The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-04-04
ROCKNE MADE
FOOTBALL WITH
WONDER TEAMS
Raised Sport From COLLEGE
Game to Its Million
Dollar Basis.
CONTINUED from Page Onel

try. He was on his way to speak
at the Breakfast Club in los
Angeles when he met his death.
Rockre had a gift of saying the
right thing at the right time. He
knew when the situation called for
sarcasm, for humor, for praise. or
for silence. He had tact.
On the way TO Los Angeles last
December for the last game his team
played against Southern California
Rockne threatened to board a train
for Rochester, MINI, when the team
stopped of at Tucson, Ariz. Rockne
charged his boys with quitting on
him.
And Notre Dame Won
He called his players together and
asked them if any one could give
him a reason for staying. He told
them he was sick man, and there
was no need for him to stay with
them if they were going to LAY
down on him"
Il guess you have every reason
to leave us, said Carideo.
None could think Of a reason, and
Rockne turned to go.
Then Schwartz, that half back
who was always greatest in the
tight places, stopped him
Il have a reason for you TO stay,
Rock snapped Schwartz. II want
You to be there to see us knock
hell out Of Southern California"
Notre Dame won that game, 27-0.
Took Bull by Horns
Rockne never went too far with
criticism. once after his team had
lost a close game, he walked int
a barber shop in South Bend and
said iovially:
Good morning, how are all the
coaches today?"
Little speeches like that are one
Of the REASONS why Rockne was
a success. He learned early not to
take the coaching game too seri-
ously.
Walter Camp was the pioneer of
football, but it took Rockne to pop
ularize the game. He lifted it
from a college sport to million
dollar basis. In 1919 Rockne took
his team to West Point to play
Army before 5000 persons and there
were no gate receipts.
Played to Million Persons
In 1929 and 1880 Notre Dame
played to more than one million
persons. Last season Notre Dame
sold out Franklin field, Philadel-
phia, Soldiers field, Chicago; a sta
dunn in Pittsburgh; Dyche stadium,
Evanston, and the Coliseum, Los
Angeles.
In late years Rockne was blessed
with hundreds of candidates, but it |
was not always that way. In the
early days Rockne's squads were
small, but it was Rockne who built !
up tradition and attracted bows
from all parts of the country to
Notre Dame.
Marty Brill wasn't good enough to
play with Pennsylvania, but he
transferred to Notre Dame and |
Rockne made him one of the great |
est blocking halfbacks of modern |
football
No Cartons of Knute
The stock market crash and ill
ness laid Rockne low in 1929, but
has was heading toward financial
independence when he died. He
made more than 100000 from his
writings, radio speeches, motion
picture contracts and duties as one
of the executives of the Studebaker
Automobile Company in charge of
sales promotion.
His health could not have been
so bad as pictured when he died
because he recently took out large
life insurance policy.
Financial in pendence for
Rockne, however, would not have
meant his retirement as a coach.
From time to time rumors had it
that he planned to go elsewhere.
There was no truth in this. Rockne
planned to remain Notre Dame
football coach as long as he lived
He did, and he never will have a
successor.
There are no carbon copies of
Knute Rockne