Football History Rewind Part 52

In this 52nd edition of the Football History Rewind, we discuss the champion team and All-America selections of the 1923 season as well as many more Legendary Gridiron stories.

Home on the Grange

Illinois Head Coach, Bob Zuppke had a secret weapon in 1923 that he was about to unleash into NCAA football. His sophomore running back named Harold “Red” Grange was about to rewrite the record books. Grange carried the Illini to a National Championship in 1923 as he lugged the leather for 1260 yards and scored 12 touchdowns. The underclassman through his grid iron accomplishments also gave him the honor of having more print in newspaper and magazines and more radio air time than any other player of his time. Check out more on Red Grange in our 2021 interview with Grange's biography Author Chris Willis of NFL Films.

Humbly, Grange even at this young age always credited his success on the field to his blockers. End Frank Rokusek, halfback Wally McIlwain, and fullback Earl Britton were the main name drops Grange used in 1923 as they would give him the key blocks needed in making his end run work with such consistent results all season.

During his college career Grange is credited with actually increasing the sale of radios in the United States because fans could not wait to read about his exploits in the Sunday newspaper and wanted to hear it as it happened.

Grange went on to have a stalwart collegiate and professional career in football and is still a household name though he played his last game over 60 years ago.

Cutting the ties                    

The final feature of Rugby, the onside punt was clipped from the Football Rules Book in 1923. The onside punt was an interesting feature that the game once had. The onside punt featured a way for the punting team to keep possession by anyone on the kicking team downing the ball and thus awarding the kickers a new series from that spot. The rule that abolished the onside punt was that of an offense surrendering possession of the ball when foot hits ball in a punt. The new rule also established that the ball was not a free ball for anyone to possess like a free kick is, unless it is first touched by a member of the receiving team.

All-American Teams

For the 1923 season there are only  two selectors recognized by the NCAA as "official" and they are: Walter Camp, whose selections were published in Collier's Weekly, and the Football World magazine. The NCAA only considers the consensus selections from these two sources as the "official" 1923 All Americans:

• George Pfann the Quarterback from Cornell
• Red Grange the Halfback from Illinois
• Charles Hubbard the Guard from Harvard
• Pete MacRae the End Syracuse
• Ray Eklund the End from Minnesota
• Jack Blott the Center Michigan
• Jim McMillen a Guard from Illinois
• Bill Mallory a Fullback from Yale
• Marty Below a Tackle from Wisconsin
• Harry Wilson a Halfback from Penn State
• Lynn Bomar an End from Vanderbilt

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikipedia Commons photo collection of the Public Domain of the University of Illinois' 1923 National Championship football team. from an Unknown author

Special thanks to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Stathead.com and TipTop25.com