Southern Benedictine College

Southern Benedictine College aka Saint Bernard College
Type Catholic Benedictine
Active 1929–1979
Location Cullman, Alabama, United States

Southern Benedictine College was a Catholic Benedictine college in Cullman, Alabama, USA. Called Saint Bernard College, it closed its doors for good in 1979.

It was established as a junior college by the Benedictine Society of Alabama as Saint Bernard College in 1929, although it had been conferring Bachelor's degrees since 1893 as a college preparatory school. Between 1948 and 1953, the Board of Trustees worked on expanding the college to four-year-college status; the first class graduated in 1955. Saint Bernard received its accreditation as a senior college the next year from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and operated until 1979. It served the secondary-educational needs of hundreds in the baby-boom generation. Many college students from the Greater Philadelphia area, New Jersey, Michigan, Georgia, New York found this rural college ideal for their college experience.

The college preparatory program was disbanded in 1962. Saint Bernard then merged with Cullman College in 1976 and adopted the name of Southern Benedictine College. For a time in the late 1960s its Judo team was nationally ranked against some of the largest universities in the USA. The varsity basketball teams were excellent with star players from as far north as Michigan. In 1968 the team was an Alabama state champion with the team leader Paul Lyons, later a New York Hall of Fame Coaches Assoc. and the Dolan brothers. In the late sixties a very popular student,Chick Loftus, from the Philadelphia, Pa area, 'walked on' as one of the few non-scholarship players on that great 1968 champion team. The Judo team founder, Larry Ventura, while holding only the rank of Second degree Brown Belt encouraged many young students to follow his ideals and love of Kodakan Judo. In the fall of 1967 Robert C. (Bob) Bennett, Brown Belt,one of the many students from the Great Philadelphia, Pa area replaced founder Ventura as the Head Instructor and Captain of the Judo Team. The golf team was ranked nationally in the NAIA Men's Championship in 1971.[1] The soccer teams of the 1960s were highly competitive with varsity players, such as Manny Martinese, Kevin Kelly (New Jersey), Larry Lenzi and additionally, the soccer team gained national ranking in NAIA especially after recruiting Neil O'Donoghue in 1972 who later went on to play football for Auburn University and the NFL. Several books have been penned in telling true history of this small Alabama college as well as fictional works, such as," We Boys, We Saints, We Men",author Bob Bennett SBC'68, loosely based on the late 1960s students and their lives.

Southern Benedictine officially closed on May 13, 1979.

St. Bernard Preparatory School was reopened in 1984 on the Southern Benedictine campus. It received its accreditation in 1995.

References

  1. ↑

Coordinates: 34°10′53″N 86°49′05″W / 34.18130°N 86.81807°W / 34.18130; -86.81807

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