Harold Delbert "Red" Drew (November 9, 1894 – October 20, 1979) was an American football, basketball, and track and field coach for over 40 years. He was the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team from 1947 to 1954, compiling a record and leading the team to appearances in the Sugar, Orange and Cotton Bowls. He also 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. Drew also served as Alabama's track and field coach for 23 seasons continuing into the mid-1960s. He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1971.
A native of Maine, Drew received degrees from Bates College in Maine and Springfield College in Massachusetts. He played football for both schools. He also played baseball and also competed as a pole vaulter at Bates College. His athletic career was interrupted by service as a naval aviator during World War I.
Drew began his coaching career as an athletic director, football coach, and basketball coach at Trinity College (1920–1924), Birmingham–Southern College (1924–1927) and the University of Chattanooga, now known as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (1927–1931). In 1931, he began his long association with the University of Alabama, serving as the head track coach and assistant football coach through the 1930s. He 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. After the war, he served as the head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels football team in 1946.
Early years
Drew was born in 1894 in Dyer Brook, Maine, and raised in Patten, Maine. He 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. Known as "Spud" Drew during his college years, Drew received his degree from Bates in 1916.
In 1916, Drew enrolled for graduate studies at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. While attending Springfield College, he played football and was the captain of the school's 1917 football team.
In November 1917, 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. After the war, Drew returned to Springfield where he played for the school's 1919 football team. He received a B.P.E. degree from Springfield in 1920.
Coaching career
Trinity and Birmingham–Southern
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. Drew left Trinity to accept a position as the athletic director and head football coach at Birmingham–Southern College. He was the football coach at Birmingham–Southern from 1924 to 1927. Drew also coached basketball at Trinity (1920–1924) and Birmingham–Southern (1924–1928).
Chattanooga
In 1928, Drew accepted a position as an assistant football coach at the University of Chattanooga, now known as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He 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. When Thomas accepted a coaching position at the University of Georgia in 1929, Drew took over as Chattanooga's athletic director and head coach of the football and basketball teams. Drew coached Chattanooga's football team to Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships in 1929 and 1930. He also coached Chattanooga's basketball team from 1928 to 1931.
Assistant at Alabama
In January 1931, Drew was hired as an assistant coach under the Alabama Crimson Tide's newly appointed head coach Frank Thomas. This began Drew's long association with the University of Alabama. He served as an assistant football coach for the Crimson Tide from 1931 to 1945, with the exceptions of the 1942, 1943 and 1944 seasons. As an assistant coach at Alabama, Drew was responsible for coaching the ends. He was the position coach for Don Hutson, who went on to become the first star wide receiver in the National Football League. The ends mentored by Drew also included Holt Rast and Bear Bryant. The undefeated 1934 Alabama Crimson Tide football team won the national championship with ends Hutson and Bryant as key players. In addition to his duties as an assistant football coach, Drew also coached Alabama's track team.