30 Facts About Grantland Rice

Henry Grantland Rice was an American sportswriter and poet known as the "Dean of American Sports Writers".

Grantland Rice's writing was known for its elegance and published in newspapers around the country, and broadcast on the radio.

Grantland Rice's grandfather Major Henry W Grantland was a Nashville cotton farmer and a Confederate veteran of the Civil War.

At Vanderbilt, Grantland Rice was a brother in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

Grantland Rice studied Greek and Latin and graduated with a BA degree in classics as part of the class of 1901.

Grantland Rice was tall and slender, over 6 feet tall and well under 140 pounds.

Grantland Rice was a member of the football team for three years, and a shortstop on the baseball team.

Grantland Rice suffered a broken shoulder blade, a broken collar bone, and four broken ribs.

Grantland Rice married Fannie Katherine Hollis on April 11,1906; they had one child, the actress Florence Grantland Rice.

Grantland Rice 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 Grantland Rice played while at Vanderbilt.

Grantland Rice provided monthly Grantland Rice Sportlights as part of Paramount newsreels from 1925 to 1954.

Grantland Rice became even better known after his columns were nationally syndicated beginning in 1930, and became known as the "Dean of American Sports Writers".

Grantland 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.

Unlike many writers of his era, Grantland Rice defended the right of football players such as Grange, and tennis players such as Tilden, to make a living as professionals, but he decried the warping influence of big money in sports, once writing in his column:.

Grantland Rice is best known for being the successor to Walter Camp in the selection of College Football All-America Teams for 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.

Grantland Rice was an advocate for the emerging game of golf in the United States.

Grantland Rice became interested in the sport in 1909 while covering the Southern Amateur at the Nashville Golf Club.

Grantland Rice began playing there regularly and said "I never dreamed that golf would provide so must grist for my typewriter".

Grantland Rice edited American Golfer magazine beginning in 1920, until 1936.

Grantland Rice wrote extensively about golfer Bobby Jones and considered him the greatest-ever putter.

Grantland Rice is a member of the New York State Golf Association Hall of Fame.

On his return from the war, Grantland Rice discovered that his friend had lost all the money in bad investments, and then had committed suicide.

Grantland Rice accepted the blame for putting "that much temptation" in his friend's way.

Grantland Rice then made monthly contributions to the man's widow throughout his life.

Grantland Rice fought in the 30th Division, lieutenant in the 115th Field Artillery.

Grantland Rice died at the age 73 on July 13,1954, following a stroke.

Grantland Rice is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.

The press box in Vanderbilt Stadium at Vanderbilt University is dedicated to Grantland Rice and named after Grantland Rice's protege, Fred Russell.

Grantland Rice was mentioned in an I Love Lucy episode entitled "The Camping Trip", and was portrayed by actor Lane Smith, a native of Tennessee, in The Legend of Bagger Vance.