San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-12-27

~ dollars in real money-those were
the alternatives which faced Mr..
"Red" Grange, the football hero. Well,
he resigned from college and already he
has his hands on a large part of the mil
lion dollars.
1t was just four weeks ago yesterday
that Mr.. Harold Grange was poor col
lege student in the University of Illinois
in Chicago. He played in the last foot
ball game of his college career that day,
and when the game was over resigned
from the student body and signed con-
tract as professional football player.
Instantly he jumped from poverty to con-
siderable wealth.
A month ago Grange owed various peo-
pie in his home town of Wheaton, Illinois
kindly and charitable persons who had
faith in the boy and were glad to help him
get his education. So for more than three
years Grange has had his tuition and
earn in vacation time and the contribu-
tons of his friends.
But whatever the future prospects of
the young man might turn out to be as a
lawyer, doctor or business man, nobody
foresaw the quick, shortcut to wealth
which lay before him. In those three col
lege years young Grange had mastered the
science of football, and now, in his senior
year, he stood forth as the most phenome-
nal football player in the history of the
rar,a Would he cash in NJ onca and cani-
talize his national fame on the football
field while it was at its height, or would
he finish out the remaining six months Of
his last college year and get his diploma?
His college course might be resumed
later on at any time; he would capitalize
his football fame now while it was at its
peak, he decided.
"Red's" first professional game brought
him check for $4,000, which is more
than the average college graduate is able
to save at the end of fifteen years. Be
fore he got over that delightful shock, the
next one yielded $4,000. Grange looked
at the checks, endorsed them, and saw them
20 into the bank, but he could hardly be-
lieve that SO much real money had trans
ferred itself from nowhere in particular
TO his empty pockets.
Nobody was complaining. Nobody
seemed to be any poorer. II was not rea-
sonable; there must be a joker somewhere
and there was. But his manager, Mr..
c. c. Pyle, said everything was very real,
AMI when "Red" read all about j. in the
papers he believed it himself.
Then came the great game at the Polo
Grounds at New York, where "Red's" Chi
cago Bears beat the football Giants For
his forty minutes work Mr.. Grange was
paid $780, 900, or not far from a thousand
dollars a minute. That fact was printed
in almost every newspaper on the face Of
the earth. Within twenty-four hours il
would appear that nearly every beggar,
CRATER and swindler in the world began
TO wonder il there was some way 10 get
his hands on some of the boys easy money.
II that amiable young man had known
that millions of human vutures were fas-
tening greedy eyes on him, and that soon
his sky would be full Of their wings for
ever more, he might not have thought that
money so easy.
Before these parasites could mobilize
'In-force a more agreeable flock settled on
him Grange was offered a contract 10
De a moving picture star The football
star had never suspected that he was an
actor, but when the company handed him
check for 100000. he knew that it
must be so, and put that in the bank, too.
The vultures, reading of this windfall
realized that the boys fortune was rapidly
approaching half a million, and they hur-
RED in from all corners Of the world
Meanwhile the easy money kept pour
ing in. Though he had few poor days
such as those at Washington and Boston,
where he only picked up meagre $4,000
or so for an afternoons work, and was
temporarily laid off by his injury in Pitts
burgh-other cash was pitched at him
wherever he went REDS hat mysteri-
ously disappeared from its hook in the
dressing room, just as President Coolidge's
overcoats keep getting stolen in spite Of