Red Grange

August 1, 2019

In the 1920s, Red Grange (1903-91) was a spectacular college football player and a peer of the larger-than-life sports stars of that flashy decade, including Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, and Bill Tilden. They were the crest of the first wave of sports marketing, and Grange, with his agent C.C. "Cash and Carry" Pyle, may have made more money out of his celebrity than any of them, while establishing professional football as a viable enterprise in the process. Grange wrote an autobiography in the 1950s and has been accorded two serious biographies since: John Carroll's Red Grange and the Rise of Modern Football and Gary Andrew Poole's The Galloping Ghost. Now, Willis (research library, NFL Films) takes a personal look at Grange, whom he depicts as humble and amiable. The book's centerpiece is an extended section on the Grange-led barnstorming tours of 1925-26. Willis presents a deep study of all aspects of that tour, devoting attention to Grange's life before and after his playing days, relying on interviews with descendants of Grange's family, friends, and colleagues. VERDICT A highly recommended picture of a football legend and one of the league's first superstars.

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