March 4, 2009
The Art of Self-Improvement:
Celebrating Knute Rockne

Today we honor an individual born on March 4, 1888 in Voss, Norway, whose name is synonymous with Notre Dame football and, in fact, with the history of American football as we know it.

Knute Kenneth Rockne grew from a towheaded youngster exploring the hills and woods of his birthplace, to a slight, scruffy lad seeking out the next sandlot game in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, to a grown man pitching sacks of mail at the Chicago Post Office.

Recent Features Analysis: "What Though The Odds": Fixing ND Football Band of the Fighting Irish A Hit in LA ND-Navy Event in Baltimore Honors Career of Rip Miller October 18 A Key Date in ND Football History "Loyal Sons" Visits Hometowns of Two Horsemen Holtz Statue is Unveiled Prior to Michigan Game "Loyal Sons" Book Release Brings Together Players' Relatives 2008 Season to Honor Five ND Coaches, "Victory March"

It was that four-year stop at the Post Office, before enrolling at Notre Dame in 1910 as a 22-year-old, that Rockne perhaps most firmly set his trajectory in life. He purposely chose a more challenging position in what he called “this temple of loafing.” Here’s how he described it:

“Civil service taught me little save its unevenness and unfairness. You wondered why veterans smiled at youthful ardor and industry. I used to hustle letters into pouches as fast as I could grab them and think of train times. Older hands chatted and riffled. Merit meant nothing…. Enthusiasm could scarcely survive the discovery that a dispatcher who worked hard received nothing more than a henchman who did nothing more arduous than sit on a stool and sell stamps.”

But Rockne’s enthusiasm – his drive for self-improvement – not only survived, but somehow thrived.  He memorized those train times until he became a walking schedule board. He spent his many spare minutes reading voraciously – history, biography, classics. He kept in shape for his amateur track career by doing wind sprints in the mail yard.

All of which left him prepared when his opportunity came to attend Notre Dame.

Preparing young men for opportunity – that could be one way to describe his legendary coaching career.

Here is what Frank Wallace, the sports editor of the 1922 Dome, wrote of Rockne:

“He has a natural drive and a dynamic personality that is ideally adapted to handling a squad of athletes,…Rock utilizes his authority always with the one object in view toward which they are all working – their own perfection and the superiority of the team.

“Rockne loves his boys and he labors to turn them out as men. He believes that athletics are a valuable preparation for future life, and his theory is that physical contact gives an athlete the moral confidence to ‘go out and crack ‘em’ after the school days are over. He is as proud of his men’s scholastic standing as of their All-American rating. He is strong, courageous and determined; he is also lovable, delightful and witty. He is stern but considerate. When a game is on he ‘cracks ‘em’; when it is over he binds their injuries. The whole school is behind Rock.”

Amen for the generations that have followed. Happy Birthday, Rock.

 

Holiday Special
2 for 1

Loyal Sons:
Winner Of Three
National Book Honors

Ramblings
One observer's
thoughts on ND,
sports...and life

 

 

Copyright Great Day Media · All rights reserved.