The Early Years
Born on October 14, 1879 in Holland, Michigan, James (J.D) DePree was an American college football player, college baseball coach and college football coach.
In 1903 DePree attended the University of Michigan, where he played on the football team as fullback for two seasons.
Upon his graduation from the University of Michigan, he took the position as the University of Tennessee’s fifth head coach for the 1905 and 1906 seasons.
Coaching History & Timeline
There was a lot riding on DePree after Tennessee’s previous losing season under coach Sax Crawford. However during DePree’s first season as Head Coach for the Volunteers, he posted a disappointing record going 3-5-1 for the season.
The Volunteers got off to a good start under DePree’s leadership, winning their first game of the season 16-6 against the Tennessee School for the Deaf on September 30. This was followed by a landslide victory against American Temperance University as his team won 104-0.
Unfortunately this is as good as it was going to get for the season, with the University of Tennessee losing all but one match and tying one against Clemson University.
Out of all the losing matches, DePree and his side were only able to score points in one of the matches, which was six points against Sewanee: The University of the South. The Volunteers were first beaten by Vanderbilt University 0-45, followed by the Sewanee game and then another difficult loss against Georgia Tech University, also going 0-45.
Hoping to put this season behind him, James DePree led the Volunteers to a season opening win in 1906 against American Temperance University. The Volunteers won this 10-0 but were unable to win a single match after this for the remainder of the season. The team went 1-6-2 for the season, which was a far worse result than DePree’s first season at Tennessee.
In fact, the Volunteers were unable to score a single point in any of their losing matches, and only managed to score five in their tied match against American Temperance when playing them the second time.
The final match of the season, and DePree’s last match as coach was arguably the worst loss for the Volunteer’s under DePree’s leadership. The University of Tennessee played the University of Alabama at their home ground in Birmingham Alabama. Unable to score a single point, the Volunteers went 0-51 to close the season with just the single win at the start.
Unfortunately, the Volunteers didn’t get the luck they were hoping for after Crawford’s tenure, with Depree delivering a further two losing seasons at the University of Tenneseee, with a record for his two seasons as Head Coach a poor 4-11-3.
During his two seasons as Head Coach, the Volunteers went 0-8-2 in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Asosciation (SIAA).
Life After Coaching
DePree was replaced as head football coach but remained at the University of Tennessee, becoming the coach of the university’s baseball team. He was also the one to start the first basketball team at the university during his time there.
He passed away on 1 July, 1972, in Sarasota, Florida, at the age of 93.