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The Kent State University Press - Thomas Rupp

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240 pages

English

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Notre Dame's rallying cry was once "Win one for the Gipper." The football series with Army that spawned that memorable slogan has long since faded into history, but every year the Irish continue to face another storied rival to test their mettle. The annual tradition of Notre Dame versus USC lives on. Rockne and Jones tells the story of how the battle with the Trojans began at the height of the turbulent years after WWI that changed the world forever.The Roaring Twenties are remembered as a bygone era of mobsters, flappers, speakeasies, and romantic silent movie stars. It was also the golden age of sports, when stars like Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, and a horse named Man o' War dominated the headlines. Football fans went crazy for the college game at a time when the NFL was in its infancy. No star shined brighter in those days than Knute Rockne, the legendary coach at Notre Dame. Every great champion needs a foil, and Rockne's was a coach named Howard Harding Jones.USC's Jones was Rockne's opposite in every way. Jones was quiet where Rockne was glib and outspoken, private where Rockne was a man about town, but the two men shared a passion for football that led them on a collision course. The result was the greatest football rivalry of the age-Notre Dame versus USC.The lives of these two coaches, their triumphs and tragedies, and the whole story of how the Irish and the Trojans came to be the greatest intersectional foes in all of college football is retold in exhaustive detail for the first time. The story sprawls from the fjords of Norway to the playing fields of America, from clashes with the Ku Klux Klan on the streets of South Bend and the gang wars of Chicago to the glamour of Hollywood. Those wild days of Rockne's Ramblers and Jones's Thundering Herd live again on the pages of Rockne and Jones.

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USA

Fútbol americano

American football

History of sport

États-Unis

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Publié par	The Kent State University Press
Date de parution	01 septembre 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781631012624
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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ROCKNE & JONES
ROCKNE & JONES

