Early Football Heroes 20 x 37 Cent U.S. Postage Stamps

This is a complete pane of 20 stamps as pictured (plate numbers may vary from stock picture). * * * On August 8, 2003 in South Bend, IN., the USPS honored four early football heroes. Bronko Nagurski was big, fast and possessed legendary strength, it was not unusual for him to drag two men several yards until a third came to help bring him down. Nagurski played both tackle on defense and fullback on offense at Minnesota from 1927 to 1929 and turned professional to play for the Chicago Bears from 1930 to 1937. In 1925, Ernest Nevers, when at Stanford University was on crutches with broken ankles until two days before the Rose Bowl, he played the entire 60 minutes against Notre Dame on ankles tightly wrapped with pieces of an inner tube. Nevers was a player-coach of the Chicago Cardinals in 1929, later elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. Walter Chauncey Camp developed rules and techniques that set the American game of football apart from British Rugby. Known as the "Father of American Football" he devised guidelines that reformed the game, making it both safer and more exciting. Harold "Red "Grange became known as the Galloping Ghost of the University of Illinois when in 1924 he scored five touchdowns against Michigan. Grange signed with the Chicago Bears after college, later forming the American Football League.