Red Grange: The Greatest College Football Player Ever

Watching Illinois lose in the Rose Bowl game to Southern California did not make for a Happy New Year. At least not for this Illini fan. However, during th game an announcement was made about the greatest College Football player ever by ESPN. The name was that of none other than Red Grange.

Now throughout the entire football season, ESPN would announce one or two players at a time during the weekend games. There were some great names mentioned. Names like Dick Butkus, Tony Dorsett, Jim Brown, Hugh Green, John Elway, and George Gipp, made the top 25 players list. However, at the top was Red Grange.

His nickname was the Galloping Ghost, as given to him by Chicago sportswriter Warren Brown. Grange was born in 1923 and died in 1991. He was from Forksville, Pennsylvania. At a young age his father moved to Wheaton, Illinois. Grange attended High School there. He earned varsity in letters in the sports of baseball,basketball, track and football. His original nickname was the "Ice Man". He got that name because he would tote large squares of ice around the neighborhood when he wasn't in school. The work made him stronger.

After High school, he enrolled at Illinois where he just wanted to play track and basketball. He changed his mind and the course of becoming the greatest College Football player ever began. In his first game against Nebraska, he scored three touchdowns. In 1923, he led Illinois to an undefeated season and as a sophomore he ran for 12 touchdowns and 723 yards in only 7 games.

On October 18,1924, he ran for six touchdowns against Michigan. Four of them came in the first 12 minutes of the game. He sat out the entire second quarter of the game.

The following year in a game against the Ivy League Champ Penn, he accounted for Illinois 363 yards leading the Illinois to a 24-2 upset. That same year, Illinois retired his jersey. His number 77 was the first to be retired at Illinois. Since that time only Dick Butkus's number 50 was retired.

The day after his last game at Illinois, he signed a professional contract with the Chicago Bears of the NFL. He played for the Bears for through 1934. He had an outstanding professional career as well.

In his later years, his manager C.C. Pyle, lined him up to do some Hollywood productions. He played in two silent films. "One Minute to Play" and "Racing Romeo." He also did a twelve episode series called "The Galloping Ghost." After that he did a variety of jobs as a motivational speaker and radio announcer.

He and his wife Margret were married in 1941 and stayed together until his death in 1991. In her early years she was a flight attendant and they met on a flight.

On the 100th anniversary of College Football in 1969, the Football Writers Association decided to pick an all college team. Red Grange was the only unanimous selection to every ballot.

Grange once remarked that if you are in a football game and 11 guys are chasing you. You just run. That is exactly what Red Grange did. He ran the football and he did it very well.

As an Illini fan, I was sad to lose to a very good USC team. However, I was proud to learn that the best to play the game as selected by ESPN, was Red Grange.

sources; ESPN Television
www.espn.com