Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium &
Morley Fraser Field:
The home of the Britons

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 14 times in the 25 year history of Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium. (Albion has won 32 league titles overall, the most among all Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association members.)

What A View!

The stadium sits on the north bank of the Kalamazoo River, giving fans a majestic, close-up view of Michigan's changing fall colors. The college has a canoe livery between the visiting stands and the softball field, and offers students, faculty, and staff an opportunity to canoe the river during the fall and spring.

It's rare that a Division III football stadium gets recognition in the travel section of a daily newspaper. Yet that's what the Detroit Free Press did in mentioning Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium in its August 28, 1994, edition. And what did the Free Press have to say about Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium?

"Because the Kalamazoo River flows next to the football stadium, fans get to pretend that football is, in fact, a nature experience. Don't laugh. This is one of the few places in Michigan where, in October, you can literally watch the seasons change as the trees on the riverbank bow to the pressure of oncoming winter..."

Another view of Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium and its vistas comes from Grand Rapids Press Sports Editor Bob Becker after a 1996 visit. Becker's comments appear in the October 20, 1996, edition of the Press:

"There is nothing special about Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium, unless you count the beauty of the Kalamazoo River bubbling just behind the visitors' bleachers, bordered by acres of unspoiled forest spotted in brilliant shades of orange, red, green and yellow.

"No rational person could ever observe such stunning natural beauty without being absolutely convinced of the existence--and love--of a much higher power."

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 underwent 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 pretty much 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.

Updated January 05, 2004 by Albion College Sports Information.