---

 

 

"And I asked him how he was and he said he had never been better. Then he went his way, and I went mine. The next day he had an interview with me that was a little more than two columns wrong-er, I meant to say long. Sometimes I wish I could give my football teams as little and get so much in return". 

 

 

---

The cyclops. 
Joe Lipp, an official who worked in many Notre Dame games year after year, called more penalties one afternoon that Rockne thought were proper. After the game, Lipp bumped into Rockne.

 

"Hello, Cyclops", Rockne said.

 

"What´s the idea of the cyclops", wondered Lipp?

 

"Well, you had only one eye out there today, didn´t you", replied Rockne.

 

 

Back to the top. 

---

Rockne´s psycology 3. 
Jack Cannon was an All American guard, and played on several of the greatest Notre Dame teams of the late 1920s. He is now a businessman in Colombus, Ohio. He has this story to tell:

 

"The most unusual game we´ve played for Rock, i´ll never will forget it, that was the Army game in 1929. I´ll give you a scene of what Rock brought out. We´ve left Rockne back at South Bend, because he had this thrombosis trouble, and if you recall back to 1929 he was a pretty sick man.

 

So we didn´t see Rock all the time we were in New York, and the telephone rang for some reason, you´ve never seen a telephone in a dressing room, but Hunk Anderson answered the phone and he said it´s Rock from South Bend. Rock was talking to each and everyone of us on this long distance telephone call, which we thought.

 

We said "Yes sir, we´ll do the best we can mr Rockne", "Ok", "Yes sir", "Yes sir". And he gave us our plays of things of that nature. We got back out on the field and the first quarter ended in nothing to nothing. second quarter; nothing to nothing.

 

And we came in with our head pretty well down, everything was very quiet in the room, and the door opens up and they wheeled Rock in. It was electrifying to us. There was Rock in his wheelchair with his leg popped up, his hat was down over his head, he had his cigar in his hand and an handkerchief in another. Imagine I´m Rockne":

 

"Well men, here I am, yes I called to you from South Bend, I was worried, they flew me up here against the doctors wishes, I´ve tried everything I possibly could, to put this football game in your mind, and yet you´e gone out and what have you done? Just think, just think! 30 minutes have gone of this ballgame, and you wanna become national champions? Now I´m gonna ask you a question. I´ve never asked to much of you. But this I do, I want this ballgame. I tried, I tried, I tried awfully hard all season along, now, now the time has come, for I´m in this wheelchair, how about the doc that told me that these are life and death to me, I can´t carry it on boys, It´s too much of a strain boys, too much! I´ve never asked for anything yet, but I´m asking for this one particular game, boys if you could just win this ballgame, than give it to me, I´ll be the most pleased coach in America. I´ve never said this to anybody before but I´m telling you men, the doctor mentioned before I came into this dressingroom: Rock, this is your last ballgame. Your heart can´t stand it. And boys I´m asking of you, im turning im my resignation, and with that resignation I´d hope that I might have this victory. This victory from you. Boys, the best wishes to you now. I know, I know, I know that you´d go out and do the best."

 

And with that we went out that door so fast, there was an officer standing in front, I think he went 15 feet. We played that ballgame nick and tuck, and to the last, I think it was 1 minute 2 seconds left. The ball came down to the 15 yard line, when Jack Elder intercepted it and he ran the complete end of the field, i think it was 98 yards for a touchdown. The game was over, we came in and there was old Rock and he was standing this time and he said:

 

"Well boys we certainly enjoyed that game didn´t we, w got it on ice now, and I wanna thank you all, now next seson I´ll tell you what we´re gonna start off with, we´re gonna start off with shifting ends and we´re going to have these wheeling backs.

 

Now you boys is graduating and I wanna to congratulate you, meet me up at the hotel, and we´ll have a nice dinner, then get on the train going back to South Bend, to all you boys now, you can turn in your suits to the manager, I don´t want you to steal anything because it cost money. Alright boys, thanks again and i´ll be seing you this spring practice."

