By Chris Willis, NFL Films
From the start, when Red signed his contract to play pro football, the game in New York was going to be a big event in the Big Apple. The New York Giants announced early on they would not increase ticket prices for the “Red Grange game.” Regular prices ranged from 50 cents to $2.75. It was a smart move by Giants owner Tim Mara. On Sunday Nov. 29th (just three days after Red played his first pro game on Thanksgiving) during their game against the Dayton Triangles, nine booths were opened at the Polo Grounds, as the Giants sold over 15,000 tickets to the Red Grange game. Later on during the week additional tickets were sold at the Giants ticket office and at the Polo Grounds. On December 4th advance sales were reported to be over 45,000.
All week the New York newspapers wrote about
Red Grange and his appearance in New York. Some articles included photographs
of the redhead. It was an event worthy of the Big Apple. Ford Frick of the New York Evening Journal wrote:
“Not since
Mr. Babe Ruth went on his home run rampage a few seasons ago has any athlete
attracted so much attention as Mr. Grange. Almost single handed he has filled
stadium after stadium…Like Ruth, he is a hero whether he runs for a touchdown
or is thrown for a loss.”
Tim Mara needed this type of game. He had been losing money all season, reports mentioned that he had a financial deficit of about $40,000. Mara had been rethinking his investment into a NFL franchise in New York, but the early sales of the Grange game picked his spirits up. Mara’s squad was preparing to stop the Galloping Ghost. Giants coach Bob Folwell (former college head coach at four different schools, including at Navy from 1920-1924, where he won over 100 games) had a plan for Grange.
“It will be the duty of the Giants to stop
Grange short of the scrimmage line. Two strong, aggressive tackles will
consistently stop the greatest runner before he reaches the line, and we are
confident that our team possesses two tackles of this type in (Century)
Milstead and (Babe) Parnell.
We are looking forward to a very
spectacular and hard-fought battle with Grange, and his new teammates next
Sunday, but not one member of our squad is worrying over the outcome.”
On the morning of the game the rain had stopped on the east coast and the sky was clearing. Mara knew this could be a day that could save his team. “When I saw that crowd and knew half the cash in the house was mine, I said to myself, ‘Timothy, how long has this gravy train been running,” commented Mara about seeing the massive crowd arrive. The gates at the Polo Grounds opened at 11:30 a.m. with a 2:00 pm kickoff. At noon the Basile’s Regimental Band played a few tunes such as “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here” and “The Sidewalks of New York.” At 1:15 p.m. the Bears jogged out onto the field. What they saw was another record crowd for a pro football game. Newspapers reported the crowd between 65,000-70,000, which matched the Army-Navy game held at the Polo Grounds a week earlier. “I don’t think there were too many rabid fans one way or the other,” recalled Wellington Mara, son of Giants owner Tim Mara. “We hadn’t had time to build up that much of a following. I think they were there to see Red Grange perform, without any questions.” Inside the stadium bunting decorated the stands and it was a perfect day for a football game, “bright and balmy” wrote the New York Times.
Well, Red was honestly interested in winning games, and, as I found out, he was one of the finest team players around. So, what I did a lot after Red came with us was use him as a decoy. I’d fake handing the ball off to him, and hell, I’d be bootlegging around the other end or off on the other side passing it to one of our ends. We used a lot of deception, and it worked well. And Red took a real beating, especially that first year, but he never complained, just played his best.”
Red the decoy would take center stage in
the entertainment capital of the world. The Bears faced off against a good
Giants football team who were on a roll, having won 7 straight NFL games, and
outscored their opponents 84-15, with five shutouts. The Bears got off to fast
start by establishing a tough running game. With Red being a decoy in the red
zone, they scored twice with Joey Sternaman carry the ball over for both scores
to take a 12-0 first quarter lead. The Giants cut the lead to 12-7 at the half.
In the second half the two defenses played tough. When Red wasn’t in the game
chants from the stands of “We Want
Grange!” rang throughout the stadium. Finally, in the fourth quarter Red
gave the massive crowd what they came to see, a thrill, when he returned an
interception (30 yards) down the sidelines for a game clinching touchdown. The
Bears left the Polo Grounds with a 19-7 victory. The game ended at 4:25 p.m. as
the New York crowd left the stadium with a lasting highlight from the Galloping
Ghost. Red played roughly 35 of the 60 minutes. He recalled the game:
“Although we had won, it was one of the
most bruising battles I had ever been in. I especially remember one play when
Joe Alexander, the Giants’ center, almost twisted my head off in making a
tackle…It was clear we were all beginning to show the wear and tear of our
crowded schedule. After that encounter with the Giants, the Bears were no
longer able to field a team free of injuries.”
