Henry Russell "Red" Sanders (May 7, 1905 – August 14, 1958) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player and coach. He was head coach at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

(1940–1942, 1946–1948) and the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

(1949–1957), compiling a career

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

record of 102–41–3 (). Sanders'

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

UCLA team was named

national champions National champions are corporations which are technically private businesses but due to governmental policy are ceded a dominant position in a national economy. In this system, these large organizations are expected not only to seek profit but als ...

by the

Coaches Poll The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officiall ...

and the Football Writers Association of America. Sanders was inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vo ...

as a coach in 1996. Known for being witty and hard driving, Sanders used the

single-wing formation In American and Canadian football, a single-wing formation was a precursor to the modern spread or shotgun formation. The term usually connotes formations in which the snap is tossed rather than handed—formations with one wingback and a h ...

at Vanderbilt and UCLA. He was the originator of the

squib kick A squib kick is a term used in American football meaning a short, low, line drive kickoff that usually bounces around on the ground before it can be picked up by a member of the receiving team. The ball is kicked so short that it forces the receivi ...

and the 4-4 defense.Bolch, Ben �
Red Sanders' impact on UCLA football has lasted well past his death, 60 years ago Tuesday
Los Angeles Times (latimes.com), August 14, 2018University of California: In Memoriam, April 1960, Henry Russell Sanders: Los Angeles. University of California (System) Academic Senate He is widely credited with coining the saying, "

Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing "Winning isn’t everything; it's the only thing" is a well-known quotation in sports. It is attributed to UCLA Bruins football coach Henry Russell ("Red") Sanders. He is on record with at least two different versions of the quotation during his c ...

". When asked about the

UCLA–USC rivalry The UCLA–USC rivalry is the American collegiate athletics rivalry between the UCLA Bruins sports teams of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and USC Trojans teams of the University of Southern California (USC). Both univer ...

, Sanders said "it's not a matter of life and death, it's more important than that!" He was the first "Wizard of Westwood" before that title was attributed to UCLA Basketball coach

John Wooden John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed the Wizard of Westwood, he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships in a 12-year period as hea ...

Childhood

Born in

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

, Sanders spent most of his youth in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

. One of his best boyhood friends and classmates at Duncan was renowned sports writer

Fred Russell Fred Russell (August 27, 1906 – January 26, 2003) was an American sportswriter from Tennessee who served as sports editor for the ''Nashville Banner'' for 68 years (1930–1998). Beginning in the 1960s he served for nearly three decades as ...

, with whom he remained close friends his entire life.

Vanderbilt player

Sanders attended college at

in Nashville. He was a four-year letterman both in football and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

. Sanders was captain of the baseball team in his senior year and a substitute

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

on the football team. His football coach,

Dan McGugin Daniel Earle McGugin (July 29, 1879 – January 23, 1936) was an American football player and coach, as well as a lawyer. He served as the head football coach at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee from 1904 to 1917 and again from ...

, said of him, "Red Sanders has one of the best football minds I have ever known."

Early coaching career

Josh Cody Joshua Crittenden Cody (June 11, 1892 – June 17, 1961) was an American college athlete, head coach, and athletics director. Cody was a native of Tennessee and an alumnus of Vanderbilt University, where he played several sports. As a versatil ...

first hired Sanders as the backfield coach of the

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) ...

. Sanders got his first head coaching position at Riverside Military Academy, leading its 1936 team to an undefeated season. The father of Bucky Curtis hired Sanders for the job. Sanders then assisted the 1938 Florida Gators, again with Cody, and the 1939 LSU Tigers.

