In 1924, what did Grantland Rice collectively call Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley and Elmer Layden, the name now a part of American sports lore?
"Jim Crowley James Harold Crowley (September 10, 1902 – January 15, 1986) was an American football player and coach. He gained fame as one-fourth of the University of Notre Dame's legendary ""Four Horsemen"" backfield where he played halfback from 1922 to 1924. After a brief career as a professional football player, Crowley turned to coaching. He served as the head football coach at Michigan State College from 1929 to 1932, at Fordham University from 1933 to 1941 and at the North Carolina Pre-Flight School in 1942, compiling a career college football record of 86–23–11. Crowley also coached the Chicago Rockets"
"again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below. Notre Dame would later notch its 200th victory in a 34–3 win over Georgia Tech in the homecoming game on November 1, 1924. Their only other close game would come against Northwestern"
"head coach at Duquesne University from 1927 to 1933 and at his alma mater, Notre Dame, from 1934 to 1940, where he also held the position of athletic director. From 1941 to 1946, Layden was the commissioner of the NFL. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1951. Layden was born in Davenport, Iowa, where he attended Davenport High School, now Davenport Central High School. At Notre Dame, he played fullback alongside quarterback Harry Stuhldreher, left halfback Jim Crowley, and right halfback Don Miller; the four collectively earned the nickname of ""The Four"
"only allowing passes to certain areas of the field. Scoring rules also changed during this time: field goals were lowered to three points in 1909 and touchdowns raised to six points in 1912. Star players that emerged in the early 20th century include Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, and Bronko Nagurski; these three made the transition to the fledgling NFL and helped turn it into a successful league. Sportswriter Grantland Rice helped popularize the sport with his poetic descriptions of games and colorful nicknames for the game's biggest players, including Notre Dame's ""Four Horsemen"" backfield and Fordham University's linemen, known as"
"Tribune"", made sure the name stuck. He had pitched the idea out loud at the halftime of the Army game in the press box as a tie in to the 1921 Rudolph Valentino movie ""The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."" After the team arrived back in South Bend, he posed the four players, dressed in their uniforms, on the backs of four horses from a livery stable in town. The wire services picked up the now-famous photo, and the legendary status of the Four Horsemen was assured. ""At the time, I didn't realize the impact it would have,"" Crowley said"
"sophomore season in 1922. Crowley, who came to Notre Dame in 1921 from Green Bay, Wisconsin, stood 5-11 and weighed 162 pounds. Known as ""Sleepy Jim"" for his drowsy-eyed appearance, Crowley outmaneuvered many defenders with his shifty ball carrying. Miller, a native of Defiance, Ohio, followed his three brothers to Notre Dame. At 5-11, 160 pounds, he proved to be the team's breakaway threat. According to Rockne, Miller was the greatest open-field runner he ever coached. Layden, the fastest of the quartet, became the Irish defensive star with his timely interceptions and handled the punting chores. The 6-foot, 162-pounder from"
"of the All-America Football Conference in 1947. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1966. Jim Crowley played football and basketball at East High from 1918-1921. His high school coach during the 1919 football season was ""Curly"" Lambeau. Following his graduation from Notre Dame in 1925, Crowley played in just three professional football games with the National Football League's Green Bay Packers and Providence Steamrollers. In 1925, the Waterbury Blues signed Crowley, to join ex-Horseman Stuhldreher in the backfield against a team from Adams, Massachusetts. Crowley's regular job at the time was assistant"
"points in 1909 and touchdowns raised to six points in 1912. Star players that emerged in the early 20th century include Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, and Bronko Nagurski; these three made the transition to the fledgling NFL and helped turn it into a successful league. Sportswriter Grantland Rice helped popularize the sport with his poetic descriptions of games and colorful nicknames for the game's biggest players, including Notre Dame's ""Four Horsemen"" backfield and Fordham University's linemen, known as the ""Seven Blocks of Granite"". In 1907 at Champaign, Illinois Chicago and Illinois played in the first game to have a halftime"
