TOM HARMON THE GREAT GRIDIRON PLOT- USED , FAIR, COLL

• Tom Harmon and the Great Gridiron Plot * Subtitle: An Original Story Featuring Tom Harmon, Famous Football Star, as the Hero

• Author: Jay Dender

• Illustrator: Henry E. Vallely

• Publisher: Whitman Publishing Company (Racine, Wisconsin)

• Copyright Date: 1946

• Format: Hardcover with textured cloth boards, black-stained page edges, and illustrated endpapers.

Historical & Content Background

During the 1940s, Whitman Publishing was famous for producing authorized "Big Little Books" and juvenile adventure novels featuring real-life celebrities, movie stars, and sports heroes as fictionalized protagonists (they did similar series for Shirley Temple, Gene Autry, and Joe DiMaggio).

The hero of this book, Tom Harmon ("Old 98"), was one of the greatest college football players of all time. Playing for the University of Michigan, he won the Heisman Trophy in 1940. After college, he became a heroic World War II pilot—surviving two separate plane crashes—before returning to play briefly in the NFL and launching a massive career as a sports broadcaster. (Fun pop-culture fact: he is also the father of actor Mark Harmon from NCIS).

This book is a fictionalized, wholesome adventure aimed at young boys, featuring Harmon solving a dramatic plot centered around the football gridiron. The illustrated endpapers (shown in your second photo) perfectly showcase the classic, dynamic 1940s comic-book style of sports illustration.