Knute Rockne Knute Kenneth Rockne ( March 4 , 1888 – March 31 , 1931 ) was an American football player and is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in college football history . His biography at the College Football Hall of Fame calls him " American football ' s most - renowned coach . " He was a native Norwegian and was trained as a chemist at the University of Notre Dame , where he later coached . He is credited with popularizing the use of the forward pass . Early life . Knute Rockne was born Knut Larsen Rokne in Voss , Norway to the smith and wagonmaker Lars Knutson Rokne ( 1858 – 1912 ) and his wife Martha Pedersdatter Gjermo ( 1859 – 1944 ) . He emigrated with his parents at five years old to Chicago . He grew up in the Logan Square area of Chicago , on the northwest side of the city . Rockne learned to play football in his neighborhood and later played end in a local group called the Logan Square Tigers . He attended North West Division High School in Chicago playing football and also running track . After Rockne graduated from high school , he took a job as a mail dispatcher with the Chicago Post Office for four years . When he was 22 , he had saved enough money to continue his education . He headed to South Bend , Indiana , to finish his schooling . He graduated from Notre Dame in 1914 with a degree in pharmacy . After graduating he was the laboratory assistant to noted polymer chemist Julius Arthur Nieuwland at Notre Dame and helped out with the football team , but rejected further work in chemistry after receiving an offer to coach football . Notre Dame coach . During 13 years as head coach , Rockne oversaw his " Fighting Irish " to 105 victories , 12 losses , five ties , and five national championships , including five undefeated seasons without a tie . His players included George ' Gipper ' Gipp , the " Four Horsemen " ( Harry Stuhldreher , Don Miller , Jim Crowley , and Elmer Layden ) , Frank Thomas , Frank Leahy , and Curly Lambeau . Rockne introduced the " shift " , with the backfield lining up in a T formation and then quickly shifting into a box to the left or right just as the ball was snapped . Rockne was also shrewd enough to recognize that intercollegiate sports had a show - business aspect . Thus he worked hard promoting Notre Dame football so as to make it financially successful . He used his considerable charm to court favor from the media , which then consisted of newspapers , wire services and radio stations and networks , to obtain free advertising for Notre Dame football . He was very successful as an advertising pitchman , for South Bend - based Studebaker and other products . For all his success , Rockne made what an Associated Press writer called " one of the greatest coaching blunders in history . " Instead of coaching his 1926 team against Carnegie Tech , Rockne traveled to Chicago for the Army – Navy Game to " write newspaper articles about it , as well as select an All - America football team . " Carnegie Tech used the coach ' s absence as motivation for a 19 – 0 win ; the upset likely cost the Irish a shot at the national title . Plane crash . Rockne died in a plane crash in Kansas on March 31 , 1931 , while en route to participate in the production of the film " The Spirit of Notre Dame " . Shortly after taking off from Kansas City , where he had stopped to visit his two sons , Bill and Knute Jr . , who were in boarding school there at the Pembroke - Country Day School , one of the Fokker Trimotor aircraft ' s wings separated in flight . The plane crashed into a wheat field near Bazaar , Kansas , killing Rockne and seven others . President Herbert Hoover called Rockne ' s death " a national loss . " On the spot where the plane crashed , a memorial dedicated to the victims stands surrounded by a wire fence with wooden posts ; it was maintained for many years by James Easter Heathman , who , at age thirteen in 1931 , was one of the first people to arrive at the site of the tragedy . Rockne was buried in Highland Cemetery in South Bend . Legacy . Rockne was not the first coach to use the forward pass , but he helped popularize it nationally . Most football historians agree that a few schools , notably Saint Louis University ( under coach Eddie Cochems ) , Michigan , Carlisle and Minnesota , had passing attacks in place before Rockne arrived at Notre Dame . The great majority of passing attacks , however , consisted solely of short pitches and shovel passes to stationary receivers . Additionally , few of the major eastern teams that constituted the power center of college football at the time used the pass . In the summer of 1913 , while he was a lifeguard on the beach at Cedar Point in Sandusky , Ohio , Rockne and his college teammate and roommate Gus Dorais worked on passing techniques . These were employed in games by the 1913 Notre Dame squad and subsequent Harper - and Rockne - coached teams and included many features common in modern passing , including having the passer throw the ball overhand and having the receiver run under a football and catch the ball in stride . That fall , Notre Dame upset heavily favored Army , 35 - 13 , at West Point thanks to a barrage of Dorais - to - Rockne long downfield passes . The game played an important role in displaying the potency of the forward pass and " open offense " and convinced many coaches to consider adding a few pass plays to their play books . The game is dramatized in the movie " The Long Gray Line " . Personal life . Rockne was married to Bonnie Gwendoline Skiles ( December 18 , 1891 – June 2 , 1956 ) , the daughter of George Skiles and Huldah Dry . They had four children . He converted from the Lutheran to the Roman Catholic faith in 1923 . Head coaching record . < nowiki > # < / nowiki > National championship not recognized by Notre Dame .