Saint Bernard College had been conferring degrees since 1893 as a college preparatory school. Between 1948 and 1953, the Board of Trustees worked on expanding the institution to four-year-college status; the first class graduated in 1955. Saint Bernard College then received its accreditation as a senior college the next year from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and operated until 1979. It served the secondary-educational needs of hundreds in the baby-boom generation. Many students arriving from the Greater Philadelphia area, New Jersey, Michigan, Georgia, New York state, Knoxville,TN found this rural college ideal for their college experience. The college preparatory program was disbanded in 1962 and St Bernard college was formed. Saint Bernard then merged with Cullman College in 1976 and adopted the name of Southern Benedictine College. Some of its history in the 1960s included a Judo team nationally ranked against some of the largest universities in the USA. The varsity basketball teams were excellent with star players from as far north as Michigan. In 1968 the team, prior to the current third-point line, won the Alabama state championship with a score over 120 points with the Dolan brothers and the team leader scorer Paul Lyons, he later became a New York Hall of Fame Coaches Assoc. member. Noteworthy, in the late sixties a very popular student,Chick Loftus, from the Philadelphia, Pa area, 'walked on' as one of the few non-scholarship players on that great 1968 champion team. The Judo team founder, a student Larry Ventura, while holding a non-black belt only, the rank of Second degree Brown belt encouraged many young students with his master of the art of judo followed his ideals and love of Kodakan Judo. In the fall of 1967 Robert Bennett, Brown belt, one of the many students from the Greater Philadelphia, PA area replaced founder Ventura as the Head Instructor and Captain of the 1968 Judo Team. The golf team was ranked nationally in the NAIA Men's Championship in 1971. The soccer teams of the 1960s were highly competitive with varsity players, such as Manny Martinese, Kevin Kelly, Larry Lenzi and additionally, the soccer team gained national ranking in NAIA especially after recruiting Neil O'Donoghue in 1972 who later went on to play football for Auburn University and in the NFL. Several books have been penned in telling true history of this small Alabama college include the full true story of the 1968 Basketball championship teams well as fictional works, such as," We Boys, We Saints, We Men" and " We Are Saints Still" both author by Bob Bennett SBC'68, both loosely based on the mid to late 1960s students and their campus lives. Changing its name once again, Southern Benedictine College officially closed on May 13, 1979. St. Bernard Preparatory School was reopened in 1984 on the Southern Benedictine campus and currently has a very promising private high school and seminarian. The prep school received its accreditation in 1995.