 

He was an actor who played many parts, but underneath he was always Rockne, a loyal leader who wanted you to do your best, a deeply human person despite of his fame. He scolded, drove and inspired. His teams were the famous Notre Dame shift as he deviced played like machines, but each player remained an individual.

 

 

Back to the top.

---

Rockne´s psycology 4. 
It was before the Southern California game in 1929, that Rockne was reaching into "the bag" and coming up with new tricks, to rouse his team, this one being one of the best.

 

It was on this trip, and at Tucson, that he pulled another bold punch that shook his players. There were two practices scheduled on the day, and one or two of the boys took their time about arriving for the first one. Rockne left the field and went back to the hotel, passing the tardy players enroute.

 

"If you fellows don´t care enough about this game, to be on time to practice for it, I´m sure I don´t", he said, and kept on his way. The afternoon practice at Tucson will linger forever in the memory of those who saw it.

 

 

Back to the top. 

---

One thing was to uphold the determination to win at your own team, something else was to give a suitable message to the opponents. Before the last game of the 1930 season, against Southern California, Notre Dame came as favorites, the had won all their 9 previous games that season.

 

Rockne saw the oportunity the night before when he was interviewed in the radio. That interview was quoted in all the newspapers the morning after, so there was no doubt that the oponents had heard or read it. Here is a summary from Los Angeles Times:

 

"I have to say it as it is. We don´t have any big chance to win. O´Connor, our best man on the team, is injured. On the trainride over here our fullback got sick. We have a tough season behind us. We have won all our games, yes, but that´s taken it´s tell. The boys can´t be a top team the whole season through. The reactions has to come. I have demanded too much out of them, I can see that now. They have been going through an extremely hard program. A defeat has to come sooner or later. We would rather prefer to loose to Southern California than to anyone else. It have been a long trainride out here. The boys don´t like the heat out here in CA, but we´re gonna give you a hard match as we can. Still, I cannot see we have any chance of winning the game".

 

The stadium was brand new, and there were more than 120.000 spectators watching the game. The result: California 0 - Notre Dame 27.

 

 

Back to the top.

---

"Who did that?" 
One afternoon Rockne had the freshmen scrimmaging at football practice against the varsity in preparation for the biggest event of the year: the upcoming game with Army. A play was run, and "Moose" Krause charged through the offensive line and slammed into Frank Carideo, the star Irish quarterback, knocking him out cold. As Carideo lay on the ground, unmoving, Rockne looked around the scrubs and said: "Who did that?Who hit my quarterback?"

 

"Moose" Krause ran off the field and kept running, through the locker-room, across the campus, and all the way back to his dorm room, where he closed the door behind him, sat down on his bed and trembled, waiting to be thrown off the team. He was panicked, wondering how he would ever explain to his father that he´d been dismissed from the squad and has lost his scholarship. Before long, one of Rockne´s trainers located the big teenager and said that the coach wanted to speak to him.

 

Reluctantly, Krause walked over to Rock´s office, trying to think of something to say but not having any luck. He´d have to quit school and go back to the Yards. Entering the office meekly, he sat down before the great coach, too frightened to speak.
 
- "Are you the young man that knocked out my quarterback?", Rockne said.
- Krause nodded. "Yes, sir".
- "That´s the way to play this game".
- "It is?"
- "Yes, it is. I think you´re gonna make it at Notre Dame".

 

Rockne shook Krause´s hand. Krause sprinted all the way back to his room, thinking he might he might be able to find a place for himself at the university after all.

 

 

Back to the top.

---

The students in the stands.
Some people said that Rockne was a saint because he performed at least two miracles every year. He never did much yelling at us but he could use some dirty words when he had to. We were playing Northwestern once and we beat them and were ready to go home. Their students were still up in the stands looking down at us, and they were giving Rockne the bird. So he stared up at them and said:

 

"You´re like a bunch of damn jackasses! You can´t beat us so you fart at us!"

 

Then they really let him have it.

 

 

Back to the top.

---

The new jerseys. 
Rockne was always open to new ideas. A sporting goods company had developed a jersey that was supposed to be suitable for warmer weather. Rockne agreed to try out the jerseys at the Georgia Tech game in Atlanta. During the first half the jerseys became wet and slippery from perspiration. The Notre Dame players couldn´t hold on to the ball and kept fumbling.

