
Collins FDC Catalog
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Q3704
Q3704 / Scott 3811
Early Football Heroes
Red Grange
Cover Announcement
Few players have revolutionized a sport. Red Grange did it twice. First he helped to popularize college football to an all-time high, and then he made pro-football a legitimate national sport. Grange combined a sprinter's speed with unbelievable moves and fierce determination. In high school, he scored 75 touchdowns in three seasons. In 1923 he led Illinois to a national title in his freshman year. In 1924 he became a legend!
On October 18, 1924, Red overwhelmed a mighty Michigan team ending the Wolverines' 20 game winning streak. He took the opening kick-off 95 yards for a touchdown. In the next twelve minutes, he scored on spectacular runs of 67, 56, and 44 yards. In the previous two seasons, Michigan had allowed four touchdowns. Red Grange matched that total in less than one quarter! He later scored on an 11 yard run, threw a 20-yard touchdown pass, and compiled an astoundng 402 total yards for the game. He instantly became the nation's premier footbatl star, and afterwards, sportswriter Grantland Rice named him "The Galloping Ghost."
Grange's professional football career began on Thanksgiving Day in 1925 when he played his first game for the Chicago Bears. Of all the players in pro-football before television, he alone earned a sixfigure income that was not to become common until the 1960s. His exciting level of playing ability brought publicity and credibility to a then struggling National Football league. In 1931 he appeared as himself in a movie entitled The Galloping Ghost.
My hand painted cachet captures Grange in two poses. The first shows him throwing a warm-up pass as a Chicago Bear and the second in uniform at the University of Illinois. It is an excellent sports First Day Cover and is one you'Il enjoy having in your collection.
After the Michigan game, Grantland Rice wrote a poem that contained the lines "...a gr:ay ghost thrown into the game/that rival hands may never touch." I'm pleased to present the first of four Early Foot ball Heroes - a half-back who disappeared from the grasp of tacklers like a vapor. The Galloping Ghost - Red Grange. Collins #Q3704 - $12.25.