Classic No Mas - Mmm... sports

(Here's my post from October 18th of last year. Of course, the Reggie anniversary is a little more monumental and deserves its own post. It's forthcoming. Until then...)

On October 18, 1924, Harold “Red” Grange gave the greatest performance ever by a football player in a single game. He led his Fighting Illini to victory over the University of Michigan by running back the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, and then breaking off touchdown runs of 67, 56 and 44 yards in the next ten minutes. In the second half, he rushed for another touchdown and then passed for one, lest anyone think he couldn’t throw. It was an outing that inspired a poem, Grantland Rice’s epic “The Galloping Ghost,” and more importantly, it was the cornerstone of a legend that allowed Grange to later become the first professional athlete to have his own candy bar.

In the annals of athlete candy, though, the Grange bar seems almost a footnote when compared to the impact of the Reggie bar. And Reggie probably never would have gotten his bar without his heroics on October 18, 1977, game six of the Yankees/Dodgers World Series. Three pitches, three swings, three home runs, and a superstar became a stratospheric phenomenon. By opening day of the '78 season, the Reggie bar was ready for its debut, handed to fans as they entered Yankee Stadium. When Jackson hit a home run in the game, fans threw the bars on the field in celebration. Ever sensitive, Jackson later said he thought they were doing this because they didn’t like the candy.