Knute Rockne

1888-1931

American college football coach

Knute Rockne holds college football's record for career wins as a coach. Rockne led Notre Dame's "Fighting Irish" team for 13 seasons before his untimely death in 1931, and made the Indiana school a powerhouse in the game during its day. Known for his spirited, if sometimes truth-stretching, team pep talks, Rockne helped popularize the sport at the college level and bring it—and his team—to national prominence. He revolutionized the game by introducing new strategies and techniques, still in use more than seventy years after his death.

Rockne was a native of Norway, born in a town called Voss in 1888, and came with his family to the Chicago area when he was five. They settled in a heavily Scandinavian neighborhood near Logan Square, and as a teen Rockne emerged as a star high-school athlete, though he was not particular impressive in size. He played football and baseball, and was a standout on the track team as a pole vaulter as well. He left school without graduating in 1905 after facing disciplinary measures for cutting class in order to practice track. He worked in the Chicago post office for four years as a mail handler and dispatcher, and when two friends enrolled at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, they encouraged him to join them at the Catholic school. A gifted student, Rockne worked as a janitor in the chemistry department to help pay his expenses, and began playing for its football team in 1911 as a fullback and left end.

Rockne captained the Notre Dame team during his senior year, leading the team to its third undefeated season. In one of college football's most famous plays, he and his roommate, Gus Dorais, used an impressive forward pass in a game against Army that made gridiron history. With the West Point Cadets heavily favored to win, Rockne faked a limp on the field, and when Dorais threw a forward pass, he caught it running. "In 1913, you did two things with a football: You ran with it or you kicked it," explained Los Angeles Times writer Earl Gustkey, and described the passing-and-running plays the two completed as "football's first all-out air attack." Notre Dame won the game, 35-13.

After he graduated magna cum laude in 1914 with a pharmacy degree, Rockne's application to enter the medical school at St. Louis University was rejected, and he took a job instead as a chemistry teacher at Notre Dame and assistant football coach. He became head coach in 1917, and though the team's first full season under him was a dismal one, with many top players serving in the U.S. military as the country entered World War I, Rockne's 1919 team finished its first unbeaten season under his watch. They repeated the feat the next year, and for the 1921 contest against rival Army, a record crowd of 20,000 turned out.

In all, Rockne would have five unbeaten, untied seasons as Notre Dame coach, and he modernized the game of football along the way. Prior to his era, teams huddled in compact groups and fought for the ball in contests of physical strength. Rockne introduced the box formation and influence blocking, and made the game more exciting for spectators with a strategy that emphasized deception and speed. He instituted what came to be called the "Notre Dame shift," also known as the precision backfield move. These and other moves perfected under Rockne were such crowd-pleasers—and so effective in eliminating opponents—that other coaches banded together and attempted have some of them barred from the official rulebook. He also began what developed into platoon football, using groups of players in various formations in an attempt to wear down the opposing team.

Notre Dame alumni and American Catholics became some of the Fighting Irish's most devoted fans. "Rock," as he was called, was regularly celebrated in newspapers and magazines for his coaching abilities, but his ability to turn a good phrase also made him famous. He was one of the first coaches to cultivate and publicize star players like George Gipp, an all-purpose back. In his 1924 season—the first in which Notre Dame finished with a national championship title—Rockne relied heavily on a quartet of players trumpeted by sportswriters as the "Four Horsemen of Notre Dame," Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, James Crowley, and Elmer Layden.

The 1928 season proved the Fighting Irish's worst under Rockne, with a 5-4 season finish. In one showdown that year-yet again against Army-Rockne allegedly told his losing team at halftime to "win one for the Gipper," a phrase that later gained currency through a 1940 film that starred Ronald Reagan as the gridiron hero Gipp. That day, the Irish rallied and routed Army in a game that ended 12-6. The team won two more national titles, in 1929 and 1930. By then Rockne had become Notre Dame's athletic director and designed a new stadium to hold the record home crowds.

