August 14, 2007
The Great Red Sanders
49 years ago today, Aug. 14, 1958, the great UCLA football coach Henry “Red” Sanders died suddenly of a heart attack at the young age of 53. He remains UCLA’s great football legacy, a legacy that brought us a national championship and a tradition of winning. Rich Perelman of LAT has a great perspective on Red today on his blog, What’s Bruin. Red reminds us of what we can be and should be in football. Perelman:
When Sanders came to UCLA from Vanderbilt in 1949, he turned around a 3-7 team from 1948 into a 6-3 team in 1949, finishing second in the Pacific Coast Conference. Bruin teams under Sanders never finished lower than third in the PCC and won three titles (1953-54-55) in a row, had four second-place finishes and was third twice. His Bruins played in the 1954 and 1956 Rose Bowl games.
And, his undefeated 1954 team (9-0) won the 1954 national championship in the UPI poll while Ohio State won in the Associated Press poll. The two teams couldn’t meet in the Rose Bowl because of the PCC’s “no-repeat” rule of the time.
Perelman also reminds us that Sanders was a great character too. He gave football and Americana a couple of it’s greatest quotes:
And it was Sanders who coined the phrase – widely but incorrectly attributed to Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi – “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Not to mention this Bruin favorite: “Beating USC isn’t a matter of life and death; it’s much more important than that.”
Sanders was an outsider to UCLA, just like John Wooden, who was brought in because of his experience. Wilbur Johns, UCLA’s then AD who also brought in John Wooden, stole Sanders from Vanderbilt. Sounds like Dan Guerrero should take a page from Johns’ playbook … and hire EXPERIENCE no matter where it comes from, rather than an on the job trainee. Look at what experience has achieved for UCLA athletics!!! Thank you Rich for those Red Sanders memories.
1 Comment on The Great Red Sanders
August 16, 2007
Frederick Solomon @ 8:18 am:
I’ve been a follower of UCLA since 1965. The first UCLA-USC game I attended was in 1966 when Norman Dow came off the bench for the injured Gary Beban to beat the Trojans 14-7.
I was too young to remember Sanders, but I was told by older members of my family of his achievements and his eloquence. On of my favorites of his many sayings:
“Never argue with the final score because it always tells the truth”
I was told many years ago by my brother that there was a plaque dedicated to Red Sanders at the Colosseum where the Bruins used to play their home games. On it had the following Sanders attribution:
“Blocking is the essence of offense.
Tackling is the essence of defense.
Spirit is the quintessence of all.”
I wonder if Karl Dorrell even knows what quintessence means.