NIC-10's 100 Greatest Football Players: No. 86 - LaVerne Grell, Freeport

LaVerne Grell, nearly 100 years after graduating from Freeport High School, remains perhaps the most accomplished high school football player in NIC-10 history.

Grell was a three-time All-Big 7 player for the Pretzels in 1923, 1924 and 1925. He was the unquestioned leader of the 1924 and 1925 Freeport teams that remain on the short list of most dominant teams ever put together in the Northern Illinois Conference.

Freeport went 3-3 in 1923 and Grell earned the all-conference nod by leading the team with four touchdown passes and adding one TD run.

In 1924, the Pretzels were a perfect 11-0, scoring 278 points and giving up just 47. Freeport beat Chicago Englewood, 33-10, in what was billed as a state championship game and then traveled to Connecticut for a mythical national championship game. It was no contest as Freeport knocked off Ansonia, 33-0, behind Grell's three touchdown runs and 40-yard TD pass.

For the year, Grell had at least eight touchdown runs and two TD passes. Not every game summary made it into the Rockford newspapers.

In 1925, somehow, Freeport was even better, going 10-0 while scoring 249 points and giving up just 10. Freeport clinched the Big 7 title by crushing second-place Rockford, 67-0, behind Grell's five TD passes and a 40-yard TD run. Freeport then beat Chicago Bowen, 21-0, to claim the Illinois title and hopped on a train to beat Elwood City, Pennsylvania, 13-7, for another mythical national title.

In the 24 games where we could find scoring summaries, Grell ran for 17 touchdowns and passed for 18. The Chicago Defender named him to its All-State teams in 1924 and 1925.

What's interesting is that in the 1920s, the top players from the Big 7 routinely graduated to the Big Ten. None of the players from those great Pretzels teams, however, played major college football. Grell did play two college seasons. The first, in 1926, at Columbia College in Dubuque, Iowa, now know as Loras. The second, in 1927, at Whitewater Teacher's College, what is now known as UW-Whitewater. A paragraph in the Whitewater yearbook described Grell as "an all-star quarterback."

Still, Grell is one of the rare players who made this list almost entirely on his high school accomplishments.

After college, went to work at the Sterling Brewing Company in Freeport. He was killed in 1938 at the age of 31 in a workplace accident.

No. 86 - LaVerne Grell, Freeport
Year	Level	School	Accomplishments	Points
1923	High School	Freeport	First Team All-Conference	2
			Winning Team	1
1924	High School	Freeport	First Team All-Conference	2
			All-State	1
			League Leader (touchdowns)	1
			Conference Champion	1
			Playoff Team	1
			State/National Champion	1
1925	High School	Freeport	First Team All-Conference	2
			All-State	1
			League Leader (touchdowns)	1
			Conference Champion	1
			Playoff Team	1
			State/National Champion	1
1926	College	Dubuque (Loras)	Division III Player	1
1927	College	UW-Whitewater	Division III Player	1
			Starter	1
			Winning Team	1
Total				21

NIC-10's 100 Greatest Football Players

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