Red Grange

Harold Edward "Red" Grange (June 13, 1903 – January 28, 1991), nicknamed "the Galloping Ghost" and "the Wheaton Iceman", was an American professional football halfback who played for the Chicago Bears and the short-lived New York Yankees.

His signing with the Bears helped legitimize the National Football League (NFL).

Red Grange was born on June 13, 1903, in Forksville, Pennsylvania, a village of about 200 people among lumber camps.

His father Lyle was the foreman of three lumber camps.

His mother died when he was just five years old.

For a number of years, the Grange family lived with relatives until they could finally afford a home of their own in Wheaton, Illinois.

In Wheaton, Lyle became the chief of police.

In four years at Wheaton High School, Grange earned 16 varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball, and track; he scored 75 touchdowns and 532 points for the football team.

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.

Knocked out in this game, Grange remained unconscious for two days, having difficulty speaking when he awoke.

Grange was also an all-state track and field runner.

In 1920, he was a state champion in the high jump and placed third and fourth in the 100-yard dash and the 220-yard dash, respectively.

In 1921, he won the state title in both the long jump and the 100-yard dash, and in 1922, he placed third in the 100-yard dash and won the 220-yard dash.

Playing college football for the Illinois Fighting Illini, Grange was a three-time consensus All-American and led his team to a national championship in 1923.

Grange played for the team from 1923 to 1925.

In his first collegiate football game, he scored three touchdowns against Nebraska.

In seven games as a sophomore, he ran for 723 yards and scored 12 touchdowns, and led Illinois to an undefeated season and the Helms Athletic Foundation national championship.

His younger brother Garland also played football for the school.

He was the only unanimous All-American selection in 1924, making him the first player in college football history to receive that honor.

The same year, Grange became the first recipient of the Chicago Tribune Silver Football award as the Big Ten Conference's most valuable player.

He drew national attention for his performance in the October 18, 1924, game against Michigan, in the grand opening game of the new Memorial Stadium, built as a memorial to Illini students and alumni who had died in World War I.

The Michigan Wolverines entered the game as favorites, having won a national title the previous year.

Grange returned the opening kickoff for a 95-yard touchdown.

He then scored three more touchdowns on runs of 67, 56, and 44 yards, all in the first 12 minutes of the game.

In the second half, Grange scored a fifth touchdown on an 11-yard run and also threw a 20-yard touchdown pass.

Shortly after his final college game in 1925, Grange joined the Bears and the NFL, embarking on a barnstorming tour to raise the league's attention across the country.

When his rookie contract expired, he and agent C. C. Pyle formed the American Football League in 1926, with Grange playing for the Yankees.

The league lasted just one year before shutting down and the Yankees were assimilated into the NFL.

Grange suffered a serious knee injury in 1927 that prevented him from playing the following season, and he returned to the Bears in 1929.

He remained with the team until he ended his playing career in 1934, from which he became a backfield coach for the Bears for three seasons.

He is a charter member of both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.

In a 1974 interview with American Heritage Grange stated that he ran the 100-yard dash in 9.8 seconds [at the time this was just one-fifth of a second off the world (and American) records].

To help the family earn money, he took a part-time job as an ice toter for $37.50 per week, a job which helped him to build his core strength and from which he got the nicknames "Ice Man" and "the Wheaton Ice Man."

After graduation, Grange enrolled at the University of Illinois, where he joined the Zeta Psi fraternity.

At first he had planned to compete only in basketball and track, but changed his mind once he arrived and joined coach Bob Zuppke's Fighting Illini football team.

Grange was the roommate of college basketball player and future college basketball coach John Mauer.

Grange also modeled for local men's clothing store, Jos.

Kuhn and Co., as a floor model, common for Illini athletes at the time, and was an amateur boxer.

In 2008, Grange was named the best college football player of all time by ESPN, and in 2011, he was named the Greatest Big Ten Icon by the Big Ten Network.