Grantland Rice Grantland Rice ( November 1 , 1880 – July 13 , 1954 ) was an early 20th century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose . His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio . Biography . Henry Grantland Rice was born in Murfreesboro , Tennessee , the son of Bolling H . Rice , a cotton dealer , and his wife , Beulah Grantland Rice . His grandfather Major H . W . Rice was a Confederate veteran of the Civil War . Rice attended Montgomery Bell Academy and Vanderbilt University in Nashville , where he was a member of the football team for three years , a brother in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity , and graduated with a BA degree in 1901 . After taking early jobs with the " Atlanta Journal " and the " Cleveland News " , he later became a sportswriter for the " Nashville Tennessean " . Afterwards he obtained a series of prestigious jobs with major newspapers in the Northeastern United States . He is best known for being the successor to Walter Camp in the selection of College Football All - America Team s beginning in 1925 , and for being the writer who dubbed the great backfield of the 1924 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team the " Four Horsemen " of Notre Dame . A Biblical reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse , this famous account was published in the " New York Herald Tribune " on October 18 , describing the Notre Dame vs . Army game played at the Polo Grounds : The passage added great import to the event described and elevated it to a level far beyond that of a mere football game . This passage , although famous , is far from atypical , as Rice ' s writing tended to be of an " inspirational " or " heroic " style , raising games to the level of ancient combat and their heroes to the status of demigod s . He became even better known after his columns were nationally syndicated beginning in 1930 , and became known as the " Dean of American Sports Writers " . He and his writing are among the reasons that the 1920s in the United States are sometimes referred to as the " Golden Age of Sports " . His sense of honor can be seen in his own actions . Before leaving for service in World War I , he entrusted his entire fortune , about $ 75 , 000 , to a friend . On his return from the war , Rice discovered that his friend had lost all the money in bad investments , and then had committed suicide . Rice accepted the blame for putting “ that much temptation ” in his friend ’ s way . Rice then made monthly contributions to the man ’ s widow for the next 30 years . According to author Mark Inabinett in his 1994 work , " Grantland Rice and His Heroes : The Sportswriter as Mythmaker in the 1920s " , Rice very consciously set out to make heroes of sports figures who impressed him , most notably Jack Dempsey , Babe Ruth , Bobby Jones , Bill Tilden , Red Grange , Babe Didrikson Zaharias , and Knute Rockne . Unlike many writers of his era , Rice defended the right of football players such as Grange , and tennis players such as Tilden , to make a living as professionals , but he also decried the warping influence of big money in sports , once writing in his column : Rice authored a book of poetry , " Songs of the Stalwart " , which was published in 1917 by D . Appleton and Company of New York . Rice married Katherine Hollis in 1906 ; they had one child , the actress Florence Rice . Rice died at the age 73 on July 13 , 1954 , following a stroke . Legacy . In 1951 , in recognition of Rice ' s 50 years in journalism , an anonymous donor contributed $ 50 , 000 to establish the Grantland Rice Fellowship in Journalism with the New York Community Trust . In 1954 , the Football Writers Association established the Grantland Rice Memorial Award , given annually to an outstanding college player selected by the group . The Grantland Rice Bowl , an annual college football bowl game held from 1964 – 1977 , was named in his honor , as was the Grantland Rice Award given to the winner . Rice was posthumously awarded the 1966 J . G . Taylor Spink Award by the Baseball Writers Association of America . The award , presented the following year at the annual induction ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame , is given for " meritorious contributions to baseball writing " . At Vanderbilt , a four - year scholarship named for Rice and former colleague and fellow Vanderbilt alumnus Fred Russell is awarded each year to a freshman who intends to pursue a career in sportswriting . Recipients of the Fred Russell – Grantland Rice Sportswriting Scholarship include author and humorist Roy Blount , Jr . ; Skip Bayless of ESPN ; Dave Sheinin of " The Washington Post " ; and Tyler Kepner of " The New York Times " . The press box in Vanderbilt Stadium at Vanderbilt University is dedicated to Rice and named after Rice ' s protégé , Fred Russel l . For many years , a portion of one floor of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism was designated the " Grantland Rice Suite " . Grantland Avenue in his hometown of Murfreesboro , Tennessee was named in his honor . Rice was mentioned in an " I Love Lucy " episode entitled " The Camping Trip " , and was portrayed by actor Lane Smith , also a native of Tennessee , in " The Legend of Bagger Vance " . On June 8 , 2011 , ESPN ' s Bill Simmons launched a sports and popular culture website titled Grantland . com , a name intended to honor Rice ' s legacy .