Red Grange and the Rise of Modern Football

Sport and Society

by John Martin Carroll

Before the Super Bowl, even before the NFL, there was Red Grange. Catapulted into the public eye in 1924 by scoring four touchdowns in twelve minutes for the University of Illinois, the "Galloping Ghost" went on to a trailblazing career as a professional player, Hollywood idol, and broadcaster. He ranked with Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey in the 1920s as one of the heralded figures in America's "golden age of sport."  Grange's spectacular performance as a college player coincided with football's evolution into a rallying point of university life boosted by post-World War I money, cars, roads, stadiums, and mass media. John Carroll depicts the life and career of the soft-spoken pioneer who helped lift pro football above its reputation as "a dirty little business run by rogues and bargain-basement entrepreneurs." A reluctant folk hero, Grange stood as a symbol of older, rural American an unpretentious self-made individual making a mark in a society increasingly controlled by machines, vast corporations, and stifling bureaucracies. His story is an essential element in understanding how football became central in American culture.

Genres: History, Sports

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[jaden eve]

surprisingly i didn’t dislike this book. i read it for a class and i’m not super into football and while it did start of slow i grew attached to the people and the places and the events of this book and found a new appreciation for football.

[Jeffrey Carroll]

My cousin John Martin Carroll wrote this book about Red Grange, iconic all american football star.

[Charlotte]

A must read for anyone interested in football or the era of the 1920's...it's not just a football book, it's about the culture and the importance of that decade.