Today in sports history -- Knute Rockne

On this date 120 years ago, Knute Rockne, All-American, was born in Voss, Norway; he and his family moved to Chicago when he was but a wee lad. He is regarded as one of the greatest football coaches of all time, thanks to his innovative work at Notre Dame between 1918 and 1930, before his premature death in a plane crash on March 31, 1931. His career record at Notre Dame was 105-12-6, and he won six national championships in those 13 seasons, establishing the Fighting Irish (and whenever I think of this team name, I imagine an Irishman with his fists up, spitting out, "What did ya say about me mother?") as the preeminent national football power -- which they have remained throughout most of college football history.

Rockne's most famous moment is probably the "Gipper" speech, which he made to inspire his charges to victory using something former Notre Dame player George Gipp supposedly said to him on his deathbed at age 25, climaxing with "Win just one for the Gipper." Since there is no audio tape of Gipp's death, we'll never know for absolutely sure whether he said that, but most observers believe he didn't (though it provided a memorable movie moment for a certain future politician). Rockne almost certainly made the whole thing up. I can only wonder how Gipp would have felt about his death being used in that manner.