EDITOR’S NOTE: Every day until Aug. 29, Creg Stephenson is counting down significant numbers in Alabama football history, both in the lead-up to the 2025 football season and in commemoration of the Crimson Tide’s first national championship 100 years ago. The number could be attached to a year, a uniform number or even a football-specific statistic. We hope you enjoy.

“Dual-threat” quarterbacks have been all the rage in recent college football, but one of the greatest in Alabama history played nearly 80 years ago.

Harry Gilmer, who wore No. 52, ran and passed his way into Crimson Tide immortality during the years immediately following World War II. Prior to the Nick Saban era, he was the only Alabama player who twice finished in the Top 5 in the Heisman Trophy balloting and the only one who was selected No. 1 overall in the NFL draft. (He remains the only player in Crimson Tide history to earn first-team All-SEC honors four times and to lead the team in passing yards four straight years.)

Gilmer was responsible for 52 touchdowns in his career — 29 passing, 19 rushing, two on punt returns and one each on a kickoff return and an interception return. That mark is now eighth in Crimson Tide history, but was first until first being surpassed by John Parker Wilson in 2008.

A Birmingham native who led Woodlawn High School to an undefeated record in 1943, Gilmer took advantage of temporarily relaxed NCAA rules during the war that allowed him to play on the varsity as a freshman at Alabama. Though technically the starting left halfback in the Crimson Tide’s Notre Dame box offense, he was the team’s primary passer and thus the equivalent of a modern quarterback.

At Alabama, Gilmer became famous for his “jump pass,” a skill he had developed in high school. His arm was purportedly so strong he could throw the ball 70 yards in the air.

“I never tried a pass in a regular game until my senior year at Woodlawn,” Gilmer told The Tuscaloosa News in 1978. “Of course, I used to pass the ball around in practice and in sandlot games, but until I shifted to left halfback, I never practiced seriously. I don’t know why I started to jump or leap nearly every time I passed. We had some halfbacks at Woodlawn who did it on a play designed by our coach, Malcolm Laney, so I guess I started jumping without realizing it.”

Alabama did not field a football team in 1943 due to war-time manpower shortages, but returned to the gridiron the following year. The 6-foot, 155-pound Gilmer was one of coach Frank Thomas’ “War Babies,” a group that also included fullback Lowell Tew and center Vaughan Mancha, a 23-year-old Merchant Marine veteran who had lost vision in one eye during a childhood accident.

Alabama went 5-2-2 in an abbreviated schedule in 1944, losing to Duke 29-26 in the Sugar Bowl. Gilmer went 8-for-8 for 142 yards with a touchdown pass in that game, causing famed sportswriter Grantland Rice to exclaim he was “the greatest college passer I ever saw.”

The 1945 season was a glorious one for Alabama, which finished 10-0 and outscored its opponents 430-80. The Crimson Tide rang up scores such as 55-0 over South Carolina, 60-19 over Kentucky and 71-0 over Vanderbilt, then finished things off with a 34-14 rout of Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl (a game in which Gilmer was named Most Valuable Player).

Alabama finished No. 3 in the polls that year, with fellow unbeaten Army — who, it must be said, had its pick of the best draft-eligible football players in the country in those days — claiming the national championship (Navy, whose only loss was to Army, ended up No. 2). Gilmer accounted for 21 touchdowns and nearly 1,500 yards combined rushing and passing, winning SEC Player of the Year and first-team All-America honors and finishing fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting.

It was during the Nov. 3, 1945, blowout of Kentucky that Gilmer enjoyed arguably his greatest individual day — and one of the greatest in Alabama football history. He carried the ball for a whopping 215 yards on just six carries, including touchdown runs of 95 and 59 yards, plus an 8-yard touchdown pass to Rebel Steiner.

Alabama slipped back to 7-4 in 1946, as Thomas began to suffer from the heart and lung ailments that would cause him to step down following the season (and led to his eventual death in 1954 at age 55). Gilmer was still productive as a junior, leading the country in both interceptions (8) and punt return average (11.8 yards).

Coached by Harold “Red” Drew in 1947, the Crimson Tide shook off early-season losses to SEC rivals Tulane and Vanderbilt to win seven straight games before falling to Texas in the Sugar Bowl. Gilmer accounted for just seven touchdowns rushing and passing that season (though he did add a school-record 92-yard punt return for a touchdown vs. LSU), and was a second-team All-American and again finished fifth in the Heisman voting.

The No. 1 overall pick by the NFL’s Washington Redskins in 1946 (Alabama’s only one until Bryce Young in 2023), Gilmer played nine seasons in the league with Washington and Detroit and was a two-time Pro Bowler. He later served as Lions head coach for two seasons in the mid-1960s.

Gilmer was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1973 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993. A frequent visitor to Tuscaloosa during his later years (he’d settled in St. Louis during a lengthy stint as quarterback coach for the NFL’s Cardinals), he died in 2016 at age 90.

Coming Friday: Our countdown to kickoff continues with No. 51, a special teams stalwart who survived tragedy during his Alabama career.