CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Outside the west columns of 101-year-old Memorial Stadium sits Grange Grove, a prime tailgating spot filled to capacity with orange-and-blue tents on most Illinois game days.

Red Grange was rich. He was famous. He was near the end of his career, a shell of his former self after a severe knee injury five years earlier. Yet there he was, on Dec. 17, 1933, at Wrigley Field, ...