Growing up Grossman
He's a win away now from being a Super Bowl champ. But 'Little Rex' once had some big shoes to fill as he followed in his famous football family's footsteps.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- They still call him Little Rex because they remember his father dressing him up in a shirt and tie and bringing him to the eye clinic, where he would carry patient files to and from the reception desk in both arms like firewood.
The ladies who worked for Dr. Dan Grossman as receptionists and administrators were all winks and smiles on those days. They doted on the Bears' future quarterback. ''What's your name?'' they would ask again and again. The Beaver Cleaver look-alike would roll his eyes in exasperation. They knew darned well what his name was. He had told them a dozen times already.
''Wex Waniel Gwossman da turd,'' he would say proudly, and the office would erupt with laughter all over again.
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
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Ask old-timers in this south-central Indiana college town about Rex Grossman and they'll spin stories about the former Indiana star who played for the Baltimore Colts and Detroit Lions before starting a successful construction business.
Then there is Rex Daniel Grossman Jr., or Middle Rex, otherwise known as Dr. Dan. Big Rex's son and Little Rex's father was an all-state quarterback who set passing records at Bloomington South High School that stood until his younger brother Frank ''Dobby'' Grossman came along and threw 36 touchdown passes. Dobby's records stood until Rex came along and threw 44.
Dan switched to linebacker at IU. Dobby came off the bench to star for South Carolina in 1972 before transferring to IU and quarterbacking the Hoosiers in 1975. Dan and Dobby's older sister married the late Terry Cole, who starred on Indiana's 1967 Rose Bowl team and played for the Colts and Dolphins, appearing in Super Bowls III and VI.
Then there's Little Rex, who ensured the Grossmans' legacy as Bloomington's First Family of Football extended to his generation. He was named Indiana's Mr. Football and a Parade All-American after leading South to a state championship. Then it was on to the University of Florida, where he was the 2001 AP national player of the year before being a first-round draft pick of the Bears.
''He's just a really, really good kid from a great family and that combination has enabled him to do what he has done,'' said former Indiana and current Texas Tech basketball coach Bob Knight.
It's his family that gets overlooked by those outside Bloomington. Everybody knows about ex-Saints quarterback Archie Manning and his famous sons. Few know that Grossman is as much a product of a family's legacy and a father's vision as Peyton Manning, the future Hall of Fame quarterback who will oppose Little Rex and the Bears in Super Bowl XLI.
Little Rex's story begins with Dan, who has been the most influential person in his life. Dan's story begins with Big Rex, who molded him into the man he is today. Therefore, any attempt to tell the story of these three Rex Grossmans must begin with the first generation and the man who fascinates the grandson he never knew and spawned this Midwestern football legacy.
''Rex has always been fascinated by Rex Sr.,'' said Dan's mom Nancy Anderson. ''He's a myth to him.''
Rex won't deny it. He has always treasured a publicity photograph of his grandfather wearing his Colts uniform. His thick shock of blond hair is parted to the side. The expression is more grimace than smile. A football is tucked under his arm.
Big Rex died two months before his grandson was born, which only made his legend grow in the eyes of a kid who grew up with the game in his blood and a ball in his crib. Little Rex heard stories about how tough his grandfather was, about how he had been a quarterback, linebacker, kicker and punter at Indiana and had booted the field goal that beat arch-rival Purdue in 1947.
He'd seen a copy of the contract Big Rex signed paying him $6,000 per season plus $1,000 in moving expenses and the full-page publicity sketch that had once run in a Baltimore newspaper: ''Rex Grossman, Colt fullback, is the high-scoring toe artist of the All-American Conference ahead of such veteran stars as Ben Agajanian, Lou Groza and Joe Vetrano ...''
Big Rex was an influential homebuilder who was well-liked and well-known throughout the community and the state. He was a man of his generation who rarely showed emotion and believed in timeless American values. He was a man's man who got things done almost as if by the force of his indomitable will. A strict disciplinarian, he could laugh one minute and rage the next.
