Legendary Illini Red Grange received the honor of the Number One Greatest College Football Player of All Time on Tuesday. The announcement concluded ABC’s top 25 Greatest Players in College Football history program. As a former member of the Illini football team, this honor brings the much deserved respect to the legacy that is Illinois football.
In sport’s Golden Age, he was football’s golden boy. Red Grange was the name, though he was commonly known as The Galloping Ghost. While it’s a shame they don’t make nicknames like that any more, it’s even more disappointing they don’t make many players like the three-time All-American halfback.
“This man Red Grange of Illinois is three or four men rolled into one for football purposes,” wrote Damon Runyon. “He is Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, Al Jolson, Paavo Nurmi and Man o’ War. Put together, they spell Grange.”
If you made a football movie and the star scored four touchdowns, covering an incredible 262 yards, in just 12 minutes, would anyone think it was anything but fiction? But that’s what Grange accomplished against one of the best defenses in the country. That 1924 game against Michigan so inspired Grantland Rice to give Grange his nickname and write:
A streak of fire, a breath of flame
Eluding all who reach and clutch;
A gray ghost thrown into the game
That rival hands may never touch;
A rubber bounding, blasting soul
Whose destination is the goal.
Galloping Ghost scared opponents By Larry Schwartz (Special to ESPN.com)
September 7th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
[...] player, Red Grange will be honored this week in a number of ways. After being labeled as the Greatest College Football Player of All Time last year, there is a lot to be said about Red [...]