Knute Rockne

Born March 4, 1888

Voss, Norway

Died March 31, 1931

Bazaar, Kansas

College football player and coach

"[A football star must have] brains, courage, self-restraint, coordination, fire of nervous energy and an unselfish point of view. Of course, he must have a bit of speed and a bit of physique, but then these things are taken for granted."

A s a legendary player and coach for the University of Notre Dame, Knute Rockne helped to change the game of football and increase its popularity. A player from 1911 to 1913, he helped lead Notre Dame to three straight undefeated seasons. The 1913 team revolutionized football by using the forward pass more frequently; rushing, or running, the football had been the standard and dominant way football was played since American football was introduced three decades earlier. As a coach from 1918 to 1930, Rockne led his team to five more undefeated seasons, and Notre Dame won nearly 90 percent of its games under his leadership.

Rockne's teams played before overflow crowds throughout the country, and many of the school's players became famous. Coach Rockne was the most famous of all—a colorful speaker and tireless promoter of football as well as an exceptional motivator and football strategist. The nation was shocked when he died in a plane crash at the age of forty-three in 1931. The popular 1940 film Knute Rockne: All American recalled his life and his ability to motivate players.

Academic and athletic

Knute Kenneth Rockne was born in Voss, Norway, on March 4, 1888, the second child and only son among five children of Lars Knutson and Martha (Gjermo) Rockne. His father was an engineer who traveled to the United States in 1891 to work on a carriage he invented and wanted to exhibit at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, a fair that showed new inventions from around the world. In 1893, the remaining family members joined him, and the Rocknes settled in Chicago.

As a boy, Rockne loved playing and watching sports, especially football and track. He was an excellent student in math and history but soon before graduating from high school his love of sports interfered and cost him a diploma. He cut classes to practice for a track meet. Rockne was suspended and told to transfer to another school, but he never completed his high school education.

Beginning that summer, Rockne held a series of odd jobs: he washed windows, worked on a ferry boat, and picked crops. He passed a Civil Service examination and then worked for four years in the Chicago Post Office. He continued to read and write during this period, saved his money, and won acceptance to the University of Notre Dame in 1910, starting college at the age of twenty-two. Four years later, he graduated with distinction, earning a bachelor of science degree with a specialty in chemistry. He was editor of the annual collection of student writings in his senior year.

Football star

During his college years, Rockne starred as an end on the Notre Dame football team. At 5 feet 8 inches tall and 165 pounds, he was small and fast, which the team used to good advantage. During Rockne's three seasons as a player, Notre Dame did not lose—winning twenty games and playing to two ties. The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame outscored its opponents 879-77 during the period. College football games were played during the months of October and November back then, were dominated by rushing plays (running with the football), and featured teams battling head-to-head, yard by yard. Notre Dame's speed and deceptive plays made it difficult to defend. After having been tied twice in 1911, Notre Dame's record was perfect in 1912 (seven wins, no losses, no ties), and it was halfway to another perfect season in 1913. Standing in its way was Army, another football powerhouse.

Notre Dame had a new coach in 1913. His name was Jesse Harper (1884–1961), and unlike his predecessor, John L. Marks, who was successful with the traditional style of football, Harper liked to experiment. He encouraged Rockne, who was the team's captain in 1913, to practice running patterns and having his roommate, quarterback Gus Dorais (1891–1954), throw to him while he was running. During the summer of 1913, they practiced while hanging out at a beach on Lake Michigan. "I'd run along the beach," explained Rockne, "Dorais would throw from all angles. People who didn't know (that) we were two college seniors making painstaking preparations for our final season probably thought we were crazy."

Early in the game against Army, which was playing out as a typical bruising football game, Rockne faked a limp as he went to his end position. When the next play started, Rockne began running downfield, past Army defenders, and Dorais tossed the football to him in full stride, resulting in a long touchdown and six points. "Everybody seemed astonished," said Rockne, afterward. "There had been no hurdling, no tackling, no plunging, no crushing…. Just a long distance touchdown by rapid transit."

Caught off guard by Notre Dame's ability to pass the football, Army changed its strategy and began defending against the pass. Notre Dame ran the football, instead, with great success. When Army changed back to defending against the run, Notre Dame passed. The result was a stunning 35-13 victory for Notre Dame. Football historians agree that Notre Dame's ability to pass the football effectively changed the game of football forever, as the passing game became more important. Notre Dame went on to an undefeated, championship season.

