1888-1931
Legendary Football Coach

Creator.

Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne was a primary creator of modern football and of the modern college football hero. An astute promoter of the game, Rockne had an actor's gift for dramatic oratory and gesture, with which he inspired his players to near-religious fervor and captivated the popular press and throngs of spectators who felt themselves part — perhaps for the first time — of the drama played out weekly on the gridiron. Rockne changed the spectator's connection to the game, making the play literally more visible to large crowds. In the process he produced athlete-heroes for whom audiences could cheer and with whom they could identify: George Gipp, the Four Horsemen, and the Seven Mules.

Smart Football.

Before the 1920s football formations characteristically featured tight knots of players smashing together in contests of strength that resembled rugby scrums. Rockne...