Red Grange

Red Grange PDF Author: Chris Willis
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538101955
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Book Description
In celebration of the National Football League’s 100th season, noted football historian Chris Willis brings to life the story of Red Grange, the nation’s first NFL star, in this definitive biography. Harold “Red” Grange became a national sensation as a junior halfback at the University of Illinois in the 1920s. He quickly joined other great athletes of the Roaring Twenties such as Bobby Jones, Jack Dempsey, and Babe Ruth in enthralling audiences on the radio and in newspapers on a daily basis. A year later the "Galloping Ghost" stunned the country by dropping out of school after his last collegiate game and going pro with the six year old NFL, signing with the Chicago Bears. In Red Grange: The Life and Legacy of the NFL’s First Superstar, Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of a humble football player who rose to fame in the 1920s and became an icon. With unlimited access and complete cooperation of the Grange family, Willis offers new insight into Grange’s rags-to-riches story, including details about his tomboy mother who died when Grange was six years old and never-before-published information on Grange’s barnstorming tour with the Chicago Bears that instantly gave credibility to the fledgling NFL. With over fifty original interviews, personal letters to and from Grange, and more than forty photos, this definitive biography reveals in intimate detail the life of a sports pioneer. Whether as a player, coach, broadcaster, pitchman, Hall of Famer, ambassador, or icon, Red Grange was, and still is, the face of the early NFL and one of the greatest athletes of all-time.

Red Grange

Red Grange PDF Author: Chris Willis
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538101955
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 521

Get Book Here

Book Description
In celebration of the National Football League’s 100th season, noted football historian Chris Willis brings to life the story of Red Grange, the nation’s first NFL star, in this definitive biography. Harold “Red” Grange became a national sensation as a junior halfback at the University of Illinois in the 1920s. He quickly joined other great athletes of the Roaring Twenties such as Bobby Jones, Jack Dempsey, and Babe Ruth in enthralling audiences on the radio and in newspapers on a daily basis. A year later the "Galloping Ghost" stunned the country by dropping out of school after his last collegiate game and going pro with the six year old NFL, signing with the Chicago Bears. In Red Grange: The Life and Legacy of the NFL’s First Superstar, Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of a humble football player who rose to fame in the 1920s and became an icon. With unlimited access and complete cooperation of the Grange family, Willis offers new insight into Grange’s rags-to-riches story, including details about his tomboy mother who died when Grange was six years old and never-before-published information on Grange’s barnstorming tour with the Chicago Bears that instantly gave credibility to the fledgling NFL. With over fifty original interviews, personal letters to and from Grange, and more than forty photos, this definitive biography reveals in intimate detail the life of a sports pioneer. Whether as a player, coach, broadcaster, pitchman, Hall of Famer, ambassador, or icon, Red Grange was, and still is, the face of the early NFL and one of the greatest athletes of all-time.

Red Grange and the Rise of Modern Football

Red Grange and the Rise of Modern Football PDF Author: John Martin Carroll
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780252023842
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Is an element in understanding football's central place in American culture.

The Red Grange Story

The Red Grange Story PDF Author: Red Grange
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252063299
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Red Grange stood with Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey in the 1920s as the most heralded figures in America's "Golden Age of Sport." Grantland Rice immortalized Grange in rhyme as "The Galloping Ghost" and named him and Jim Thorpe the halfbacks on his all-time college team. In 1991, when Sports Illustrated published its first special issue celebrating "yesterday's heroes, " Red Grange, "An Original Superstar, " was featured on the cover. A three-time All-American at the University of Illinois in 1923-25, Grange scored 31 touchdowns and ran for 3,637 yards in three eight-game seasons. In 1924 he gave what many consider to be the greatest single-game performance in the history of college football. Playing before 67,000 fans on the dedication day of Illinois' new Memorial Stadium, Grange scored four touchdowns in the first twelve minutes of play, ran for a fifth touchdown in the third quarter, and passed for a sixth touchdown in the final period. When Grange joined the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving Day 1925, five days after his last college game, it marked the turning point for professional football. His enormous popularity and drawing power became the force that was to transform the NFL into a major sports attraction. This is the first paperback edition of Grange's autobiography, originally published in 1953 and praised by Robert Cromie of the Chicago Tribune as "the literary equivalent of a perfectly planned and executed touchdown march." Illustrated with more than a dozen photographs, it includes a new introduction and afterword by Ira Morton.

