page_title: Red Grange
section_title: University of Illinois
hierarchical_section_title: Red Grange / University of Illinois
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Red Grange when he was playing at University of Illinois.
context_page_description: Harold Edward "Red" Grange, nicknamed "The Galloping Ghost" and "The Wheaton Iceman", was an American football halfback for the University of Illinois, the Chicago Bears, and the short-lived New York Yankees. His signing with the Bears helped legitimize the National Football League.
  In college, Grange was a three-time consensus All-American and led his team to a national championship in 1923. He was the only consensus All-American running back in 1924 who was not a member of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame. The same year, Grange became the first recipient of the Chicago Tribune Silver Football award as the Big Ten Conference's most valuable player. In 2008, Grange was named the best college football player of all time by ESPN, and in 2011, he was named the Greatest Big Ten Icon by the Big Ten Network.
  Shortly after his final college game in 1925, Grange joined the Bears and the NFL, embarking on a barnstorming tour to raise the league's attention across the country. When his rookie contract expired, he and agent C. C. Pyle formed the American Football League in 1926, with Grange playing for the Yankees.
context_section_description: After graduation, Grange enrolled at the University of Illinois, where he joined the Zeta Psi fraternity. At first he had planned to compete only in basketball and track, but changed his mind once he arrived and joined coach Bob Zuppke's Fighting Illini football team. Grange was the roommate of college basketball player and future college basketball coach John Mauer. Grange also modeled for local men's clothing store Jos. Kuhn and Co. as a floor model, common for Illini athletes at the time, and was an amateur boxer.
  Grange played for the team from 1923 to 1925. In his first collegiate football game, he scored three touchdowns against Nebraska. In seven games as a sophomore, he ran for 723 yards and scored 12 touchdowns, and led Illinois to an undefeated season and the Helms Athletic Foundation national championship. His younger brother Garland also played football for the school.
  He drew national attention for his performance in the October 18, 1924, game against Michigan, in the grand opening game of the new Memorial Stadium, built as a memorial to Illini students and alumni who had served in World War I. The Michigan Wolverines entered the game as favorites, having won a national title the previous year. Grange returned the opening kickoff for a 95-yard touchdown and scored three more touchdowns on runs of 67, 56, and 44 yards in the first 12 minutes, the last three in less than seven minutes. On his next carry, he ran 56 yards for yet another touchdown. In the second half, Grange scored a fifth touchdown on an 11-yard run and also threw a touchdown pass. On defense, he intercepted two passes. Michigan coach Fielding Yost said, "All Grange can do is run," to which Zuppke, referring to a famed opera star of the age, responded, "And all Galli-Curci can do is sing."
  The game inspired Grantland Rice to write this poetic description:
  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 — Red Grange of Illinois!
  Chicago sportswriter Warren Brown nicknamed Grange "The Galloping Ghost".  When asked in a 1974 interview, "Was it Grantland Rice who dubbed you the Galloping Ghost?" Grange replied, "No, it was Warren Brown, who was a great writer with the Chicago American in those days."
caption: Grange in 1923
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