Knute Rockne All American (1940)

Pat O'Brien: Knute Rockne

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Quotes 

• Knute Rockne : Now I'm going to tell you something I've kept to myself for years. None of you ever knew George Gipp. He was long before your time, but you all know what a tradition he is at Notre Dame. And the last thing he said to me, "Rock," he said, "sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock," he said, "but I'll know about it and I'll be happy."

• Committee Member : Mr. Rockne, couldn't football be replaced by some other game? Something less violent?

  Knute Rockne : Well, what game would you suggest?

  Committee Member : Well, hockey, for instance.

  [This answer is greeted by raucous laughter in the committee room] 

  Knute Rockne : Why, as a matter of fact, I suggested that very idea to Father Callahan, our president. He was downright interested until we came to the use of sticks, and then he threw up his hands. He said, "No... , that game is not for our university. Notre Dame will never endorse any game that puts a club in the hands of an Irishman."

• Knute Rockne : Father, I've decided to take up coaching as my life's work.

  Father John Callahan : Hmmmm.

  Knute Rockne : You think I'm making a mistake, don't you?

  Father John Callahan : Anyone who follows the truth in his heart never makes a mistake.

• Knute Rockne : Coach, let us use the forward pass, I know it'll work.

  Notre Dame Coach Harper : I'm not so sure. We've never seen it in a game.

  Knute Rockne : Neither has the Army, what can we lose?

• Knute Rockne : We haven't got any use for gamblers around here. You've done your best to ruin baseball, and horse racing, and this is one game that's clean and is gonna stay clean.

• Glenn 'Pop' Warner : But we've got to answer them somehow, Rock. You, Spaulding, Stagg, Jones and myself - we've given the best years of our life to this game. We can't stand by now and do nothing.

  Howard Jones : We've come here from all over the country, Rock - hoping you'd go to New York with us, and face this committee.

  Alonzo Stagg : It's for the boys - millions of boys throughout the country! It's *their* game we're fighting for.

  Bill Spaulding : Pop Warner is right - we can't ignore their charges. Have you read all they've said about us?

  Knute Rockne : Sure - I've read every word of it. Public educators, huh? Never read such a lot of lies in my life.

  Alonzo Stagg : Yes, Rock - we know that. But *they* don't know it. They're not really vicious men - they're simply misled.

  Knute Rockne : The public is never misled by this kind of stuff.

  Father John Callahan : The public believes anything it reads in the newspapers, Knute - unless it's denied in type just as large, and preferably larger.

• Knute Rockne : We're gonna beat the Army, Gus!

  Charles 'Gus' Dorais : Aw, Rock!

  Knute Rockne : No, we're gonna beat 'em. I got an idea. Y'see all these eastern teams like the Army, they're all power, knock you down, roll over you like a steamroller. Alright, when you can't go around a steamroller you go over it.

  [speaks rapidly] 

  Knute Rockne : No team has ever used the forward pass as the major threat of it's offense, consequently no team has ever had a good defense against it! Gus, we're gonna pass the Army, we're gonna pass 'em dizzy! Gimme that ball!

  Charles 'Gus' Dorais : Rock! If that works it'll make history!