Coaching legend

After he graduated in 1914, Rockne applied to the medical school of Saint Louis University. His admission was denied because of his intention to coach football while studying medicine, which was considered unrealistic by medical school officials. Instead, Rockne was hired by Notre Dame as a chemistry instructor, head track coach, and assistant football coach. He married Bonnie Gwendoline Skiles on July 15, 1914. They would have four children.

Rockne was an assistant football coach under Jesse Harper from the 1914 through 1917 seasons. Notre Dame continued to be successful, but it no longer had the surprise passing game it enjoyed in 1913. Both Army and Yale defeated Notre Dame in 1914. When Harper retired in 1918, Rockne became head football coach. With the United States involved in World War I (1914–18), Notre Dame played only six games that year. In 1919, the war was over and the Rockne coaching legend truly began. The team won all nine games that year, outscoring its opponents 229-47.

Under Rockne's leadership, Notre Dame began developing and showcasing colorful players who had a national following through reports in the press. The first of those players, George Gipp (1895–1920), was convinced to play football by Rockne when he was still an assistant coach. On a campus athletic field one day, he observed Gipp drop-kicking a football up to 70 yards. (The dropkick involves a player taking a few steps for momentum, dropping the ball, and then kicking the ball immediately after it hits the ground. Since footballs were rounder before World War II [1939–45], a player could kick the ball higher and farther by using the dropkick.) Rockne encouraged Gipp, who had come to Notre Dame in 1916 to play baseball and had never played organized football, to try out for the team. By the time Gipp hit the field in a Notre Dame uniform, he could do it all—run, pass, kick, and play on defense. He was named the outstanding college player in America in 1920.

Gipp was fun-loving and broke team rules. In his first college game, for example, Gipp was supposed to punt the ball to the other team, but instead he drop-kicked the ball and turned the play into a sixty-two-yard field goal, a record then and still one of the longest in football history. The three points from the field goal proved to be the margin of victory. Gipp was so popular that Notre Dame's next-to-last game in the 1920 season, his final year of college eligibility, was designated George Gipp Day. But Gipp was ill with fever resulting from a throat infection. He did not play for three quarters on George Gipp Day, and the crowd became increasingly loud, demanding that he play. He entered the game in the fourth quarter and threw two long touchdown passes.

The Gipper

When a mediocre Notre Dame team was trying to salvage a losing season in 1928 by defeating football powerhouse Army, Rockne gave his famous locker-room speech. The team knew of George Gipp's accomplishments, but Rockne told them something they did not know: that on his deathbed, Gipp said to Rockne, "I've got to go, Rock. It's all right, I'm not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock, but I'll know about it, and I'll be happy." Whether or not Gipp actually said those words is subject to debate. But the deathbed scene and the words spoken by Gipp made for a great scene in a movie.

Gipp's days were numbered. His illness turned into pneumonia, and he died on December 14, 1920, less than three weeks after Notre Dame had completed an undefeated season. Rockne would later recall to his 1928 Notre Dame team an exchange he had with his star player while Gipp was on his deathbed. That mediocre 1928 team was trying to salvage a winning season by defeating football powerhouse Army, when Rockne gave his famous locker-room speech. The 4–4 Notre Dame was playing Army in front of more than seventy thousand fans in New York's Yankee Stadium. To motivate his team, Rockne told them about Gipp on his deathbed, and Rockne implored the team to "Win one for the Gipper." The inspired Notre Dame squad went on to defeat Army, 12-6. The deathbed scene and Rockne's speech were recreated in the movie Knute Rockne: All American. Gipp was played by a young actor named Ronald Reagan (1911–), who would later become president of the United States. Although Reagan preferred "Dutch" as his nickname, he was fondly called "the Gipper" by his supporters.

National following

Notre Dame posted a 10-1 record in 1921 featuring three stars: Jim Crowley (1902–1986) at left halfback, Don Miller (c. 1902–1972) at right halfback, and Harry Stuhldreher (1901–1965) at quarterback. In 1922, Rockne added Elmer Layden (1903–1973) at fullback. Small and quick, the four became one of the greatest back-fields in college football history. They played as a unit, carrying out Rockne's increasingly sophisticated strategies for surprising opponents. They were popular and became nationally renowned after being nicknamed "The Four Horsemen" by sportswriter Grantland Rice (1880–1954). To complement the Four Horsemen, the hardworking linemen in front of them were nicknamed the Seven Mules.

