Red Grange by Chris Willis

Author:Chris Willis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781538101957
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

In 1997, the town of Forksville unveiled a historical marker just down the road from the house that Red Grange was born in. Courtesy of author

The Red Grange Rock, which sits inside Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of Illinois. In 1994, Red’s ashes were spread at the base of the rock by his widow, Margaret Grange. In 1997, her ashes were also spread at the base of the rock. Courtesy of author

IMPACT OF THE BARNSTORMING TOUR

The tour was a success in many ways. “It turned out better than Pyle or I expected, in a financial way,” said Red to the Chicago Herald-Examiner. Red Grange and the Chicago Bears, as well as opposing players, all got paid. In 1925, a good lineman in the NFL probably received about $100 per game, while a good back was paid $125 to $150. Most players received between $50 and $75. Red blew those numbers out of the water—and he knew it. C. C. Pyle had promised him. Red turned pro mainly to make money, although he loved to play football. The game made him feel free and happy—although the tour tested that love—but it was the money that drove him, and he didn’t hold back when talking to the press or the public.1

While in New Orleans during the tour, Red gave an interview with Meigs Frost of the New Orleans States.

I’m tired of being a target. I want to do a little shooting myself. I’ve got a few things I want to get off my chest.

My father’s income as deputy sheriff never was more than $200 a month. He borrowed money from the bank to help me through college, and I earned $40 ($37.50) a week summers as an iceman. I took all the hammering they could give me through three years of varsity football. Football is the thing I do best in the world. I gave the best I had to the university. Why shouldn’t I give it to the public now when the public is willing to pay to see it?

What’s the disgrace of being a pro, I’d like to know? You never heard a howl about Christy Mathewson or Eddie Collins or any other college man playing professional baseball. What’s (Bob) Zuppke but a professional? Does he feel that he owes so much to the University of Illinois that he wouldn’t leave them at the end of his contract if some other university offered him $5,000 a year more to coach for them?

Nobody would have said a word if I’d started out as a bond salesmen when I left college. . . . Nobody would have kicked if I had started out at an office boy’s pay in some business. But here I had an asset worth thousands of dollars, over the limited period of a couple of years. Ask any business man what he’d call me if I left it go to waste. He’ll tell you I would be a darned fool.2

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