The Galloping Ghost goes pro

A hundred years ago, college football was considered the pinnacle of the sport. And once a star player finished his classroom obligations and university gridiron career, polite society expected him to either move on to the business world or learn the coaching craft.

Halfback/quarterback/defensive back Harold “Red” Grange, however, had other ideas.

You know the joke about elite players going to school and majoring in football? In a way, that’s what “The Galloping Ghost” did.

And at the time, it caused quite a bit of controversy.

On November 22, 1925 – a day after leading Illinois to a 14-9 victory over Ohio State in his final game as an amateur – Grange signed to play professionally for the Chicago Bears. There were rumors he was already being paid by agent C.C. Pyle, although he insisted  he didn’t partner with Pyle until after the season-ending contest.

Regardless, the NFL team promised to pay him $30,500 per game, which is the equivalent of nearly $565,000 in 2025 money.

Not a bad deal for a 22-year-old who still hadn’t earned his degree.

“I have received many alluring offers to enter fields of enterprise in which I have had no training or experience,” Grange told the Associated Press. “I believe the public will be better satisfied with my honesty and good motives if I turn my efforts to that field in which I have been most useful in order to reap a reward which will keep the home fires burning. I am leaving college temporarily but will return later.”

Illinois athletics director George Huff, football coach Robert Zuppke and even Grange’s father, Lyle, wanted the superstar to seek employment away from the field.

Ultimately, however, Lyle Grange supported his son’s decision.

“I am sorry that he did not accept the other offers made him,” his dad said. “But as long as the boy has decided to play professional football, I hope he will be a success and make the best of it. Harold is capable of looking out for himself and I have a lot of faith in him.”

At the time the NFL – just six years old – was not much of a draw at the box office. The hope was that bringing Grange into the league would change that.

He was to play six games with the Bears to close out the season and then embark on a barnstorming tour in Florida.

The deal was arguably the biggest sports news of the year.

From a November 23, 1925 Associated Press story:

Harold “Red” Grange, the reigning football hero of the moment, will don his fighting togs again Thanksgiving Day but he will not wear the famous “77” of collegiate days. For Red has turned professional to follow, as he phrases it, the business he knows best. Declaring that he had no training that would enable him to accept other alluring offers, the strawberry blonde warrior of the chalked field signed a contract yesterday that will place him in the Chicago Bears lineup for six games, after which he will invade Florida during the holidays.

A November 25 editorial in the La Crosse Tribune even provided Grange with a backhanded compliment on his decision to play for pay:

People who think that Red Grange is making a mistake in postponing his ‘career’ for professional football should consider that the game already offers a career in itself, comparable to that of league baseball. It is a less honorific career, perhaps, than one of the professions. We do not take presidents, supreme court judges or ambassadors from the ranks of ball-players. But we have had governors and congressmen who began their careers on the diamond.

The NFL certainly got what it paid for.

Grange’s Turkey Day debut against the Chicago Cardinals was played in front of more than 36,000 fans at what is now Wrigley Field, and 70,000-plus paid for seats at the Polo Grounds to see the Bears tangle with the New York Giants in his next outing.

Grange was the indisputable star of the show, and drew huge crowds everywhere he played.

When he couldn’t come to terms with the Bears in 1926, Pyle formed a new league (the short-lived American Football League) and new team (New York Yankees) to showcase the generational talent.

As it turns out, Grange never did return to Illinois to get his degree. He did, however, wind up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame – one of 17 charter members. He is also in the inaugural class of the College Football Hall of Fame.

A devastating knee injury in 1927 took away his speed, but he became a star DB during his last few seasons of pro ball. He retired in 1935 after playing in 237 games. He went on to be an assistant coach for the Bears before dabbling in acting. Later, he worked in everything from broadcasting to motivational speaking and private business.

(Grange was even tapped as commissioner of the 1940s iteration of the United States Football League. More on that here:

adamsonmedia.com/nfl-aafc-pro-football/

After hanging up his cleats, Grange was asked if jumping to pro ball in 1925 was the right decision.

“I’d probably do the same thing,” he said. “I wouldn’t sell the friendships and contacts I’ve made in professional football for anything. About the only thing I’m sure I wouldn’t do is make some of the investments I did, but I guess there are a lot of people in the same boat with me.”