REMEMBERING THE GALLOPING GHOST

Recognized as the greatest college football player of all-time, Red Grange casts a big shadow on the birth of professional football & what the NFL has become today

We are fortunate if we have had interesting people in our lives. Some of those interesting people may have been close friends, co-workers, peers, or casual acquaintances. Some we met because we just happened to be at the point where our paths crossed.

I had the opportunity to have dinner and briefly visit with a football icon. It was in 1958 while attending our annual football banquet at Cameron Junior College in Lawton, Oklahoma. We had a special speaker coming that evening, and we were surprised when Howard Edward “Red” Grange, “The Galloping Ghost,” took the podium. Speck Sanders, a local Lawton businessman, who was a former Chicago Cardinal and friend of Red Grange, used his friendship to bring him to Cameron. I remember that some of the guys on the team didn’t even know who Red Grange was.

The National Football League history promotes Red Grange as the main reason professional football took root in American culture. Harold “Red” Grange was born in 1903, in Forksville, Pennsylvania. He wasn’t very big by today’s standards at six feet tall and 180 pounds, but he had the natural athletic skills most athletes only wished for. He had exceptional speed, great power, and an innate talent for carrying the football down the field.

In 1918, while in high school in Wheaton, Illinois, he worked as an ice delivery man; while he was setting all kinds of records, he was labeled “The Wheaton Iceman.” After high school, he played for the University of Illinois where he was a three-time All-American (1923-1925) and there he acquired another name, “The Galloping Ghost.” While in college, he simultaneously played professional football. In 1926, the NCAA passed the Red Grange Rule, which prevented players from playing both college and professional football at the same time.

After college, he signed a lucrative $100,000 rookie contract with the Chicago Bears in 1925. After his rookie year, he signed with the New York Football Yankees (1926-1927), but returned to the Bears in 1929.

Because of his great reputation on the football field, he drew crowds wherever he went. Cities had to build larger stadiums to contain the huge crowds who came to see the Galloping Ghost. His contract with the Bears was the first glamorized/publicized contract signing that “kick-started” professional football in America.

Prior to Grange signing with the Bears, professional football was poorly organized, players oftentimes were not paid, there were poor playing fields, there were frequent injuries, and the overall playing conditions were primitive.

Red Grange suffered a serious knee injury in 1927 sidelining him for one season. He never fully recovered from that injury, but he continued playing until 1934. When his playing days ended, he was hired by the NFL to do “barnstorming” all around the country to gain publicity for the NFL. People flocked to see Red Grange when he arrived in cities all across the country. He entered the sports broadcasting field and worked for a time with sports commentator Lindsey Nelson.

After a 25-year-career of playing, coaching, speaking, and announcing games, Red Grange finally retired. The Galloping Ghost passed away in 1991 at the age of 87.

After Red Grange made a colorful speech to our team, he came and sat at our table and told some funny stories about playing with Bronko Nagurski and Beatie Feathers during the last years of his career. He took time to answer any questions and spawned a few stories along the way, and he was a very good storyteller.

Red Grange was only 55 years of age when he came to Lawton to speak to us. I am honored to have met and talked with The Galloping Ghost − the man that helped start professional football as we know it today.