Rockne of Notre Dame

Rockne of Notre Dame

Author: Ray Robinson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1999-09-23

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0195355644

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In a mere twelve years, Rockne's "Fighting Irish" won 105 games, including five astonishing undefeated seasons. But Rockne was more than the sum of his victories--he was an icon who, more than anyone, made football an American obsession. The book gives us colorful descriptions of such Rockne teams as the undefeated 1924 eleven led by the illustrious Four Horsemen, and the 1930 squad, Rockne's last and greatest. A renowned motivator whose "Win one for the Gipper" is the most famous locker-room speech ever, Rockne was also football's most brilliant innovator, a pioneer of the forward pass, a master of the psychological ploy, and an early advocate of conditioning. In this balanced account, Rockne emerges as an exemplary and complex figure: a fierce competitor who was generous in victory and defeat; an inspiring father figure to his players; and a man so revered nationwide that when he died in a plane crash in 1931, at the height of his career, he was mourned by the entire country. "A solid portrait of one of football's most solid figures."--The New York Times Book Review


Knute Rockne

Knute Rockne

Author: Michael R. Steele

Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781571672551

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A tragic aeroplane crash in 1931 cut short the amazing life of Knute Kenneth Rockne, the famous football coach at the University of Notre Dame. His 12 years as the Flighting Irish head coach left a legacy that, to this day, still rates as the national record for winning percentage among college coaches. Knute Rockne: A Portrait of a Notre Dame Legend delves into the intriguing facets of Rockne's life and ends with the original interviews with Irish players who survived him some sixty years later. Augmented by dozens of rare photographs, this fascinating book furnishes readers with a superb understanding of one of American sports' most unique individuals.


Coach for a Nation

Coach for a Nation

Author: Jim Lefebvre

Publisher: Great Day Press

Published: 2015-03-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780981884141

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"Coach For A Nation" transports the reader to an extraordinary time of energy, excitement, passion, and possibilities in early 20th Century America. Into this burgeoning drama stepped an immigrant lad destined to make his mark on the nation like few before him, or since. Rockne blossoms at Notre Dame and skyrockets to national fame because of his excellence as player and later coach of the Fighting Irish. His visionary genius made Notre Dame football a household name, yet his story transcends athletics; it embodies the hope and promise of a new era dawning in the US. Growing from a stammering speaker to an oratorical giant, he inspired millions through his message of dedication, teamwork, and fair play. Rockne's legacy, in life and in death, still impacts the game of college football and an American audience of the 21st Century. Now his life story is told as never before. "Coach For A Nation" is the Bronze Medal, Sports/Recreation/Fitness winner 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards.


The Gipper

The Gipper

Author: Jack Cavanaugh

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.

Published: 2010-09-10

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1616081104

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Sportswriter Jack Cavanaugh examines the lives of George Gipp and Knute Rockne and discusses how they transformed Notre Dame into a football powerhouse.


Reagan: His Life and Legend

Reagan: His Life and Legend

Author: Max Boot

Publisher: Liveright Publishing

Published: 2024-09-10

Total Pages: 707

ISBN-13: 0871409453

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Son of the Midwest, movie star, and mesmerizing politician—America’s fortieth president comes to three-dimensional life in this gripping and profoundly revisionist biography. In this “monumental and impressive” biography, Max Boot, the distinguished political columnist, illuminates the untold story of Ronald Reagan, revealing the man behind the mythology. Drawing on interviews with over one hundred of the fortieth president’s aides, friends, and family members, as well as thousands of newly available documents, Boot provides “the best biography of Ronald Reagan to date” (Robert Mann). The story begins not in star-studded Hollywood but in the cradle of the Midwest, small-town Illinois, where Reagan was born in 1911 to Nelle Clyde Wilson, a devoted Disciples of Christ believer, and Jack Reagan, a struggling, alcoholic salesman. Boot vividly creates a portrait of a handsome young man, indeed a much-vaunted lifeguard, whose early successes mirrored those of Horatio Alger. And contextualizing Reagan’s life against American history, Boot re-creates the world in which Reagan transitioned from local Iowa sportscaster to budding screen actor. The world of Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1950s would prove significant, not only in Reagan’s coming-of-age in such classics as Knute Rockne and Kings Row but during the twilight of his film career, when he played opposite a chimpanzee in Bedtime for Bonzo, and then his eventual emergence as a television host of General Electric Theater, which established his bona fides as one of the leading conservative voices of the time. Indeed, the leap to California governor in 1966 seemed almost preordained, in which Reagan became a bellwether for a nation in the throes of a generational shift. Reagan’s 1980 presidential election augured a shift that continues into this century. Boot writes not as a partisan but as a historian seeking to set the story straight. He explains how Reagan was an ideologue but also a supreme pragmatist who signed pro-abortion and gun control bills as governor, cut deals with Democrats in both Sacramento and Washington, and befriended Mikhail Gorbachev to end the Cold War. A master communicator, Reagan revived America’s spirits after the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate. But Boot also shows how Reagan was armored in obliviousness. He traces Reagan’s opposition to civil rights over forty years, reveals how he neglected the exploding AIDS epidemic, and details how America experienced a level of income inequality not seen since the Gilded Age. With its revelatory insights, Reagan: His Life and Legend is no apologia, depicting a man with a good-versus-evil worldview derived from his moralistic upbringing and Hollywood westerns. Providing fresh examinations of “trickle-down economics,” the Cold War’s end, the Iran-Contra affair, as well as a nuanced portrait of Reagan’s family, this definitive biography is as compelling a presidential biography as any in recent decades.


