Daily Dose of Crimson Tide: Coach Harold "Red" Drew

Harold D. Drew, also known as "Red," first arrived on the Capstone in 1931 thanks in part to recommendation from Knute Rockne.

Originally from Maine, where Drew played football and other sports at Bates College and Springfield College in Massachusetts, he joined the Navy during World War I, and eventually started his coaching career at Trinity College in 1920. Four years later, upon the recommendation from the famed Notre Dame coach, Drew took the athletic director and head football coach positions at Birmingham-Southern College.

To give you an idea of how small the world of football coaching can be, Alabama coach Frank Thomas was a quarterback for Rockne from 1920-22 (and his roommate and best friend at Notre Dame was George Gipp. Rockne called Thomas the smartest player he ever coached.

Drew was an assistant coach for Thomas for 14 years before leaving to take over Ole Miss. Among the players he helped included Don Hutson, Paul Bryant and Holt Rast.

However, when Thomas’ health caused him to step aside and only be the Crimson Tide's athletic director, he convinced Drew to return after just one season with the Rebels.

Drew went 2-7 his only year at Ole Miss, and 8-3 the first season back in Tuscaloosa.

Drew was the head coach during Alabama’s 61-6 victory against Syracuse in the Orange Bowl at the end of the 1952 season (“I just couldn’t stop them,” he said), when he was named Southeastern Conference coach of the year and joined Zen Scott, Thomas and Wallace Wade as the only Alabama coaches with double-digit seasons.

His two other bowl appearances were the 1948 Sugar Bowl, a 27-7 loss to Texas, and the 1954 Cotton Bowl, a 28-6 defeat to Rice highlighted by Tommy Lewis’ tackle off the bench.

Drew’s football coaching career at Alabama came to an end in 1954, with a 55-28-7 record. However, he stayed on and coached Alabama’s track & field team for 23 seasons, retiring in 1965.

He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1971.

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