Knute Rockne All American (1940)

Committee Member: Mr. Rockne, couldn't football be replaced by some other game? Something less violent?
Knute Rockne: Well, what game would you suggest?
Committee Member: Well, hockey, for instance.
[This answer is greeted by raucous laughter in the committee room]
Knute Rockne: Why, as a matter of fact, I suggested that very idea to Father Callahan, our president. He was downright interested until we came to the use of sticks, and then he threw up his hands. He said, "No... , that game is not for our university. Notre Dame will never endorse any game that puts a club in the hands of an Irishman."

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Father John Callahan: Who can say for certain what a man was really born to be? That's God's will. Someday Knute will find his right place in the world, and when he does, whether it be science or not, I have a feeling it will be the one he was meant to do.

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Knute Rockne: Father, I've decided to take up coaching as my life's work.
Father John Callahan: Hmmmm.
Knute Rockne: You think I'm making a mistake, don't you?
Father John Callahan: Anyone who follows the truth in his heart never makes a mistake.

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Ronald Reagan once said of his role that though there were those who could have played it better, nobody wanted the role more than he did.
The movie's line "Tell 'em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper." was voted as the #89 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
Elmer Layden eventually became the first to have the title Commisioner of the NFL after leaving his coaching job at Notre Dame in the 1940s.
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