Loyal Sons

Loyal Sons

Author: Jim Lefebvre

Publisher:

Published: 2024-10-18

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780981884158

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Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. When sports writing legend Grantland Rice penned those words to describe Notre Dame's victory over Army on October 18, 1924, he helped set into motion a wave that - coupled with the subsequent photograph of Don Miller, Elmer Layden, Jim Crowley and Harry Stuhldreher - created one of the most recognizable images in American sports history. LOYAL SONS provides snapshots of American life in the 1920s and chronicles the grand dreams, hard work, serendipitous timing, motivation and spirit that resulted in an undefeated season and Notre Dame's first consensus national championship. Ride along as Coach Knute Rockne's team dazzles opponents and draws record crowds from New York to Chicago and finally at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Four Horsemen, the Seven Mules, and the Shock Troops lead a team bound by perseverance, camaraderie and loyalty. They fueled the rapid rise of Notre Dame as the Fighting Irish became a source of intense pride for immigrants, Catholics and those new to the game of football across the United States.


Notre Dame and the Game that Changed Football

Notre Dame and the Game that Changed Football

Author: Frank P. Maggio

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 2007-08-01

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780786720149

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Between 1880 and 1905, more than 325 deaths were reported in college football, and several major football schools, including Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, and Penn, threatened to drop the sport. President Theodore Roosevelt even called a White House conference to eliminate football's violence. One result was the development of the forward pass, which reduced the frequency of dangerous collisions between helmetless players. Enter Jesse Harper, head football coach at Notre Dame. Harper recognized the potential of the forward pass, and, by the summer of 1913, along with star players Knute Rockne and Gus Dorais, had perfected an efficient, overhand throwing motion. With this new offensive weapon, the Fighting Irish marched into West Point that fall to face the Eastern powerhouse Army, and routed the Black Knights 35–13. This victory not only changed the way football would be played, it also established Notre Dame as a football power. This is the story of Jesse Harper and his tremendous impact on the game we know today. Drawing from years of original research, Frank P. Maggio brings the classic victory to life and recounts Jesse Harper's role in Notre Dame's evolution into college football's most successful and storied program, and an elite university.


Shake Down the Thunder

Shake Down the Thunder

Author: Murray A. Sperber

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2002-08-13

Total Pages: 668

ISBN-13: 9780253215680

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"Sperber. . .tackles the details, great and small, unearthing a treasure." —New York Times Book Review Shake Down the Thunder traces the history of the Notre Dame football program—which has acquired almost mythical proportions—from its humble origins in the 19th century to its status as the paragon of college sports. It presents the true story of the program's formative years, the reality behind the myths. Both social history and sports history, this book documents as never before the first half-century of Notre Dame football and relates it to the rise of big-time intercollegiate athletics, the college sports reform movement, and the corrupt sporting press of the period. Shake Down the Thunder is must reading for all Fighting Irish fans, their detractors, and any reader engaged by American cultural history.


They Call Me Coach

They Call Me Coach

Author: John Wooden

Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780071424912

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An autobiographical portrait of UCLA basketball coach John Wooden highlighting his career and personal life and insights on how his top players shaped and changed the NBA.