With his coaching savvy, charisma, rapid-fire pep talks and talent for extracurricular business opportunities, Knute Rockne might have felt right at home in today’s age of social media postings and influencer culture.
Backed by his reputation, coaching record and celebrity status, Rockne drew national attention to Notre Dame a century ago, long before the era of college sports podcasts and TikTok videos.
The impact of the man who revolutionized the game of college football and made the Fighting Irish a recognized team from coast to coast is explored in “Rockne: Life & Legacy,” a new exhibit at The History Museum in South Bend. It remains on display through May 31, 2026. There’s also a related 9-episode podcast, Rockne: The Legend Lives On.
Today, nearly a century after his death, Rockne still has the highest winning percentage in major college football history (.881), with 105-12-5 record during his 13 years as head coach at Notre Dame.
Museum visitors who know Rockne only via his football contributions will get a much fuller view of the man: Rockne the immigrant, 22-year-old college freshman, gridiron star, coaching wizard, high school chemistry teacher, salesman and entrepreneur, Catholic convert and family man.
Knut Larsen Rokne — later Americanized to Knute Kenneth Rockne — was born March 4, 1888 in Voss, Norway. Just four months earlier and more than 4,500 miles away, Notre Dame had played (and lost) its first football game, against the University of Michigan.
The exhibit offers artifacts (many on loan from the Notre Dame Archives) and details about Rockne’s career highlights, including perfecting the forward pass with teammate Gus Dorais on the beach at Cedar Point, Ohio; unveiling that play at the ND-Army game in 1913; his mentorship of ill-fated Irish football great George Gipp; developing the Four Horsemen, the legendary 1924 backfield; and leading his teams to three national championships.
It also includes intriguing tidbits about lesser-known aspects of Rockne’s life: studying for his pharmacy degree under famed Notre Dame chemist Rev. Julius Nieuwland, CSC; coaching factory league football teams in South Bend to earn extra cash; participating in student theatricals and local boxing matches; and creating a “toll system” at his Corby Hall residence hall room window to collect coins from latecomers slipping back in after the campus curfew.
Items on display include pictures from his Chicago childhood; a replica Rockne-era uniform; a sweatshirt and engraved whistle Rockne used at practices; artifacts from his summer coaching schools; and charming photos of him with his wife, Bonnie, and their four children.
There are fragments from the plane that crashed in Kansas in March 1931, resulting in Rockne’s untimely death at age 43. Front page newspaper headlines, telegrams and photographs from the funeral convey the enormity of the loss that was felt by those at Notre Dame and across the nation.
Also on display is a pristinely restored 1933 Studebaker Rockne Model 10 automobile. In the years just before his death, Rockne had a part-time job providing inspirational speeches to salesmen for the Studebaker Corp., which was based in South Bend. After he died, Studebaker produced the Rockne model for two years during the Depression. A total of 38,000 Rocknes were made before production was suspended.
There are photos and artifacts from the 1940 film, Knute Rockne: All-American, which helped cement the Gipp deathbed speech legend and Rockne’s permanent standing as a cultural icon.
Beside his record at Notre Dame, Rockne’s greatest legacy to college football likely is the college coaching tree he planted. The exhibit counts more than 60 former Rockne teammates and players who went on to coach at the college level, many aided by a well-placed recommendation from Rockne himself.
Margaret Fosmoe is an associate editor of this magazine.