Notre Dame arrive in Dublin tomorrow. They've been mediocre at football for nearly two decades now, but they're the inheritors of a storied tradition that peaked way back in the 1920's under coach Knute Rockne. American football was different in those days, closer to rugby. Back before Al Pacino delivered his 'Game of Inches' team talk in 'Any Given Sunday', perhaps the most quoted halftime speech in American sports history was delivered by Rockne in 1928 when Notre Dame beat a much-fancied Army team. Rockne implored his team to 'win won for the Gipper' - the Gipper in question being the great George Gipp, a quarterback and running back in the Ronan O'Gara mold who died from pneumonia at 25, only a few days after leading Notre Dame to victory. On his deathbad, Gipp had reportedly commanded his coach Rockne to summon his memory at some point when Notre Dame was facing a serious battle:
"Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock. But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy."
Ronald Reagan was cast as Gipp in the 1940 film 'Knute Rockne: All-American'. He delivered the famous line, pursing his lips just before saying 'win won for the Gipper'.
The 'Win One For The Gipper' line entered the American lexicon afterwards. Among the thousands travelling to Dublin for the Navy-Notre Dame game are many Irish-American baby-boomers who grew up hearing stories about Rockne, the Four Horsemen and the Gipper himself, and who formed a strange bond with that team. Both Navy and Notre Dame are essentially irrelevant in the conversation about how football is played at a college level these days, but the sentimental ties that many have to Notre Dame remain steadfast thanks to the lore of the Gipper and the acting of a young Ronald Reagan.
