Key Highlights
- president who threatened to shut it down if it did not change. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementUsing historical research and rankings recently compiled by MaxPreps, we're taking a look at 10 iconic figures and defining moments that helped shape football into the sport it is today. The most influential figures of high school football.10.
- Red Grange: The first football celebrityBefore TV contracts and social media, Red Grange turned football players into national figures.
- The Wheaton, Ill., product became a sensation at the University of Illinois with open-field runs that filled stadiums and made headlines across the country. His decision to join the Chicago Bears after his college career helped legitimize the fledgling NFL and offered high school players a visible pathway from small-town fields to the professional game.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement9.
- Albert Spalding: The businessman who organized the gameAlbert Spalding’s impact went far beyond baseball diamonds.
- After leaving the majors, he built a sporting goods empire that sold equipment for a growing list of sports, including football, and distributed thick catalogs that did more than push product. Those catalogs printed rules, season results, photos, and all-state teams for high schools and colleges, becoming a vital reference for coaches, players, and fans from the 1890s into the middle of the 20th century.8.
