Charles. C. Pyle was born circa 1882 in Delaware, Ohio, the son of a Methodist minister. He attended college at Ohio Wesleyan.
Pyle tried making his mark at a number of occupations before settling in on sports promotion. As a salesman of time clocks for the Western Union Telegraph Company, he had better luck selling his railroad passes than the clocks. He also tried boxing and acting before he settled in Chicago, Illinois in 1910 and managed a string of movie theaters.
One of those theaters was in Champaign, Illinois and it was here that Pyle hatched a plan and approached Harold “Red” Grange, star of the University of Illinois football team, with the idea of turning pro. 1925 was the last year for Grange to play ball for a college team and Pyle signed him on with the Chicago Bears. Pyle’s tactic was to line up “endorsements” for Grange and take a cut, as well as a 50/50 split of the gate receipts. Pyle also arranged a Hollywood contract for Grange which is rumored to have been worth a lot of money. Grange was sidelined with a knee injury in 1927 and “retired” from football in 1928.
While Pyle was enjoying the success of Grange’s football career, he also organized a very successful American tour for French tennis star Suzanne Lenglen in 1926.
While the 1928 Bunion Derby failed to make the kind of money Pyle believed it would he was still convinced that it was a good idea. He organized a run back to Los Angeles, California in 1929. This time there was no one to bail him out at the end of the line. John Salo and Peter Gavuzzi came in first and second, but never received their prize money.
Pyle talked about other “marathon” events after the Bunion Derbies of 1928 and 1929, but didn’t manage to get anything off the ground. He suffered a stroke and turned up next at the Chicago World’s Fair, managing “Ripley’s Believe it or Not”. He married Elvia Allman Tourtellotte, a radio comedienne in 1937 and was president of the Radio Transcription Company, which prepared recordings for radio broadcasts.
Pyle died in February of 1939 at 57 years of age.