Born: March 4, 1888
Birthplace: Voss, Norway
Father: A carriage maker in Chicago, Ill.
High school: North West Division HS
Sports: Track and football
Mail dispatcher: 4 years with Chicago Post Office after high school
Notre Dame: Entered when 22 when he passed entrance exam
Graduated: Magna cum laude (90.52 grade on scale of 100)
Graduate assistant: Also taught chemistry.
Notre Dame coaching: 1918-1930, 105-12-5, .881 percentage. Six national championships.
Four Horsemen – Backfield was nicknamed by sportswriter Grantland Rice. Players were: Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley and Elmer Layden. Wrote Rice: “Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horseman rode again.”
Died: March 31, 1931 in a plane crash when wings separated in flight and aircraft plummeted into a wheat field near Bazaar, Kan.

Win one for the Gipper
“Knute Rockne: All-American” is a film best known for its famous line of dialogue, spoken by Rockne’s (played by Pat O’Brien) most famous player, George Gipp (Ronald Reagan), a real-life football star who died young of pneumonia and provided an inspiring anecdote to his coach.

Later in a memorable scene (duplicating what actually happened at half-time in a 1928 Army game), Rockne quotes his player in a pep talk to his losing football team at halftime:

“Well, boys, I haven’t a thing to say. Played a great game -- all of you. Great game. I guess we just can’t expect to win ‘em all. I’m going to tell you something I’ve kept to myself for years. None of you ever knew George Gipp. He was long before your time, but you all know what a tradition he is at Notre Dame. And the last thing he said to me, 'Rock,' he said, 'sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, Rock,’ he said, ‘but I’ll know about it, and I'll be happy.’”

Rockne's life was the standard for legends

Knute Rockne is remembered as the soul, the heart and the brain of modern football. As the coach of Notre Dame he inspired and molded boys into football armies so mighty they became a myth. It was Knute Rockne who made the Fighting Irish the team of the people, and the Notre Dame Victory
March a national sports anthem.
 
Rockne was one of the most famous figures of his time.  He left a legend and tradition behind that lives on years after his death in 1931.
All the students at Notre Dame had an obligation to participate in a sport. He chose football and tried out for the first time in 1910. He was cut from the team a couple of times because of his size, but he finally made it, and played as a left end from 1911-1914. During those three years he was coached by three different coaches; Shorty Longman, Jack Marks and Jess Harper.

Knute Rockne served four years as assistant coach under Jess Harper after graduation. Rockne´s intensity and drive quickly became a distinct personality as an assistant coach under Harper. Harper was more mild mannered. Rockne quickly established his blunt one-to-one relationship with the players. He never issued a disciplinary threat to a player. He thought that would give the player an excuse to think a warning didn’t mean much. Instead, he administrated the full punishment on the first offence. But off the field the player found that Rockne was still his friend, amiable and relaxed.
 
Between Rockne and Harper the old “push and pull” system, which was nothing more than smashing brute force against the line, was discarded.
  
The Rockne coaching personality was slowly emerging. Before the Wabash game in 1916 Harper had a heavy cold and asked Rockne to take over the team. Rockne knew it wasn’t a big game, but was obviously edgy with Harper absent, fearing Wabash would regard this a perfect spot for a big setup.

Rockne wore a uniform without pads as a coach, and vowed he always would so he would be ready to demonstrate techniques on an instant’s notice. It would become one of his trademarks.

The Wabash game was the occasion for the first of dozens of fiery, emotional pep talks that would mark Rockne’s career. He gave the team a rapid-fire nonstop exhortation - a real screamer. He wound up by yelling: “Now go out there and crucify them!” In which they did 60-0.

Rockne took over Notre Dame at the start of the 1918 season, when he was 30 years old. Rockne signed a one-year, $5,000 contract. He produced more championship teams and All-American players than any man of his generation. There was a special magic in the Rockne, and a kindred magic in his name.

He produced more championship teams and All-American players than any man of his generation. Yet, that isn´t why he´s still so well remembered. He is remembered because of the sort of person he was. There was a special magic in the man, and a kindred magic in his name.

When Rockne was made head coach in 1918, he succeeded a man who´s team had attracted national attention, but it was Rockne and his Fighting Irish teams that made Notre Dame famous on the gridiron. It did not take him long to grasp the change that had come into the attitude of the American public towards intercollegiate sports. 

It was after the two undefeated seasons 1919 and 1920 that Rockne became a leading name in collegiate football. Later on he was often named in the trio of the nation’s leading sport stars together with Jack Dempsey in boxing, and Babe Ruth in baseball. 

The public had begun to understand that Rockne did more than just breed skilled players. He also preached ethical attitudes to youth. He rarely gave an interview without touching on that subject. He talked about it in his lectures. And he emphasized it in the articles he wrote. 

Rockne began opening up the game toward bigger yardage without the conventional “trench” warfare by the line. This system depended on speed, brains and execution. 
 
Rockne’s 1920 team swept through its scheduled undefeated. It was Rockne´s second great team. Rockne would coach five unbeaten Irish teams.  In 13 years he had a record of 105-12-5.

His love of football and of life became apparent when he spent much of the 1929 season coaching from a wheelchair because of bad health. He used a loudspeaker to give orders.
 
Rockne´s yearly salary at Notre Dame was never more than $12,000. But his extra income was considerable. His fee per speech was $500. He was without comparison the most sought-after speaker at lunches etc. in the country.

Rockne boarded the deep red and silver painted Focker F-10 Transcontinental-Western’s flight 599 from Kansas City to Los Angeles on March 31, 1931. Shortly after takeoff, the plane flew into a storm and all 8 on board were killed in the crash in Bazaar, Kansas, on March 31 1931.

The funeral services were held in Notre Dame on campus solemn in the beautiful Sacred Heart Church. Thousands of people were turned away, unable to gain entry to the church. From Rockne´s house in Wayne Street and to the Cathedral there were more than a hundred thousand in devotion when the procession with the coffin came by.