Grantland Rice
Encyclopedia
Grantland Rice 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.
, the son of Bolling H. Rice, a cotton dealer, and his wife, 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
. After taking early jobs with the Atlanta Journal
and the Cleveland News, he later became a sportswriter for the Nashville Tennessean
. Afterwards he obtained a series of prestigious jobs with major newspapers in the Northeastern United States. He is best-known for being the successor to Walter Camp
in the selection of College Football All-America Team
s beginning in 1925, and for being the writer who dubbed the great backfield of the 1924 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team
the "Four Horsemen" of Notre Dame. A Biblical
reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
, this famous account was published in the New York Herald Tribune on October 18, describing the Notre Dame vs. Army game played at the Polo Grounds
:
The passage added great import to the event described and elevated it to a level far beyond that of 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 demigod
s. 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".
His sense of honor can be seen in his own actions. Before leaving for service in World War I, he entrusted his entire fortune, about $75,000, to a friend. On his return from the war, Rice discovered that his friend had lost all the money in bad investments, and then had committed suicide. Rice accepted the blame for putting “that much temptation” in his friend’s way. Rice then made monthly contributions to the man’s widow for the next 30 years.
According to author Mark Inabinett in his 1994 work, Grantland Rice and His Heroes: The Sportswriter as Mythmaker in the 1920s, Rice very consciously set out to make heroes of sports figures who impressed him, most notably Jack Dempsey
, Babe Ruth
, Bobby Jones
, Bill Tilden
, Red Grange
, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, and Knute Rockne
. Unlike many writers of his era, Rice defended the right of football players such as Grange, and tennis players such as Tilden, to make a living as professionals, but he also decried the warping influence of big money in sports, once writing in his column:
Rice authored a book of poetry, Songs of the Stalwart, which was published in 1917 by D. Appleton and Company of New York.
Rice married Katherine Hollis in 1906; they had one child, the actress Florence Rice
. Rice died at the age 73 on July 13, 1954, following a stroke.
.
In 1954, the Football Writers Association
established the Grantland Rice Memorial Award
, given annually to an outstanding college player selected by the group.
The Grantland Rice Bowl
, an annual college football bowl game
held from 1964–1977, was named in his honor, as was the Grantland Rice Award given to the winner.
Rice was posthumously awarded the 1966 J. G. Taylor Spink Award by the Baseball Writers Association of America
. The award, presented the following year at the annual induction ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame
, is given for "meritorious contributions to baseball writing".
At Vanderbilt, a four-year scholarship named for Rice and former colleague and fellow Vanderbilt alumnus Fred Russell
is awarded each year to a freshman who intends to pursue a career in sportswriting. Recipients of the Fred Russell–Grantland Rice Sportswriting Scholarship include author and humorist Roy Blount, Jr.
; Skip Bayless
of ESPN
; Dave Sheinin of The Washington Post
; and Tyler Kepner of The New York Times
.
The press box
in Vanderbilt Stadium
at Vanderbilt University
is dedicated to Rice and named after Rice's protege, Fred Russell. For many years, a portion of one floor of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
was designated the "Grantland Rice Suite". Grantland Avenue in his hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee was named in his honor.
Rice was mentioned in an I Love Lucy
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.com, a name intended to honor Rice's legacy.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sportswriter known for his elegant prose. His writing was published in newspapers around the country and broadcast on the radio.
Biography
Henry Grantland Rice was born in Murfreesboro, TennesseeMurfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro is a city in and the county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 108,755 according to the United States Census Bureau's 2010 U.S. Census, up from 68,816 residents certified during the 2000 census. The center of population of Tennessee is located in...
, the son of Bolling H. Rice, a cotton dealer, and his wife, Beulah Grantland Rice. His grandfather Major H. W. Rice was a Confederate veteran of the Civil War.
Rice attended Montgomery Bell Academy
Montgomery Bell Academy
Montgomery Bell Academy is a preparatory day school for boys in grades 7 through 12 in Nashville, Tennessee.The school ideal is "Gentleman, Scholar, Athlete." Montgomery Bell Academy is noted for a large number of National Merit and other scholarship winners...
and Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. After taking early jobs with the Atlanta Journal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and its suburbs. The AJC, as it is called, is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta...
and the Cleveland News, he later became a sportswriter for the Nashville Tennessean
The Tennessean
The Tennessean is the principal daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Its circulation area covers 39 counties in Middle Tennessee and eight counties in southern Kentucky....