"that seemed to pull him toward the game. After taking early jobs with the ""Atlanta Journal"" and the ""Cleveland News"", he later became a sportswriter for the ""Nashville Tennessean"". The job at the ""Tennessean"" was given to him by former Sewanee Tigers coach Billy Suter, who coached baseball teams against which Rice played while at Vanderbilt. Afterwards he obtained a series of prestigious jobs with major newspapers in the northeastern United States. In 1914 he began his Sportlight column in the ""New York Tribune"". He also provided monthly Grantland Rice Sportlights as part of Paramount newsreels from 1925–1954. He is"
"of Harry Kipke and Jack Blott. In 1925, Benny Friedman to Bennie Oosterbaan proved one of the sport's great pass-receiver combinations. Yost proclaimed the 1925 team his greatest. Also in 1923, Red Grange burst on the scene at Illinois. Grange then vaulted to national prominence as a result of his performance in the October 18, 1924 game against Michigan. This was the grand opening game for the new Memorial Stadium, built as a memorial to University of Illinois students and alumni who had served in World War I. The Michigan Wolverines were going for the national championship. He returned the"
"a mere football game. This passage, although famous, is far from atypical, as Rice's writing tended to be of an ""inspirational"" or ""heroic"" style, raising games to the level of ancient combat and their heroes to the status of demigods. He became even better known after his columns were nationally syndicated beginning in 1930, and became known as the ""Dean of American Sports Writers"". He and his writing are among the reasons that the 1920s in the United States are sometimes referred to as the ""Golden Age of Sports"". Rice's all-time All-America backfield was Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, Ken Strong,"
"episode entitled ""The Camping Trip"", and was portrayed by actor Lane Smith, also a native of Tennessee, in ""The Legend of Bagger Vance"". On June 8, 2011, ESPN's Bill Simmons launched a sports and popular culture website titled Grantland, a name intended to honor Rice's legacy. It operated for a little more than four years until being shuttered by ESPN on October 30, 2015, several months after Simmons's departure. Grantland Rice Henry Grantland Rice (November 1, 1880July 13, 1954) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and"
"two of American football's oldest teams, played football in the original 110th Street Polo Grounds in the 19th century, for some games which were expected to draw large crowds, including the Thanksgiving contests in 1883 and 1887. (See also ""List of Harvard-Yale football games""). The grounds were also used for many games by New York-area college football teams such as Fordham and Army. An upset victory by the visiting University of Notre Dame over Army in 1924 led to Grantland Rice's famous article about the Irish backfield, which he called ""The Four Horsemen"". The field was also the site of"
"Champion Jack Dempsey. At the 25th Anniversary of Russell's career at the ""Nashville Banner"", many paid tribute to Russell. The 1955 celebration included stars such as football greats Red Grange and Bear Bryant, Bobby Jones and Jack Dempsey, as well as writer Red Smith from New York, all attending to honor their friend Freddie Russell. In 1954, the ""Grantland Rice Scholarship"" at Vanderbilt was begun in honor of Rice. Endowed by the Thoroughbred Racing Association (TRA), the scholarship is awarded annually to an incoming first-year student with an interest in sportswriting. Russell was from the beginning involved in the administration"
"Grantland Rice Bowl The Grantland Rice Bowl was an annual college football bowl game from 1964 through 1977, in the NCAA's College Division, for smaller universities and colleges, and later Division II. The game was named for Grantland Rice, an early 20th century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose, and was originally played in his hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Prior to 1973, the NCAA was divided into two divisions, University and College. National champions in each division were determined by polls taken by the AP (a panel of writers) and UPI (coaches) at the end of the regular season."
