Henry “Red” Sanders was an all-round athlete at Vanderbilt. He lettered three years in football, played basketball, and captained the baseball team. His first coaching job was on the Clemson staff, 1927-1929. For the period 1931-1937, he was head coach at Columbia Military Academy, then Riverside Military Academy. His teams had a 55-4-2 record. Next came assistant jobs with Florida in 1938 and Louisiana State in 1939. Sanders had two terms as Vanderbilt head coach, 1940-1941 and 1946-1948. In the interim, he had three years in the Navy as a lieutenant commander. Sanders’ Vanderbilt record was 36-22-2. He was UCLA head coach, 1949-1957, with a 66-19-1 record. In 1954 his UCLA team was 9-0, averaged forty-one points a game, and held opponents to an average of four points. UCLA was national champion, and Sanders was Coach of the Year. He started the 1954 season with just thirty-seven players on the varsity squad, twenty on the junior varsity. Sanders seldom scrimmaged, used classroom instruction, and worked on a strict time schedule. He once said his players “spend only about seven hours a week on the practice field.” But they performed expertly. He stayed with the single-wing formation until the very end, while other coaches went to the T. His overall record was 102-41-3. “Red” Sanders, born March 7, 1905 in Asheville, North Carolina, died August 14, 1958.
