Red Grange

Time cover, 5 Oct 1925

Before the 1925 season, Grange was approached by Champaign movie theater owner C. C. Pyle, who asked, "How would you like to make one hundred thousand dollars, maybe even a million?"[15] After Grange agreed, he was told to stay in contact but remain silent on their meeting. The following day, Pyle contacted Chicago Bears owners George Halas and Edward Sternaman to outline a professional contract for Grange, organizing a barnstorming tour that spanned 19 games and 67 days, including games in Florida. As part of their agreement, the Bears received 50 percent of the ticket gate, while Pyle and Grange got the other half.[16][8]

Considering Grange's popularity, rumors began surrounding his future after completing his senior year, including professional football and acting. A petition was also created to convince him to run for the Republican Party's at-large nomination for the 70th United States Congress; although he was only 22 years old at the time, supporters argued he would be within six months of the minimum age of 25 when the Congress opened in December 1927.[17] Despite the speculation, Grange and those connected with him tried to dodge any inquiries that might affect his college athlete eligibility; when approached about a career in pro football, he denied it. He also turned down a potential college coaching career owing to low pay.[18]

Featuring a roster of mostly sophomores and backups, the Illini opened the season 1–3, including losing 14–0 in the season opener to Nebraska for their first loss at Memorial Stadium. This was followed by a 16–13 win over Butler and two straight losses to Iowa and Michigan; although Grange was contained against Nebraska and Michigan, he scored two touchdowns against Butler and on the opening kickoff against Iowa.[19] During the Michigan game, Zuppke moved Grange to quarterback, but was a "marked man" in the defeat.[20]

Statue of Grange outside Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois

In the Illini's next game against the University of Pennsylvania, they faced a Quaker team considered one of the best in the eastern United States. In front of 60,000 fans, Grange recorded a career-high 237 yards through deep mud and scored three touchdowns; Penn struggled to keep up, prompting some Illinois lineman to call "Illinois rules the East!" prior to each play. On one play, Grange debuted the flea flicker, a trick play designed by Zuppke in which fullback Earl Britton received the snap from a fake field goal formation, which he threw to right end Chuck Kassel, who lateraled back to Grange and ran for the score.[21] As Illinois won 24–2, Laurence Stallings, a famed war correspondent for the New York World, said, "This story's too big for me. I can't write it."[11]

Columnist Damon Runyon wrote in his game recap, "This man Red Grange of Illinois is three or four men, and a horse rolled into one for football purposes. He is Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, Al Jolson, Paavo Nurmi and Man o'War. Put them all together. They spell Grange."[22] When the team returned the next Monday, a contingent of 20,000 that included students and the mayors of Urbana and Champaign greeted them; when Grange tried to dodge the crowd, he was spotted and carried to his fraternity house.[23] After the game, his number 77 was retired by the University of Illinois.[note 2]

Against the Chicago Maroons, Grange recorded –8 total rushing yards and 64 all-purpose yards in abysmal conditions.[25] The following week against Wabash, he only appeared in the fourth quarter to call signals and did not record stats, as the backups played much of the game.[26]

Grange's final college game came against Ohio State in Columbus. Before the game, the Champaign News-Gazette conducted an interview with Grange and confronted him about signing a professional contract, which he firmly denied before leaving.[27] In Columbus, Grange restricted himself to his hotel room to avoid the media, including having a teammate impersonate him for a pre-game parade.[28] NFL President Joseph Carr, who had owned the local NFL team Columbus Panhandles, considered attending the game before he was hospitalized with appendicitis.[29] In front of 85,000 fans, Grange recorded 113 rushing yards on 21 carries and 42 passing yards on nine throws as Illinois won 14–9.