"Championship appearances. It is best known, however, for the ""Seven Blocks of Granite,"" a name given to the team's 1928 and 1936 offensive lines. The 1936 team was coached by ""Sleepy"" Jim Crowley, one of the University of Notre Dame's famed ""Four Horsemen,"" and included Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach. The team provoked the term ""Ivy League"" after ""New York Herald Tribune"" sportswriter Caswell Adams called then powerhouses Princeton and Yale ""only Ivy League"" compared to this Fordham team. There are four Rams in the National Football League. Moreover, the Los Angeles Rams NFL franchise was named"
"Grantland Rice Henry Grantland Rice (November 1, 1880July 13, 1954) was an early 20th-century American sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio. Grantland Rice was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the son of Bolling Hendon Rice, a cotton dealer, and his wife, Mary Beulah (Grantland) Rice. His grandfather Major H. W. Rice was a Confederate veteran of the Civil War. Rice attended Montgomery Bell Academy and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he was a member of the football team for three years, a shortstop on the baseball team,"
"John Rambo, John Smith, Fortune Gordien, Ronnie Ray Smith, Larry Stewart, Marshall Clark, Otis Burrell, Charles Dumas, Ed Caruthers, Bob Avant, Leon Coleman, Don Quarrie, Adolph Plummer, Chuck Smith, Ulis Williams, Rex Cawley, Wayne Collett, Ralph Mann, Ron Whitney, Geoff Vanderstock, Jim Cerveny, Jim Dupree, Jerome Walters, Bob Seaman, Paul Wilson, Ron Morris, Dick Railsback, John Pennel, Dave Volz, Art Walker, Parry O'Brien, Dallas Long, Peter Shmock Rink Babka, Ben Plucknett, Ed Burke, Hal Connolly Larry Young, Mike Manley and Max Truex. All (listed) were USA National Champions, most were also Olympians across the full range of disciplines in the"
"and John Fogerty's ""Centerfield"". The baseball-inspired comedic sketch ""Who's on First"", popularized by Abbott and Costello in 1938, quickly became famous. Six decades later, ""Time"" named it the best comedy routine of the 20th century. Literary works connected to the game include the short fiction of Ring Lardner and novels such as Bernard Malamud's ""The Natural"" (the source for the movie), Robert Coover's ""The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop."", and W. P. Kinsella's ""Shoeless Joe"" (the source for ""Field of Dreams""). Baseball's literary canon also includes the beat reportage of Damon Runyon; the columns of Grantland Rice,"
"keep the Staleys franchise name for the 1921 season. The newly minted ""Chicago Staleys"" maneuvered their schedule to win the NFL championship that year. They took the name Bears in 1922 as a tribute to baseball's Chicago Cubs, which permitted the Bears to play their games at Wrigley Field. Halas was not only the team's coach, but also played end (wide receiver on offense, defensive end on defense) and handled ticket sales and the business of running the club. Named to the NFL's all-pro team in the 1920s, his playing highlight occurred in a 1923 game when he stripped Jim"
"John David Crow, Doug Cunningham, Willie Daniel, Jack Davis, JaJuan Dawson, Clyde Duncan, Bill Enyart, Mel Farr, Jesse Freitas, Jr., Ed Fullerton, Mike Gaechter, Jim Gaffney, Gary Glick, Ray Graves, Jimmy Gunn, Rip Hawkins, Dick Hensley, Gary Henson, Ray Hill, Gordy Holz, Marv Hubbard, Tommy Hudspeth, Kevin Hunt, Lindy Infante, Bill Jessup, Sonny Karnofsky, Bill Keating, Vince Kendrick, Mike Kostiuk, Jim LaRue, Eddie LeBaron, Dan Lewis, Jack Linn, Tom Longo, Don Looney, Ann Mara, Tommy Mason, Jim McCusker, Ralph McGill, Steve Meilinger, John Mellekas, Terdell Middleton, Ed Modzelewski, Jim Mutscheller, Ray Nagel, Joe O'Malley, John Papit, Pat Peppler, Jim Phillips,"
"writers. At the time baseball was America's most popular sport, and the reporters were at the games to write stories about them for print newspapaers. Their descriptions were matter-of-fact, boring at best, had a lot of dead air, and were given in the past tense after a play was completed. In 1923, announcer McNamee was assigned to help the sportswriters with their broadcasts. One day, Grantland Rice, told McNamee to finish the game on his own, and left. McNamee was not a trained sports writer, so he immediately began to describe what he was seeing as it happened, thus originating"
"by building one of the top defensive teams in the country. In 1936 and 1937. the Rams' stout defensive line, coached by future Notre Dame head coach Frank Leahy, was dubbed the ""Seven Blocks of Granite."" The defense was led by two-time All-American lineman Alex Wojciechowicz, who later starred professionally for the Detroit Lions and was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Another ""Block of Granite"", Vince Lombardi, would gain fame as a championship coach for the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers. In 1938, Crowley brings a group of former college players to France for a"
"in 1925. Zuppke is credited for many football inventions and traditions, including the huddle and the flea flicker. He was also a painter and known for his aphoristic remarks called ""Zuppkeisms"". Dan McGugin played at Drake University and under Fielding Yost as a guard and punter on the ""point-a-minute"" Michigan teams. Yost and McGugin married sisters. He brought Vanderbilt University to prominence as a southern power ever since his first year as a head coach. Sportswriter Fuzzy Woodruff once wrote ""The plain facts of the business are that McGugin stood out in the South like Gulliver among the native sons"
"Draft, also defensive end Claude Humphrey and quarterback Eldridge Dickey in the 1968 NFL/AFL Draft. Humphrey was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014. Ball State quarterback Frank Houk was a 1985–86 inductee to his university's hall of fame. Tennessee State head coach John Merritt was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1994. 1965 Grantland Rice Bowl The 1965 Grantland Rice Bowl was an NCAA College Division game following the 1965 season, between the Ball State Cardinals and the Tennessee State Tigers. Ball State quarterback Frank Houk was named the game's most outstanding player."