''Bobby Knight is about as famously intense as it gets, and I've been in the locker room with Bobby, and my dad made Bobby look mild,'' Dan said. ''Bobby would've backed down from my dad. If he got mad you got out of the way.''
Big Rex started a youth football league in Bloomington and coached his sons with an intensity others may have found disconcerting. He took great pride in their high school careers and attended as many of their college games as possible.
''He cried once,'' said Anderson, who later remarried. ''We were in Kentucky watching Danny play. He was restless. He called a motel in Columbia, South Carolina, and asked if they could put the radio on so he could hear what was going on with Dobby. He came back in tears. He said, 'The little son of a bitch threw three touchdown passes in the first half.'''
Dobby would spend the next 30 years struggling with bipolar disorder while Dan became a doctor of ophthalmology. Big Rex died of a massive heart attack a few months before Dan opened his eye-surgery center in 1980. He was 56.
''Dan never got over it, really,'' said Charlene Allen, who has worked at the clinic for 27 years. ''Ever.''
Dan Grossman inherited his father's intensity and can-do attitude. He crackles with energy as he greets patients in the well-appointed lobby of his Bloomington clinic. His coarse, graying hair is neatly combed, his white shirt freshly starched and his silk tie meticulously knotted. Watch him interact with patients and staff and there is no doubt this is a man used to being in charge.
As his surgery center grew so did his wealth and influence and the notoriety of the Grossman name.
''It's a name identified with passion and excellence and affluence,'' said Dr. Chad Huck, who works in Grossman's clinic.
Dan and his wife Maureen bought a 100-acre horse farm in 1983 and began raising Arabians a few year later. When it came to their children, excellence was expected and achieved. Daughters Amy and Ashley began competing in horse shows and the trophies accumulated. They began swimming competitively and became state champions.
Rex, the youngest of three, had little interest in horses. He was expected to tag along if the girls were competing, even if he couldn't sit still for long. He and Dan would sneak outside the arena and throw the football.
''When I babysat him, the footballs were always flying,'' Allen said. ''There were always footballs.''
Dan took the blueprint Big Rex used to mold him and Dobby into elite quarterbacks to a different level. Not only did he coach Little Rex's youth football team in the league Big Rex founded but he sponsored the team as well.
The ''Arabian Cowboys'' had by far the most demanding coach in the league and Little Rex had by far the most demanding parent.
''He drew his own line [as a parent],'' Huck said. ''It might be different from the one you might draw but he was very consistent with it.''
Huck, who also played quarterback at Indiana, remembers watching the Arabian Cowboys practice. Dan was so singularly focused he didn't see Huck standing a few yards away. When Rex jumped offsides Dan blew up. Huck smiles at the image Little Rex, his helmet on crooked, his shoulder pads slapping, running laps around the park while his teammates continued to practice.
''Dr. Dan and I were playing basketball at the YMCA at 5:30 one morning,'' Huck remembered. ''Rex happened to come along. We were playing against some stiffs. This was not competitive basketball, just a bunch of old guys running up an down the court to break a sweat, and here's Rex getting severely challenged by his father about his mental approach to the game.''
When he struck out looking to end a baseball game he rid himself of the shame and humiliation he felt by spending two hours at the batting cage with his father hammering fastball after fastball. It was not uncommon for Dan to wake his son at 5 a.m. for a 5-mile run. Evenings were often spent in the yard working on his accuracy and mechanics.
His education continued at Assembly Hall where Rex watched Knight stalk the sideline from seats four rows behind the Hoosiers' bench. Little Rex attended Knight's basketball camps every summer and went on occasional road trips.
''He wasn't a particularly good player but he rebounded and played hard and was a hell of a football player and a nice, courteous kid,'' Knight said. ''He was very respectful. He was the kind of kid you really liked.''