The Galloping Ghost

The Galloping Ghost PDF Author: Gary Andrew Poole
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0547523513
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
In the 1920s four athletes defined American sports: Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Bobby Jones, and Red Grange. They were the country's first athletic pantheon, its Mount Rushmore, and for a few brief years Red Grange outshone them all. The Galloping Ghost tells the remarkable untold story of this fleet-footed college football player who inspired poetry, dazzled fans as he felled opponents on the field, and, with the help of an unscrupulous and utterly brilliant manager (the first real-life Jerry Maguire), helped launch and legitimize professional football, changing American sports forever. In this first major biography of Red Grange, Gary Andrew Poole draws on exhaustive research and interviews to evoke the golden age of sports in all its splendor and outrageousness. He transports readers from college football rallies to barnstorming tours, from the locker room to the White House to Hollywood, as he recounts Grange’s rise and tragic fall. And he lays bare the fascinating and psychologically complex relationship between a star athlete and the nation’s first real sports agent—a relationship that encapsulated the good and shadowy sides of sports and how they inevitably intersected. For fans of Cinderella Man, The Devil and Sonny Liston, and The Devil in the White City, The Galloping Ghost is a provocative, character-driven, atmospheric sports history that gives us a new understanding of a seminal sports figure, from raw and innocent athletic talent to mortal American icon. A symbol of rebellious manhood and virility, Red Grange is a reminder of the fleeting nature of fame, youth, and physical dominance.

Monster of the Midway

Monster of the Midway PDF Author: Jim Dent
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1466853107
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
Jim Dent's Monster of the Midway is the story of football's fiercest competitor, the legendary Bronko Nagurski. From his discovery in the middle of a Minnesota field to his 1943 comeback season at Wrigley, from the University of Minnesota to the Hall of Fame, Bronko Nagurksi's life is a story of grit, hard work, passion, and, above all, an unstoppable drive to win. Monster of the Midway recounts Nagurski's unparalleled triumphs during the 1930s and '40s, when the Chicago Bears were the kings of professional football. From 1930, the Bronk's first year, through 1943, his last, the Bears won five NFL titles and played in four other NFL Championship Games. Focusing on Nagurski's 1943 comeback season, and how he miraculously led the Bears to their fourth NFL championship against the backdrop of World War II era Chicago, Jim Dent uncovers the riveting drama of Nagurski's playing days. His efforts were the stuff of legend, and his success in 1943 accomplished in spite of a battered frame, worn-out knees, multiple cracked ribs, and a broken bone in his lower back. While chronicling the drama of the '43 championship chase, Dent also tells of both the Bears' colorful early years and Bronko's improbable rise to fame from the backwoods of northern Minnesota. Woven into the narrative are the sights and smells and sounds of one of the most romantic, flavorful eras of the twentieth century. And laced through it all are stories of legend: Bronko rubbing shoulders with colorful characters like George Halas, Red Grange, Sid Luckman, and Sammy Baugh; Bronko running into (and breaking) the brick wall at Wrigley Field; Bronko winning All-American spots for two positions; Bronko knocking scores of opponents unconscious; and Bronko reaching the heights of football glory and, with rare grace, turning his back on the game after winning his last championship. Rich in unforgettable stories and scenes, this is Jim Dent's account of Bronko Nagurski-arguably the greatest football player who ever lived-and his teammates, the roughest, toughest, rowdiest group of players ever to don leather helmets, and the original Monsters of the Midway.

