Knute Rockne-Legendary Coach

*Knute Kenneth Rockne
*Born on March 4, 1888 in Voss , Norway
*Highly regarded as college football's greatest head coach.
*To this day, no head coach in the history of the game has had the same success as Rockne.

*The Young Years
*Rockne's father, a carriage maker, brought the family from Norway to the Logan Square district of Chicago, Illinois when Knute was just five.
*Rockne first played football on the sandlots of his neighborhood
*Eventually played end for the Logan Square Tigers.
*As a teen, he attended North West Division High School in Chicago where he ran track and played football.
*After High School/College
*Rockne took a job as a mail dispatcher with the Chicago Post Office for four years.
*After saving enough money to continue his education, Rockne boarded a train and headed to South Bend, Indian.
*At the age of 22, Rockne passed the entrance exam and enrolled at Notre Dame.
*During Rockne's freshman year he played as a scrub on Notre Dame's varsity football team. *Unsatisfied with his football career, he quickly turned his attention to track where he set a school record (12-4) in the indoor pole vault.
*Rockne's accomplishments on the track ultimately motivated him to give football a second chance
*Named to Walter Camp's All-America football squad as a third-string end.
*In 1913 Rockne served as captain of the football team, and along with his roommate, quarterback Gus Dorais, led the Irish to a 35-13 victory over the highly-ranked Army Cadets.
*Rockne graduated magna cum laude with a 90.52 (on a scale of 100) grade point average and was offered a job at his alma matter as a graduate assistant in chemistry.
*He accepted the school's offer under the condition that he would be allowed to help coach the football team.
*When Jesse Harper, head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish retired in 1917, Rockne was named his successor.

*Football Head Coach at Notre Dame
*Head coach from 1918 to 1930
*Rockne set the greatest all-time winning percentage of .881. This mark still ranks at the top of the list for both college and professional football.
*During his 13-year tenure as head coach of the Fighting Irish, Rockne collected 105 victories, 12 losses, five ties and six national championships.
*Rockne also coached Notre Dame to five undefeated seasons without a tie.
*Rockne was known as one of the most innovative and charismatic coaches of his era.
*He was the first football coach to initiate intersectional rivalries and build a national schedule. *Rockne is well known for coaching the most dazzling, dramatic, idolized athlete of all time, George "Gipper" Gipp.
*Gipp's running, passing, kicking and generalship lifted the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to national fame. Gipp was Notre Dame's first All-American and the famous subject of Rockne's motivating halftime speech in which he coined the phrase, "Win one for the Gipper."
*Rockne coached the "Four Horsemen" - (consisted of Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley and Elmer Layden.)
*Rockne and the "Four Horsemen" led Notre Dame to a 28-2 record.
*During the off season, Rockne was needed in Los Angeles to assist in the production of the film "The Spirit of Notre Dame."

*The Innovative Coach
*The mark that Rockne left on the game of football is immeasurable and unique.
*He aided in the development of the forward pass and in doing so helped increase football's mass appeal.
*Using his knowledge of the human anatomy, Rockne was keen on designing his own equipment.
*Understanding the importance that speed plays in the game of football, his designs reduced bulk and weight without sparing protectiveness.
*Rockne introduced to the Notre Dame uniform a pair of gold, satin and silk pants that cut down on wind resistance.

*The Tragedy
*After visiting his two sons in Kansas City, Missouri, Rockne boarded Transcontinental-Western's Flight 599 to Los Angeles on March 31, 1931.
*Shortly after takeoff, one of the plane's wings separated in flight and the aircraft plummeted into a wheat field near Bazaar, Kansas
*There were no survivors.
*Rockne died at the age of 43.