In his 20-game college career, Grange ran for 3,362 yards, caught 14 passes for 253 yards, and completed 40 of 82 passes for 575 yards. Of his 31 touchdowns, 16 were from at least 20 yards, with nine from more than 50 yards.[11] He scored at least one touchdown in every game he played but the Nebraska game. He earned All-America recognition three consecutive years and appeared on the cover of Time on October 5, 1925.[11]

In 2002, the NCAA published "NCAA Football's Finest," researched and compiled by the NCAA Statistics Service.[30] For Grange they published the following statistics:

Grange made his NFL debut on November 26, Thanksgiving Day, against the Chicago Cardinals. With only three days of practice in the Bears' T formation (he had played in the single wing offense in college), he recorded 92 rushing yards and an interception in the scoreless tie.[43] A crowd of 40,000 attended the game.[44] In the next game against the Columbus Tigers, he threw a touchdown pass and recorded 171 yards as the Bears won 14–7.[45] Shortly after, Britton signed with the Bears, reuniting him with Grange.[46]

In December, the Bears' schedule grew with eight games between December 2 and 13, including three against local all-star teams.[47] The first game, against the Donnelly All-Stars at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, saw Grange score four touchdowns in a 39–6 blowout.[48] On December 5, he scored two touchdowns including the game-winner against the Frankford Yellow Jackets.[49] The next day, between 65,000 and 73,000 people showed up at the Polo Grounds to watch Grange, helping save the Giants' franchise from financial debt.[11][50] Grange scored a touchdown on a 35-yard interception return in the Bears' 19–7 victory. Offensively, he ran for 53 yards on 11 carries, caught a 23-yard pass, and completed two of three passes for 32 yards.[11] Before their next game against a Washington, D.C. all-star team, Pyle and Grange elected to remain in New York to promote themselves, receiving various endorsements.[51]

Grange (second from left) with Senator William B. McKinley and Representative William P. Holaday in Washington in 1925. McKinley introduced Grange and the Bears to President Calvin Coolidge.[52]

In Washington, the Bears visited President Calvin Coolidge; when he was introduced to the team and shook hands with Grange, Coolidge responded, "Glad to meet you. I always did like animal acts."[52][53] Although the Bears defeated Washington 19–0, Grange recorded only 16 rushing yards, no receiving and return yards, failed to complete a pass attempt (including one interception), and missed a field goal.[54]

Despite the victories, the grueling schedule led to a rise in injuries. Grange had been hit in the left arm during the Giants game, causing it to swell by the team's next game against the Providence Steam Roller. The pain from the injury was too great for Grange, who could not bring himself to return a punt and allowed it to sail over his head; he was eventually pulled in the 9–6 loss.[55] The match was widely criticized by fans and media, with a United News Service article commenting the "Grange bubble appears dangerously near the bursting point. Beneath the withering, pitiless spotlight of publicity, the red-headed youngster's fame may melt away like some of his own ice, leaving only a little dank, malodorous saw-dust."[56] College football figures also proclaimed the game as evidence of professional football's inferiority; referee E. J. O'Brien described it as a "dismal failure." However, others like Princeton and Yale players Herbert Treat and Carl Flanders defended the sport and the Bears as their schedule was too overwhelming, and the latter added it had "a bright future."[57]

"I was booed for the first time in my football career in the Boston game," Grange wrote in his autobiography. "It made me aware of something I had never thought of before—that the public's attitude toward a professional football player is quite different from the manner in which they view a college gridder. A pro's performance is evaluated much more critically and he is less likely to be forgiven when a mistake is made. A pro must deliver, or else."[58]

Following the game, Grange hired E. B. Cooley as his personal doctor.[59] Cooley was the father of Grange's friend and personal adviser Marion "Doc" Cooley, who was serving the position alongside their university classmate Dinty Moore. At Grange's father's request, his close friend Lyman "Beans" DeWolf also joined the team as a confidant.[60]