"Army, Fordham is still best known for their famous ""Seven Blocks of Granite."" It was a name given to the team's 1929/1930 and 1936/1937 impenetrable offensive lines. The 1936 team was coached by ""Sleepy"" Jim Crowley, one of the famed ""Four Horsemen"" that brought Notre Dame glory during the early 1920s. Aside from Notre Dame-inspired gold helmets, Crowley also brought an all-Notre Dame staff with him to Rose Hill. This included line coach Frank Leahy, who later returned to South Bend and became arguably, the greatest college head coach ever. Vince Lombardi, who later became arguably the greatest NFL head"
"1964 Grantland Rice Award for sports writing, the Red Smith Award in 1983, and election to the National Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 1984. In 1975, he was recipient of the Baseball Writers' Association of America's J. G. Taylor Spink Award, the Baseball Hall of Fame honor for sportswriters. He was President of the BWAA in 1955. Povich's first name accounted for his listing in ""Who's Who of American Women"" in 1958. He recalled in his autobiography that ""Shirley"" was a common name for boys where he came from, but many who read his column thought Povich was a woman;"
"Wilma Rudolph, who is originally from the town of Clarksville near Nashville, was one of the heroes of the 1960 Olympics. Grantland Rice has long been considered the dean of American sportswriters. Rice and Russell were longtime colleagues and shared many similarities. They were both Tennesseans and graduates of Vanderbilt University, and the two had similar styles as writers and people. Rice was originally from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and he worked as a sportswriter in Nashville before joining the ""New York Herald"" (later ""Herald Tribune"") from 1911–1930. In football, Russell was a contemporary and friend of Gen. Bob Neyland, Coach Paul"
"of over 10,000 and won 27-8. The match is fictionalized by legendary Western writer Zane Grey – whose brother, Reddy Grey, played for the Boston Red Stockings at the time they competed against the Maple Leafs – in his short story published in 1920, ""The Winning Ball"", in which Guelph defeats a professional team from Rochester in spite of the opposing team's use of the ""rabbit"", a baseball made when a friend of the manager's ""removed the covers from a number of league balls and sewed them on rubber balls of his own making"". In 1874, George Sleeman received word"
"on eligible receivers were loosened to allow eligible players to catch the ball anywhere on the field—previously strict rules were in place only allowing passes to certain areas of the field. Scoring rules also changed during this time: field goals were lowered to three points in 1909 and touchdowns raised to six points in 1912. Star players that emerged in the early 20th century include Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, and Bronko Nagurski; these three made the transition to the fledgling NFL and helped turn it into a successful league. Sportswriter Grantland Rice helped popularize the sport with his poetic descriptions"
"and newspaper owner Charles P. Taft (who also owned the Philadelphia Phillies) made a successful effort to drive Murphy out of baseball. Taft purchased the Cubs from Murphy in 1914. ""Sporting Life"" commemorated the affair with this variation on the poem: Chance died in 1924. Evers died in 1947, and Tinker the next year. When members of the trio died, the poem was often used to memorialize them. All three players were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. Their inductions have been credited to the fame generated by Adams' poem. Andy Coakley, a teammate with the"
"nationally ranked team. In 1936, school publicist Timothy Cohane needed a nickname to spur recognition of his Fordham Rams, who were undefeated halfway through the season and on the verge of possibly their best season ever. The strength of the Fordham team was its offensive line of seven men: one center, two guards, two tackles and two ends. In his columns, American sportswriter Grantland Rice had already written ""The Fordham Wall Still Stands"" in honor of the team and its early season success, but a catchy nickname was still needed—something to rival Notre Dame's famous Four Horsemen. The year before"
"Dick McGrath, doubled as captain and coach. The Blues opened their season on September 27 by whipping a team from Yonkers, New York 32–0. Soon after, Mulligan signed Jim Crowley, another ex-Horseman, to join Stuhldreher in the backfield against Adams, Massachusetts. Crowley's regular job was assistant coach at the University of Georgia. The Blues put on a good show by driving to a 34–0 triumph, with Crowley scoring three touchdowns and Stuhldreher booting two field goals and three extra points. Crowley picked up his check after the game and left the team. In their only NFL contest of 1925, the"