Knute Rockne

Knute (pronounced "noot") Kenneth Rockne (March 4, 1888–March 31, 1931) was an American football player and is regarded by many as the most famous college football coach in history.

Early life

Rockne was born Knute Rokne in Voss, Norway, and emigrated while still a child to Chicago, Illinois, USA. Gifted atheltically, Knute ran or vaulted for exercise, and worked for four years at the post office to support himself financially. He then entered Notre Dame University, where he not only impressed with his physical prowess, but also with his brilliant mind. He was the laboratory assistant to Julius Arthur Nieuwland at Notre Dame, but rejected further work in chemistry after receiving an offer to coach football.

Rockne put his stamp on the world by first surprising the number one ranked West Point team—who had invited Notre Dame to play because of an opening in their schedule—as he scored the firs touchdown en route to a major upset. His theory of forward-passing seemingly caught fire and spread thereafter.

Following his graduation, Knute married Bonnie Skiles,and had two children: Bill and Knute Jr. Soon thereafter, 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.

Notre Dame coach

As head coach of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana from 1918–1930, he set the greatest all-time winning percentage of 88.1%. During 13 years as head coach, he oversaw 105 victories, 12 losses, five ties, and six national championships, including five undefeated seasons. His players included George 'Gipper' Gipp and the "Four Horsemen" (Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden), and Frank Leahy. Undoubtedly, no other coach has even come close to these legendary achievements, and in modern day, will probably never come close to shattering these marks. In other words, this itself is the legacy he leaves: a winner—even in defeat. His twenty-five commandments shed light on Rockne's own character:

25 Commandments

• Scholarship: The player should first be a good student. Do not neglect your studies. Your first purpose should be to get an education.

• Cooperation: Everyone should work for the common good of the school and the squad. Everyone should boost everyone else; a disorganizer has no place on the squad.

• Obedience: The public holds the coach responsible for the team; his orders must be obeyed. He is responsible for the system and the carrying out of the system, not necessarily the winning of the game.

• Habits: Good habits are only doing those things which help and not doing those things that will harm or hinder.

Ambition: Keeping an eye on the future, always trying to improve oneself. Interest and spirit sometimes outweigh natural ability.

• Attendance: Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Try not to miss a day of school or practice.

Earnestness: The desire to make every minute count, always wanting to do the right thing for the team and the school.

• Morals: A high standard of living and thinking.

• Sportsmanship: Good sportsmanship9 means clean and fair play. Treat your opponent with respect.

• Conduct: Your school, family, town, community and yourself are judged by your conduct; you can make or break them.

• Unity: Actions on part of every member of the squad for the common good.

• Service: Students should always consider that they are receiving far more than they are giving. Their best efforts for their school are none too good.

• Leadership: The willingness to help, guide or direct, in the right way, be example, words or actions.

• Patience: The willingness to take and profit by the instructions received, although not a member of the first team.

• Loyalty: To give your best service to the team, school, game and coach.

• Self-sacrifice: Giving up some of the present things for the future.

• Determination: The mental quality of strong determination is very necessary to win in the face of strong opposition.

• Confidence: The belief in oneself, teammates, team and plays.

• Remarks: Be careful of your remarks about anyone; if you cannot say something good, say nothing. Talking too much is bad policy.

• Responsibility: Being dependable, the performing of one's duties, the desire to be known as responsible.

• Concentration: During school hours, think and prepare your studies; they must be of first importance. During practice, think only of playing; if you have studied, you ill not have to worry about your schoolwork.

• Losing: You can be a hard but good loser. Any coach or team that cannot lose and treat their opponents with respect has no right to win; a poor sportsman generally tries to amuse the spectators with his self-styled clever wit by making abusive remarks, which act as a boomerang by intelligent spectators.

• Winning: If you are the rightful winner, be willing to take credit for it, but keep in mind that it was only your time to win and that your winning was probably due to conditions or a reward for your sacrifices; a kind word or a handshake goes a long way toward forming a lasting friendship, and does not change the score.

• The Past: It is history. Make the present good, and the past will take care of itself.

• The Present and Future: Give to your school the best that you have, and the best will come back to you. Your success in the future depends on the present. Build well.

