10/30/2017
Last week I wrote about Army coach Red Blaik. This week I will look at the winningest coach at Notre Dame Knute Rockne. Knute Rockne was born March 4th 1888 in Voss Norway. A long way from South Bend Indiana. His family emigrated to Chicago when he was 5 years old. Knute learned the game of football and was a standout at West Division High also running track. After graduating high school he worked earning and saving till he finally enrolled at age 22 to the University of Notre Dame. Knute went on to have a good college career as an end and made the All American team in 1913. In addition to being an assistant coach at Notre Dame, Rockne played professional ball for the Akron Indians in 1914,and the Massillon Tigers from 1915-1917. In 1918 Rockne took the head coaching job at Notre Dame and held that position until 1930. He coached his teams to 3 National Championships, 5 unbeaten seasons and 29 future head coaches. Some of the great that played for Rockne include George Gipp, Curly Lambeau, the famous Four Horsemen backfield of Harry Stuhdreher,Don Miller, Jim Crowley and Elmer Layden. His 1924 team won not only the National Championship but beat Stanford in the Rose Bowl for Rockne's only bowl appearance and victory. Sadly Knute Rockne died in a plane crash en route to Los Angeles for production of the film The Spirit of Notre Dame. Though many great coaches have come and gone for the Fighting Irish, Rockne remains the winningest coach at Notre Dame with a record of 105 wins,12 losses,and 5 ties. One of his quotes is "Win or lose, do it fairly". Truly one of the all time great coaches one can only wonder abd imagine what success he would've had if he had not passed away when he did. Most of my information comes from Wikipedia. I'm just passing it to a younger generation. Let me know what you think. Till next time.