In celebration of the National Football League’s 100th season, noted football historian Chris Willis brings to life the story of Red Grange, the nation’s first NFL star, in this definitive biography.Harold “Red” Grange became a national sensation as a junior halfback at the University of Illinois in the 1920s. He quickly joined other great athletes of the Roaring Twenties such as Bobby Jones, Jack Dempsey, and Babe Ruth in enthralling audiences on the radio and in newspapers on a d...

The remarkable biography of a small-town athlete who became one of the greatest players in NFL history.Bronislau “Bronko” Nagurski was a superstar for the NFL in the 1930s and one of the pioneer players of the league. He led the Chicago Bears to success on the gridiron as a larger-than-life personality, helping raise the popularity of the NFL during the Great Depression.In Bronko: The Legendary Story of the NFL’s Greatest Two-Way Fullback, NFL Film...

In 1963, 17 charter members were inducted into the newly established Pro Football Hall of Fame. Joining the likes of Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski, George Halas, and Sammy Baugh was Detroit Lions quarterback Dutch Clark. A bona fide superstar for the NFL in the 1930s, Clark led the Lions to success on the gridiron and helped establish the NFL in one of America’s most passionate sports cities. Throughout his seven-year NFL career (1931–1932, 1934–1938), Clark was selected first team NFL All-P...

Founded in 1920, the National Football League chose famed athlete Jim Thorpe as its first president, a position he held briefly until a successor was elected. From 1921 to 1939, Joe F. Carr guided the sport of professional football with intelligence, hard work, and a passion that built the foundation of what the NFL has become: the number one sports organization in the world. During his eighteen-year tenure as NFL President, Carr created the organization's first Constitution & By-Laws; imp...

Very little has been documented about the early days of pro football and the pioneers who had a major influence in the history of the NFL. Chris Willis, head of the Research Library at NFL Films, seeks to address this neglect. In this collection of original and archival interviews, former players, owners, fans, family members and league officials provide a rare glimpse into the origins of professional football. Full of rich anecdotes, early stars such as Red Grange, Jim Thorpe, Dutch Clark...

In 1901 workers at the Panhandle shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Columbus, Ohio formed a professional football team called the Columbus Panhandles. The railroad workers, mainly European immigrants, learned the game of football not on college gridirons, but on the sandlots of railroad yards during their lunch breaks. With the leadership of an innovative team manager and its tough physical play, the Panhandles went on to play for more than twenty years as one of the most successful tea...

At the beginning of the Roaring Twenties the NFL was just a footnote within the landscape of American sports. The early pro game was played on dirt fields by vagabond athletes who would beat up or punch out their opponent for fifty dollars a game. But one team was different than the rest: the Oorang Indians. Comprised entirely of Native Americans and led by star athlete Jim Thorpe, the Oorang Indians were an instant hit in almost every city they visited.In Walter Lingo, Jim Thorpe,...

The San Francisco 49ers entered the 1984 season determined to erase the memory of their three point loss to the Washington Redskins in the NFC Championship Game the year before. Nineteen games later, they had not only won the Super Bowl, they had redefined NFL history by becoming the first team to win 18 games in a single season. Led by Hall of Fame head coach Bill Walsh and future Hall of Fame players Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, and Fred Dean, the 1984 San Francisco 49ers finished the seaso...

In 2019 the NFL celebrated its 100th season. During that historic year the league selected an All-Time Team of 100 former star players. Among them were seven from before football's free substitution rule (1920-1945), two-way players who were skilled at both offense and defense. They were: Sammy Baugh (Quarterback), Dutch Clark (Running Back), Dan Fortmann (Guard), Mel Hein (Center), Cal Hubbard (Tackle), Don Hutson (Wide Receiver) and Bill Hewitt (Defensive End).There were more tha...

Dorothy L. Sayer’s first novel, Whose Body?, introduced the world to the aristocratic crime fighter Lord Peter Wimsey, who featured in fourteen subsequent novels and short stories. Athletic, scholarly, stylish and sharp, Lord Peter Wimsey became one of the most popular and beloved heroes of the genre. In Wimsey’s first case, he undertakes an investigation to discover the identity and the murderer of a man who is found in a bathtub wearing nothing but a pince-nez. An ingenious and ...

Dorothy L. Sayer’s first novel, Whose Body?, introduced the world to the aristocratic crime fighter Lord Peter Wimsey, who featured in fourteen subsequent novels and short stories. Athletic, scholarly, stylish and sharp, Lord Peter Wimsey became one of the most popular and beloved heroes of the genre. In Wimsey’s first case, he undertakes an investigation to discover the identity and the murderer of a man who is found in a bathtub wearing nothing but a pince-nez. An ingenious and ...

•The exploits of mountaineering’s most colorful band of adventurersThe Boys of Everest by Clint Willis tells the gripping story of “Bonington’s Boys,” a band of climbers who reinvented mountaineering during the three decades after Everest’s first ascent. It is a story of tremendous courage, astonishing achievement, and heartbreaking loss. Chris Bonington’s inner circle included a dozen of mountaineering’s most legendary figures—Don Whillans, John Harlin, Dougal Haston, Dou...