Knute Rockne - South Bend, IN - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Knute Rockne started playing football as a youngster growing up in Chicago and continued all through his high school years. After a short stint working for the post office to save up for college, he attended Notre Dame where he excelled at chemistry and football. After a brief (one year) professional football career, he returned to Notre Dame as assistant coach and finally as head coach in 1918 where he amassed an impressive 105-12-5 record.

Rockne’s contributions to college football include popularizing the forward pass as an integral part of the offense and elevating Notre Dame’s football program into the national powerhouse that it became in the ensuing years. Knute Rockne’s stellar career as coach for Notre Dame was immortalized in the 1940 movie ‘Knute Rockne, All American.’ The movie starred Ronald Reagan in the role of Notre Dame football player George Gipp who died tragically in 1920 at the age of 25. On his deathbed, George Gipp uttered the famous line, ‘just win one for the Gipper’ which became a rallying cry for Notre Dame football and Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign.

Knute Rockne’s own life was cut tragically short when he died in a plane crash in 1931 at the age of 43. News of the death of the popular sports figure was widely reported and resulted in airline safety becoming a top national concern. In a way, Rockne was indirectly responsible for improvements in airline safety regulations, design, maintenance and inspection. Rockne was buried in Highland Cemetery in South Bend, near the University of Notre Dame. Lots of tributes to Knute Rockne exist including a travel plaza on the Indiana Toll Road, a town in Texas and a memorial plaque in his hometown of Voss, Norway.
(Source: wikipedia.org)

Description: See Long Description above. Date of birth: 03/04/1888 Date of death: 03/31/1931 Area of notoriety: Sports Marker Type: Horizontal Marker Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: none Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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