RedGrange

Grange was born in Forksville, Pennsylvania as the third child of Sadie and Lyle Grange.^[3] His father was the foreman of three lumber camps.^[3] When he was five, his mother died and his father moved the family to Wheaton, Illinois, where four brothers had settled.^[4] When they arrived, Grange’s father worked hard and became the chief of police.^[5] At Wheaton High School, Grange earned 16 varsity letters in four sports (football, baseball, basketball, and track)^[5] during the four years he attended, notably scoring 75 touchdowns and 532 points for the football team.^[5] 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.^[3] Knocked out in this game, Grange remained unconscious for two days, having difficulty speaking when he awoke.^[3]

To help the family earn money, he took a part time job as an ice toter for $37.50 per week,^[5] 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").^[4]

After graduation Grange enrolled at the University of Illinois, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity.^[5] 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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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.^[5] 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.^[6] This four-touchdown first quarter outburst equaled the number of touchdowns allowed by Michigan in the previous two seasons.^[6] 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.^[6]

Fall-Winter 1951. Stories featuring "Red" Grange (art by Bob Powell), "Doc" Blanchard and Clenn Davis, the Touchdown Twins (art by Frank Borth), and Jim Thorpe. Other stories: Johnny Lujack, Tommy Touchdown (art by Powell), and the Fighting Heart. Saunders painted cover. Cover price $0.10.

April 09, 2008
by William J. Felchner

He was the fabled “Galloping Ghost,” a rampaging dynamo who graced the football gridiron from the so-called “Golden Age of Sport.” A three-time All-American at the University of Illinois and a Hall of Famer for the Chicago Bears, Red Grange was larger than life, a football legend whose talents on the field eventually led him to the silver screen of Hollywood.

MORE: http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-footbl/grange-bio.html

Making of a sports star
Harold Edward “Red” Grange was born in Forksville, Pa., on June 13, 1903. Following the death of his mother in 1908, Grange’s family moved to Illinois, where he became a standout athlete at Wheaton High School just west of Chicago, earning 16 out of a possible 16 varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball and track.

As a junior, a season in which the gridiron Tigers outscored their opponents 418-71, Grange put up some impressive numbers, finishing with 36 touchdowns and 39 PATs for a total of 255 points. When his incredible prep football career finally came to an end in the fall of 1921, the Wheaton Illinoisan observed, “As for Grange, who has played his last football game for Wheaton High, he cannot be replaced, because a competent successor hasn’t been born yet.”

Grange, who worked several summers delivering ice to help out with the family finances (hence his alternate nickname the “Wheaton Iceman”), enrolled at the University of Illinois in 1922. Playing for coach Bob Zuppke’s Fighting Illini, Grange continued his winning ways, earning first team All-American honors as a hard-charging sophomore running back in 1923. In a tribute to the young halfback following a 7-0 win over the University of Chicago before 61,000 fans at Illini Stadium, the Associated Press had termed Grange “Zuppke’s phantom pile driver,” while sports columnist Irving Vaughan of the Chicago Tribune had called Red “a wild man afoot; a veritable whirlwind of activity.”

Dolls, like clowns, can be extremely freaky and weird, and this bad boy a prime example of the see-you-in-my-nightmares vibe vintage dolls sometimes give off. This is a doll of Harold "Red" Grange, and he's sporting his Chicago Bears uniform. Sure, $1,150 for a doll sounds like a lot, but think of the lifetime of fear he'll bring to you and yours. [eBay]

The Galloping Ghost: Red Grange, an American Football Legend (Houghton Mifflin, 2008) is the story of Harold “Red” Grange who played American football in the 1920s. Back in the “Golden Age of Sports,” he was a huge star. Grange is still considered the greatest ever college football player (he definitely has the most literary nickname), and his decision to turn pro helped bring legitimacy and popularity to the National Football League. The Galloping Ghost has been called the definitive portrait of the football legend. Several reviewers—from the Washington Post to Sports Illustrated—heaped a lot of nice hyperbole on it, calling the book “exquisite,” “superb,” “terrific,” “extremely well-researched,” “an ideal read for football fans,” “top-notch story-telling,” and so forth. It has been compared to Cinderella Man, The Devil and Sonny Liston, and The Devil in the White City.

Mascot Pictures, 1931. American one sheet film poster for the 1931 adventure film, "The Galloping Ghost." Fine condition, apparently never used. A gambling ring run out of the Mogul Taxi company is intent on fixing college football games. Football star Harold "Red" Grange is a target for the gamblers, whose thugs try to eliminate Grange from playing. Grange's buddy Buddy is himself vulnerable to blackmail, since he has broken team rules by marrying. The crooks use all their wiles to keep Grange and Buddy from leading their team to victory [Jim Beaver, IMDB]. One of the finest illustrated one sheets from the genre, and a fresh, superb example. Folded, 27 x 41 inches. [Book