The Bears' next game against a Pittsburgh all-star group saw the team in poor condition; before kickoff, former All-American Bo McMillin visited the team in the locker room and advised Grange to not play upon seeing his arm.[61] At the start, only ten players were on the field, forcing Halas to choose between two injured linemen to serve as the required 11th man; center George Trafton was selected as he was able to at least stand and walk. Trainer Andy Lotshaw, who had never played football before, was also called to play tackle.[55] Twelve minutes into the game, Grange attempted to block for halfback Johnny Mohardt, but suffered a torn ligament and a broken blood vessel in his arm, the latter of which resulted in artery hemorrhaging.[62] The Bears ultimately lost 24–0.[61]

With Grange hurt, Chicago canceled a game against an all-star team in Cleveland, prompting the organizer to sue for breach of contract.[63] Although Grange expressed confidence in playing the next game against the Detroit Panthers, he was forced to miss it after a blood clot developed in his arm; the Bears lost 21–0.[64][65] The final game of the December tour against the Giants ended in a 9–0 defeat.[66] "No other team before or since has ever attempted such a grueling schedule as the 1925 Bears and I'm sure never will," Grange wrote in his autobiography.[67]

In ten games, the Bears went 5–4–1.[47]

On December 21, the Bears traveled to Florida to play in Callahan's Florida league.[68] To avoid further injuries like in the first tour, the team elected to have week-long breaks between stretches in which they played games on consecutive days.[69] In their first game four days later against a Coral Gables, Florida team, Grange scored the lone touchdown and recorded 89 rushing yards in the 7–0 win.[70]

In the days leading to the next game against the Tampa Cardinals on January 1, 1926, rumors surfaced of Grange participating in a boxing match, but he did not accept.[10][71] The evening before the game, Grange, driving a car accompanied by golfers Jim Barnes and Johnny Farrell and Olympic swimmer Helen Wainwright, was arrested for speeding at 65 miles per hour (105 km/h) (the speed limit was 45 mph (72 km/h)). The four were released after Grange gave the police officer $25.[72] In the Bears' 17–3 victory over the Cardinals, he scored on a 70-yard touchdown run.[73]

Before departing Tampa, Grange and Pyle invested $17,000 apiece in real estate to capitalize on the Florida land boom of the 1920s, but hurricanes led to the period's end.[74] The day after the Cardinals game, the Bears played a Jacksonville team featuring former Stanford All-American Ernie Nevers. Although Nevers excelled in the game, Grange threw a 30-yard touchdown pass in the 19–6 win.[75]

Following a one-week rest period, the Bears took on a Southern-based all-star team in New Orleans.[76] Grange had 136 rushing yards and a touchdown, along with a 51-yard punt return that was nullified by a holding penalty, as the Bears shut out New Orleans 14–0.[75] Afterwards, the team went to Los Angeles to play the Los Angeles Wildcats, led by Washington Huskies football star George "Wildcat" Wilson, an admirer of Grange who agreed to participate as the game offered the chance to play against him.[77] Wilson would also lead future opponents on the tour in San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. With approximately 65,000 in attendance at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Bears defeated the Tigers 17–7 as Grange scored a touchdown.[78] The Bears followed by winning 14–0 against a team in San Diego, a game in which Grange considered himself "listless throughout" until he recorded a two-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.[79] Against the San Francisco Tigers in Kezar Stadium, he was limited to 41 rushing yards and threw an interception in the 14–9 loss.[80][81]

In Portland, Grange and Britton combined for five touchdowns, including three by the latter.[82] Grange threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Laurie Walquist and ran 45 yards for a second,[83][84] but exited the 60–3 win before halftime after getting hurt in a pile-up.[85]

On January 31, a day after the Portland game, the Bears played the Seattle All-Stars. Grange scored two touchdowns (36-yard run and 31-yard pass) and recorded 99 rushing yards in the 34–0 victory,[86] while Wilson and teammate Rollie Corbett suffered injuries; the latter broke his leg, leading to Grange, Pyle, and Wilson establishing a fund to support him. The three donated $50 each.[87]

The Bears went 8–1 in the late December and January tour.[47] Immediately following the Seattle game, Pyle issued Grange's final rookie check of $50,000. In his rookie season, Grange made approximately $125,000. "Charlie had kept his word. Now I thought I could go on to make it a million," Grange wrote in his autobiography.[79]

Grange's barnstorming tours are generally considered to have saved the NFL and professional football, though detractors have criticized this narrative considering his injuries and unimpressive performances.

