Background
Drees was born on February 8, 1917 in Chicago.
Drees was born on February 8, 1917 in Chicago.
He attended Austin High School and the University of Iowa, where he was an all-Big Ten center on the Iowa Hawkeyes men"s basketball team
After graduating, he went to work for WJJD in as a secondary baseball play-by-play announcer to John Harrington. His first day on the air was May 23, 1938. Although he had never seen a horse race prior to calling one, Drees became "the most accurate and respected horse race announcer in the country" according to Jack Brickhouse.
During World World War II, Drees served 35 months in the United States Navy.
He served 33 months at sea as a gunnery officer on a merchant ship and rose to the rank of lieutenant. After the war, Drees returned to WJJD and WIND, but the stations had dropped their sports coverage.
He later moved to, where he called horse races and served as Public Relations director for the Dons of the All-America Football Conference. After the league folded in 1949, he returned to, where he called horse races and college football.
In 1974 Drees and James C. Mullen published a book entitled Where Is He Now? Sports Heroes of Yesterday - Revisited.
From 1977 to 1985 he worked for WKRG-television in Mobile, Alabama. In 1986 he retired to Dallas. Drees died on July 27, 1988 of cancer at his Dallas home.
He was 71 years old.