The First Star

The First Star PDF Author: Lars Anderson
Publisher: Random House (NY)
ISBN: 9781400067299
Category : Football
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Acclaimed sportswriter Anderson recounts the thrilling story of Harold "Red" Grange, the Galloping Ghost of the gridiron, and the wild barnstorming tour that earns professional football a place in the American sporting firmament.

Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right

Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right PDF Author: Taylor Bell
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252090039
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
From small towns like Metamora, Aledo, and Carthage to East St. Louis and Chicago's South Side, Illinois's high school football fields have been the proving ground for such future stars as Dick Butkus, Red Grange, and Otto Graham. In Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right, longtime fan and sportswriter Taylor Bell shares the stories of the greatest players, toughest coaches, most memorable games, and fiercest rivalries in Illinois history. Drawing on dozens of personal interviews, Bell profiles memorable figures such as Tuscola's record-setting quarterback Dusty Burk, Pittsfield's brutally demanding yet devoted Coach Donald "Deek" Pollard, and Evanston's Murney "Mr. Do-Right" Lazier, who coached sternly but without prejudice in the racially charged 1960s and '70s. The book also discusses winning programs at schools such as East St. Louis, Mount Carmel, and Joliet Catholic, as well as longstanding rivalries and memorable games in the state playoff and Prep Bowl. The ultimate book for high school football fans in Illinois, Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right is infused with Bell's own love for the game and illustrated with sixty photographs of the players and coaches who made lifetime memories under the Friday night lights.

Dutch Clark

Dutch Clark PDF Author: Chris Willis
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810885212
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
In 1963, 17 charter members were inducted into the newly established Pro Football Hall of Fame. Joining the likes of Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski, George Halas, and Sammy Baugh was Detroit Lions quarterback Dutch Clark. A bona fide superstar for the NFL in the 1930s, Clark led the Lions to success on the gridiron and helped establish the NFL in one of America’s most passionate sports cities. Throughout his seven-year NFL career (1931–1932, 1934–1938), Clark was selected first team NFL All-Pro six times, led the league in scoring three times, was team captain of the Detroit Lions, and helped the Lions win the 1935 NFL Championship in their second season in Detroit. The triple-threat star could do everything—he could run, he could pass, and he could kick. In Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions, Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of an athlete from a small town in Colorado who would become one of the NFL’s greatest players. To recount the story of this sports pioneer, Willis had complete cooperation from the Clark family and unlimited access to personal letters, the Dutch Clark Scrapbooks, and family photos. Appendixes include Clark’s football statistics and a list of his honors and awards. Supplemented with archival interviews, never-before-seen photos, newspaper quotes, and anecdotes, Dutch Clark tells the rags-to-riches story of one of the NFL’s first stars.

What a Game They Played

What a Game They Played PDF Author: Richard Whittingham
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803298194
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
In their own words, the pioneers and legends of professional football tell of the early glory yearsøof the National Football League. From the 1920s through the 1940s, pro football players were paid only hundreds of dollars per game and rarely had substitutes. The conditions and times of this era are vividly recalled by such players as Red Grange, Johnny Blood, Clarke Hinkle, Ace Parker, Shipwreck Kelly, Mel Hein, Sammy Baugh, Don Hutson, and Sid Luckman. The players also reveal personal glimpses of how they got started in football, the conditions on the field, their life away from it, and their memories of outstanding games and competing against such giants as Jim Thorpe. Full of wry and wonderful anecdotes, What A Game They Played invites sports fans to experience the fresh and inventive early years of pro football, a game played in an America quite different from what it is today.

Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears PDF Author: Lew Freedman
Publisher: Voyageur Press
ISBN: 9780760332313
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
The ultimate history of the legendary Chicago Bears, from Halas to Hester, with hundreds of photos, stats, and player profiles.