Rockne was one of the most celebrated Americans of his era. He wrote a regular newspaper column and authored two books; he also began a second career as a motivational speaker under contract with the Studebaker Corporation, a South Bend auto maker, to deliver inspirational speeches to its sales force. Rockne even launched his own automobile company in 1931, but movie offers also came his way, and Rockne was on his way to Los Angeles to discuss one project when the plane carrying him crashed in a Kansas wheat field. The March 31, 1931 accident killed all aboard. International condolences poured in, and even U.S. President Herbert Hoover sent a telegram that called his death "a national loss."

Rockne was survived by a wife and four children. He was inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1951. His every successor as Notre Dame coach has endured the inevitable comparisons. During the 2002 season, Rockne's mythic greatness was still a vivid presence: students and supporters of the Fighting Irish, elated about the wins under a new coach Tyrone Willingham—the first African-American to hold the job at the school—took to wearing t-shirts emblazoned with one of Rockne's famous phrases, "Return to Glory."

SELECTED WRITINGS BY ROCKNE:

The Autobiography of Knute K. Rockne. Edited, with prefatory note, by Bonnie Skiles Rockne (Mrs. Knute K. Rockne) and with introduction and postscript by Father John Cavanaugh, C.S.C.; illustrated from photographs. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1931.

Chronology

Coaching: The Way of the Winner. New York: Devin-Adair, 1931.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

"Rockne, Knute." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd edition. Detroit: Gale, 1998.

Wallace, Francis. Knute Rockne. New York: Doubleday, 1960.

Periodicals

Drape, Joe. "Return to Glory? For Notre Dame, the Answer Just Might Be Yes." New York Times (September 15, 2002): 1.

Gustkey, Earl. "A Day-by-Day Recap of Some of the Most Important Sports Moments of the 20th Century." Los Angeles Times (January 6, 1999): 6.

Gustkey, Earl. "Rockne's Last Game Produced National Title." Los Angeles Times (December 6, 1999): D14.

Heller, Dick. "When Notre Dame Learned How to Win one for the Gipper." Washington Times (November 13, 2000): 14.

Sketch by Carol Brennan

Awards and Accomplishments

ROCKNE, KNUTE 1888-1931

Legendary football coach

Creator

Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne was a primary creator of modern football and of the modern college football hero. An astute promoter of the game, Rockne had an actor's gift for dramatic oratory and gesture, with which he inspired his players to near-religious fervor and captivated the popular press and throngs of spectators who felt themselves part—perhaps for the first time—of the drama played out weekly on the gridiron. Rockne changed the spectator's connection to the game, making the play literally more visible to large crowds. In the process he produced athlete-heroes for whom audiences could cheer and with whom they could identify: George Gipp, the Four Horsemen, and the Seven Mules.

Smart Football

Before the 1920s football formations characteristically featured tight knots of players smashing together in contests of strength that resembled rugby scrums. Rockne opened up the game by instituting his famous "box formation" and a system that emphasized speed and deception rather than brute force. His "smart football" plays were designed for long, game-breaking—and crowd-pleasing—touchdowns rather than the standard slow, grinding, three-yard power plays. He introduced "brush" or "influence" blocking that allowed smaller but faster linemen who complemented his small, fast backfield. These slighter, quicker athletes were necessary for the Notre Dame "shift," a carefully choreographed movement of players designed to spread the offense and defense. The shift worked so well that the rules committee of the Coaches Association twice tried to have it banned.

Early Life

Born in Voss, Norway, Rockne moved with his family to the north side of Chicago when he was five years old. The boy loved athletics, particularly football and track, and when he cut highschool classes to practice for a track meet, school officials suspended him and told him to transfer to another school. Instead, although he was an excellent math and history student and was close to graduation, Rockne dropped out of high school in 1905. He worked at various odd jobs and in 1907 decided to take the Civil Service Examination. His essay for the written section of the exam, "The Advisability of Our Having a Larger Navy Is Becoming Greater Since Japan Whipped Russia," revealed his interest in history and his colorful style. Later, proud of his writing skills, he would publish one nonfiction book, Coaching (1925), and a novel, The Four Winners (1925).

