Grantland Rice

"It’s not that you won or lost, but how you played the game.

"This well-known phrase was a favorite of Grantland Rice, a world-renown sports writer and storyteller who paved the way for sports journalism in the first half of the 20th century.

Grantland, also called “Granny”, Rice translated sports news for Americans, both through print and broadcast jour- nalism, in a new and innovative way.

He was born in Murfreesboro to Bolling H. and Beulah Grantland Rice in 1880. In his youth, Rice attended two military schools, the Nashville Military Institute and the Tennessee Military Institute, which, no doubt, aided in a disciplined upbringing. He also spent a great deal of time with his grandfather who taught him the value of upright moral character and integrity.

He graduated from Vanderbilt University and went on to write for newspapers such as the Atlanta Journal and the Cleveland News, The New York Evening Mail, The New York Tribune, and The New York Sun. In 1930, Rice’s col- umn called, “The Sportlight,” was nationally syndicated. He was featured on more than 2,000 sports interview radio programs in a 25-year period of his career.

Rice was passionate about sports. He believed that they aided in the well-being of those who participated. Through- out his career, he set out to make heroes of some of the many “greats” of sports history, such as Jack Dempsey, Babe

Ruth, Bobby Jones and Red Grange. Although he was also one of the few who believed that athletes should make their living as professionals at that time, he also saw the danger of the cor- ruption that money can bring in the in- dustry. He once wrote in his own

column:

“Money to the left of them and money to the right

Money everywhere they turn from morning to the night

Only two things count at all from mountain to the sea

Part of it’s percentage, and the rest is guarantee”.

For Rice, sport was more than just a game, it was a demonstration of a person’s character. Because of his emphasis on honor and character, Rice gained

the trust of the masses. He was the writer and radio personality that they wanted to listen to. He was entertaining, and communicated sports news in a way that made people itch to hear or read what he had to say.

In 1925, Rice wrote in Colliers Weekly: “The main idea back of sport should be recreation in pursuit of health and pleasure: Competition that help build up clean living, cool head, stout hearts and sound judgments under fire. Victory is, of course, the more pleasing destiny, but it isn’t the en- tire destiny”.

Rice communicated who he was through his journalistic style. He used exaggeration and poetic language to communicate sports news in a way that won the affection of his audience. He was more of a storyteller and a poet than he was a statistician. It was truly a reflection of his vibrant personality.

Although Rice contributed a great deal to the world of sports journalism, his literary talent went far beyond that because of his gifting with poetry and story writing.

One of his most famous pieces, “The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame,” was a story written about the players of the back- field of Notre Dame’s 1924 football team. Many of his stories, such as, “The Lady was a Flop,” “The Football” and “The Hero” were broadcasted over the radio, touching the ears and hearts of millions.

On July 14, 1954, after completing an article about Willie Mayes and the 1954 All-Star game, Rice died of a heart attack.

“He was a master storyteller with a flowing, descriptive style. He wasn't a sports writer. He was a great writer that happened to write about sports,” said David Climer, a long-time sports reporter at The Tennessean.

Rice left a profound legacy on the world of sports jour- nalism.

It’s because of Rice and his groundbreaking approach to sports journalism and literature that the 1920’s are often referred to as the “Golden Age of Sports” and that sports journalism is what it is today.