Product Description

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, Hollywood football idol, and broadcaster. He ranked with Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey in the 1920s as the most heralded figures in America's "golden age of sport", and when "Sports Illustrated" did a special issue in 1991 on the greatest moments in sports, Grange was selected for the cover. 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 rallying 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. John Carroll depicts the career of this soft spoken pioneer who helped lift pro football above its reputation as "a dirty little business run by rogues and bargain-basement entrepreneurs". A reluctant celebrity and folk hero, Red Grange stood throughout his life as a symbol of older, rural American values: an unpretentious self-made individual making a mark in a society increasingly controlled by machines, vast corporations, and stifling bureaucracies. His story is an essential element in understanding football's central place in American culture.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2011571 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-17
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.08 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

From Amazon.com
Red Grange was one of the certified heroes of an era that produced the anchors to any sporting hall of fame--Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Bill Tilden, Bobby Jones--but Red Grange and the Rise of Modern Football is no simple exercise in hero-worship. A professor of history at Lamar University, John M. Carroll works to put Grange in perspective against the backdrop of an amazing era--the '20s--and tackle the Galloping Ghost's myth. Still, in Grange's case, the myth remains awfully impressive.

A true superstar, Grange was a reluctant idol, letting his actions speak for him. In an era before big athletic scholarships, Grange paid for his education by delivering ice in the summer, a job that made him stronger than most of the defense men he'd regularly bowl over. As a junior at Illinois, Grange secured his legend with an inconceivable performance against Michigan, running for four touchdowns in the first 12 minutes. Before the final gun sounded--Carroll recounts this, and other games in glorious detail--Grange had added a fifth score on the ground, passed for a sixth, racked up a ridiculous 402 rushing yards on the day, and cemented his reputation. Post college, his all-American drawing power and singular brilliance on the field virtually saved the struggling young NFL; Carroll is quite thorough in his examination of the fledgling league and its odor of "a dirty little business run by rogues." Yet, despite all the fame and celebrity, a flirtation with Hollywood, and a respected post-playing career in the radio booth and various businesses, Grange never escaped his heartland unpretentiousness; he always seemed to know who he was and how he got that way. "I could run," he once said, "and that was the basis of any success I ever had." Because he ran so well, of course, that success evolved into a full-blown legend worthy of Carroll's scrupulous and absorbing examination. --Jeff Silverman

From Library Journal
Carroll (Regents' Professor of History, Lamar Univ.) provides an excellent review of the life of Red Grange, the very mention of whom creates images of football; he is credited with being a major catalyst for the growth and increasing popularity of professional football. Starting with the historic Illinois-Michigan college football game in 1924, the author provides substantial documentation in chronicling the life of Grange from the time of his difficult, even traumatic childhood and adolescence through his successes in college and professional football to his death. Carroll details many of the social issues that not only confronted society during the 1920s and 1930s but also influenced the rise of football's popularity. The media frenzy that surrounded Grange's life helped to spotlight professional football's quest for legitimacy with sports purists. An informative and enjoyable book; highly recommended for all sports collections.ATim Delaney, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Harold "Red" Grange was arguably the most significant football player of all time. He rose to prominence in the post^-World War I era by having his best games for the University of Illinois in the national spotlight against top-ranked opponents. After leaving Illinois as a national icon, he provided credibility to the fledgling pro-football ranks by playing for the Chicago Bears. History professor Carroll examines Grange's career in the light of its effect on football in particular and society in general. Grange, Carroll reveals, was one of the very first sports "celebrities." Like today's superstars, he was lured by movie contracts, he was the subject of tabloid rumors, and he attracted annoying lawsuits simply because he was famous. Grange was also one of the first ex-athletes to turn to broadcasting. This is a carefully researched, well-written study of a man who forged new ground in football and in the art of being a celebrity. Expect interest as millennium lists of great athletes continue to showcase Grange. Wes Lukowsky