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Henry Grantland Rice (November 1, 1880 – July 13, 1954) was an American sportswriter, columnist, and poet from Tennessee known as the "Dean of American Sports Writers". He published three books of poetry, and coined the famous phrase that it was not important whether you “won or lost, but how you played the game.”
His writing was known for its elegance and published in Newspaper around the country, and broadcast on the radio. He and his writing are among the reasons that the Roaring Twenties in the United States are sometimes referred to as the "Golden Age of Sports".
In 1924, he nicknamed the Notre Dame backfield the "Four Horsemen". In 1925 he replaced Walter Camp in selecting college football All-America teams. Rice set out to make heroes of sports figures who impressed him, most notably in baseball Babe Ruth, in boxing Jack Dempsey, in football Red Grange and Knute Rockne, in golf Bobby Jones and Babe Didrikson, and in tennis Bill Tilden.
At Vanderbilt, Rice was a brother in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He studied Greek language and Latin and graduated with a BA degree in classics as part of the class of 1901. Rice was tall and slender, over 6 feet tall and well under 140 pounds. He was a member of the football team for three years, and a shortstop on the baseball team. On the football team, he lettered in the year of 1899 as an end and averaged two injuries a year. He suffered a broken shoulder blade, a broken collar bone, and four broken ribs. On the baseball team, he was captain in 1901. Rice notes that pro baseball took off in the South in his senior year at Vanderbilt.
He became a sportswriter for the Nashville Tennessean in 1907, under owner-publisher Luke Lea. 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 1911 he was hired by the New York Evening Mail, and in 1914 he began his Sportlight column in the New York Tribune. He also provided monthly Grantland Rice Sportlights as part of Paramount News from 1925 to 1954.Porter, David L. (1988) Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Outdoor Sports, Greenwood Press pp 88–90 He is best known for writing for Collier's.
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". He became even better known after his columns were nationally syndicated beginning in 1930, and became known as the "Dean of American Sports Writers".
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 . 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 in baseball Babe Ruth, in boxing Jack Dempsey, in football Red Grange and Knute Rockne, in golf Bobby Jones and Babe Didrikson, and in tennis Bill Tilden. 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.
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. Another famous passage celebrated Red Grange:
A streak of fire, a breath of flameplaying golf, by Grantland Rice & Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling in the New-York Tribune of September 28, 1919]]Rice's all-time All-America backfield in 1939 was Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, Ken Strong, and Ernie Nevers. His all-time line was center Germany Schulz, guards Pudge Heffelfinger and Jack Cannon, tackles Pete Henry and Bill Fincher. Another all-time All-America selection in 1949 by Rice shows a backfield of Sammy Baugh, Thorpe, Grange, and Bronko Nagurski. His all time line was center Schulz, guards Heffelfinger and Herman Hickman, tackles Henry and Cal Hubbard, and ends Don Hutson and Bennie Oosterbaan.
Eluding all who reach and clutch;
A gray ghost thrown into the game
That rival hands may never touch;
A rubber bounding, blasting soul
Whose destination is the goal — Red Grange of Illinois!
Rice edited American Golfer magazine beginning in 1920, until 1936. He wrote extensively about golfer Bobby Jones and considered him the greatest-ever Putting. When the Augusta National Golf Club was formed, Rice was one of the eighty charter members. Rice is a member of the New York State Golf Association Hall of Fame.
Rice fought in the 30th Division, lieutenant in the 115th Field Artillery. He spent fourteen months in military service.
One source recalls if you wanted to anger Rice, mention prizefighters who avoided fighting in World War I.
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 Trust. "$50,000 Fund Created", The New York Times, May 3, 1951. Accessed on June 29, 2009. In 1954, the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) established the Grantland Rice Trophy, an annual award presented (from 1954 to 2013) to the college football team recognized by the FWAA as the national champions."Grantland Rice Award Established in Football", The New York Times, August 14, 1954. Accessed on June 29, 2009. The Grantland Rice Bowl, an annual college football bowl game held from 1964 to 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". "J. G. Taylor Spink Award Honorees" , Baseball Hall of Fame. Accessed on June 30, 2009.
At Vanderbilt, a four-year scholarship named for Rice and former colleague and fellow Vanderbilt alumnus Fred Russell is awarded each year to an incoming first-year student 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 Fox Sportshttp://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/Archive02262007/07RussellRice.pdf "The Fred Russell–Grantland Rice Sportswriting Scholarship" (PDF), Vanderbilt University. Accessed on June 29, 2009, and New York Times best-selling author, Andrew Maraniss. The press box in Vanderbilt Stadium at Vanderbilt University is dedicated to Rice and named after Rice's protégé, 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, a name intended to honor Rice's legacy.ESPN MediaZone (2011). All-Star Roster of Writers and Editors to Join New ESPN Web Site . Retrieved May 3, 2011. It operated for a little more than four years until being shuttered by ESPN on October 30, 2015, several months after Simmons's departure.
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