Knute Rockne: Man Builder - Good Old Reads

The Four Hoursemen — The Four Horsemen – 1924

Knute Rockne: Man Builder would have played well in the 1930s, but it doesn’t make a graceful trip to the 21st century.

High Point: The famous quote from the deathbed of George Gipp.

Low Point: In general, the narrative is too saccharine to keep a reader’s interest.

Author: Harry A. Stuhldreher (one of Notre Dame’s Four Horsemen)

Publication Date: 1931

Genre: Biography

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“Sometime, Rock, when the team’s up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for The Gipper.”

This famous quote from the deathbed of George Gipp is the highlight of Knute Rockne: Man Builder by Harry A. Stuhldreher. Rockne used the quote to inspire his Notre Dame football team to a comeback victory against Army in 1928. Unfortunately, one hundred years later, there’s little else in the book to keep one’s attention.

Stuhldreher, one of the famous Four Horsemen at Notre Dame in 1924, wrote this affectionate tribute to his former coach shortly after Rockne’s death in 1931. He included detail that would be interesting to a fan in the 1930s and 40s. But unless you’re a rabid Notre Dame follower, it may not be so fascinating today.

Rockne was a great coach, and by all accounts, a good man. And while Knute Rockne: Man Builder would have played well in the 1930s, it doesn’t make the journey to the 21^st century nearly as well as the legend of the man it celebrates.