. Afterwards he obtained a series of prestigious jobs with major newspapers in the Northeastern United States. He is best-known for being the successor to Walter Camp
Walter Camp
Walter Chauncey Camp was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". With John Heisman, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Pop Warner, Fielding H. Yost, and George Halas, Camp was one of the most accomplished persons in the early history of American football...
in the selection of College Football All-America Team
College Football All-America Team
The College Football All-America Team is an honor given annually to the best American college football players at their respective positions. The original usage of the term All-America seems to have been to the 1889 College Football All-America Team selected by Casper Whitney and published in This...
s beginning in 1925, and for being the writer who dubbed the great backfield of the 1924 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team
1924 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team
The 1924 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame in the 1924 college football season. Coached by Knute Rockne and featuring the "Four Horsemen" backfield of Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden, Notre Dame completed an undefeated,...
the "Four Horsemen" of Notre Dame. A Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described in the last book of the New Testament of the Bible, called the Book of Revelation of Jesus Christ to Saint John the Evangelist at 6:1-8. The chapter tells of a "'book'/'scroll' in God's right hand that is sealed with seven seals"...
, this famous account was published in the New York Herald Tribune on October 18, describing the Notre Dame vs. Army game played at the Polo Grounds
Polo Grounds
The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used by many professional teams in both baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963...
:
The passage added great import to the event described and elevated it to a level far beyond that of 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 demigod
Demigod
The term "demigod" , meaning "half-god", is commonly used to describe mythological figures whose one parent was a god and whose other parent was human; as such, demigods are human-god hybrids...
s. 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".
According to author Mark Inabinett in his 1994 work, Grantland Rice and His Heroes: The Sportswriter as Mythmaker in the 1920s, Rice very consciously set out to make heroes of sports figures who impressed him, most notably Jack Dempsey
Jack Dempsey
William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey was an American boxer who held the world heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926. Dempsey's aggressive style and exceptional punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history. Many of his fights set financial and attendance records, including the first...
, Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
, Bobby Jones
Bobby Jones (golfer)
Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones Jr. was an American amateur golfer, and a lawyer by profession. Jones was the most successful amateur golfer ever to compete on a national and international level...
, Bill Tilden
Bill Tilden
William Tatem Tilden II , nicknamed "Big Bill," is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, he won 14 Majors including ten Grand Slams and four Pro Slams. Bill Tilden dominated the world of...
, Red Grange
Red Grange
Harold Edward "Red" Grange, nicknamed "The Galloping Ghost", was a college and professional American football halfback for the University of Illinois, the Chicago Bears, and for the short-lived New York Yankees. His signing with the Bears helped legitimize the National Football League...
, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, and Knute Rockne
Knute Rockne
Knute Kenneth Rockne was an American football player and coach. He is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in college football history...
. Unlike many writers of his era, Rice defended the right of football players such as Grange, and tennis players such as Tilden, to make a living as professionals, but he also decried the warping influence of big money in sports, once writing in his column:
- "Money to the left of them and money to the right
- Money everywhere they turn from morning to the night
- Only two things count at all from mountain to the sea
- Part of it's percentage, and the rest is guarantee"¹
Rice authored a book of poetry, Songs of the Stalwart, which was published in 1917 by D. Appleton and Company of New York.
Rice married Katherine Hollis in 1906; they had one child, the actress Florence Rice
Florence Rice
Florence Rice was an American film actress.Florence Davenport Rice was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Grantland Rice and Katherine Hollis, who became an actress during the early 1930s and after several Broadway roles, eventually made her way to Hollywood where she acted in almost fifty...
. Rice died at the age 73 on July 13, 1954, following a stroke.
Quotations
- "For when the One Great Scorer comes
- To mark against your name,
- He writes - not that you won or lost -
- But how you played the Game."
- (from the poem "Alumnus Football")
- "The loafer has no come-back and the quitter no reply,
- When the Anvil ChorusAnvil ChorusThe Anvil Chorus is the English term for the Coro di zingari , a piece of music from Act 2, Scene 1 of Giuseppe Verdi's Il trovatore which depicts Spanish Gypsies striking their anvils at dawn – hence its English name – and singing the praises of hard work, good wine, and their Gypsy...
echoes, as it will, against the sky; - But there’s one quick answer ready that will wrap them in a hood:
- Make good."
- (from the poem "The Answer")
Legacy
In 1951, in recognition of Rice's 50 years in journalism, an anonymous donor contributed $50,000 to establish the Grantland Rice Fellowship in Journalism with the New York Community TrustNew York Community Trust
The New York Community Trust was founded in 1924 to distribute the income from charitable funds established by will to improve the quality of life in New York City. It also offers services to living donors. It is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States, and...
.