Plane crash

He died in a plane crash in Kansas while en route to participate in the production of the film The Spirit of Notre Dame.

Shortly after taking off from Kansas City, where he had stopped to visit his two sons, Bill and Knute Jr., who were in boarding school there at the Pembroke-Country Day School, one of the aircraft's wings separated in flight. Authorities and aviation journalists at first speculated that the plane came apart after penetrating a thunderstorm and experiencing strong turbulence and icing, which, it was suspected, blocked the venturi tube that provided suction to drive the flight instruments. That was thought to have resulted in a graveyard spiral under instrument flight conditions and structural failure from excessive load. But this hypothesis was not backed up by meterorological records and observations; there was no isolated thunderstorm cell or other notable buildup in the area. Also, the failure involved the sturdy wing, not the tail surfaces. A long, thorough and well publicized investigation concluded that the Fokker, operated by a company of the newly-formed TWA, broke up in clear weather due to fatigue cracks in its famous cantilever stressed plywood wing, around where one of the engine mounting struts joined.

The wreckage of a Fokker F10A Trimotor in which Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne was killed near Bazaar, Kansas

The Fokker Super Universal fleet was inspected and grounded after similar cracks were found in many examples, ruining the manufacturer's American reputation (the Dutch designer Anthony Fokker was then in business in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey) and resulting in a complete overhaul of standards for new transport aircraft and a competition that eventually resulted in the all-metal Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2. The Rockne crash dominated the news for a while and was thus a tragic catalyst in the progress of civil aviation. The plane crashed into a wheat field near Bazaar, Kansas, killing a total of eight individuals including Rockne.

On the spot where the plane crashed, a memorial dedicated to the victims stands surrounded by a wire fence with wooden posts. The memorial has been kept up all these years by Easter Heathman, who, at age thirteen in 1931, was one of the first people to arrive at the site of the tragedy.

Rockne was buried in Highland Cemetery in South Bend, and a student gymnasium building on campus is named in his honor, as well as a street in South Bend, and a travel plaza on the Indiana Toll Road. The Matfield Green travel plaza on the Kansas Turnpike, near Bazaar, contains a memorial to him.

Achievements

• In 13 years as the head coach of Notre Dame, Rockne lost just 12 games

• Led Notre Dame to the national championship in 1919, 1920, 1924, 1929 and 1930

• Was posthumously inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1951

• Best known for his "Win one for the Gipper" speech at Notre Dame in 1928

• In 1999 he was named one of the greatest coaches on "ESPN SportCentury"

Legacy

The actor Pat O'Brien portrayed Rockne in the 1940 Warner Brothers film Knute Rockne, All American.

Rockne is one of a few coaches credited with utilizing the forward pass as a weapon, though certainly not the first to do so for that purpose. While that is an overstatement, he did play an important role in popularizing the pass. Most football historians agree that a few schools, notably Saint Louis University,Michigan, and Minnesota had passing attacks in place well before Rockne arrived at Notre Dame. Few of the major Eastern teams used the pass, however. In the summer of 1913, while he was a life guard on the beach at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, Rockne and his college teammate and roommate Gus Dorais worked on passing technques. That fall, Notre Dame upset heavily-favored Army, 35-13, at West Point thanks to a barrage of Dorais-to-Rockne passes. The game played an important role in displaying the potency of the forward pass and "open offense" and convinced many coaches to consider adding a few pass plays to their playbooks. The game is dramatized in the movie, "The Long Grey Line."

In 1988, the United States Postal Service honored Rockne with a postage stamp. President Ronald Reagan, who played George Gipp in the movie "Knute Rockne, All American" gave an address at the Athletic & Convocation Center at the University of Notre Dame on March 9 1988, and officially unveiled the Rockne stamp.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Knute Rockne - All American – A biographical movie portraying the life of Knute Rockne.

External links

• The Official Knute Rockne Web Site – Hosted by CMG Worldwide, and endorsed by Rockne grandson Nils Rockne
• The Unofficial Homepage Of Knute Rockne – By Rockne relative Birger Rokne of Voss, Norway
• ESPN.com article about the site of Rockne's fatal crash

Credits

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