In a February 1926 article, the Chicago Tribune's Don Maxwell wrote that although Grange was typically outperformed by his teammates while attendance for the Florida games was poor and organizers lost money, his star status drew interest, especially on the West Coast, and the money he made was more than he "could have made in any other business in the same period."[88] On the other hand, in 1991, Vito Stellino of The Baltimore Sun compared Grange's decision to join the NFL to Herschel Walker electing to sign with the newly formed United States Football League in the 1980s; although Walker was a popular name, the USFL ultimately collapsed. Stellino instead suggested television helped grow the NFL, while Grange's legend was "too embedded into the American sports psyche to disprove now. Anyway, it's a better story than the reality."[89]

According to football historian John M. Carroll, critics believed the tours created the notion that professional football was a circus led by certain superstars, which posed a risk to such players should they decide to play while injured. Others feared games could be fixed to favor the star players, with Brooklyn Dodgers owner/player Shipwreck Kelly alleging he had reached an agreement with Halas and the Bears to let Grange make a long run in a 1934 postseason exhibition game. However, Carroll also added Grange helped expedite the NFL's growth:[47]

Because there are so many variables to consider, it is difficult to state with certainty Grange's role in the rise of professional football. We can safely say that Grange did not save a faltering NFL in 1925. The preponderance of evidence suggests that Grange's emergence as pro football's first real superstar propelled the NFL and pro football in general forward in establishing the game as a major league sport. The line of progress was halting and certainly Grange was only one of the forces that contributed to the rise of pro football. But Grange deserves some of the accolades accorded him as a pivotal individual in the emergence of the professional game.

In 1985, Grange emphasized the tours' importance to the NFL but noted that the league offered little support to the players from the era: "I complained a few times, because we had guys in hospitals, guys who had had amputations because of football injuries. Guys who had problems. I thought the game could have done something for them, but it never did. As far as I know, pro football hasn't done anything for anybody except lately, and that's mostly for itself. I never made a real stink about it, but I was sad for the oldtimers."[90]

Grange delivering ice in 1930. During the offseason, he continued his ice toting job to earn extra money.

After the January tour, Pyle approached George Halas and Dutch Sternaman about buying an interest in the Bears, but was turned down. In response, he and Grange attempted to form their own team, the New York Yankees, and gain entry into the NFL. Although they acquired a five-year lease to play at Yankee Stadium, Mara intervened as he felt the Yankees infringed on his Giants' territorial rights.[91][92]

To challenge the NFL, Grange and Pyle formed the nine-team American Football League.[93] Wilson, who had been approached by Pyle about becoming his client,[94] joined the league as a member of the Wildcats, while Grange's Bears teammates Mohardt and Joey Sternaman played for the Chicago Bulls.[95] In 1926, the Yankees went 9–5 to finish second in the standings.

After the season, the team embarked on a ten-game barnstorming tour to Texas and California alongside Wilson's Wildcats. In late December, in what Grange wrote was "about the only memorable part of the tour", he and his teammates were arrested in Dallas for disturbing the peace and reportedly being intoxicated, the latter of which the group denied; Grange explained the incident transpired when the team visited a hotel at 4 AM after being recommended the spot as a nightlife location by a local policeman.[96] After the players were ordered by the hotel manager to leave the lobby for the noise they were creating, the police confronted them, including throwing teammate Pooley Hubert in an argument. They were eventually arrested and jailed, but were released after paying $10 as they had to play a game in Beaumont that day.[97]

