Win One for the Gipper

Win One for the Gipper
Author: Kathy-jo Wargin
Publisher: True Story
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2004
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781585362219

Relates the story of George Gipp, a young athlete from northern Michigan in the early 1900s who became a star football player at the University of Notre Dame before his life was cut short at the age of twenty-five.

The Gipper

The Gipper
Author: Jack Cavanaugh
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2010-09-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1616081104

Sportswriter Jack Cavanaugh examines the lives of George Gipp and Knute Rockne and discusses how they transformed Notre Dame into a football powerhouse.

Rockne of Notre Dame

Rockne of Notre Dame
Author: Ray Robinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 1999-09-23
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0195355644

In a mere twelve years, Rockne's "Fighting Irish" won 105 games, including five astonishing undefeated seasons. But Rockne was more than the sum of his victories--he was an icon who, more than anyone, made football an American obsession. The book gives us colorful descriptions of such Rockne teams as the undefeated 1924 eleven led by the illustrious Four Horsemen, and the 1930 squad, Rockne's last and greatest. A renowned motivator whose "Win one for the Gipper" is the most famous locker-room speech ever, Rockne was also football's most brilliant innovator, a pioneer of the forward pass, a master of the psychological ploy, and an early advocate of conditioning. In this balanced account, Rockne emerges as an exemplary and complex figure: a fierce competitor who was generous in victory and defeat; an inspiring father figure to his players; and a man so revered nationwide that when he died in a plane crash in 1931, at the height of his career, he was mourned by the entire country. "A solid portrait of one of football's most solid figures."--The New York Times Book Review

Tip and the Gipper

Tip and the Gipper
Author: Chris Matthews
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2013-10-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1451696019

The New York Times bestseller about the historic dealings between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill—“A superb tribute to the neglected art of compromise” (Daily News (New York)). Tip and the Gipper is an “entertaining and insightful” (The Wall Street Journal) history of a time when two great political opponents served together for the benefit of the country. Chris Matthews was an eyewitness to this story as top aide to Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, who waged a principled war of political ideals with President Ronald Reagan from 1980 to 1986. Together, the two men became one of history’s most celebrated political pairings—the epitome of how ideological opposites can get things done. When Reagan was elected to the presidency in a landslide victory over Jimmy Carter, Speaker O’Neill was thrust into the national spotlight as the highest-ranking leader of the Democratic Party—the most visible and respected challenger to President Reagan’s agenda of cutting the size of government programs and lowering tax rates. Together, the two leaders fought over the major issues of the day—welfare, taxes, covert military operations, and social security—but found their way to agreements that reformed taxes, saved Social Security, and, their common cause, set a course toward peace in Northern Ireland. Through it all they maintained respect for each other’s positions and worked to advance the country rather than obstruct progress. At the time of congressional gridlock, Tip and the Gipper stands as model behavior worthy of study by journalists, academics, and students of the political process for years to come. “This book is an invitation to join Tip and the Gipper in tall tales about how grand it was in the old country” (The Washington Post).

Greatest Moments in Notre Dame Football History

Greatest Moments in Notre Dame Football History
Author: John Heisler
Publisher: Triumph Books (IL)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781600781025

To be a fan of the Fighting Irish is to revere the tradition, understand the legend, and experience the pageantry of Notre Dame--all for the glory in the end zone. This collection illuminates the team's storied victories and dignified defeats, and proves once and for all why this school is the one by which all other college football programs are judged. Even the most casual Notre Dame football fans can recount the greatest Irish games: the landmark home victories over top-ranked teams in 1988 and 1993, the unforgettable 10-10 tie with Michigan State in 1966, Harry Oliver's epic 51-yard field goal, and the long list of bowl wins against the likes of Texas, Alabama, West Virginia, Colorado, Texas A&M, and Florida. Not to be overlooked is the birth of the Four Horsemen, the "Win One for the Gipper" game, plus four straight seasons under Frank Leahy without a loss. Games are recounted in rich detail, supported by statistics, scoring summaries, and memorable quotations from the coaches and players involved. A bonus highlight DVD includes interviews and historic footage of some of the greatest Fighting Irish moments.

Shake Down the Thunder

Shake Down the Thunder
Author: Murray A. Sperber
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 668
Release: 2002-08-13
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780253215680

"Sperber. . .tackles the details, great and small, unearthing a treasure." —New York Times Book Review Shake Down the Thunder traces the history of the Notre Dame football program—which has acquired almost mythical proportions—from its humble origins in the 19th century to its status as the paragon of college sports. It presents the true story of the program's formative years, the reality behind the myths. Both social history and sports history, this book documents as never before the first half-century of Notre Dame football and relates it to the rise of big-time intercollegiate athletics, the college sports reform movement, and the corrupt sporting press of the period. Shake Down the Thunder is must reading for all Fighting Irish fans, their detractors, and any reader engaged by American cultural history.

They Never Said It

They Never Said It
Author: Paul F. Boller Jr.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 186
Release: 1990-06-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199879168

Abraham Lincoln never said, "You cannot fool all the people all the time." Thomas Jefferson never said, "That government is best which governs least." And Horace Greeley never said, "Go west, young man." In They Never Said It, Paul F. Boller, Jr. and John George examine hundreds of misquotations, incorrect attributions, and blatant fabrications, outlining the origins of the quotes and revealing why we should consign them to the historical trashcan. Many of the misquotes are quite harmless. Some are inadvertent misquotes that have become popular (Shakespeare actually said, "The best part of valor is discretion"), others, the inventions of reporters embellishing a story (Franklin Roosevelt never opened a speech to a DAR group with the salutation, "My fellow immigrants"). But some of the quotes, such as Charles Darwin's supposed deathbed recantation of evolution, falsify the historical record with their blatant dishonesty. And other chillingly vicious ones, filled with virulent racial and religious prejudices, completely distort the views of the person supposedly quoted and spread distrust and hatred among the gullible. These include the forged remarks attributed to Benjamin Franklin that Jews should be excluded from America and the fabricated condemnation of Catholics attributed to Lincoln. An entertaining and thought-provoking book, They Never Said It covers a great deal of history and sets it right. Going beyond a mere catalog of popular misconceptions, Boller and George reveal how rightists and leftists, and atheists and evangelists all have at times twisted and even invented the words of eminent figures to promote their own ends. The ultimate debunking reference, it perfectly complements handbooks of quotations.

Rockne & Jones

Rockne & Jones
Author: Thomas Rupp
Publisher: Black Squirrel Books, a trade
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781606353301

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.

Defending the American Way of Life

Defending the American Way of Life
Author: Kevin B. Witherspoon
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2018-12-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1682260763

Winner, 2019 NASSH Book Award, Anthology. The Cold War was fought in every corner of society, including in the sport and entertainment industries. Recognizing the importance of culture in the battle for hearts and minds, the United States, like the Soviet Union, attempted to win the favor of citizens in nonaligned states through the soft power of sport. Athletes became de facto ambassadors of US interests, their wins and losses serving as emblems of broader efforts to shield American culture—both at home and abroad—against communism. In Defending the American Way of Life, leading sport historians present new perspectives on high-profile issues in this era of sport history alongside research drawn from previously untapped archival sources to highlight the ways that sports influenced and were influenced by Cold War politics. Surveying the significance of sports in Cold War America through lenses of race, gender, diplomacy, cultural infiltration, anti-communist hysteria, doping, state intervention, and more, this collection illustrates how this conflict remains relevant to US sporting institutions, organizations, and ideologies today.