Albert Ira Prettyman

Director of Athletics (1917-1946)

09/18/1963

The death of Albert Ira Prettyman on May 24, 1962 evokes our tribute to a resolute and dedicated former colleague.

For twenty-nine years before his resignation in March of 1946, Albert Ira Prettyman was the forceful Director of Athletics at this college. His vision and tenacity made him a successful proponent of a professorial status for the members of the Department of Physical Education. His determination brought the inclusion of Physical Education. His determination brought the inclusion of physical education for all students for four years within the required curriculum. Although at different periods he coached various sports, his over-riding concern centered in ice-hockey. Within his first year (1917-18) at Hamilton he began to organize a hockey team which soon compiled an extraordinary series of victories; and by 1921-22 he had acquired in the Sage Building one of the first enclosed ice-rinks on an American college campus. Similarly he fostered the construction of a campus golf course – again one of the first such courses on a college campus. Having secured financial backing, he founded the College Store with the intent that its profits might help directly to pay for the athletic program, as indeed they did until the mid-thirties. He was instrumental in designing and acquiring the new gymnasium whose cornerstone was laid in 1938.

Among his many interests, ice-hockey stood paramount. Often in transforming the novice into a proficient player, the severe taskmaster retained the affectionate devotion of his protégé. From College Hill his enthusiasm overflowed to the village of Clinton where he promoted hockey and established an outdoor rink. His reputation as a specialist in this sport extended across the nation. For a score of years he was chairman of the N.C.A.A. Committee on Ice Hockey Rules and he served as the coach of the United States Hockey Team in the 1936 Olympic Games. In 1950 the Ice Hockey Guide for the first time dedicated its annual to an individual in honoring Albert Ira Prettyman as ‘the man who has done more for amateur hockey over nearly thirty years than anyone other one individual.’

In many undergraduates who came under his tutelage he inspired a zealous devotion rarely matched by that accorded to any other faculty member. His home, graced by his warm-hearted wife, formed a happy rendezvous for students and alumni alike. To his faculty colleagues, his resolute promotion of a sound program for healthful exercise under academic control and his forthrightness in expressing deeply-felt opinions marked him as a man of principle. His contributions to Hamilton College in physical plant, in the status of sports and in the stimulation of alumni loyalty forma. Lasting memorial to Albert Ira Prettyman.

Although relatively few of his colleagues now remain to express their personal regard for Professor Prettyman, the current faculty records in its minutes this resolution of appreciation for the numerous contributions to this College made by Albert Ira Prettyman.