V 1 N. 22 Knute Rockne, Track Man/Coach
August 25, 2025
While on a recent visit to my boyhood hometown of Dayton, Ohio I found a book on Knute Rockne titled of all things "Rockne of Notre Dame, The Making of a Football Legend" by Ray Robinson, Oxford University Press, 1999, 290 pages. Why does a track blogger even bring up such a book on a blog devoted to a very different sport? The reason being is I remembered reading somewhere that my former coach at the University of Oklahoma , John Jacobs, had been inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame and Knute Rockne was also inducted along with Coach Jacobs at the same ceremony. "Jake" was actually retired long before I arrived at the campus at Norman, OK, but he was still acting assistant coach in those days and was usually around offering us words of encouragement and condemnation in the tones of the 1920's. His wit was classic old school stuff. "That was a good throw, son, only thing is you were standing too close to it when it came down." Jake had once tied the world record in the 120 yard high hurdles, on a cinder track somewhere in the confines of the Weatherford, Oklahoma countryside in 1915. That said I wondered if in this biography of Knute Rockne, would there be some mention of his track coaching and track exploits. Indeed there was.
Several references are made regarding Rockne's high school days as a pole vaulter and half miler, though little if anything about performance is mentioned other than a 12' 4" pole vault in high school in the early 1910's. That height I believe was extraordinary for a high school lad in those days. We must remember that Ed Cook and A.C. Gilbert tied at 12' 2" for the Olympic title in 1908 and Harry Babcock won the Olympic title at 12' 11.5 " in 1912. No times are given for Rockne's 880. A passage even implies that Rockne was enticed by some of his high school teammates to go to Notre Dame to run track. He did play football there and very well which led him directly into a coaching job in the football program but with a second job as track coach at the hallowed halls. Actually the halls in those days were not very hallow although the institution had been founded and operating since 1844. There is not a lot about Rockne's track coaching exploits which is to be expected, but there are a few passages which I will share with you. P.S. I highly recommend this book.
Regarding his time at Tuley High School in Chicago:
Page 19
At age thirteen, when he was still a scrawny 110 pounds, Knute won a spot on the scrubs of Northwest Division High School, later to be known as Tuley High. It took Knute several years to graduate from a lowly substitute to the first team, but he did.
Even as Knute was increasingly involved with football, he also was fond of other sports, such as boxing and track. The latter activity especially won his attention, for he appreciated that it placed less emphasis on his size and weight than either football or boxing. Rockne tried his hand at pole vaulting, with the aid of an old clothes pole. He employed a unique way of practicing for that event by walking on his hands on the pickets of a wooden fence in the rear of a nearby church. This was designed to strengthen Knute's wrists, so important an element in vaulting. In a few years Knute was able to vault as high as 12 feet 4 inches, an impressive figure at that stage of his development.
He enjoyed distance running even more, making the high school track team as a half miler --and competing in as many meets as he could find. Many of the city wide events were organized by Coach Stagg, who was then in the incubating stages of his long career as a football coach.
As a runner Knute learned many lessons about competition, which no doubt were helpful when he became a player and a coach with an overwhelming desire to win. He came to realize , too , the role that prejudice might play in sports. One official at a meet, who had a distaste for the Irish, especially when they were winning too much, once deprived Rockne of a meet record in the half mile. The official simply and stubbornly refused to recognize "Kelly's" (as he called him derisively) record.
ed. Hard to mistake Knute a Norwegian name for an Irishman, but I'll let that one slide.
Page 20
One day when his entire team decided to skip school to practice, the authorities reacted by breaking up the group and assigning them to different high schools throughout the city. Rockne ended up going to Jefferson High, where there didn't happen to be a track team. Knute was convinced the new assignment was done on purpose.
Page 21
Two friends, Johnny Plant and Johnny Devine, teammates from the Illinois Athletic Club announced to Knute one day, that they were headed for Notre Dame. They shared a love of track with Knute, although he'd never known either one of them to talk much about education of any kind. He told them he'd been thinking about Illinois. They said he should forget that and come along with them. Knute told them he'd never heard of the place and didn't even know where it was.
Page 49
At the end of Rockne's career as a student-athlete of many parts, he had managed to win recognition outside of the boundaries of the campus--more , perhaps, than any other Notre Damer. He had been chosen on Walter Camp's third All-America team of 1913 at end, thus breaking through Camp's disdain for the South Bend institution. Rockne was also the holder of the Central AAU indoor record of 12 feet 4 inches in the pole vault, a remarkable feat considering his size and build. Now he had to decide what to do with the rest of his life.
Page 114
ed. Now we're up to the 1921 season
All the while Notre Dame insisted that Rockne continue to maintain his portfolio as track coach. Every one of Notre Dame's fifteen hundred students was obligated to participate in some athletic endeavor, even those who had scant desire to move their legs or dirty their pants. This was designed to fulfill the ancient Greek theory that insisted that a man of sound body and mind would be a more fitting member of society. One such "unfit" person was Walter Wellesley Smith, who arrived at Notre Dame from Green Bay, Wisconsin, with only a modest desire to accelerate his heart rate. However, in conformity with the rules of the school, Smith known as "Brick" to his school pals went out for the freshman track team.
For a few weeks Smith trained with the varsity, working out on the cinder track that encircled Cartier Field. It was then that he encountered Rockne for the first time. In his postgraduate days, when he had become known as "Red" Smith, one of the most artful chroniclers of sports doings for papers in Milwaukee, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, he recalled how Rockne presided over track and football on Cartier Field.
"While the padded gladiators butted heads on the field, Rockne somehow seemed able to watch a half-miler and a left end simultaneously," Smith wrote. "In those days his only assistant was Hunk Anderson who would finish his job at the Edwards Iron Works in South Bend and hustle out to the campus to serve as unpaid line coach.
Page 122
ed. Talking about two of the legendary Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.
By the time they confronted the Georgians (Georgia Tech) Struhldreher and Miller had become Rockne's key backs. Don had sufficiently increased his speed by working out his legs in indoor track.
Page 148
On the other hand , the Irish backs as a unit could have qualified for any track team in the land; each one of them Struhldreher, Crowley, Miller, and Layden could run a hundred yards in little more than ten seconds in full football regalia.
Page 229
ed. Referencing the 1929 USC game
Nobody expected that (Jack) Elder, whose reputation was gained for his track feet, would suddenly unwind and throw a beautiful fifty-four yard pass for a touchdown to Tom Conley.
Page 233
As Elder, an Olympic caliber runner who held the world's sprint record for sixty yards, sped by the Army bench and down the sidelines......
In looking through archives of the Drake Relays in the Cowles Library at that university I found reference to Notre Dame participation at the famed Relays. Only the winning times and names are given, so I couldn't determine all the events Notre Dame participated in at the Relays.
1917 Notre Dame 1st in 2 mile relay 7:56.8 a Drake and US record
1919 Notre Dame 1st in 2 mile relay 8:02
1921 Notre Dame 1st in 880 relay 1:29.6
1922 Tom Lieb 1st in Discus 133' 4" Lieb would become a college football coach
Meet Referee was Knute Rockne
Below the 1928 summary of the meet describes Jack Elder's efforts in winning the 100 yards and also has a picture of the finish of that race and a picture of Rockne.
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