Red Grange and the Rise of Modern Football

Before the Super Bowl, before Monday Night Football, even before the NFL, there was Red Grange. Catapulted into the public eye in 1924 by scoring four touchdowns in twelve minutes for the University of Illinois, the "Galloping Ghost" went on to a trailblazing career as a professional player, star of Hollywood films, and broadcaster. He, Babe Ruth, and Jack Dempsey were among the nation's most heralded figures during the "golden age of sport" of the 1920s, and he was also on the cover of Sports Illustrated when that magazine did a special issue in 1991 on the greatest moments in sports. Grange's star rose in tandem with that of the sport itself. His spectacular performance as a college player coincided with football's evolution into a ralying point of university life, undergirded by post-World War I money, cars, roads, stadiums, and mass media. With a natural talent and down-home image that helped legitimize professional football, Grange became one of the first athlete-heroes and the first major sports figure to serve as a play-by-play broadcast commentator.