Student Athlete

Though a Lutheran, Rockne enrolled at Notre Dame, a Roman Catholic college, because the school had a history of providing employment for poor but bright students. He worked as a janitor in the chemistry laboratory and, at five feet eight inches and 165 pounds, started at left end on the 1911, 1912, and 1913 teams. The undefeated Notre Dame teams of 1911-1913 won twenty and tied twice, scored 879 points to their opponents' 77, defeating them by an average of forty to three a game. The team's greatest moment was Notre Dame's stunning 35-13 victory over powerhouse Army on 1 November 1913, the win that, according to Michael R. Steele, "changed forever the game of football." Rockne, a team leader and primary originator of the strategy, faked a limp, causing the Army defenders to neglect him as a receiver. At a key moment quarterback Gus Dorias threw a long pass to Rockne, who caught the ball in full stride. From then on, when Army defended against the pass, Notre Dame ran the ball; when Army defended against the run, Notre Dame passed. It was this balanced attack and use of deception (the pass used to set up the run) rather than a nearly exclusive use of the forward pass, as most accounts have it, that surprised Army and changed the strategy of college football. Rockne graduated from Notre Dame magna cum laude with a major in chemistry and pharmacology and applied to Saint Louis University's medical school. He was denied admission since school officials believed that coaching football—one of Rockne's stated intentions—and studying medicine were incompatible.

Early Coaching Career

After graduation Rockne was hired by Notre Dame as a chemistry instructor, head track coach, and assistant football coach. He served as an assistant for four years until 1917, when head football coach Jesse Harper resigned and Rockne assumed his position. Because young men were volunteering in large numbers for military service, the 1918 season was virtually canceled, but after the war American sports began its Golden Era, with the return to campuses of veterans and with the public's growing demand for athlete-heroes.

George Gipp

The decade of the 1920s was Rockne's greatest period, as he perfected his teams' running and passing games and their mastery of deceptive strategy. He also created football idols who captured the American imagination. George Gipp was one. By nature he was a rebel, willing to be indulged by rich, powerful alumni and disdainful of the somewhat sentimental, golden boy image of athletes espoused by his coach. He broke training rules, missed practice for three weeks, gambled openly, and was a superb halfback In his first college game, Gipp was told to punt but instead drop-kicked a sixty-two-yard field goal from his thirty-eight yard line, giving Notre Dame its margin of victory over Western State Normal. This kick remains one of the longest field goals in college records. In his twenty-six varsity games, Gipp ran for more than one hundred yards on ten different occasions and accumulated 4,833 total yards as a ballcarrier, passer, receiver, and returner, a total of 185 yards produced every time he played a game.

Gipp's Death

In his senior year, the Notre Dame-Northwestern game was designated "George Gipp Day." Gipp, who had a high fever, did not play for three quarters, but the crowd chanted for his appearance. Rockne put him in during the fourth quarter, and he threw two long touchdown passes. However, the hero's days were numbered; his illness turned into pneumonia, and he died on 14 December 1920. The legendary deathbed conversation between Rockne and Gipp has been met with skepticism, but eight years later Rockne did use the famous "Win one for the Gipper" to inspire Notre Dame to a 12-6 victory over a tough Army team during his worst season as a coach.

The Four Horsemen

In 1922 Rockne brought in Elmer Layden at fullback to join Jim Crowley at left halfback, Don Miller at right halfback, and Harry Stuhldreher at quarterback. Though small and light, averaging 158.5 pounds, this backfield was one of the greatest in college football history. Quick and resourceful, the four backs functioned as not individual stars but instead as a well-organized unit, thereby providing the perfect vehicle for executing Rockne's sophisticated plays. The Notre Dame backfield became known as the Four Horsemen, so-named in sportswriter Grantland Rice's famous description: "Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they were known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction, and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley, and Layden." To complement the Four Horsemen and perhaps to emphasize their crucial but less glamorous function, the Notre Dame linemen were nicknamed the Seven Mules. The 1924 team was undefeated in nine regular season games and scored 258 points to their opponents' 44, beating them by an average of 28-5. Notre Dame was invited to play Pop Warner's Stanford team led by Ernie Nevers in the 1925 Rose Bowl game. Though Stanford outgained Notre Dame 310 to 182 yards, the Irish won 27-10.

