The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-11-03
byHarry
 |CraysOn
YOUNG ROCKNE LEARNING FOOTBALL LESSONS ON ROCK. .STREWN FIELD AS ONE OF SQUAD
 OF 14.
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Young K1ute Rockne IS learning football the hard way--or1 Q rock strewn field as member of Q squad of i4.
 The youngster with the most fa- nous name in football says that he will not be awfully disappointed If he doesn't crash the Notre Damo varsity in 1888.
 "1'd like to make the team, of course" says the yellow-haired Knute Rockne of today. "Who wouldnt2 But when you weigh only l45 and there are dozens just as fast and a darned sight bigger, you can't expect the coach to pay much at- tention to you"
 Jack Bell, my favorite Florida op- erative, passes this story of young Knute Rockne on to me. Young Knute is a back with the Miami Military Academy team.
 with only IA of us out, we haven't had much chance to scrimmage," ex- plains young Knute. TWO of the IA come out only when they don't want to go swimmin.' We scrimmaged ar- other team the other day. It was pretty bad. You see, if we scrim- mage much on this field we get all bruised by the rocks. And if some- one gets hurt we'll not have enough boys to make up a team" Recognizes Talent
 Like His Father
 Like his illustrious father, young Knute recognizes Q football player when he sees one.
 Ives got one boy who's going to make the folks take look" he as. Serts. Hes a long-legged kid named Rossiter."
 Young Knute's array has just three substitutes including two boys who'd rather go swimming, and a Cuban lad who doesn't know what it's all about and isn't quite sure whether he wants to play.
 At Notre Dame, the institution made famous in football by th" other Knute Rockne, 185 young mel, attempted to make the team this fall. No less than n of them appear ed in a single contest--against Wis consin.
 But things were not always like that at Notre Dame. After Gus Dorais and Rockne popularized the forward pass as players, Rockne had something of Q struggle as coach oi his alma mater Rockne served as his own trainer for several years and sold tickets, too.
 The immortal George Qipp, the Four Horsemen, and the rest helped to sweep Rockne to the pinnacle oi his profession and keep him there until his untimely death, but the great Dane paved the way for them, Young Rocknc's
 Early Lessons
 II remember how dad used to have somebody from the teain--sev- eral of them--at the house for sup- per nearly every night" 70 z Knute reminisces. My brother BilI and I couldn't butt into the con- versation, but we'd sit around and listen. They always talked football. Wed eat and then they would start talkin' about that weeks game.
 Dad never told us kids we had to play. He wanted us to, all right. but he always said it was up to us to do what we wanted to do. Ho never tried to teach us any football. "Youll get enough of that from your coaches when you start to school he'd say, and maybe your coach won't teach it the same way l do.'"
 Young Knute rolls around on tho rocks this autumn, doing his best.
 T guess can stay on this team all right" he grins. Tn fact, I can't get off unless I am hurt. But next fall I'll be out among the Notre Dame freshmen--one player among 200 or more"
 Young Knute Rockne looks into the football future, there to learn the game as his father taught 1t to the boys of old Notre Dame, and as 1t is still being taught by his dads disciples to thousands of boys and young men throughout the union.