He hung out in the IU locker room after football games, meeting Hoosier stars such as Trent Green and Vaughn Dunbar. Running back Anthony Thompson worked on the Grossman's farm one summer. Sundays were spent in Indianapolis watching Jim Harbaugh and, later, Manning quarterback the Colts. The Grossmans bought season tickets when the Colts first moved from Baltimore in 1984.
It was a privileged life for an aspiring athlete, but Little Rex was far from spoiled.
''Since Rex was in seventh grade he always had a summer job,'' childhood friend Joey Mackey said. ''He worked on the farm and was a cable guy for a summer. Even though he was from one of the wealthier families in Bloomington, his father tried to instill in him the value of a dollar, which was good for Rex. He earned everything that came his way.''
The farm was the ideal setting for an elite athlete in training. There was a basketball court, a football field and a swimming pool. The farm became a gathering place for Rex and his friends. It was in the yard outside where they would play endless ''triathlons'' consisting of three competitions in three different sports on the same afternoon.
One childhood friend described Rex as perpetually walking a tight rope between confidence and humility, which may be what has made him such a popular teammate and respected leader. Back then everybody wanted to be on his team because it almost always meant they were going to win.
When they tired of competing against themselves they went to IU and played pick-up games against college kids.
''Everybody knew the Grossmans and everybody knew Rex Grossman,'' Mackey said. ''That name carries in that town. Rex was one of those kids growing up that everybody wanted to hang out with.''
A constant source of friction between father and son were Rex's grades. Little Rex's behind-the-scenes glimpses into the world of elite athletics, coupled with all the stories he'd heard about his father and uncles playing at IU, made playing major-college football an obtainable goal. But Little Rex set his sights higher. He wanted to go where Big Rex had gone and beyond.
For him, playing pro football was not a faraway dream. From a young age he was convinced he would play in the NFL. Dan, an academic All-American in college, knew how fleeting that dream could be.
Even in college Rex liked to joke that he was ''majoring in football.'' It irked Dan.
''Dan was very vexed with Rex about his schoolwork,'' Anderson said. ''Rex just wanted to play football. It was frustrating for Dan, who had been to medical school. Now they are about as close as a father and son can be.''
A huge banner that spells out ''Go Rex!'' in navy and orange hangs above the waiting room. The receptionists, administrators and nurses are all wearing white Rex Grossman jerseys. Dan Grossman's eye clinic is always a bustling place but it was madness last week.
The Los Angeles Times was on Line 1, ESPN was on Line 2 and a Colts season-ticket holder on Line 3 wanted to sell the Grossman's her Super Bowl XLI tickets for $5,000 each. Local television crews were showing up at the door requesting interviews.
They knew this could happen. After Rex had been drafted by the Bears they had joked about the possibility of him playing the Colts in the Super Bowl some day but nothing could've prepared them for this.
''People need to understand this is a real person and a real family in an extraordinary situation,'' said long-time employee Jamie Lanham.
Although the clinic is in Colts country, it is the Rex Grossman fan club's unofficial headquarters. The walls of Dan Grossman's office are covered with photographs and his son's framed jerseys. Say anything negative about Little Rex, whom everybody here has known since he carried files and escorted patients to and from examination rooms more than 20 years ago, and expect an icy stare. They used to clip and pin every article about Rex to a bulletin board in the hallway. They had to be more selective after the articles became less flattering.
''The pessimism in Chicago kills me,'' said Ben Boone, one of Rex's best friends. ''They really beat their quarterbacks into the ground. I don't get it. Look at the year they've had. I've been scratching my head all year. I've been learning the Chicago way, I guess.''
They admit they are biased and have been taken aback by what they believe is undue criticism. Grossman has led a quarterback-starved franchise to the Super Bowl in his first full season and all anybody wants to do is complain, or so it seems to them.
''People concentrate on the bad games,'' Dan said. ''I guess it's human nature. But he's had a lot more good-to-great games. Why does everyone worry about him having a bad game instead of dreaming about him having a great game?''
It's never easy to get an interview with Knight, but when he learns the subject is Little Rex he calls back immediately.
