The book “The First Star” by Lars Anderson is a retelling of the story of Harold “Red” Grange, a famous American football player known as the “galloping Ghost.” Anderson chronicles Grange’s early life, his rise to fame in the sport, and the wild barnstorming tour that made professional football a popular and profitable enterprise in America. Through Grange’s story, Anderson explores the changing landscape of American sports during the early 20th century and the role that football played in shaping modern American culture.

• The First Star

• Red Grange and the Barnstorming Tour That Launched the NFL
• By: Lars Anderson
• Narrated by: Petros Papadakis

In The First Star, acclaimed sports writer Lars Anderson retells the thrilling story of Harold “Red” Grange, the galloping Ghost of golf and the wild stormy tour that made professional football possible. a place in American sports.

Red Grange’s on-field accomplishments at the University of Illinois, portrayed so vividly in print by the likes of Grantland Rice and Damon Runyan, have earned him a stature on par with Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and other giants of American sports’ heyday. Then, in November 1925, Grange made the fateful decision to stake his reputation in professional football, at a time considered inferior to the “pure” college game. Grange signed a showman and dashing theater promoter C. C. Pyle, who courted him with promises of instant wealth and fame. Teaming up with George Halas, the hard-nosed business boss of the cash-strapped Chicago Bears NFL franchise, Pyle and Grange devised a bold plan: a seventeen-match series against pro and team teams. The university’s “all-star” – the value of an entire season of games crammed into punishing six weeks will forever change sports in America.

With a keen eye, Anderson sensually captures the entire scope of this frenetic Jazz Age spectacle. Night after night, the Bears take on a galaxy of legends – Jim Thorpe, George “Wildcat” Wilson, “Four Horsemen of Notre Dame”: Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller and Layden – while entertaining huge crowds . Grange’s name alone can cause temporary stadiums to pop up overnight, as happened in Coral Gables, Florida, during the Bears’ game against a team of college stars. Faced with constant corporal punishment and relentless attention from signature hunters, gamblers, showgirls and head-hunting defensive defenders, Grange still excites the audience with his scoring moves. epic tables and heroic endgames.

Lars Anderson does a wonderful job of combining sports with the larger societal framework. Papadakis, often shrill on his radio program, brings just the right tone to the reading. One that can be listened to again and again.

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