We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Find out more

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $42.50

Format:
Paperback
304 pp.
22 halftones, 201 mm x 135 mm

ISBN-13:
9780195157925

Publication date:
October 2002

Imprint: OUP US


Rockne of Notre Dame

The Making of a Football Legend

Ray Robinson

In a mere twelve years, Rockne's "Fighting Irish" won 105 games, including five astonishing undefeated seasons. But Rockne was more than the sum of his victories--he was an icon who, more than anyone, made football an American obsession.
The book gives us colorful descriptions of such Rockne teams as the undefeated 1924 eleven led by the illustrious Four Horsemen, and the 1930 squad, Rockne's last and greatest. A renowned motivator whose "Win one for the Gipper" is the most famous locker-room speech ever, Rockne was also football's most brilliant innovator, a pioneer of the forward pass, a master of the psychological ploy, and an early advocate of conditioning. In this balanced account, Rockne emerges as an exemplary and complex figure: a fierce competitor who was generous in victory and defeat; an inspiring father figure to his players; and a man so revered nationwide that when he died in a plane crash in 1931, at the height of his career, he was mourned by the entire country.
"A solid portrait of one of football's most solid figures."--The New York Times Book Review

Reviews

  • "A rousing tale of the Norwegian boy who made good among the Irish."--Dave Wood's Book Report
  • "Robinson's life of legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne stands unchallenged as the definitive work on this icon of the Roaring Twenties. The author has created a lively story that almost makes readers feel that they are in the locker room as Rockne famously asks the team to 'win one for the gipper'.... Robinson sets Notre Dame against the backdrop of religious bias in the form of Ku Klux Klan activities in Indiana in the 1920s and the role the Notre Dame football team played in trying to overcome that bias.... This excellent biography is highly recommended for all public libraries."--Library Journal
  • "A solid portrait of one of football's most solid figures."--The New York Times Book Review

There is no Table of Contents available at this time.
There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Ray Robinson is a noted sports writer and magazine editor whose previous books include "Oh, Baby, I Love It" (which he wrote with Tim McCarver); Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time; Matty, An American Hero, Yankee Stadium: 75 Years of Drama, Glamour, and Glory and Pennants and Pinstripes: A History of the New York Yankees. He lives in New York City.

There are no related titles available at this time.

Special Features

  • A major new biography of one of the true giants of American football--the incomparable Knute Rockne