"The Golden Age of Red" by Doug Villhard

Doug Villhard knew that Red Grange might have been the greatest running back in the history of college football. He was also singularly responsible for helping make the National Football League an established professional league. But Villhard said what drew him to write the historical novel, The Golden Age of Red, was Grange’s alliance with C.C. Pyle, the man who became America’s first sports agent.

The University of Illinois is the setting as the book takes off with Pyle running the Virginia Theater in Champaign, Illinois. The year is 1924 and it's the year that Red Grange, already America’s darling, turns in a performance for the ages against a vaunted Michigan team.

Villhard paints a picture of Pyle as a Hollywood has-been who still has connections (Charlie Chaplin visits him in Champaign). Pyle is a 42-year-old former actor forced to live in the past. Yet he notices when the newsreel lights up the screen in the 1,500-seat theater (that still stands, by the way), customers go wild when Grange’s exploits are shown. “This guy’s a national hero right here on campus and he doesn’t even know it,” figures Pyle who lets Grange sneak in the backdoor to watch the movies to avoid the crowd’s adulation.

The story takes off from there as Villhard takes us on a thrill ride with the man sportswriter Grantland Rice called the Galloping Ghost. Grange charges through a spectacular career with Illinois and carries on to boost the fortunes of the Chicago Bears in the rough-and-tumble NFL, a league that Villhard said was closer to professional wrestling than what we know today as pro football.

The U of I will rededicate the 100-year-old Memorial Stadium on Oct. 19 with ceremonies to include a Red Grange symposium.

College football was a very big deal in the 1920s, especially at big state schools like Illinois and Michigan. That’s why they built a stadium to hold 67,000 in 1924 (today Memorial Stadium has been enlarged to hold more than 80,000). Of course there just weren’t enough seats in any stadium to accommodate all the people who wanted to watch Red Grange play football in 1924.

If you were lucky enough to get one of those seats back on Oct. 18, 1924, you had to be worried at the prospect of facing a fabled Michigan team that came into Champaign riding a 20-game winning streak. 

Following the Michigan coach’s old-school strategy that valued field position over all else, they kicked the ball to Grange who takes it at the five-yard-line. 

Big mistake. Grange runs it back for a touchdown and the rout is on. Grange proceeds to score four times before halftime. In the second half, Grange scores another touchdown, throws a TD pass, and intercepts two passes while playing defense. Final score: Illini 39 Michigan 14.

In 1991, Sports Illustrated cited Grange’s performance in that game as “the most unforgettable moment in sports.”              

Another major character in Villhard’s novel is Coach Bob Zuppke, the Illini coach. Villhard believes the only reason Zuppke isn’t regarded as one of the great football coaches of all time--like Knute Rockne and Amos Alonzo Stagg--was his refusal to sign out-of-state students that later cost him wins in the highly competitive Big Ten. He believed that if you were a true footballer and grew up in Illinois, you should play for the Illini, said Villhard.

The field at Memorial Stadium is named for Zuppke, the "razzle dazzle" coach credited with inventing the huddle, the screen pass, the spiral snap, and the flea flicker (The QB hands the ball off to a running back who laterals the ball to a receiver. The receiver then laterals the ball back to the quarterback for a pass). Zuppke and Grange shared a special relationship but the coach opposed Red going pro and didn’t talk to Grange for years after his greatest star joined the Bears.