Beschreibung
In celebration of the National Football Leagues 100th season, noted football historian Chris Willis brings to life the story of Red Grange, the nations 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.
InRed Grange: The Life and Legacy of the NFLs 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 Granges rags-to-riches story, including details about his tomboy mother who died when Grange was six years old and never-before-published information on Granges 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.
Autorenportrait
Chris Willis is the head of the Research Library at NFL Films. He is the author of multiple books on early pro football, includingThe Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr (2010),Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions(2012),A Nearly Perfect Season: The Inside Story of the 1984 San Francisco 49ers(2014), andWalter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFLs Most Famous Traveling Team(2017), all published by Rowman& Littlefield. Willis was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 for his work on the HBO documentaryThe Game of Their Livesand won an Emmy in 2016 for his work on HBOsHard Knocks: Training Camp with the Houston Texans. He was awarded the Professional Football Researchers Associations Ralph Hay award for lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography in 2012.
Inhalt
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Eternal Flame of Professional Football
Part I: Humble Beginnings (19031922)
1: Forksville
2: Losing Mom
3: Wheaton
4: Love of Sports
5: The Wheaton Iceman
6: High School Glory
Part II: College (19221925)
7: Bob Zuppke
8: Freshman to All-American
9: 12 Minutes to Immortality
10: C. C. Pyle
11: East Coast Invasion
12: Rumors Swirl and Reds Last Game at Illinois
Part III: Barnstorming with the Chicago Bears (19251926)
13: George Halas and Dutch Sternaman
14: Signing with the Chicago Bears and First Pro Game
15: Eastern Barnstorming Tour (November. 22, 1925December 20, 1925)
16: Southern Barnstorming Tour (December 21, 1925January 10, 1926)
17: Western Barnstorming Tour (January 11, 1926February 4, 1926)
18: The Impact of the Barnstorming Tour
Part IV: Hollywood and the Grange League (19261927)
19: War with the NFL: The Grange League
20:One Minute to Play
21: 1926 Pro Football Season
22: Back to Hollywood:The Racing Romeo
Part V: FL Career (19271935)
23: 1927 New York Yankees
24: Out of Football
25: Halas Brings Back the Ghost
26: Indoor Madness
27: The NFL Grows Up
28: The Galloping Ghost Walks Away
Part VI: Coaching, Radio and Television, and Marriage (19351962)
29: Coaching and Broadcasting
30: Margaret Muggs Grange
31: Television Star
Part VII: Football Royalty (19631991)
32: Pro Football Hall of Fame
33: 50th Anniversary of Immortality
34: Super Bowl Coin Toss
35: Wheaton Homecoming
36: Meeting the Fighting Illini
37: Goodbye to the Galloping Ghost
38: The Legacy of Red Grange
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
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