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| Red Grange, ball carrier, against New York Giants, notice large crowd at Polo Grounds. |
Red always remembered the Giants game as
one of the most physical games he played in on the barnstorming tour. He would
leave the game with numerous bruises and was kicked in the arm by Giants
linemen Tommy Tomlin. Whatever money he was able to walk away with he
definitely earned it. As for the New York press, they wrote glowingly of pro
football and the Galloping Ghost. Allison Danzig, one of the lead sportswriters
for the New York Times wrote:
“New York saw red yesterday; not the red
that causes the eye to flame with anger, but the Red who inflames the
imagination with the heroic proportions of his deeds on the football field and
the glamour that surrounds the most celebrated figure the game has known. For
three years New York has heard about Red Grange, read about him, talked about
him. Yesterday it saw him.
To call these 70,000 spectators football
followers needs correction. There were thousands in that tremendous assemblage
who probably never saw a game before, who did not have the slightest idea of
what the proceedings were all about. They knew only that Grange was out there
on the field among the twenty-two young warriors clad in moleskins and they
wanted to see what were the things he did and how he did them to differentiate
him from the twenty-one others and win him such renown.”
George Trevor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (who went on to be one of the greatest college
football writers for the New York Sun)
simply wrote:
“There is an indefinable something about
Grange that stamps him as one among many. Babe Ruth has it. Man o’War had it,
Jack Dempsey has it. Even while he was being effectively bottled up, Grange
looked the part of a master player. Class sticks out all over him.”
The New
York Daily News had full coverage of the game (game recap written by
Marshall Hunt) that included a photo spread of five images on the back page
under the bold caption of “70,000 See
Grange Star.” The great Ford Frick of the New York Evening Journal wrote:
“Well, Mr. Red Grange has come and gone. So has some $30,000 of good money which was last seen being stuffed into the professional sock of the professional Red Head himself. But it was worth it. National hysteria always is, all the Red Grange hysteria is one of the noblest brand this writer has ever been privileged to witness.
During the first part of the game the Red Head failed to distinguished himself unduly, and there was considerable jeering. This however turned to cheers as he snatched that final Giants pass out of the air and galloped to a touchdown- and everyone left the field happy and contented.”
Frick would be mesmerized by the Galloping
Ghost, so much that he would follow the rest of the eastern barnstorming tour
for the next week. He would travel with the Bears, writing every day about the
going on’s of the tour and its superstar- Red Grange. No pro football or NFL
game had ever been covered by the press like the Grange game in New York.
Lastly, even the Giants players were impressed by Red. Giants right tackle
“Babe” Parnell said, “He’s just about the
best backfield man I’ve ever seen play.”
The
Chicago Tribune reported that Grange
earned roughly $30,000 from the gate (from a total gate of $120,000), while
Pyle stated to the press that the amount was $36,000. (Grange told Westbrook
Pegler amount was $36,000). This was one of the few games that
Dutch Sternaman didn’t keep a gate statement. Whatever the total was, you can
be sure it was the biggest gate ever for a professional football game.
Later that night just after 10 p.m. Red
agreed to give a speech on New York radio station WEAF to help raise money for
the Near East Relief Fund. Transmitted to over a half dozen stations across the
country, including St. Louis, Cincinnati, Washington, Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh, he spoke at length about football. “Football, I am convinced is the best game invented. It demands more
than any other game from a player and the rewards of it are spiritual rather
than material...I am sure that I am better man for having played this game. The
big thing I have won from football, is not the fortunate break which has
enabled me to earn certain monetary rewards, but rather the more permanent
matter of training in courage, stamina and ability to use mind and muscle more
effectively.”
Yes, Red loved the game of football and everything about it, he always did and always would. But the money he collected in his first ten days as a professional football player would take center stage. His bank account was about to grew even bigger.
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| Red Grange, close-up, at Polo Grounds against New York Giants, on Dec. 6, 1925. |
NEXT:
Dec. 8th - Red Grange-Chicago Bears at Washington All-Stars
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