 

Rockne sent one of the managers out for a supply of molasses, and at halftime he had the players apply it to their hands, jerseys and underarms. When they were tackled, they gathered up so much grass, debris, and weeds they looked like scarecrows, but Notre Dame won the game twenty-six to six.

 

Afterwards Rockne gave orders to return the jerseys to the company. He said "No thanks" and added something unprintable.

 

 

The beer joint. 
There was a drugstore in South Bend and across the street of that was a beer joint. This happend during Prohibition. One night Nordy Hoffman and two other players were in the joint drinking. On their way out to catch a streetcar they saw Rockne´s car parked at the drugstore.

 

They all ducked down low in the streetcar so he shouldn´t see them and they got (sneaked) away. The next day was a monday and it normally wasn´t scrimmage on mondays. But Rockne said:

 

- "Put on your pads, gentlemen".

 

And the players went out there and they scrimmaged hard. The same thing the next day, and the next one. At the end of thursday´s practice Rockne said:

 

- "Gentlemen, I hope all that beer is out of your system".

 

 

---

In 1930 Paul "Bucky O´Connor played in the reknowned Notre Dame backfield with Frank Carideo, Marty Brill, Marchie Schwartz, Moon Mullins and Joe Savoldi. O´Connor was part of one of Rockne´s most innovative coaching moves.

 

O´Connor was normally a swift reserve halfback, but before that year´s USC game Rockne came up with a ruse: at the practise held in Tucson Arizona, prior to the team´s going into Los Angeles, Rockne had O´Connor wear the jersey of Dan Hanley, an obscure sophomore fullback, and told him to run at half speed, to fumble the ball a lot, and in general to look nervous and incompetent.

 

Members of the local press were allowed to watch the practices and they wrote that young Hanley would be filling in for the injured Mullins and for the expelled Savoldi. Savoldi had been bounced from the team for getting married and then divorced. The reporters also wrote that another Irish running back, O´Connor hadn´t even made the trip west.

 

The stories described how Hanley looked slow afoot and wholly unprepared for a game this big; if Notre Dame were to stay undefeated and win the national title, he would have to hold on to the ball.

 

On the game day O´Connor wore his regular jersey number 25, and when he trotted onto the field, the press wasn´t sure who he was. He ran for two touchdowns (a third was called back on penalty) and the Irish won 27-0.

 

Only later did Rockne reveal his secret strategy. When the Irish got back to Chicago a parade were held for them by the city.

 

- "You´d think Lindbergh had just flown the Atlantic", O´Connor said. Previous Rockne story.

 

 

Back to the top.

---

Rockne´s considerateness.
One thing Paul O´Connor remembers most about Rockne was his considerateness for his players. "When I first came to Notre Dame", O´Connor says, "Rockne asked me what I was planning on studying. I told him medicine.

 

When I graduated, he´d already lined up five or six medical schools for me, and said I could have my choice. I never knew he was doing it. He´d called a man at Yale and asked them to take me, and that was a great, great thing for me. I went to Yale and became a doctor.

 

 

---

Rockne - a complete individual.
Art McManmon tells us this story: "During my years with Rockne I could see Rock becoming less of a football coach and more of a complete individual. He was such a student of things. In 1929 he examined every phase of the football uniform in order to reduce its weight, he lowered it by several pounds. He got shoes that were lighter, which helped Jack Elder outrun everyone.

 

Rock came out with the silk jersey, which was hard for our opponents to hold on to. He thightened the thigh pads so they wouldn´t flop when you ran. He had us wear ladies´ bloomers under our uniforms so we would stay warm".

 

McManmon continues: "He began the two-platoon system. He would start a game with our second-stringers, and their job was not to let the bastards score. He called them the "shock troops". Then he would bring in the first string and when the other team saw them coming onto the field, they´d just look defeated. Im talking about psychology now.

 

He also let helluva lot of players play so everyone was ready when someone got hurt. Games were won by these tactics. He was always researching new things and changing his strategy so you could never predict his next move.