The AFL shut down after one season and the Yankees were added to the NFL. On October 17, 1927, the Yankees were shut out 12–0 by the Bears in Chicago. With a minute remaining in the game, Grange suffered a severe knee injury when he was hit by center George Trafton while trying to catch a pass from Eddie Tryon. As he landed, Grange's cleat caught in the field, causing him to twist his knee when Trafton fell on him.[98] Revealed to be a torn tendon, he underwent a diathermy to treat it after water started to form.[99] The injury ultimately affected Grange's speed and running ability, though he remained serviceable for the rest of his career. "After it happened, I was just another halfback," Grange commented.[100]

Four weeks after the Bears game, Grange returned against the Cardinals at quarterback to honor his contract. Although his injury worsened, the Yankees won 20–6 and he ultimately finished the season.[101] After the year, he and the Yankees participated in another barnstorming tour against West Coast teams led by Wilson and Benny Friedman. Grange explained his decision to keep playing in his autobiography: "At the young age of twenty-four, I refused to believe that I couldn't bounce back to my old form. I was positive I could play myself back into shape. But those additional games only served to further aggravate my condition and, when the tour was ended, it became apparent I had done irreparable damage to the knee. For the first time since I was hurt, nearly four months before, I began worrying over the possibility that I might be through as a football player."[102]

The contract between Pyle and Grange expired in January 1928, but Grange decided not to renew due to his injury and withdrew his stake in the Yankees. Without Grange, the Yankees went 4–8–1 before shutting down for financial reasons.[103] Grange missed the entire 1928 season before returning to the Bears for 1929.[104]

The two highlights of Grange's later NFL years came in consecutive championship games. In the unofficial 1932 championship, Grange caught the game-winning touchdown pass from Bronko Nagurski. It was argued the pass was illegal.[105] In the 1933 championship, Grange made a touchdown-saving tackle that saved the game and the title for the Bears.[106]

He was a very modest person, who insisted that even the ordinary plumber or electrician knows more about his craft than he does. He said he could not explain how he did what he did on the field of play, and that he just followed his instincts.[107]

Upon ending his playing career in 1934, Grange became the backfield coach for the Bears.[108] Although Halas had offered him the team's head coaching position, he declined as he "never had any ambition to be a head coach in either the professional or college ranks."[109] He remained in the position until 1937.[110]

• George Waite, the male love interest in the 1926 film version of Ella Cinders, is a parody of Grange, sharing the real-life running back's alma mater and side job as an iceman.[126]
• In 1935 Grange became the first football player to appear on a box of Wheaties.[127]
• In the 1949 play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, the lead character, Willy Loman, says that his football-playing son (Biff) will be the next Red Grange.[128]
• In the 1959 thriller Compulsion, Grange is mentioned as running 97 yards for a touchdown. The movie is set in 1924, the year he did score one at 95 yards.
• In the song "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm" as released in 1960 by The Kingston Trio on their album Sold Out, guards in the Tower of London mistake Anne Boleyn, haunting the castle with her head tucked underneath her arm after being beheaded, for Red Grange carrying a football.
• In the 1970 show Hogan's Heroes, season 5, episode 25 ("Crittendon's Commandos"), Sergeant Carter attempts to describe Field Marshall Rommel as "The Galloping Ghost" to which Sergeant Kinchloe replies, "That was Red Grange."
• In the 1975 M*A*S*H, season 3, episode "Big Mac", Major Frank Burns is chided for burning The Life of Red Grange.
• In the 1983 film The Right Stuff, Chuck Yeager (played by Sam Shepard) says he'll "look like the Gallopin' Ghost" in the leather helmet which Jack Ridley gives him to wear on his test flight or the Bell X-1.
• Al Bundy is mistaken for Grange several times in the 1988 Married... with Children episode "Poke High".
• In the 2007 American Dad! episode "The Magnificent Steven", while trying to teach Steve and his friends to be tough by playing football, Stan finds the boys hiding from the sunlight under a tree and exclaims "What, in the name of Red Grange, is going on?!"
• The 2008 movie Leatherheads, starring George Clooney, John Krasinski, and Renée Zellweger, was loosely based on Grange.[129]