Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Nov. 26, according to the Tribune’s archives.
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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
High temperature: 67 degrees (1990)
Low temperature: 2 degrees (1898)
Precipitation: 1.63 inches (1988)
Snowfall: 7.5 inches (1975)
On Nov. 22, 1925, less than 24 hours after his last game with the Fighting Illini, Harold “Red” Grange, second from right, signed a contract to play pro football with the Chicago Bears at the Morrison Hotel in Chicago. Surrounding Grange as he signed were Bears managers Edward C. Sternaman, from left, and George C. Halas. Grange’s agent Charles C. Pyle, is on the right. (Chicago Herald and Examiner photo)
1925: Just days after he abruptly left the University of Illinois to don the navy and orange of the Chicago Bears, three-time All-American Harold Edward “Red” Grange played in his first NFL game.
More than 36,000 fans packed Wrigley Field to see Grange, who signed with the Bears less than 24 hours after his last college game. It was then the largest crowd in professional football history. They came away disappointed as the Bears and Chicago Cardinals — the oldest rivalry in the NFL — tied 0-0.
Paddy Driscoll, later Grange’s teammate on the Bears, punted the ball away from Grange all game, drawing a chorus of boos, and Grange rushed for only 36 yards.
The Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals played to a 0-0 tie before more than 36,000 fans on Thanksgiving 1925, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. (Chicago Tribune)
“I decided if one of us was going to look bad, it wasn’t going to be me,” Driscoll told the Tribune’s David Condon 40 years later. “Punting to Grange is like grooving a pitch to Babe Ruth.”
After the game, Driscoll went to see his future wife, Mary, in the stands. He lamented fans were wrong to boo Grange for his uninspiring debut. “Don’t feel sorry for Grange,” Mary said. “It’s you they’re booing.”
The teams faced each other on Thanksgiving in 1926 — with the game resulting in another scoreless tie.
Though Red Grange didn’t score a touchdown during his Chicago Bears debut on Nov. 26, 1925, at Wrigley Field, he did make roughly $12,000 (or more than $216,000 in today’s dollars) for his efforts. (Chicago Tribune)
Grange sustained a knee injury in 1927 that greatly affected his speed. He sat out the next season and joined the vaudeville circuit but returned to George Halas’ team in 1929. He turned down an offer from Halas to become the team’s head coach after his last game in January 1935.
Grange owned a night club on Sheridan Road, became a sales manager of a bottling company, sold insurance and was a radio and TV sportscaster before he retired to Florida. Both he and Halas were inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 1963. Grange died in 1991 at age 87.
A rare Red Grange Chicago Bears jersey from the 1930s sells for $548,100 at auction
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