In celebration of the National Football League's 100th season in the fall of 2019, noted NFL historian Chris Willis brings to life the story of Red Grange, the nation's first professional football star, in this definitive biography. Harold "Red" Grange became a national sensation as a junior halfback at the University of Illinois in the 1920s. He quickly joined other great athletes of the Roaring Twenties such as Bobby Jones, Jack Dempsey, and Babe Ruth in enthralling audiences on the radio and in newspapers on a daily basis. A year later Grange stunned the country by dropping out of school after his last collegiate game and going pro with the six year old NFL, signing with the Chicago Bears. In Red Grange: The Life and Legacy of the NFL's First Superstar, Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of a humble football player who rose to fame in the 1920s and became an icon. With unlimited access and complete cooperation of the Grange family, Willis offers new insight into Grange's rags-to-riches story, including details about his tomboy mother who died when Grange was six years old and never-before-published information on Grange's barnstorming tour with the Chicago Bears that instantly gave credibility to the fledgling NFL. With over fifty original interviews, personal letters to and from Grange, and more than forty photos, this definitive biography reveals in intimate detail the life of a sports pioneer. Whether as a player, coach, broadcaster, pitchman, Hall of Famer, ambassador, or icon, Red Grange was, and still is, the face of the early NFL and one of the greatest athletes of all-time.
Industry Reviews
There is no better way to understand the 100th season of the NFL than to begin with the remarkable story of Red Grange, whose singular talent changed the way football was marketed and consumed at a time in this country when people of all walks of life were starving for big stars on the big stage. Chris Willis of NFL Films, the brilliant biographer of our national obsession, has told this story as only he can-with unparalleled scholarship and in entertaining detail. -- Sal Paolantonio, National Correspondent, ESPN, and author of How Football Explains America
Chris Willis didn't know Red Grange. He didn't see him play. But, if there is anyone who might make you believe he did, it's Chris Willis. Truly one of pro football's leading historians, Willis combines well-researched facts with a human touch and an unequaled understanding of the game and the era of which he writes. Few others have his appreciation for the unquestionable impact Grange had on professional football during its formative years. During a time when college coaches like Amos Alonzo Stagg were calling the pro game "a menace to college football," Willis chronicles how Grange-a model of good behavior and sportsmanship-converted pro football naysayers to enthusiastic supporters. There is no one better suited to tell the tale than Chris Willis. -- Joe Horrigan, Executive Director, Pro Football Hall of Fame
There are few figures in football history more mythic or more seminal than Harold "Red" Grange. In his carefully-researched new biography, Chris Willis expertly puts Grange in the context of his times, showing his outsized influence on the collegiate game and the immense importance of his arrival in the fledgling universe of the National Football League. The heart of the book is Willis's portrayal of Grange's punishing 1925-26 coast-to-coast barnstorming tour with the Bears-aptly described by one writer as a "national hysteria"-when the biggest star in college football helped legitimize the NFL. -- Michael MacCambridge, author of America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation
