A Flashback, a Reunion, and a Legend

“It’s a groove, this life….”
    - Robert Lamm 

      (keyboardist/songwriter for the band Chicago)

This past month, loosely defined in my world as “since my last newsletter,” I had a couple of important personal events. The kind of milestones many of us experience or at least have a connection to in some way.

One involves college football, an important part of life in these United States from August through the beginning of a new year. The other? The high school reunion - a well-known touchpoint of adult life that has been analyzed, studied, clarified and used as fodder for everything from therapy to motivation for success.

First, college football.

In the fall of 1974, as a freshman at The University of Illinois I was there when the school honored the iconic “Galloping Ghost,” a man named Red Grange who manifested the multi-billion-dollar business that is college football. In addition, he definitively legitimized The National Football League.

He had scored six touchdowns against the mighty University of Michigan Wolverines 50 years earlier, a Saturday afternoon in 1924. The game had “national coverage” that day, which meant The New York Times covered it. More importantly, there was a radio broadcast, kind of like a live streaming video on the internet in today’s terminology. It was a defining moment in the USA.

My grandparents had listened to the game, and when I was a little boy they would speak of Red Grange in transcendent, religiously fervent tones. Years later, when I walked on, hoping to make the varsity Illini football team, I had powerful encouragement and inspiration that eventually helped me earn playing time and a varsity letter.

NOTE: “Varsity” is one of those words that dates back to my grandparents’ lifetimes. It had hallowed implications - viability - that meant you had attained something. The definition is “starter” or “First Team.” Neither of those applied to me during my half-decade as an Illini football player. Just FYI.

At one time, The University of Illinois was a college football powerhouse led by the incredible Grange. With no small amount of humility, I can honestly state my college football career was far, far from that of Red Grange.

I was THE WORST PLAYER ON THE WORST TEAM IN THE HISTORY OF BIG TEN COLLEGE FOOTBALL.

No matter. The Friday before the 1974 game with Michigan, Mr. Grange came to the Illini locker room, in the giant stadium that he is still directly responsible for having built, and wished our team “good luck.” Many of my teammates had no idea who he was.

This would not be a nationally televised game. There was scant New York Times coverage. It was barely a blip on the radar screen of sports life in the USA.

Well, except for the college town of Champaign, Illinois. There, in that 70,000-seat stadium (“The house that Grange built”), was a committed throng of Illini alumni, fans and family. It was, in that community, for that one day, IMPORTANT.

Michigan won the game, 14-6. It was a slugfest. The Illini had lost a beloved teammate, Greg Williams, to a tragic shooting that took his life days before the game, and for those of us who knew the players on that Varsity team it was heartbreaking.

They had dedicated the game to him, and they gave everything they had. Our offense - a staple of mid-70s college football, aka the I-Formation, was a mirror of the offense that Michigan ran. They were 8 points better that day, with far more talent and far more experience.

I was a “scout team” player, so I was not given a uniform for the game (I was not on the Varsity yet). But I stood on the sideline and watched, and then went into the locker room at the end.

Players were openly weeping. They had left everything on the field that day for their fallen teammate and for the significance of the 50-year anniversary of Red Grange’s six touchdowns against mighty Michigan.

The memory of that day, the loss, the grieving for Mr. Williams, the historical value that a stadium full of fans and the Illinois football team - that I was barely a part of - is engraved like a branded tattoo on my brain.

Updated to just a few days ago, Illinois beat Michigan in a replay of the 1924 game now 100 years old. A game the Illini won just like 1924. There is more hype around Red Grange now, thanks to media and a number of really good books, not to mention his nickname “The Galloping Ghost” and this current - very good - Illinois football team. I cheered for my Alma Mater, but I am far removed from that world.

I am far removed from much of my past.

I attended two 50th high school graduations this fall. I graduated from Ottawa High School in Ottawa, Illinois, where I have the honor of being a member of their “Hall of Fame.” It was - similar to my two years there as a student - a positive and memorable night.

I was asked to perform my little comedy/ventriloquist act. Which I did. It went far better than I could have imagined, and in retrospect I am glad that I was asked (by my friend and former high school teammate and verified class ‘leader’ Don Sutherland) to do my job. I also owe thanks to Cathy and Bill - two gracious people who served as foils that night. See the photo below and watch the video here.

I had also been invited to the Hinsdale Central High School 50th Reunion as well, because I had attended that school for my freshman and sophomore years. I arrived very late - that party was coming to an end - but seeing friends and people from my childhood in Clarendon Hills, Illinois, made the trip worth it. Many thanks to Pete Hoffman as, similar to the OHS reunion, I am glad I went.

The climactic moment came at the end of the night as I was leaving. A Hinsdale classmate from years ago introduced me to someone this way: “This is Taylor Mason. He went to Hinsdale for two years and was a football legend for the University of Illinois.”

This was stated without irony or as a backhanded compliment. It was SINCERE.

I am a football “LEGEND?” HEY! OKAY! I accept the honor!

If I can stay alive for another couple of decades, I might win the Heisman!

Thanks for reading!

Please check out my memoir, TAYLOR MASON: IRREVERSIBLE.

Here is a very good read that delves into Red Grange.

And you can download the podcast I record weekly on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.

Thanks for reading,
Taylor



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