Ahead of their time:  C. C. Pyle and Red Grange

The NFL season is under way, the rookies are signed (all but one), and the veterans are enjoying the fruits of the cash cow that is the NFL. That’s today.

Looking back to the league’s infancy, in 1925, Red Grange, the greatest college player up to that time, was signed right out of the University of Illinois to play for George Halas’ Chicago Bears. His agent was Charle C. (aka “C. C.”, aka “Cash and Carry”) Pyle. Pyle had begun negotiations with the Bears while Grange was still a student.  This was not against collegiate rules, but going pro before graduation was a sharp departure from the norm.

               "Cash and Carry" Pyle

Pyle and Grange started the American Football League after one year with the Bears.  It folded after one season.  (Of course, Grange eventually returned to the Bears and played his career out with them.)

"Cash and Carry" also capitalized on Grange’s popularity and signed him for starring roles in 2 movies, One Minute To Play and Racing Romeo released in 1926 and 1927, respectively. C.C. got Grange into films years before 2 other great running backs- Jim Brown, and later O.J. Simpson.  In promoting his client as an actor, he may have been looking for some added leverage in negotiating with Halas, much as Bill Hayes did in the Koufax and Drysdale negotiations (SLT blog of 7/3/09). 

As he was acting for Grange, C.C. represented tennis star Suzanne Lenglen, and promoted a 3,485-mile foot race across the United States, popularly known as the "Bunion Derby".  The event was conducted in 1928-9, and nearly bankrupt Pyle.