Albert Berg - Teaching Career and Advocacy

Teaching Career and Advocacy

After his brief stint as Purdue's football coach, Berg worked briefly as an architect's apprentice and with the YMCA and the Chicago stockyards. He also returned to coaching briefly at Franklin College and at Butler University.

In the late 1880s, he became a teacher at the Indiana School for the Deaf. He taught there for between 41 and 45 years until retiring in 1933. He received a master of arts degree from Gallaudet in 1895. He delivered his thesis on "Labor and Capital" to an audience that included President Grover Cleveland, though Cleveland reportedly fell asleep during Berg's presentation.

Berg also became an advocate for the deaf. He lobbied for better pay for deaf teachers, wrote several books, served as an editor for "The Silent Hoosier," and published "Who's Who of the Deaf." Berg also sold life insurance, mostly to the deaf, for an eastern insurance company. He reportedly sold over $1 million in policies.

Berg preferred not to be remembered as a football coach. In his autobiography, "From My Reliquary of Memories," Berg wrote:

"Many years ago, my picture appeared in 'Believe It or Not' in newspapers over the country, as 'Deaf Mute Football Coach at Purdue.' Friends in several distant cities sent me the clippings from their home papers. Each football season, papers here and there have printed something about the role I played, one or two with my picture, and I have been asked to write articles on my coaching experiences, as though I had never done anything else worth while in my life. I got fed-up long ago and know I have not yet heard the last of it. The subject may wind up in my obituary."