In 1954, the Football Writers Association
Football Writers Association of America
The Football Writers Association of America is one of the organizations whose College Football All-America Team is recognized by the NCAA...
established the Grantland Rice Memorial Award
Grantland Rice Award
The Grantland Rice Trophy is an annual award presented in the United States since 1954 to the college football team adjudged by the Football Writers Association of America to be "national champion". Named for the legendary sportswriter, Grantland Rice, the trophy was the first national...
, given annually to an outstanding college player selected by the group.
The Grantland Rice Bowl
Grantland Rice Bowl
The Grantland Rice Bowl was an annual college football bowl game, one of four regional NCAA college division championships from 1964 to 1972. It was the Mideast Regional championship, played in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from 1964 to 1968...
, an annual college football bowl game
Bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is commonly considered to refer to one of a number of post-season college football games. Prior to 2002, bowl game statistics were not included in players' career totals and the games were mostly considered to be exhibition games involving a payout to participating...
held from 1964–1977, was named in his honor, as was the Grantland Rice Award given to the winner.
Rice was posthumously awarded the 1966 J. G. Taylor Spink Award by the Baseball Writers Association of America
Baseball Writers Association of America
The Baseball Writers' Association of America is a professional association for baseball journalists writing for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying Web sites. The BBWAA was founded on October 14, 1908, to improve working conditions for sportswriters in the early part of the 20th century...
. The award, presented the following year at the annual induction ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of...
, is given for "meritorious contributions to baseball writing".
At Vanderbilt, a four-year scholarship named for Rice and former colleague and fellow Vanderbilt alumnus Fred Russell
Fred Russell
Fred Russell was an American sports writer prominent in the Golden Era of Sports in the 20th century...
is awarded each year to a freshman who intends to pursue a career in sportswriting. Recipients of the Fred Russell–Grantland Rice Sportswriting Scholarship include author and humorist Roy Blount, Jr.
Roy Blount, Jr.
Roy Alton Blount, Jr. is an American writer. Best known as a humorist, Blount is also a reporter, actor, and musician with the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock band composed entirely of writers. He is also a former president of the Authors Guild....
; Skip Bayless
Skip Bayless
Skip Bayless is an American journalist and television personality. Bayless regularly appears on ESPN2's ESPN First Take and its afternoon show 1st and 10. Bayless previously wrote regular columns for ESPN.com and its "Page 2" section.-Schooling and family:Bayless was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma...
of ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
; Dave Sheinin of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
; and Tyler Kepner of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
The press box
Press box
The press box is a special section of a sports stadium or arena that is set up for the media to report about a given event. It is typically located in the section of the stadium holding the luxury box. In general, newspaper writers sit in this box and write about the on-field event as it unfolds...
in Vanderbilt Stadium
Vanderbilt Stadium
Vanderbilt Stadium at Dudley Field is a football stadium located in Nashville, Tennessee. Completed in 1922 as the first stadium in the South to be used exclusively for college football, it is the home of the Vanderbilt University football team...
at Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
is dedicated to Rice and named after Rice's protege, Fred Russell. For many years, a portion of one floor of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is one of Columbia's graduate and professional schools. It offers three degree programs: Master of Science in journalism , Master of Arts in journalism and a Ph.D. in communications...
was designated the "Grantland Rice Suite". Grantland Avenue in his hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee was named in his honor.
Rice was mentioned in an I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
episode entitled "The Camping Trip", and was portrayed by actor Lane Smith
Lane Smith
Walter Lane Smith III was an American actor. Some of his well known roles included portraying collaborator entrepreneur Nathan Bates in the NBC television series V, Mayor Bates in the film Red Dawn, newspaper editor Perry White in the ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,...
, also a native of Tennessee, in The Legend of Bagger Vance
The Legend of Bagger Vance
The Legend of Bagger Vance is a 2000 American film directed by Robert Redford and starring Will Smith, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron. It is based on the 1995 book of the same title by Steven Pressfield and takes place in the U.S. state of Georgia in 1931...
.
On June 8, 2011, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
's Bill Simmons
Bill Simmons
William J. "Bill" Simmons III is a sports columnist, author, and podcaster. He currently writes columns and hosts podcasts for Grantland.com, which is affiliated with ESPN.com. He is a former writer for ESPN The Magazine and Jimmy Kimmel Live!...
launched a sports and popular culture website titled Grantland.com, a name intended to honor Rice's legacy.
Further reading
- Rice, Grantland, "The Tumult and The Shouting" 1954 [Autobiography available at Amazon Books.]
- Inabinett, Mark, Grantland Rice and His Heroes: The Sportswriter as Mythmaker in the 1920s. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1994 (ISBN 0-87049-848-7)