Knute (Kenneth) Rockne - Early life, Notre Dame coach, Plane crash, Legacy

Coach of American football, born in Voss, Norway. His family went to the USA in 1893, and he worked as a night clerk (1905–10) to earn money for college. An end whose pass receiving helped Notre Dame beat Army in 1913, he became coach at his alma mater (1918) and served until his death, producing six national championships and five perfect-record teams. Perhaps football's most famous coach, and one of the few whose life inspired a film, Rock was known for his preference for speed over brute force, his use of psychology, and his half-time orations. It was during half-time at the 1928 Army game that he inspired his team to victory with his ‘Win one for the Gipper’ story.

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 by many as the most famous college football coach in history.

Early life

Rockne was born.

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% since eclipsed but still the best percentage in Div1A only.

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.

NO 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 Fokker Trimotor aircraft's wings separated in flight.

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.

On the spot where the plane crashed, a memorial dedicated to the victims stands surrounded by a wire fence with wooden posts.

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.

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. 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. 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 Michael Bruetsch worked on passing techniques. 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.

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.