The controversial coach is a card-carrying member of the Rex Grossman fan club, too.
''There is nobody in sports who is a bigger admirer of competitors than I am, and for that reason I am a great admirer of Rex Grossman's because I know how hard that kid competes,'' Knight said.
Patients ask Allen and Lanham if they are torn between rooting for the hometown Colts or the Bears. They can't believe anybody would ask such a question. If the Colts were playing any team but the Bears they would be rooting for Indianapolis but their loyalty to the two Rexes they know and the one they have only heard stories about is absolute.
''He would be extremely proud of how he has played and more impressed by the way he has handled himself,'' Dan said when asked what Big Rex would make of all this. ''He would be rooting like hell for him to win. I guarantee you he has God on the Bears' side.''
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''I was in second grade. It was my first contact football game ever, full pads and everything. I was playing fullback. My dad was the coach. Fullback dive left. I took it 60 yards for a touchdown on the first play. I remember breaking through the defense and looking around like, 'Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing?' I continued on for a touchdown. I have so many memories. But I started out having such a great time. My dad was my coach from second grade to sixth grade. I remember playing linebacker and running back and just really loving the game.''
What was it like to play for your dad?
''He was tough. He was tough. He was hard on everybody in a good way that allowed people to respond to it. Not in a belittling way. He was hard on people to get the intensity out of them. Instead of knocking people or being sarcastic about it he found a way to get the intensity and focus out of people. Even though they were second-to-sixth graders he treated them like they were tough kids. Some kids could handle it and some couldn't. The good players definitely responded well to it.''
What was it like growing up in such a big football family?
''Growing up, my dad was so involved. We'd go to every single IU game and sometimes we'd go to spring practices and go into the coaches' area in the locker room and stuff. It was pretty cool to do that, especially as a young guy, to feel like you're somewhat a part of a program. Then I would hear stories about my uncle and my dad and grandpa playing at IU and about what they did at [Bloomington] South [High School]. My uncle and my dad were all-state. Their plaques are on the wall. It was pretty cool growing up in a football family.''
What do you know about your grandfather Rex Sr.?
''He died before I was born. I never met him. I just heard stories about how intense and tough and feisty he was and how he was just a great guy. Specific football stuff I never really got into as much as him as a person. I just saw pictures and plaques and stuff. I don't know a ton about his football career but I know he was a great guy and hard working. A lot of the things my dad taught me he taught him as well, as far as having integrity and working hard and having fun, all that stuff.''
What was it like having Bobby Knight as a friend of the family?
''That story is probably blown out of proportion a little bit. He was friends with my dad. My dad was an eye doctor so he would refer some of his players to him. My dad and I went on a road trip with them to the Michigan game when they were playing the Fab Five. We went on a couple other road trips with them and we went to practice every once in a while but it's not like coach Knight would get done with practice and come over for a drink or hang out. It wasn't like he would hang out at the house or anything.''
Were people in Bloomington upset that you decided to play at Florida (above) instead of Indiana?
''Not at all. It wasn't even talked about really. ... I wanted to get a way a little bit. ... Growing up I had a great situation, great family, great farm, great house, basketball court, football field, pool, everything was right there about seven or eight minutes from campus. I'd been living at IU for what felt like eight years. I wanted to experience something else. I didn't want to live in Bloomington my whole life and then go to school in Bloomington.''
Does growing up in the Midwest help you better identify with Bears fans?
''I've been watching football on Sundays knowing the tradition of this team and how it basically started the NFL with George Halas. I didn't know that at a young age but I always knew the Bears. They were the NFC team in our area. I watched a lot of Bears games. One thing going into the draft I kind of wanted to go to a team that was deep in tradition. I can identify with the helmet and understand Dick Butkus and Walter Payton. All their numbers are retired and their pictures are up in Halas Hall. It's pretty cool. And Chicago is the best city in the country. There's only one football team in town, there's a brand new stadium and it's close to Bloomington. There's a lot I love about being in this situation.''