Alumnus Football (poem) (1924)Alumnus Football (Grantland RiceIt might surprise a generation raised by lawn-mower parents–who try to cut down every obstacle in a kid’s way–that once upon a time it was thought beneficial not just to struggle but even to fail. Heck, we were even taught that there were things worth dying for and such a thing as a good death. And…wait for it…we were often taught these things in verse. Among the poems most school kids were exposed to were: Invictus (William Ernest Henley), If (Rudyard Kipling), Vitai Lampada (Sir Henry Newbolt), Charge of the Light Brigade (Alfred, Lord Tennyson), and Horatius at the Bridge (Thomas Babington Macaulay). But the most singularly American version of this genre was written by the great sportswriter, Grantland Rice. Of course, its hero arose from the football field not the battlefield. The beauty here lies in the, perhaps antiquated (?), notion that by learning to be good sportsmen young people can be prepared for good lives: “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." Amen, brother (Reviewed:) Grade: (A) Tweet Websites:-WIKIPEDIA: Grantland Rice -ENTRY: Rice, Grantland (Encyclopedia.com) -ENTRY: Grantland Rice (Phi Delta Theta) -ENTRY: Grantland Rice American sports writer (Encyclopaedia Britannica) -ENTRY: Henry Grantland Rice (Fred Russell, Tennessee Encyclopedia) -ENTRY: Grantland Rice (New World Encyclopedia) -HALL OF FAME: GRantland Rice (National Sports Media Assaociation) -ENTRY: Grantland Rice (NY Community Trust) -HALL OF FAME: Grantland Rice (NY State Golf Association) -HALL OF FAME: Grantland Rice (Vanderbilt Athletics) -ENTRY: Grantland Rice (Baseball Reference) -INDEX: Henry Grantland Rice (Poem Hunter) -AUDIO INDEX: Grantland Rice (Old Time Radio Downloads) -INDEX: Grantland Rice (Sports Illustrated Vault) -FILMOGRAPHY: Grantland Rice (IMDB) -INDEX: Grantland Rice (All Poetry) -AUDIO INDEX: Grantland Rice (LibriVox) -OBIT: GRANTLAND RICE DIES AT AGE OF 73; Veteran Sports Writer an, Authority Suffers Stroke While Working in Office POPULAR FOR HIS VERSE Author of Sportlight Column and Books on Golf Selected All-America Football Teams (NY Times, July 14, 1954) -OBIT: Grantland Rice, Dean of Sport Writers, 73, Dies (AP, 7/14/1954) -POEM: Alumnus Football by Grantland Rice (The Running Center) -POEM: The Month of All (Grantland Rice) -ESSAY: "The Four Horsemen" (Grantland Rice, 18 October 1924, New York Herald Tribune) -POEM: Game Called (Grantland Rice) -ESSAY: The Slip at the Lip of the Cup (Grantland Ice, March 1020, Vanity Fair) -POEM: “When Wagner Comes to Bat” (A poem composed by Grantland Rice in The Nashville Tennessean in 1909) -POEM: Mudville’s Fate (Grantland Rice) -ESSAY: How he played the game: Assessing the complicated legacy of Grantland Rice (Joe Rexrode, Jun 18, 2020, The Athletic) -ESSAY: Close Reading: Did Grantland Rice Misquote Grantland Rice's Most Famous Quote? (Tom Scocca, Mon Jul 18 2011, Deadspin) -ESSAY: Grantland Rice, Josh Billings and Arthur Schopenhauer - the Win-or-Lose History of "How You Play the Game" (Early Sports and Pop Culture History Blog, 4/09/15) -ESSAY: Why Grantland Rice Sucked (Tommy Craggs, Jun 08 2011, deadspin) -AUDIO: “They Knew Grantland Rice” (Biography in Sound) -ESSAY: Grantland Rice’s legacy in the Deadball Era (John McMurray, SABR Deadball Era newsletter) -ESSAY: A Brief History of Bad Sports Writing: The quick story of American sports writing is a series of turns, leading to a form of dehumanizing, black-and-white moralism: the "hot take." (Tomas Rios, Aug 15, 2013, Pacific Standard) -ARTICLE: VU alum Grantland Rice focus of new documentary (Vanderbilt University, Sep 20, 2018) -VIDEO: By Grantland Rice (ESPN SEC Network) -ESSAY: Grantland Rice Gave Us a Ballpark Legacy (Skip Nipper, May 4, 2023, Baseball in Nashville) -PODCAST: "But the Storms Beyond are Waiting..." - A Grantland: An Athlete's Reflection on the Inspirational Poem - THE WAY OF IT - by Grantland Rice (Aug 19, 2022, Endless Teachable Moments) -ESSAY: Perusing "Sport" and Considering Grantland Rice (Johnny Chinnici, 10/10/13, Best American Poetry) -ESSAY: Why Grantland Rice was Grantland Rice (Bill McCurdy, 1/18/19) -ESSAY: Grantland Rice’s “All-Time All-Star Round up” (Baseball History Daily, 8/10/15) -VIDEO ARCHIVES: Grantland Rice (YouTube) -ARCHIVES: Rice, Grantland (Internet Archice) -REVIEW: of Sportswriter: The Life and Times of Grantland Rice by Charles Fountain (Publishers Weekly) -REVIEW: of Sportswriter: The Life and Times of Grantland Rice ( Carl Sessions Stepp, American Journalism Review) -REVIEW: of Sportswriter (Robert Manning, Columbia Journalism Review) -REVIEW: of Sportswriter (Kirkus) Book-related and General Links: |
Copyright 1998-2015 Orrin Judd