J. I. Albrecht

J.I. Albrecht
Born:	February 15, 1931; St. James, New York, U.S.
Died:	March 11, 2008 (aged 77); Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Career history
As administrator
1970–1973	Montreal Alouettes
1984	Atlantic Schooners
1994	Shreveport Pirates
2000	Toronto Argonauts
	This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)
Career highlights and awards
Honors	1993: named all-time general manager of the Alouettes by CFL Alumni Association

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. He also worked in NFL, NCAA, and NASL.

Background

Albrecht was the son of wealthy New York businessman Herman Albrecht. Born in St. James, New York, Albrecht grew up in Long Island and Brooklyn and attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. He went on to attend Georgia Military College 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.^[1]

Early career

Albrecht went on to work under General

soccer and the Croatian

people.

Montreal Alouettes

Albrecht served as the general manager of the

Larry Smith, Junior Ah You, Gordon Judges, Steve Smear, Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers, Dan Yochum, & Ed George

.

Atlantic Schooners/Cape Breton

In 1984 Albrecht was granted a conditional expansion team to play out of

Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Schooners 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

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 where Albrecht took over the athletic director'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 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

Shreveport

also brought legal action against the team in separate suits.

Toronto Argonauts

Albrecht came back to the team in

B.C. Lions. Despite all the disasters, Albrecht did hire player Michael Clemons 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

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. [3]

References

^ McRae, Earl (June 2, 2007). "This isn't how a legend should end". Ottawa Sun. Archived from the original on June 23, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-20.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^ John HUARD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SHREVEPORT PIRATES, INC. and Bernard Glieberman, Defendants-Appellees. J.I. ALBRECHT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SHREVEPORT PIRATES, INC. and Bernard Glieberman, Defendants-Appellees., 147 F.3d 406, No. 97-30889 (United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit 1998-07-20).
^ Gross, David (2008-03-11). "CFL legend J.I. Albrecht passes away". National Post. Canwest News Service. Retrieved 2008-03-11. ^{[dead link]}

O'Brien, Steve (2005). The Canadian Football League: The Phoenix of Professional Sports Leagues.
ISBN 1-4116-5860-4
.

[1] McRae, Earl (June 2, 2007). "This isn't how a legend should end". Ottawa Sun. Archived from the original on June 23, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-20.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

[2] John HUARD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SHREVEPORT PIRATES, INC. and Bernard Glieberman, Defendants-Appellees. J.I. ALBRECHT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SHREVEPORT PIRATES, INC. and Bernard Glieberman, Defendants-Appellees., 147 F.3d 406, No. 97-30889 (United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit 1998-07-20).

[3] Gross, David (2008-03-11). "CFL legend J.I. Albrecht passes away". National Post. Canwest News Service. Retrieved 2008-03-11. ^{[dead link]}

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