This day in sports history

BY COLIN “BIG C” MACGUIRE

The Greenville Standard

 

This week’s article is about Hall of Fame player Harry Gilmer. He was born April 14, 1926 and died August 20, 2016.

He played at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham and the teams he played on finished at 27-0.

He played at Alabama from 1944-1947. Their record was 30-9-2 and he was drafted by the Washington Redskins in 1948 as Round 1 Pick 1.

He played with the Washington Redskins from 1948-1954. He then played with the Detroit Lions from 1955-1956.

He started as true freshman at Alabama and finished 5-2-2. They played in Sugar Bowl losing to Duke 29-26. Gilmer completed 8-8 passes.

His sophomore year (1945), Alabama finished at 10-0, No. 2 in the nation and SEC Champions.

Gilmer was SEC Player of the Year, All-SEC, All-American, and Rose Bowl MVP.

Alabama beat Southern Cal 34-14. It was Alabama’s last time to play in the Rose Bowl until 2000 in a regular season game and The Rose Bowl in January 2010 to win the National Championship beating Texas 37-21.

1946 was his junior year (7-4). It was Coach Frank Thomas’ last season. He was in bad health.

1947 was Gilmer’s senior Year. Red Drew, former assistant under Thomas, became head coach. The Tide started at 1-2 then won seven games in a row. They finished 8-2 for the regular season.

They played Texas in the Sugar Bowl and it was a bad ending to great career losing 27-7.

Gilmer is the first and only player from Alabama to be the number one in the NFL. Joe Namath was the first pick of the AFL.

Gilmer at one time had the longest run and longest interception in Alabama Football history.