Everything about Knute Rockne totally explained
| Birthplace =
Voss, Norway
| DateOfDeath =
| Deathplace =
Bazaar, Kansas
| Sport =
American football
| College =
Notre Dame
| Title =
Head Coach
| CurrentRecord =
| OverallRecord = 105-12-5 (88.1%)
| Awards =
| BowlRecord = 1-0
| Championships = National Championship
(1919, 1920, 1924, 1927, 1929, 1930)
| CFbDWID = 2006
| CoachTeams =
Notre Dame
| CoachYears = 1918-1930
| FootballHOF = 1951
| CollegeHOFID = 20038
}}
Knute (pronounced "kah-noot") ("noot" is the anglicized nickname)
Kenneth Rockne (
March 4,
1888 –
March 31,
1931) was an
American football player and is regarded as one of the greatest
coaches in
college football history. His
biography at the
College Football Hall of Fame calls him "American football's most-renowned coach." He was a native Norwegian, and was trained as a chemist at Notre Dame. He is considered to be the father of the forward pass in football.
Early life
Knute Rockne was born
Knute Kenneth Rockne in
Voss, Norway, and emigrated while still a child to
Chicago. He grew up in the
Logan Square area of Chicago, on the northwest side of the city. Learned to play football in his neighborhood and later played end in a local group called the Logan Square Tigers. He attended North West Division High School in Chicago playing football and also running track.
After Rockne finished high school, he took a job as a mail dispatcher with the Chicago Post Office for four years. When he was 22, he'd saved enough money to continue his education. Knute Rockne headed to
South Bend, Indiana, to finish his schooling. He was the laboratory assistant to noted
polymer chemist Julius Arthur Nieuwland at Notre Dame, but rejected further work in
chemistry after receiving an offer to coach football.
Notre Dame coach
Portions of this section are adapted from Murray Sperber's book Shake Down The Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football
As
head coach of the
University of Notre Dame in
South Bend, Indiana from 1918 to 1930, he set the greatest all-time winning percentage of 88.1%, since eclipsed but still the best percentage in Division I-A. During 13 years as head coach, he oversaw 105 victories, 12 losses, 5 ties, and 6 national championships, including 5 undefeated seasons without a tie. His players included
George 'Gipper' Gipp and the "
Four Horsemen" (
Harry Stuhldreher,
Don Miller,
Jim Crowley, and
Elmer Layden), and
Frank Leahy.
Rockne introduced the "shift", with the backfield lining up in a T formation and then quickly shifting into a box formation to the left or right just as the ball was snapped. It remained a staple in the Notre Dame playbook until it was discarded by
Frank Leahy in 1942 in favor of the T. Rockne is also credited with popularizing the forward pass, a seldom used play at the time.
Rockne was also shrewd enough to recognize that intercollegiate sports had a show business aspect to it and so he worked hard promoting Notre Dame football so as to make it financially successful. He used his considerable charm to actively court favor from the media, which then consisted of newspapers, wire services and radio stations and networks, so as to obtain free advertising for his Notre Dame football product. He was very successful as an advertising pitchman, for
South Bend based
Studebaker and other products.
For all his success, Rockne made what an
Associated Press writer called "one of the greatest coaching blunders in history." Instead of coaching his 1926 team against
Carnegie Tech, Rockne traveled to Chicago for the
Army-Navy Game in order to "write newspaper articles about it, as well as select an All-America football team." President
Herbert Hoover called Rockne's death "a national loss." In 2006, he was given an honorary
monogram by the University of Notre Dame for his dedication to remembering the life of Rockne.
Rockne was enshrined in the
College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 as a charter member and in the
Indiana Football Hall of Fame.
Taylorville, Illinois, dedicated the street next to the football field as "Knute Rockne Road".
Personal
Rockne was married to Bonnie Skiles. They had four children.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Knute Rockne'.
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