Final Years

Toward the end of his career, as Rockne became increasingly concerned with insuring the financial security of his family, he made himself a familiar voice on the lecture circuit and began to explore opportunities in Hollywood. On 31 March 1931 during a flight to California, his plane crashed, killing all aboard. At his memorial service Rockne was eulogized as one of America's greatest college football coaches and as a molder of young men. He clearly belonged to a decade in which heroes were created and adored as embodiments of the American dream of success and glory.

Sources:

Ken Chowder, "When Notre Dame needed inspiration, Rockne provided it," Smithsonian, 24 (November 1993): 164-177;

Michael R. Steele, Knute Rockne: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983);

Wells Twombly, Shake Down the Thunder (Radnor, Pa.: Chilton, 1974).

Knute Rockne

Knute Rockne (1888-1931), a genius in the sport of football, became an American folk hero and left his stamp of greatness on the entire sport.

Knute Rockne was born on March 4, 1888, in Voss, Norway. In 1891 his father came to America to exhibit his carriage-building art at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and 18 months later he sent for his family. Swiftly absorbed in the Chicago melting pot, Knute played football and baseball (and had his nose permanently flattened by a carelessly swung bat). In high school he also ran on the track team and pole-vaulted.

Lacking the finances to enroll at the University of Illinois, Rockne worked in a post office for 4 years. For exercise he ran or vaulted. Two foot-racing buddies begged him to matriculate at Notre Dame University; he reluctantly joined them. Before he impressed athletic coaches with his physical prowess, Rockne dazzled professors with his brilliant mind. (He graduated summa cum laude. ) His roommate was Gus Dorais, quarterback on the Notre Dame football team. In 1913 the two experimented with forward-passing techniques, a stratagem that was legal but little used.

That autumn top-ranking West Point invited little-known Notre Dame to fill a schedule opening: the result stunned the football world. Dorais passed to Rockne for the first touchdown; Notre Dame took the game. The forward-passing show revolutionized football.

After graduation Knute married Bonnie Skiles. Notre Dame named him assistant football coach, head track coach, and chemistry professor. By 1918 he was head football coach; a season later he had his first unbeaten team. As a strategist, Rockne was imaginative and inventive. With his Notre Dame team, he became the top-ranking coach in the history of intercollegiate football, with a winning average of .897. He produced five unbeaten and united teams. But it was Rockne's witty, dynamic personality that dominated every gathering. He was not only a spellbinding orator but a funny one as well.

Rockne had not even approached his peak when he died in a plane crash on March 31, 1931. The nation mourned. The President of the United States sent condolences to his widow; so did the king of Norway. Knute's death was front-page news in every paper in America, and editorials lavished praise on the immigrant boy who had become one of America's best-loved figures.

Further Reading

Generally regarded as authoritative biographies are Arthur Daley, Knute Rockne: Football Wizard of Notre Dame (1960), and Francis Wallace, Knute Rockne (1960). A wealth of detail on Rockne is in Wallace's The Notre Dame Story (1949).

Additional Sources

Brondfield, Jerry, Rockne, the coach, the man, the legend, New York: Random House, 1976.

Knute Rockne, his life and legend: based on the unfinished autobiography of Knute Rockne, United States: October Football Corp., 1988.

Steele, Michael R., Knute Rockne, a bio-bibliography, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983. □

Knute Kenneth Rockne , 1888–1931, American football coach, b. Norway, B.S. Notre Dame, 1914. In 1893 he settled with his parents in Chicago. He excelled at football at Notre Dame and with Gus Dorais scored a sensational upset (1913) of the heavily favored Army team through the use of the forward pass—a legal but then seldom-used tactic. Rockne became (1914) a Notre Dame chemistry instructor and served (1918–31) as head football coach. In his 13 years as coach, Notre Dame won 105 games, lost 12, and tied 5; he had five undefeated, untied seasons. Rockne not only made Notre Dame the country's leading football center but also revolutionized football theory. He stressed offense, developed the precision backfield or Notre Dame shift, perfected line play, and developed many stars, including the most famous backfield of all time, the "Four Horsemen of Notre Dame" (Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, James Crowley, and Elmer Layden).