (1927-1947), director of health education (1947-1955), research professor of physiology (1955-1969); founder of the

American College of Sports Medicine The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a sports medicine and exercise science membership organization. Founded in 1954, ACSM holds conferences, publishes books and journals, and offers certifi ...

(ACSM).

References

External links

*
Official athletics website
{{authority control Universities and colleges founded by the YMCA Universities and colleges in Springfield, Massachusetts Educational institutions established in 1885 1885 establishments in Massachusetts Private universities and colleges in Massachusetts