Vanderbilt coach

Sanders had two stints as head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores, from 1940 to 1942, and then from 1946 to 1948. Between 1942 to 1946, Sanders served in the United States Navy during World War II. He had a successful career at Vanderbilt, compiling a 36–22–2 () record, the best mark by a coach while the school has been a member of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

. Highlights included: *A stunning upset of #7 ranked Alabama on November 22, 1941, in a driving rainstorm in Nashville; up to that time, only the second time in Commodore history where they defeated a ranked team. *The first top-20 ranking in the school history in 1947, where the team was ranked #10 after opening the season with two wins. The team defended its ranking with a defeat of #18 Mississippi, the first time Vanderbilt played a ranked school while ranked. *An eight-game winning string to end the 1948 season, including a ranking in the final poll and a defeat of archrival Tennessee. This still stands as the second longest single-season win streak in Vanderbilt football history.

UCLA

Sanders coached the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

from 1949 through 1957. He was indisputably the best football coach in school history, elevating a rarely distinguished program to an elite national power with an overall record of 66–19–1 () at UCLA and earning the school its only national championship in football in

. As head coach of the Bruins, Sanders led them to four Top 10 National Rankings, three

Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (including ...

(PCC) titles, two

Rose Bowls The Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 (New Year's Day) at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2. The Rose ...

(

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugosl ...

and

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijiangs ...

seasons) and to a 6–3 record over arch-rival

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses ** South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

. Technically, UCLA should have played in three straight Rose Bowls from 1953 to 1955, but the Rose Bowl "no-repeat" rule denied UCLA's best team, and one of the finest in college football history (leading the country in both offense and defense) from confronting an undefeated Ohio State in the Rose Bowl to unify the National Championship on the field. The 1954 Bruins and 1957 Beavers were the only teams ever impacted by the rule in the Pacific Coast Conference. Sanders instituted the distinctive football uniforms worn by the Bruins when he replaced the navy blue jerseys with "powderkeg blue", added the shoulder stripe to give the impression of motion, and changed the number style from

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

to clarendon. Sanders said these changes also made it harder for opponents to scout his Bruins on the grainy black and white game films of the time. The 1954 Bruins compiled a 9–0 record and climbed to the top of the

, sharing the national championship with

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

, winner of the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and br ...

's title. Due to the PCC's early "no repeat" rule, the undefeated Bruins were unable to compete in the Rose Bowl that season despite being the PCC champion. Second-place USC, which the Bruins defeated 34–0, played in the

1955 Rose Bowl The 1955 Rose Bowl was the 41st edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Saturday, January 1. The top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes of the Big Ten Conference defeated the USC Trojans ...

instead and lost to

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

champion and eventual co-national champion Ohio State, 20–7.

Television appearances

Sanders appeared as a contestant on the November 18, 1954 episode of the television quiz program ''

You Bet Your Life ''You Bet Your Life'' is an American comedy quiz series that has aired on both radio and television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show deb ...

'', hosted by

Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...

. He appeared on ''

The Jack Benny Program ''The Jack Benny Program'', starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th century American comedy. He played one role throughout his radio and televis ...

'' "New Years Day" 1956 episode on Sunday, January 1, 1956, preceding the 1956 Rose Bowl to be played the next day.

Death

Shortly before the

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

season, Sanders died suddenly of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

in a Los Angeles hotel room on August 14. His companion was a convicted prostitute, Ernestine Drake, described as a "blonde woman."Red Sanders Ruled Victim of Athlete's Heart
Express and News from San Antonio, Texas, August 16, 1958 · Page 19 The room was registered in the name of his friend, W.T. "Pop" Grimes, who had a record of arrests for pandering and had served prison time at

San Quentin San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is th ...

. Sanders had complained of the heat, and asked Grimes to fetch some soft drinks. He then began gasping for breath and clutching his chest. He died on the floor. His last words to Drake were, "Football is a great game. You should come out this fall and see a few games." Los Angeles

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner's jur ...

