Book Review

The Gipper

by Jack Cavanaugh

Skyhorse Publishing

Fall 2010

Quick now, what does the name Stan Keck mean to you? Ralph Scott? Tom Woods? Iolas Huffman, Herb Stein, Don Lourie? The wonderfully named Gaylord Stinchcomb? Charles Way? These gentleman were consensus football All Americans in 1920 and the last two were good enough halfbacks to bump a third star player to the fullback spot for the All American team despite his never playing that position. That player was George Gipp of Notre Dame and to say he outshone his teammates on this squad or his own undefeated Notre Dame team is an understatement.

But why do we know the name George Gipp but not Don Lourie, who quarterbacked Princeton to a 6-0-1 record before becoming a success businessman (president of Quaker Oats) and public servant (Under Secretary of State for Administration under Eisenhower, himself a near contemporary from the collegiate gridiron)? As Jack Cavanaugh makes clear in his insightful biography, Gipp became one of the most famous athletes in 20 century sports for a perfect storm of factors that swirled together over the decades to produce an almost mythical embodiment of the ultimate athlete.

But as Cavanaugh makes clear, Gipp was an all-too-real person. Filling out some of the humanity behind the myth, Cavanaugh makes clear that Gipp had his share of foibles but then, as now, the celebrity status he enjoyed first locally and then nationwide helped swipe a lot of the negative away. Draft dodger? Gipp somehow was given a military salute at his funeral. Indifferent student who rarely attended classes? Gipp was commended for his studies at his funeral. Of course the true irony was that a pool hustling, class avoiding jock was a key figure in bringing national glory to Notre Dame, a school that truly represents the values of Catholic higher education.

But as Cavanaugh points out there really was not anything anyone could do to stop Gipp's development as a football player nor his local celebrity. He was an immensely gifted athlete who proved himself to be a team player. Sure he was coached by the great Knute Rockne, becoming his first star player. But Rock really just had to point Gipp toward the playing field. That is no knock on "Rock" as some players are just that good and he was smart enough to get out of his star back's way. Plus the great coaches need to coach up the lesser talents to help their stars succeed. The role Rockne played in giving Gipp legendary status came later. And Rockne did help establish Notre Dame as the type of football power that could produce a star like Gipp with his pass catching skills while a player for Notre Dame, specifically in the upset of Army in 1913 that elevated a solid but little known nationally program from Indiana into a team to be reckoned with on the national stage. Then Rockne the head coach built the Irish--or Westerners or Hibernians or one of a few nicknames that were thrust on the team then--into a national power.

So Gipp had the skills, Rockne the genius and the two together the results to elevate a regional power into a national power. Another factor in the elevation of Gipp into a legendary figure was the year, 1920, that he became consensus All American. The nation was emerging from a horrific war and was looking to relax and have some fun. The Gipp who could stay up late playing cards and shooting pool and then dominate games ten hours later was just the kind of guy we were looking to emulate. He was handsome, intelligent, charming and possessed a confidence that proved irresistible. The possibilities were endless for Gipp, as the country.

Which, of course, made his death--just a couple of weeks after his final playing appearance against Indiana--all the more tragic. Gipp died from a severe, unchecked-until-it-was-too-late case of strep throat in the era before antibiotics. That he went from starring on the field that fall to dying before the year ended was stunning to the public, even one grown used to death after the war and recent flu epidemic. Gipp had transformed from star athlete to tragic hero.

The Gipp story through the end of his life explains why he became a national figure. But despite his good looks, immense athletic talent (baseball was probably his best sport and he would have pursued major league baseball opportunities in the spring of 1921) and then tragic death, George Gipp probably would not have remained a household name today, 90 years since his death, without other factors. For one thing, Notre Dame had to remain a national power. Thanks to Rockne's successful coaching the small college from Indiana did remain a great team through his coaching run and then stuck with the demands of the sport, even through some difficult times. The Notre Dame football story, with Gipp as one of the key figures, gets repeated like no other program's. The Irish past, thanks to a host of top writers who helped promote the team, became the college football history for a huge segment of the nation. And so millions more people have heard of Gipp, Rockne and the Four Horsemen but could not place end Brick Muller, who led Cal to the 1920 national championship. And a key element of that history is a speech, pep talk if you will, that Rockne gave to his team nearly eight years after Gipp died. The "win one for the Gipper" speech and subsequent upset over Army in 1928 not only did wonders for the status of Rockne, but reinforced Gipp as a mystical figure to be called upon when times were difficult. As much as this is a biography of Gipp the man, and Cavanaugh has plenty of stories about his home life in Laurium, Michigan and his days as a pool hustler in South Bend plus a bit of a doomed love life for our hero, this book is also a telling of how Gipp's story became larger than his own life. And that speech is a crucial element of Gipp the legend.

But of course there was one more card to be played. Ronald Reagan had to beat out a host of promising young actors to play Gipp in the movie Knute Rockne All American, a movie that stamped Gipp as a doomed hero for a new generation, and then had to eventually become president of the United States, where he continued to use the "win one for the Gipper" line he said in the film 40 years earlier.

And so the real Gipper (rarely, if ever, called that when alive) lives on. He has joined the pantheon of greats of American sport. Not bad for a 25-year-old with a skill at toting the leather. And this book, despite some repetitions, gives justice to that celebrated hero. Being able to use old interviews he conducted years ago, when former teammates and friends of Gipp still lived, Cavanaugh gives us a glimpse into not only Gipp's life but the power of fame. It is well worth reading for anyone interested in not only the history of college football but the role of celebrity in American life.