Kessler Gives $100K For ‘Berg’s New Athletic Facilities
Muhlenberg College is pleased to announce that the basketball coaches’ suite in the new and expanded Life Sports Center will be named for Mel Kessler ’59, who has committed $100,000 to the renovation project.Monday, March 10, 2003 03:20 PM
Muhlenberg College is pleased to announce that the basketball coaches’ suite in the new and expanded Life Sports Center will be named for Mel Kessler ’59, who has committed $100,000 to the renovation project.
Kessler was captain of the 1958-59 men’s varsity basketball team at Muhlenberg, where he scored more than 1,000 career points. He holds Muhlenberg’s all-time records for rebounds in a season with 331 in 1958-59, when he averaged 15.0 a game. That year, he set the single-season scoring record at 21.7 points per game, which still stands, and scored 42 points against Lafayette, a mark that ranks third on ‘Berg’s all-time single-game scoring list. In his senior season, Kessler was named to the Associated Press All-Pennsylvania Second Team, All Middle Atlantic Conference Division I Team and the Eastern College Athletic Conference All Division I Team.
Upon graduation, Kessler coached basketball locally at Nazareth High School in Nazareth, Pa., before coaching and teaching at Valley Stream (N.Y.) High School and then at Wantagh Long Island High School, where he was named New York Daily News Coach of the Year in 1967-68. He then coached at the University of New Haven before joining Merrill Lynch in 1971. Kessler was made a vice president in 1982, was named first vice president in 1998 and retired December 31, 2001.
Construction is scheduled to begin in May, and should be complete in the fall of 2004. The Mel Kessler ’59 Basketball Suite will provide expanded office space for the men’s and women’s basketball coaches. The renovated building will include additional locker rooms and office space, new recreation and fitness areas and a new health and counseling center.
