UNK Carl Althaus

Carl Althaus was born Carl Ellis Althaus on April 20, 1921, in Louisville, Kentucky to Carl and Amalie Althaus.  The family home backed up to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary grounds, where he and his brothers played. Carl always talked about his mom’s cooking – soup, stuffed cabbage, and Sunday morning “kuchen” (German coffee cake) – and how hard his dad worked. 

Carl’s athletic experience was remarkable. He earned letters in 5 sports in high school, played high school football on a 1938 National Championship team, and played college basketball under Adolph Rupp at the University of Kentucky.  He also played football and ran track at UK.

Althaus was a prominent cog in the Louisville DuPont Manual Red machine that was undefeated and beat New Britain, Conn., in the Sugar Bowl for the national interscholastic championship in 1938.

Althaus joined the Kentucky basketball team for the 1941-42 season, his first attempt at college basketball although he did play basketball in high school.  

In 1942, Althaus led the UK football team in receptions with a total of 185 yards, including a pair of scoring tosses.

Althaus’s basketball career was cut short just before the SEC tournament in 1943 when he received orders to report to the Army Air Corps.  He did qualify for and was awarded a varsity letter for basketball.

In the Army Air Corps, he served as a B-24 Liberator bomber pilot from 1943 to 1945. In June 1944, he was commissioned a second lieutenant at Stuttgart Airfield in Arkansas.  In 1945, he had flown 10 combat missions and logged 41 hours of combat flying. 

After the war, Althaus returned to UK to resume his athletic career but was ruled ineligible to play football.  He returned to work in his father’s business, Althaus Plumbing.

Althaus married Phoeba Baker in 1960. 

In 1969 the Lord was calling to gather seeking believers across the U.S. Carl and Phoebe responded with the desire to move to either Atlanta or Los Angeles. At a conference in Erie, Pennsylvania, Carl and Phoebe asked Witness Lee what he thought. He responded only with, “The informal training in Los Angeles starts in February.” They were clear what they needed to do and made arrangements for the handling of the family business, packed the home they had finally finished remodeling after ten years, gathered their 3 children at that time, and moved across the country. They arrived in Los Angeles for the start of the training in 1970 and never looked back.

Althaus passed away February 11, 2009, at the age of 87.  He is buried at the Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, Los Angeles County, California.

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