Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Gary A. Poole contacted us, told us he had written about Tampa’s first professional football game, and asked us to pimp his new book, The Galloping Ghost:  Red Grange, an American Football Legend.  I asked him to write something up about Grange’s time in Tampa, and so he did (I added the images, which are from the Ghosts of the Gridiron - Virtual Scrapbook Library, Vol. 8: Thorpe’s Cardinals):

The Bucs just beat the Bears in Chicago last weekend.  While it seems like a relatively recent rivalry, the two cities have been competing on the gridiron for more than eighty years, and both cities helped play a significant role in the popularization of the NFL.

After playing his college season in 1925, Red Grange - the most important figure in American football history - went on a barnstorming tour.

Back in the 1920s, pro football was a po-dunk enterprise:  teams would regularly go broke, owners couldn’t always afford tape for players, and reporters were paid-off to attend games.  If you opened up the sports pages in the fall, you would find a lot of coverage of baseball and college football.  Pro football was rarely covered and considered a rather shady game.

When Grange decided to go pro, it was a very controversial decision.  The NFL had ex-college players, of course, but no one of Grange’s status.  Babe Ruth was the face of baseball; Grange was the face of college football.  He was a dynamic player, and the sports true superstar.

With the help of the country’s first sports agent C.C. Pyle, a silver-tongued promoter who called himself the P.T. Barnum of sports, Grange went on a grueling 19-game barnstorming tour.  He sold out stadiums in Chicago, New York, Boston… everywhere.

The tour that changed pro football also came to Tampa, in a game that pitted Grange against Jim Thorpe.  The game took place on January 1, 1926.  Grange was at the peak of his athletic powers; Jim Thorpe, whose statue greets you when you walk into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was a fading star.  And yet this match-up was a much-talked about one among football aficionados.

Seven-thousand fans attended Tampa’s first professional football game.  Red Grange rushed for a 70-yard touchdown as his Chicago Bears defeated Jim Thorpe and the Tampa Cardinals 17-3 at Plant Field.

So when you watch your Buccaneers this weekend, you might want to give a little nod to Grange who helped popularize the game.

By the way, Grange retired to Florida, and lived much of his later life in Indian Lake Estates and Lake Wales.

Gary’s book The Galloping Ghost:  Red Grange, an American Football Legend has also gotten some good reviews:

• “Secretariat” author William Nack says it’s a “fascinating read.”
• The Orange County Register calls the book “A lively, well-written biography of this towering figure.  Grange revolutionized the game on the field and his business manager, C.C. Pyle, revolutionized it off it.”
• The (Chicago) Sun-Times News Group says,  “[Poole] recounts the rise and tragic fall of the first national star of the gridiron. Poole also lays bare the complex relationship between a prominent athlete and the nation’s first real sports agent.”

You can buy The Galloping Ghost:  Red Grange online and in bookstores, and find out more about the book at his website:  www.garyandrewpoole.com

Also, you can find out more about Jim Thorpe’s Florida travelin’ teams - the St. Pete Cardinals, Tampa Cardinals, the Lena Vistas, etc. from the same site where I borrowed those images.

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