Lowell Potter "Red" Dawson (December 20, 1906 – June 10, 1983) 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 wit ...

coach for the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

Panthers and the Tulane Green Wave at the collegiate level and the AAFC's

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...

at the professional level. He was a native of

River Falls, Wisconsin River Falls is a city in Pierce and St. Croix counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is adjacent to the Town of River Falls in Pierce County and the Town of Kinnickinnic in St. Croix County. River Falls is the most populous city in Pierce ...

.https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A22975/datastream/PDF/view He learned the craft of football coaching at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

under

Bernie Bierman Bernard W. Bierman (March 11, 1894 – March 7, 1977) was an American football player and coach of football and basketball. He coached from 1919 to 1950 except for a span during World War II when he served in the U.S. armed forces. Bierman was t ...

, his former coach at Tulane. At

Pitt Pitt most commonly refers to: *The University of Pittsburgh, commonly known as Pitt, a university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States **Pitt Panthers, the athletic teams of the University of Pittsburgh * Pitt (surname), a surname o ...

he coached future

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coac ...

r Joe Schmidt and won

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

's "Dapper Dan" sports award in 1952. Dawson's greatest successes as a coach, however, were with Tulane and Buffalo. His 1939 Tulane squad went through the season undefeated before a disappointing loss to Texas A&M in the

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed on ...

. In 1948 his Buffalo Bills team captured the AAFC Eastern Division title in a playoff against the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...

, though they ultimately lost the AAFC Championship Game to the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

. Dawson's final win–loss record was 36–19–4 at Tulane, 9–11–1 at Pittsburgh, and 19–25–4 at Buffalo.

Head coaching record

College

Professional

References

External links

Pro Football Reference statistics
* 1906 births 1983 deaths American football quarterbacks Michigan State Spartans football coaches Minnesota Golden Gophers football coaches Pittsburgh Panthers football coaches Tulane Green Wave football coaches Tulane Green Wave football players All-Southern college football players Players of American football from Minneapolis Sports coaches from Minneapolis {{amfoot-coach-stub