Kutztown University Athletics

Bert Bohler (1911-20) was the director of athletics and head coach during one of the most successful periods in team sport history at Kutztown. Bohler was the head coach of men’s sports from 1911-20, coaching baseball and men’s basketball. He guided his basketball team to a pair of Pennsylvania State Normal School Championships. Over a four-season span (1915-19), Bohler’s teams lost just five games. The 1916-17 squad won the earliest championship in recorded history for Kutztown, with an 18-0 record. After losing just one game the next year with an entirely new team, Bohler’s squad won another state championship in 1918-19 with a 12-1 record. His baseball teams often turned in winning seasons, including a 6-1-1 mark in 1915. Bohler and his brothers, J. Fred, George and Roy, were renowned basketball players in Reading and Ephrata at the turn of the century. All four brothers went on to careers in athletics. J. Fred earned the most fame as a coach and director of athletics at Washington State College. J. Fred is credited with introducing dribbling and the one-handed shot to basketball. Bert graduated from Schuylkill Seminary (now Albright College). After leaving Kutztown in 1920, he served as the Physical Education Director for the Butler YMCA for 12 years and was in charge of athletics at the Huntingdon State Industrial School from 1932-37. Bohler then worked in the Pennsylvania State Department’s division of community athletics for six years. He went on to several other occupations before passing away in 1976.