1. Harold Delbert "Red" Drew was an American football, basketball, and track and field coach for over 40 years.
29 Facts About Harold Drew
1. 2.
Harold Drew served as an assistant football coach at Alabama from 1931 to 1941, including the undefeated 1934 team that won the national championship and played in the 1935 Rose Bowl.
3.
Harold Drew was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1971.
4.
Harold Drew played baseball and competed as a pole vaulter at Bates College.
5.
Harold Drew spent three years in the United States Navy during World War II and was placed in charge of "fleet recreation" on the island of Saipan.
6.
Harold Drew was born in 1894 in Dyer Brook, Maine, and raised in Patten, Maine.
7.
Harold Drew attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he was played for the school's football and baseball teams and competed in the pole vault for the track team.
8.
In 1916, Harold Drew enrolled for graduate studies at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts.
9.
In November 1917, Harold Drew joined the United States Navy, serving in the Canal Zone as an ensign and a naval aviator during World War I from 1917 to 1918.
10.
Harold Drew began his coaching career as the athletic director and head football and basketball coach at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut from 1920 to 1924.
11.
In 1928, Harold Drew accepted a position as an assistant football coach at the University of Chattanooga, now known as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
12.
Harold Drew was hired at Chattanooga by athletic director and football coach Frank Thomas, with whom Drew would remain associated for most of the following 25 years.
13.
When Thomas accepted a coaching position at the University of Georgia in 1929, Harold Drew took over as Chattanooga's athletic director and head coach of the football and basketball teams.
14.
Harold Drew coached Chattanooga's football team to Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships in 1929 and 1930.
15.
Harold Drew coached Chattanooga's basketball team from 1928 to 1931.
16.
In January 1931, Harold Drew was hired as an assistant coach under the Alabama Crimson Tide's newly appointed head coach Frank Thomas.
17.
Harold Drew served as an assistant football coach for the Crimson Tide from 1931 to 1945, with the exceptions of the 1942,1943 and 1944 seasons.
18.
Harold Drew was the position coach for Don Hutson, who went on to become the first star wide receiver in the National Football League.
19.
The ends mentored by Harold Drew included Holt Rast and Bear Bryant.
20.
Harold Drew missed the 1942,1943 and 1944 seasons at Alabama while serving in the United States Navy.
21.
Harold Drew was thereafter assigned as the athletic director at the Naval Air Station in Miami, Florida.
22.
Harold Drew ultimately deployed to the Pacific Ocean theater where he was placed in charge of "fleet recreation" on the island of Saipan.
23.
Harold Drew was discharged from the Navy and returned to Alabama in May 1945.
24.
In January 1947, Harold Drew was hired to succeed Frank Thomas as the head football coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide.
25.
Harold Drew was selected as the SEC Coach of the Year in 1952, and he was given a two-year contract extension in December 1952.
26.
On December 2,1954, Drew was removed as the head coach and replaced with J B Whitworth.
27.
Harold Drew was retained as Alabama's head track coach and associate professor of physical education.
28.
Harold Drew was Alabama's track coach for 23 seasons and through at least 1964.
29.
Harold Drew was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1970.