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Today in Chicago History: Red Grange scores 5 TDs in Illinois’ 39-14 upset of Michigan at Memorial Stadium

Harold "Red" Grange grabs the ball after the first kickoff of the Illinois-Michigan game on Oct. 18, 1924, with teammate Wally McIlwain at his side. Grange began a sprint that took him over 95 yards down field for a touchdown. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
Harold “Red” Grange grabs the ball after the first kickoff of the Illinois-Michigan game on Oct. 18, 1924, with teammate Wally McIlwain at his side. Grange began a sprint that took him over 95 yards down field for a touchdown. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
By | krumore@chicagotribune.com | Chicago Tribune
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Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Oct. 18, according to the Tribune’s archives.

Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.

Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)

  • High temperature: 87 degrees (1950)
  • Low temperature: 20 degrees (1948)
  • Precipitation: 2.09 inches (1985)
  • Snowfall: 0.7 inches (1989)
The first telephone call made between Chicago and New York took place on Oct. 18, 1892. (Chicago Tribune)
The first telephone call made between Chicago and New York took place on Oct. 18, 1892. (Chicago Tribune)

1892: Did the first long-distance telephone call from Chicago to New York actually happen if the guy at the other end of the line couldn’t hear a thing?

Chicago Mayor Hempstead Washburne heard what New York Mayor Hugh J. Grant said, but Grant couldn’t hear Washburne. A cornet solo, however, could be distinctly heard.

“It was explained that forty receivers had been put into the circuit and these were all being used by the crowd in the room, ” the Tribune reported. “This, it was said, diminished the volume of sound.”

Also in 1892: Duchess the elephant escaped from Lincoln Park Zoo. The 18-year-old female elephant got loose from her handler outside her enclosure, then went on the run, demolishing the door of a saloon on North Avenue, smashing in the window of another and walking through the fence around a vacant lot. She was captured and led back to her stall by noon.

The newly dedicated Memorial Stadium was the site for one of football's most storied games, played on Oct. 18, 1924, between Illinois and Michigan and featuring an explosive performance by Harold "Red" Grange. (Chicago Tribune)
The newly dedicated Memorial Stadium was the site for one of football's most storied games, played on Oct. 18, 1924, between Illinois and Michigan and featuring an explosive performance by Harold “Red” Grange. (Chicago Tribune)

1924: Three-time All-American Harold Edward “Red” Grange galloped 95 yards to score a touchdown in the opening kickoff against Michigan that also marked the dedication of Memorial Stadium in Champaign. The “Galloping Ghost” scored five touchdowns as Illinois upset Michigan 39-14.

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, Chicago architect, is shown receiving the "Ernst-Reuter-Plakette" from West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, left, at the building plot of the new National Gallery at Kemperplatz, West Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 28, 1966. Van Der Rohe is the architect of the gallery. (Edwin Reichert/AP)
Chicago architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, center, receives the "Ernst-Reuter-Plakette" from West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, left, at the building plot of the new National Gallery at Kemperplatz, West Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 28, 1966. (Edwin Reichert/AP)

1938: German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe arrived in Chicago. He was newly hired to head the architecture department at the Armour Institute of Technology (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) on Chicago’s South Side.

The 14th floor window at the Ida B. Wells complex on Feb. 28, 1996, in Chicago. This is the window where two boys dangled and dropped Eric Morse, 5, on Oct. 13, 1994, when he refused to steal candy for them. (Bill Hogan/Chicago Tribune)
The 14th floor window at the Ida B. Wells complex on Feb. 28, 1996, in Chicago. This is the window where two boys dangled and dropped Eric Morse, 5, on Oct. 13, 1994, when he refused to steal candy for them. (Bill Hogan/Chicago Tribune)

1995: Jesse Rankins, 11, and Tykeece Johnson, 12, were found guilty of killing Eric Morse, 5, by dropping him from the 14th floor of the Ida B. Wells public housing complex for refusing to steal candy from a store.

Illinois reacted swiftly to the boys’ arrest for Morse’s murder, enacting a new law that lowered the age to 10 from 13 at which offenders could be sentenced to prison.

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