Notre Dame, USC, and the Greatest Rivalry of the Roaring Twenties
Thomas Rupp
BLACK SQUIRREL BOOKS ® ®
Frisky, industrious black squirrels are a familiar sight on the Kent State University campus and the inspiration for Black Squirrel Books™, a trade imprint of The Kent State University Press. www.KentStateUniversityPress.com
© 2017 by Thomas Rupp Foreword © 2017 by The Kent State University Press All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2016055040 ISBN 978-1-60635-330-1 Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rupp, Thomas, 1957- author.
Title: Rockne and Jones : Notre Dame, USC, and the greatest rivalry of the roaring twenties / Thomas Rupp.
Description: Kent, Ohio : The Kent State University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016055040 (print) | LCCN 2017004134 (ebook) | ISBN 9781606353301 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781631012624 (ePub) | ISBN 9781631012631 (ePDF)
Subjects: LCSH: Rockne, Knute, 1888-1931. | Jones, Howard H., 1885-1941. | University of Notre Dame--Football--History--20th century. | Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Football team)--History--20th century. | University of Southern California--Football--History--20th century. | Southern California Trojans (Football team)--History--20th century.
Classification: LCC GV939.R6 R86 2017 (print) | LCC GV939.R6 (ebook) | DDC 796.3320922 [B]--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016055040
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Contents
Foreword by Ross Browner
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 The Beginning of the New
2 Prelude to Greatness
3 Almost Ready to Roar
4 Heading for a Showdown
5 When Worlds Collide
6 How They Played the Game
7 Here Come the Irish
8 Four Horsemen, Seven Mules, and One Gloomy Gus
9 Go West, Young Man
10 A New Man in Charge
11 “The Game Is On”
12 The Plastic Age
13 The Greatest Game I Ever Saw
14 What’s All This Fuss about a Football Game?
15 See You in Chicago
16 Win One for the Gipper
17 Capone’s Last Game
18 Another Bite of the Onion
19 After a Million Dreams
20 Divorce and Deception
21 Flying into Destiny
22 In the Depths of Despair
23 Valhalla Awaits
24 When Autumn Comes
25 The Game of the Century
26 The Final Quarter
27 Aftermath
A Response to Professor Murray Sperber
Notes
Index
Foreword
If you were to ask students of the University of Notre Dame or the University of Southern California how the intense rivalry between their two football teams began, most probably wouldn’t have a clue—but they do know that it is real! If you asked them why the rivalry exists, my guess is that they would have their own stories to tell. There are probably as many reasons for the quest for supremacy between these two opponents as there are years since it first started. This book chronicles the origin of the rivalry between the Fighting Irish and the Trojans that underlies the endless trash-talking between their supporters. The tug-of-war that began in 1926 persists nationwide today, and certainly continues in my family!
While the rivalry between Notre Dame and USC holds a special place in college football history, for me it is very personal. Watching Notre Dame football on Sunday mornings was a tradition in the Browner household. Saturday games were televised on Sunday mornings, and the Browner clan was front and center as we watched some of the best schools in the nation play against Notre Dame. As a youngster, I had no knowledge of any special rivalry; the other teams were all just opponents of Notre Dame.
The way I learned about the rivalry is another story. For me, it dates back to 1972, my senior year of high school. Although I am from the small town of Warren, Ohio, my football skills gained national attention and I was fortunate enough to be recruited by more than thirty Division 1 colleges across the country. With no limit on the number of college visits permitted at the time, I seized the opportunity and visited all thirty university campuses. In the process, I met some of the nation’s best players and formed friendships that have lasted a lifetime.
Gary Jeter of Cleveland and I were considered the best linemen in the state of Ohio in 1972. Finding that we liked each other, we coordinated our schedules so we could view the same colleges at the same time, visiting Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Nebraska, and Notre Dame together. We got along so well that we hoped to play on the same team. Gary became one of my best friends.
Gary and I both were invited to visit USC, but since I had also been invited to visit the University of Pittsburgh, I postponed my visit to USC until the week after Gary’s visit. The Monday morning after I returned from Pittsburgh, I received a call from John Jackson, the USC recruiting coach and assumed he was calling to reschedule my campus visit.
“Ross,” Coach Jackson told me, “I have good news and I have bad news.” I asked for the good news first. He said, “We signed Gary Jeter during his weekend visit.” I replied, “Great! That is wonderful news, because we are talking about going to the same school!” But the next thing Coach Jackson said was a total shocker. The bad news was that Gary had been awarded USC’s last out-of-state scholarship! My visit had to be canceled because no other scholarship was available.
I paused, thought for a minute, and then responded to Coach Jackson with a question: Which teams were on Southern California’s schedule for the 1973 football season? He told me that USC’s team would play all of the Pac 8 teams and also Notre Dame. I answered him with a smile on my face. “Well, Coach,” I said, “then look for me on Notre Dame’s team! I’ll be playing against you!” So for me, 1973 marked the beginning of the rivalry between Notre Dame and USC. However, it never occurred to me that the rivalry would later extend to my very own family.
In my large and close-knit family of six boys and two girls, we were our own best friends, playmates, and teammates. As a result, all six boys became talented football players. As the oldest boy, I was the first to leave home for college. My brother Jimmie Browner was right on my heels. He, too, was heavily recruited by major universities and accepted a scholarship to play for Notre Dame. The following year, my next brother, Willard Browner, who also had the privilege of choosing from among the finest schools in the nation, made the wise decision to join Jimmie and me at Notre Dame and play for the “best.” With three of us playing for Notre Dame, we were making history and creating a tradition that made the university, our parents, and our family proud.
In 1978, my family moved to Atlanta, Georgia. While Jimmie, Willard, and I had all been high school All-Americans in Ohio who went on to Notre Dame, my three youngest brothers, Joey, Keith, and Gerald, became high school All-Americans in Atlanta.
When Joey was heavily recruited like his older brothers, we expected him to follow in our footsteps and attend Notre Dame. He chose USC instead. While we were shocked that he didn’t choose Notre Dame, we were still excited that Joey was awarded a college scholarship. Keith, a year younger than Joey, was the next brother to graduate, and the two created a new family tradition by playing at USC together, while our youngest brother, Gerald, struck out on his own, attending the University of Georgia.
For many years, the Browner household had been loyal to one team—Fighting Irish through and through. Now that loyalty and respect is divided, as the Trojans have earned an equal place of honor in the family. “Go Irish!” and “Fight On!”
Recently, when I called my brother Keith to ask him for the Notre Dame versus USC record stats during his playing years, he was quick to tell me that the Trojans had beaten the Irish three out of four of the years he played, while Notre Dame had won only two of the four games in which I’d played. While we talked, I received an e-mail from him with the record of all the Notre Dame versus USC games. Keith also proudly pointed out that during a span from 2002 to 2009, Notre Dame lost to USC eight years in a row. Fortunately, I noticed that those same stats showed the overall record of Notre Dame wins as 46–36–5. Need I say more?
The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat in the rivalry between Notre Dame and USC still create memorable moments for the Browner family. Thomas Rupp’s carefully researched account of the historic basis for that rivalry justifies its impact over the years on thousands of other Irish and Trojan fans, who probably have their own personal stories to tell.
Ross Browner Notre Dame, 1978 Go Irish!
Preface: Rivalry
“A vying with others for victory or supremacy.”
— The American Heritage Roget’s Thesaurus , 2014
The first known use of the word rivalry in the English language occurred not long after the Spanish Armada foundered in the North Atlantic in 1588. The Latin word rivus , meaning “brook,” has been offered as one possible origin of the term. Some suggest that as the language of the Romans began to percolate into the culture of the British Isles, the tales of competing tribes battling over a river’s life-sustaining water supply spawned a new word.
The Spanish Armada was lost in a much larger body of water, but that decisive battle was a key point in the ongoing rivalry between the great powers of England and Spain. At stake was the future of Europe, for had Spain’s King Philip II emerged victorious, the Iberian monarch would have dethroned England’s Queen Elizabeth I and installed a puppet ruler in her place. The complete domination desired by King Philip would have resolved the conflict, replacing the rivalry between the two nations with the subjugation of one over the other. In a classic rivalry, conflict persists over an extended period of time, with suc