Knute Rockne Changes College Football and Makes Notre Dame Famous
On a cold spring day in 1888, the legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne was born to a humble, Norwegian wagon builder (Oriard). The family immigrated to America five years later in search of greater economic opportunities (Carter). In high school, Knute briefly played football and ran track before dropping out (Carter). He worked as a postal clerk for a few years before finally taking an entrance exam for Notre Dame and enrolling in 1910 (Carter). While at Notre Dame Rockne tried out for the football team and made it, where he played as a fullback and sometimes defensive end (Carter). In the fall of 1913 Notre Dame traveled to a football game at the US Army military academy and upset Army 35-13 . They were able to win this game …show more content…
Modern coaches are now expected not only to have winning seasons, but to be dominant over the other teams. This is especially true in the elite three or four percent of football programs that collect over 90% of college football revenue (Kram). One example of this is Texas University and their former head coach, Charlie Strong. Charlie Strong spent almost three years at Texas and after one particularly embarrassing loss was fired and replaced with an interim coach (Tracy). But most coaches, and Strong was no different, negotiate contracts with their schools when they get hired, much like professional athletes (Tracy). The schools have to asses the coach the best they can and decide if they want to trust that the coach will be successful, and so give him a long term contract. Or the inquiring universities will be more cautious and give the potential a coach a short (one or two year) contract to see if they will be successful, but this is at the risk of having great coaches walk out after only two year for more money at a different
On a cold spring day in 1888, the legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne was born to a humble, Norwegian wagon builder (Oriard). The family immigrated to America five years later in search of greater economic opportunities (Carter). In high school, Knute briefly played football and ran track before dropping out (Carter). He worked as a postal clerk for a few years before finally taking an entrance exam for Notre Dame and enrolling in 1910 (Carter). While at Notre Dame Rockne tried out for the football team and made it, where he played as a fullback and sometimes defensive end (Carter). In the fall of 1913 Notre Dame traveled to a football game at the US Army military academy and upset Army 35-13 . They were able to win this game …show more content…
Modern coaches are now expected not only to have winning seasons, but to be dominant over the other teams. This is especially true in the elite three or four percent of football programs that collect over 90% of college football revenue (Kram). One example of this is Texas University and their former head coach, Charlie Strong. Charlie Strong spent almost three years at Texas and after one particularly embarrassing loss was fired and replaced with an interim coach (Tracy). But most coaches, and Strong was no different, negotiate contracts with their schools when they get hired, much like professional athletes (Tracy). The schools have to asses the coach the best they can and decide if they want to trust that the coach will be successful, and so give him a long term contract. Or the inquiring universities will be more cautious and give the potential a coach a short (one or two year) contract to see if they will be successful, but this is at the risk of having great coaches walk out after only two year for more money at a different