The Four Horsemen

Notre Dame, located in South Bend, Indiana, became a nationally popular team in part because of colorful players, some of whom inspired sportswriters. After Notre Dame defeated Army on October 18, 1924, Grantland Rice, one of the best known sportswriters of the day, wrote a memorable story about the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame in the New York Herald Tribune:

Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out on the green plain below.

Notre Dame not only continued to win, but it drew ever larger crowds. Rockne was the first football coach to play a national schedule. Total attendance for Notre Dame games in 1921 was over one hundred thousand, but by the end of the 1924 season, it had played in front of over three hundred thousand spectators. The 1924 team was undefeated in nine regular season games and outscored its opponents, 258-44. Notre Dame was invited to play in the Rose Bowl game, held on New Year's Day, 1925, against Stanford University, coached by football great Pop Warner (1871–1954). Notre Dame won 27-10. Beginning in 1927, Notre Dame played an annual game at Soldier's Field in Chicago that alone drew over one hundred thousand fans.

In 1928, Notre Dame played in front of more than four hundred thousand fans, despite a mediocre 5-4 record. That was Rockne's worst record as a coach, but he quickly turned things around. Notre Dame went undefeated in each of Rockne's final two seasons. It won all nine games in 1929, and all of them were played away from the Notre Dame campus because a new football stadium was under construction. In 1930, Notre Dame won all ten games, including a 7-6 thriller over Army before over one hundred thousand fans at Soldier's Field.

Dies at forty-three

Rockne was a colorful man—an excellent speaker who spent much of the off-season touring the country. He was popular with the press and with fans, who enjoyed Notre Dame's exciting offensive play and the football heroes on the team. Rockne promoted his team and his sport in new media of the time, including radio and motion pictures. He conducted summer schools for football coaches, went on tour in Europe, and in 1928 he worked briefly as a sales promotion manager with the Studebaker Corporation, a major automobile manufacturer of the era. He published a nonfiction book, Coaching (1925), and a novel, The Four Winners (1925).

In 1926, he wrote an article for Popular Mechanics titled, "How to Be a Football Star." The most important requirements, wrote Rockne, are "brains, courage, self-restraint, co-ordination, fire of nervous energy and an unselfish point of view. Of course, he must have a bit of speed and a bit of physique, but then these things are taken for granted." The key was hard work. "It is so much pleasanter," wrote Rockne, "to go out and play a game than to spend hours working over tackling, running, signals and other drill points. Without the training, however, there can't be much success in the playing."

The nonstop activity eventually took its toll when Rockne suffered a serious breakdown in 1929. He bounced back by coaching a national championship in 1930 and began to tour again. He was on his way to California for a meeting about a motion picture when the airplane he was flying in crashed in southeastern Kansas on March 31, 1931. He was buried at Notre Dame.

Rockne had made a tremendous and lasting impression on football. Notre Dame, which had been a small college with a little over one hundred students, became a football legend. By 1931, ninety of Rockne's former players had become college coaches, and fifty would become head coaches.

—Roger Matuz

For More Information

Books

Robinson, Ray. Rockne of Notre Dame: The Making of a Football Legend. New York: Oxford Press, 1999.

Rockne, Bonnie Skiles, ed. The Autobiography of Knute K. Rockne. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1931.

Steele, Michael R. Knute Rockne: A Portrait of a Notre Dame Legend. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing, 1999.

Periodicals

Chowder, Ken. "When Notre Dame Needed Inspiration, Rockne Provided It." Smithsonian (November 1993): pp. 164–77.

Seelhorst, Mary. "Knute Rockne." Popular Mechanics (November 2003): pp. 46–47.

Web Sites

"Notre Dame Football Memories: Knute Rockne." Notre Dame. Official Athletic Site.http://und.ocsn.com/trads/rockne.html (accessed on March 23, 2004).

Official Knute Rockne Web Site.http://www.cmgww.com/football/rockne/index.html (accessed on March 23, 2004).