Red Grange

Harold Edward "Red" Grange, nicknamed "The Galloping Ghost", (June 13, 1903 – January 28, 1991) was a college and professional American football halfback for the University of Illinois, the Chicago Bears, and for the short-lived New York Yankees. His signing with the Bears helped legitimize the National Football League. He was a charter member of both the College and Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 2008, he was named the best college football player of all time by ESPN, and in 2011, he was named the Greatest Big Ten Icon by the Big Ten Network.

Early life
Grange was born in Forksville, Pennsylvania as the third child of Sadie and Lyle Grange. His father was the foreman of three lumber camps. When he was five, his mother died and his father moved the family to Wheaton, Illinois, where four brothers had settled. When they arrived, Grange’s father worked hard and became the chief of police. At Wheaton High School, Grange earned 16 varsity letters in four sports (football, baseball, basketball, and track) during the four years he attended, notably scoring 75 touchdowns and 532 points for the football team. As a high school junior, Grange scored 36 touchdowns and led Wheaton High School to an undefeated season. In his senior year, his team won every game but one in which they lost 39-0 to Scott High School in Toledo, Ohio. Knocked out in this game, Grange remained unconscious for two days, having difficulty speaking when he awoke.

To help the family earn money, he took a part time job as an ice toter for $37.50 per week, a job which helped him to build his core strength (and provided the source of the sometimes used nickname "Ice Man", or "the Wheaton Ice Man").

College football
After graduation Grange enrolled at the University of Illinois, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity. He had initially planned to compete in only basketball and track but changed his mind once he arrived. In his first collegiate football game, he scored three touchdowns against Nebraska. In seven games as a sophomore, he ran for 723 yards and scored twelve touchdowns, leading Illinois to an undefeated season and the 1923 Helms Athletic Foundation national championship.

Grange vaulted to national prominence as a result of his performance in the October 18, 1924, game against Michigan. This was the grand opening game for the new Memorial Stadium, built as a memorial to University of Illinois students and alumni who had served in World War I. He returned the opening kickoff for a 95-yard touchdown and scored three more touchdowns on runs of 67, 56 and 44 yards in the first twelve minutes. This four-touchdown first quarter outburst equaled the number of touchdowns allowed by Michigan in the previous two seasons. After sitting out the second quarter, Grange returned in the second half to run 11 yards for a fifth touchdown and passed 20 yards for a sixth score as Illinois won 39-14 to end Michigan's 20-game unbeaten streak. He amassed 402 yards - 212 rushing, 64 passing and 126 on kickoff returns.

The game inspired Grantland Rice to write the following poetic description:

"A streak of fire, a breath of flame Eluding all who reach and clutch; A gray ghost thrown into the game That rival hands may never touch; A rubber bounding, blasting soul Whose destination is the goal &mdash; Red Grange of Illinois!"

However, it was Chicago sportswriter Warren Brown who nicknamed Grange "The Galloping Ghost." When questioned in a 1974 interview, "Was it Grantland Rice who dubbed you the Galloping Ghost?" Grange replied, "No, it was Warren Brown, who was a great writer with the Chicago's American in those days."

As a college senior, in a 24-2 upset of the University of Pennsylvania, Grange rushed for a career-high 237 yards through deep mud and scored three touchdowns. Laurence Stallings, a famed war correspondent who had co-written What Price Glory? was hired to cover the game for the New York World. After Grange accounted for 363 yards, Stallings said, "This story's too big for me. I can't write it." Grange's younger brother Garland followed his footsteps to play football at Illinois.

In his 20-game college career, he 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. He scored at least one touchdown in every game he played but one, a 1925 loss to Nebraska. He earned All-America recognition three consecutive years, and appeared on the October 5, 1925, cover of Time.

His number 77 was retired at the University of Illinois in 1925. Only one other number has been retired in the history of University of Illinois football, 50 worn by Dick Butkus.

NFL career
He signed with the NFL's Chicago Bears the day after his last college game; player/manager George Halas agreed to a contract for a 19-game barnstorming tour which earned Grange a salary and share of gate receipts that amounted to $100,000, during an era when typical league salaries were less than $100/game. That 67-day tour is credited with legitimizing professional football and the NFL in the United States. On December 6, 1925, somewhere between 65,000 and 73,000 people showed up at the Polo Grounds to watch Grange, helping save the New York Giants' franchise. 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 2-of-3 passes for 32 yards. In his first year, he accounted for at least 401 total yards and 3 touchdowns in his 5 official NFL games for the Bears.

Grange became involved in a dispute with the Bears and left to form his own league, the American Football League, to challenge the NFL. The league only lasted one season, after which Grange's team, the New York Yankees, was assimilated into the NFL. Grange suffered a serious knee injury against the Bears, which robbed him of some speed and his cutting ability. After sitting out 1928, Grange returned to the Bears, where he was a solid runner and excellent defensive back through the 1934 season.

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. In the 1933 championship, Grange made a touchdown saving tackle that saved the game and the title for the Bears.

Hollywood career
Grange's manager C. C. Pyle realized that as the greatest football star of his era, Grange could attract moviegoers as well as sports fans. During his time as a professional football player, Grange starred in two silent films, One Minute to Play (1926) and Racing Romeo (1927). Grange also starred in a 12 part serial series The Galloping Ghost in 1931.

Later life and legacy
Grange retired from professional football in 1934, earning a living in a variety of jobs including motivational speaker and sports announcer. He announced the Chicago Bears games on TV in the 1950s and later was the color commentator for the NBC-TV college football game of the week. Grange married his wife Margaret, nicknamed Muggs, in 1941, and they were together until his death in 1991. She was a flight attendant, and they met on a plane. The couple had no children. He, however, has one surviving daughter Rosemary Morrissey born in 1928 from a previous relationship with Helen Flozack. His later family gave way to an amazing line of lineage, most recently basketball prospect Steven Grange, ranked on ESPNU's list of 100 Best College Prospects.

Grange developed Parkinson's disease in his last year of life and died on January 28, 1991 in Morton, Illinois.

His autobiography, first published in 1953, is The Red Grange Story (1993 paperback edition: ISBN 0-252-06329-5). The book was written "as told to" Ira Morton, a syndicated newspaper columnist from Chicago.

His legacy lives on, however. In 1931, he visited Abington Senior High School (in Abington, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia). Shortly thereafter, the school adopted his nickname for the mascot in his honor, the Galloping Ghost. Also, Wheaton Warrenville South High School's football field is named in his honor and the team is referred to as "The Wheaton Warrenville South Red Grange Tigers".

On January 15, 1978, at Super Bowl XII, Grange became the first person other than the game referee to toss the coin at a Super Bowl.

To commemorate college football's 100th anniversary in 1969, the Football Writers Association of America chose an all-time All-America team. Grange was the only unanimous choice. Then in 1999, he was ranked number 80 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. In 2008, Grange was also ranked #1 on ESPN's Top 25 Players In College Football History list.

In honor of his achievements at the University of Illinois, the school erected a twelve foot statue of Grange. The statue was dedicated at the start of the 2009 football season.

In 2011, Grange was announced as #1 on the "Big Ten Icons" series presented by the Big Ten Network.

The 2008 movie Leatherheads, staring George Clooney, John Krasinski and Renée Zellweger, was loosely based on Grange.