Grantland Rice

Henry Grantland Rice (November 1, 1880 – July 13, 1954) was a sportswriter, columnist, and poet from Tennessee known as the "Dean of American Sports Writers". He published three books of poetry, and coined the famous phrase that it was not important whether you “won or lost, but how you played the game.” His writing was known for its elegance and published in newspapers around the country, and broadcast on the radio. He and his writing are among the reasons that the roaring 1920s in the United States are sometimes referred to as the "Golden Age of Sports".

In 1924, he nicknamed the Notre Dame backfield the "Four Horsemen". In 1925 he replaced Walter Camp in selecting college football All-America teams. Rice set out to make heroes of sports figures who impressed him, most notably in baseball Babe Ruth, in boxing Jack Dempsey, in football Red Grange and Knute Rockne, in golf Bobby Jones and Babe Didrikson, and in tennis Bill Tilden.