Theodore Curphey Theodore Joscelyn Curphey (October 25, 1897 – November 27, 1986) was an American coroner who was the chief coroner for Los Angeles and Nassau (New York) Counties. Curphey was elected Nassau County medical examiner on December 15, 1937 by the ...

said Sanders' heart weighed 500 grams, whereas the normal size for an inactive male is 300–400 grams, meaning that Sanders suffered from an enlarged heart. Sanders' assistant George W. Dickerson succeeded him on interim basis to for first three games of the Bruins' 1958 season, before suffering a

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

. He was succeeded by assistant Bill Barnes, who led UCLA to a record in seven seasons (1958–

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

Personal life

He was Commander in the U.S. Navy during his service in World War II. At the end of the war, he met and married the former Anna "Ann" Daniel, of Lakeland, Florida. Ann was a graduate of

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

and a holder of a Master's degree from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC S ...

. Ann died on November 23, 1999.

Quotes

Winning isn't every thing, it's the only thing

Sanders actually spoke two different versions of the quote. In 1950, at a

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

physical education workshop, Sanders told his group: "Men, I'll be honest. Winning isn't everything. (Long pause.) Men, it's the only thing!" In 1955, in a ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...

'' article preceding the 1956 Rose Bowl, he was quoted as saying "Sure, winning isn't every thing, It's the only thing." The quote has since been erroneously attributed to

Vince Lombardi Vincent Thomas Lombardi (June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was an American football coach and executive in the National Football League (NFL). Lombardi is considered by many to be the greatest coach in football history, and he is recognized a ...

as the originator.

Beating 'SC is not a matter of life or death, It's more important than that

While at UCLA, another famous quote was attributed to Sanders regarding the

, "Beating 'SC is not a matter of life or death, it's more important than that."Burke, Anne (Editor) �
Summer 2004 Bruin Walk: Rah-rah Boo-hiss
UCLA Magazine, summer 2004

Personal awards

*1946

Blue-Gray Game Livid is a medium bluish-gray color. This color name comes from the Latin color term ''lividus'' meaning "'a dull leaden-blue color', and also used to describe the color of contused flesh, leading to the English expression 'black and blue'". ...

, Montgomery, Alabama, Coach *1951

East–West Shrine Game East West (or East and West) may refer to: * East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *''East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salm ...

, San Francisco, Coach *1952

College All-Star Game The Chicago Charities College All-Star Game was a preseason American football game played from 1934 to 1976 between the National Football League (NFL) champions and a team of star college seniors from the previous year. It was also known as the C ...

, Chicago, Coach *1952

North–South Shrine Game The North–South Shrine Game was an annual postseason college football all-star game played each December from 1948 to 1973 in Miami, and a final time in 1976 in Pontiac, Michigan. The game was sponsored by the fraternal group Shriners Internat ...

, Miami, Coach *1953, 1954, and 1957 Football Coach of the Year – Los Angeles Times National Sports Awards Dinner *1954 Coach of the Year – National Collegiate Football Coaches' Association and the Touchdown Club of Washington, D.C. *1959 Bronze plaque at the

Los Angeles Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a me ...

*1984 UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame (Charter Member) *1994 Rose Bowl Hall of Fame *1996 College Football Hall of Fame

Head coaching record

References

Bibliography

* Adam Karon
Red Scare
''The Daily Bruin'', January 20, 2000.

''Time'', August 25, 1958. *UCLA Bruins football media guide (PDF copy available a
www.uclabruins.com
*Vanderbilt Commodores football media guide (PDF copy available a
www.vucommodores.com
*Rose, Adam �

Los Angeles Times Blogs, "What's Bruin?", August 13, 2007

External links

* *
University of California Digital Library
Henry Russell Sanders: Los Angeles {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Red 1905 births 1958 deaths Clemson Tigers football coaches Florida Gators football coaches LSU Tigers football coaches UCLA Bruins football coaches Vanderbilt Commodores athletic directors Vanderbilt Commodores baseball players Vanderbilt Commodores football coaches Vanderbilt Commodores football players High school football coaches in Georgia (U.S. state) College Football Hall of Fame inductees Sportspeople from Asheville, North Carolina Coaches of American football from Tennessee Players of American football from Nashville, Tennessee Baseball players from Nashville, Tennessee