Chris Willis is the head of the Research Library at NFL Films. He is the author of multiple books on early pro football, including The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr (2010), Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions (2012), A Nearly Perfect Season: The Inside Story of the 1984 San Francisco 49ers (2014), and Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFL’s Most Famous Traveling Team (2017), all published by Rowman & Littlefield. Willis was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 for his work on the HBO documentary The Game of Their Lives and won an Emmy in 2016 for his work on HBO’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Houston Texans. He was awarded the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Ralph Hay award for lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography in 2012.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The “Eternal Flame of Professional Football”Part I: Humble Beginnings (1903–1922)1: Forksville2: Losing Mom3: Wheaton4: Love of Sports5: The Wheaton Iceman6: High School GloryPart II: College (1922–1925)7: Bob Zuppke8: Freshman to All-American9: 12 Minutes to Immortality10: C. C. Pyle11: East Coast Invasion12: Rumors Swirl and Red’s Last Game at IllinoisPart III: Barnstorming with the Chicago Bears (1925–1926)13: George Halas and Dutch Sternaman14: Signing with the Chicago Bears and First Pro Game15: Eastern Barnstorming Tour (November. 22, 1925–December 20, 1925)16: Southern Barnstorming Tour (December 21, 1925–January 10, 1926)17: Western Barnstorming Tour (January 11, 1926–February 4, 1926)18: The Impact of the Barnstorming TourPart IV: Hollywood and the “Grange League” (1926–1927)19: War with the NFL: The Grange League20: One Minute to Play21: 1926 Pro Football Season22: Back to Hollywood: The Racing RomeoPart V: FL Career (1927–1935)23: 1927 New York Yankees24: Out of Football25: Halas Brings Back the Ghost26: Indoor Madness27: The NFL Grows Up28: The Galloping Ghost Walks AwayPart VI: Coaching, Radio and Television, and Marriage (1935–1962)29: Coaching and Broadcasting30: Margaret “Muggs” Grange31: Television StarPart VII: Football Royalty (1963–1991)32: Pro Football Hall of Fame33: 50th Anniversary of Immortality34: Super Bowl Coin Toss35: Wheaton Homecoming36: Meeting the Fighting Illini37: Goodbye to the Galloping Ghost38: The Legacy of Red GrangeNotesBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

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.

Chris Willis is the head of the Research Library at NFL Films. He is the author of multiple books on early pro football, including The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr (2010), Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions (2012), A Nearly Perfect Season: The Inside Story of the 1984 San Francisco 49ers (2014), and Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFL’s Most Famous Traveling Team (2017), all published by Rowman & Littlefield. Willis was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 for his work on the HBO documentary The Game of Their Lives and won an Emmy in 2016 for his work on HBO’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Houston Texans. He was awarded the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Ralph Hay award for lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography in 2012.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The “Eternal Flame of Professional Football”Part I: Humble Beginnings (1903–1922)1: Forksville2: Losing Mom3: Wheaton4: Love of Sports5: The Wheaton Iceman6: High School GloryPart II: College (1922–1925)7: Bob Zuppke8: Freshman to All-American9: 12 Minutes to Immortality10: C. C. Pyle11: East Coast Invasion12: Rumors Swirl and Red’s Last Game at IllinoisPart III: Barnstorming with the Chicago Bears (1925–1926)13: George Halas and Dutch Sternaman14: Signing with the Chicago Bears and First Pro Game15: Eastern Barnstorming Tour (November. 22, 1925–December 20, 1925)16: Southern Barnstorming Tour (December 21, 1925–January 10, 1926)17: Western Barnstorming Tour (January 11, 1926–February 4, 1926)18: The Impact of the Barnstorming TourPart IV: Hollywood and the “Grange League” (1926–1927)19: War with the NFL: The Grange League20: One Minute to Play21: 1926 Pro Football Season22: Back to Hollywood: The Racing RomeoPart V: FL Career (1927–1935)23: 1927 New York Yankees24: Out of Football25: Halas Brings Back the Ghost26: Indoor Madness27: The NFL Grows Up28: The Galloping Ghost Walks AwayPart VI: Coaching, Radio and Television, and Marriage (1935–1962)29: Coaching and Broadcasting30: Margaret “Muggs” Grange31: Television StarPart VII: Football Royalty (1963–1991)32: Pro Football Hall of Fame33: 50th Anniversary of Immortality34: Super Bowl Coin Toss35: Wheaton Homecoming36: Meeting the Fighting Illini37: Goodbye to the Galloping Ghost38: The Legacy of Red GrangeNotesBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

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.

Chris Willis is the head of the Research Library at NFL Films. He is the author of multiple books on early pro football, including The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr (2010), Dutch Clark: The Life of an NFL Legend and the Birth of the Detroit Lions (2012), A Nearly Perfect Season: The Inside Story of the 1984 San Francisco 49ers (2014), and Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe, and the Oorang Indians: How a Dog Kennel Owner Created the NFL’s Most Famous Traveling Team (2017), all published by Rowman & Littlefield. Willis was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 for his work on the HBO documentary The Game of Their Lives and won an Emmy in 2016 for his work on HBO’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Houston Texans. He was awarded the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Ralph Hay award for lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography in 2012.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The “Eternal Flame of Professional Football”Part I: Humble Beginnings (1903–1922)1: Forksville2: Losing Mom3: Wheaton4: Love of Sports5: The Wheaton Iceman6: High School GloryPart II: College (1922–1925)7: Bob Zuppke8: Freshman to All-American9: 12 Minutes to Immortality10: C. C. Pyle11: East Coast Invasion12: Rumors Swirl and Red’s Last Game at IllinoisPart III: Barnstorming with the Chicago Bears (1925–1926)13: George Halas and Dutch Sternaman14: Signing with the Chicago Bears and First Pro Game15: Eastern Barnstorming Tour (November. 22, 1925–December 20, 1925)16: Southern Barnstorming Tour (December 21, 1925–January 10, 1926)17: Western Barnstorming Tour (January 11, 1926–February 4, 1926)18: The Impact of the Barnstorming TourPart IV: Hollywood and the “Grange League” (1926–1927)19: War with the NFL: The Grange League20: One Minute to Play21: 1926 Pro Football Season22: Back to Hollywood: The Racing RomeoPart V: FL Career (1927–1935)23: 1927 New York Yankees24: Out of Football25: Halas Brings Back the Ghost26: Indoor Madness27: The NFL Grows Up28: The Galloping Ghost Walks AwayPart VI: Coaching, Radio and Television, and Marriage (1935–1962)29: Coaching and Broadcasting30: Margaret “Muggs” Grange31: Television StarPart VII: Football Royalty (1963–1991)32: Pro Football Hall of Fame33: 50th Anniversary of Immortality34: Super Bowl Coin Toss35: Wheaton Homecoming36: Meeting the Fighting Illini37: Goodbye to the Galloping Ghost38: The Legacy of Red GrangeNotesBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

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.