Home from a World War feeling safe and prosperous again, the nation reveled in its outsized sporting heroes: slugger Babe Ruth, heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey, golfer Bobby Jones, and the racehorse Man o" War. More enduringly, his exploits changed the way Americans thought about college football. Led by Grange the following year–he scored an auspicious three touchdowns in his varsity debut– the Illini went undefeated on their way to being named co-national champions, and Grange earned the first of his three All-America designations. If only collegiate rules then had allowed him to play for the varsity Illinois" 1922 team was a dismal 2-5. Once some fraternity brothers pushed him to try out for the freshman squad, however, he showed brilliance. Knocked unconscious on the field once in high school, he thought he was too small for the college game. At the University of Illinois, Grange showed no stomach–at first–for football. Red Grange breaking through the Chicago Cardinals defensive line, November 27. To build strength and endurance, Grange delivered heavy blocks of ice from door to door in the summer, a job that kept him fit through college, as well. Growing up in Wheaton, the boy was diagnosed with a heart murmur, which didn't stop him from earning sixteen varsity letters in four sports in high school. Harold Edward "Red" Grange was born five years earlier in Forksville, west of Wilkes-Barre, south of the New York border, where his father was a foreman in one of the area's many lumber camps. To the eternal chagrin of the Penn State Alumni Association, the Granges left Pennsylvania in 1908 for Wheaton, Illinois, shortly after the future Hall of Famer's mother died. By the time the final gun sounded, he had zigged for another touchdown, zagged for a total of 402 yards on just twenty-one carries, and completed six passes, one for a score. After returning the opening kickoff the length of the field, the unstoppable halfback added runs of 67, 55, and 44 yards on Illinois" next three possessions. In what is still considered the most remarkable display of open-field dazzle in the game's history, Grange led his Fighting Illini, on the day in 1924 that their new stadium was dedicated, to an upset of the University of Michigan, undefeated since 1921, by scoring four touchdowns in the game's first twelve minutes. In an era of colorful sports nicknames, Harold Grange was such a gridiron nonpareil that it took two to encompass his essence: "Red" to capture his distinctive shock of wavy hair and "The Galloping Ghost" to evince the mythic qualities of his elusive running style. Forksville PA's Harold "Red" Grange, circa 1930.
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