Notre Dame Football: Program building through Hollywood

The Notre Dame football program has an undeniable connection to Hollywood. This has made them a nationally relevant program, and not just another school.

Knute Rockne was a great coach, but plenty of teams have had great coaches. The University of Chicago has two College Football Hall of Fame coaches. Like Notre Dame, Chicago is a small, academically minded university in the mid-west. Chicago even spent over four decades in the B1G Ten, winning it seven times. The Maroons even won two National Championships before Notre Dame ever sniffed one.

So, what’s the difference between these two programs? Why is Notre Dame one of the most storied programs in Division I FBS, while Chicago is a forgotten Division III school, who plays in a stadium which only holds 1,650 people?

The answer is simple. Rockne wasn’t just a football coach, he was an elite marketer.

Knute Rockne made Notre Dame a national brand, with fans from coast to coast, through his master marketing campaign. This is a campaign that Rockne ran directly through Hollywood. First, he let cameras in on his program, getting Notre Dame on television when few other teams were, which helped leave Notre Dame in the national consciousness. This is footage that survives even today and remains part of the ingrained myth of the Notre Dame program.

The second thing that Rockne did was to start a rivalry with USC. While the rumored story goes that Rockne’s wife recommended the annual game so she could go to sunny Los Angeles every other November, it’s more true that Rockne saw playing USC as an opportunity.

The trip west would be a great opportunity to commercialize the program. It meant that more people would be able to see the games. It meant that Notre Dame had a rival to call their own. It also. meant that Notre Dame would have better access to recruits in Southern California, something that continues to this day.

Notre Dame’s growth through Hollywood didn’t begin and end with trips every other year to Los Angeles. That’s not even where Rockne’s impact between Notre Dame and Hollywood died. This is because Rockne, like a Hollywood director, was a master storyteller.

Everyone knows the story of George Gipp. Everyone knows that his dying words were to his coach, Knute Rockne, asking that he recall The Gipper’s name when the Notre Dame team is in trouble, as to inspire them. Some people even think that’s a true story. Rockne said it happened, and that was good enough for a lot of people.

Then Knute Rockne died in a plane crash. He was no longer a man. He was now the near-mythical legend behind those early Notre Dame teams. Hollywood came calling to make a movie about his life, Knute Rockne, All-American. It immortalized Rockne, Notre Dame football, and his story about The Gipper.

A young Ronald Reagan played George Gipp, and in the most famous scene of the movie, told coach Rockne that he wants nothing more than to be the reason his team could win one more game.

It presented a wholesome image of Notre Dame, which became the program’s reputation. This is a place where they are successful, and do things the right way. People wanted to watch, and follow the program, because it had been presented to the public as what being American is all about.

This continued with, love it or hate it, the movie Rudy. Rudy did not just capture the beauty of the campus, the pride of the university, and the prestige academically and in football. It did all this while still telling an underdog story, which proved to viewers that hard work will pay off.

Again, a movie captured Notre Dame as being built on the same ideals as America. Being hard-working, and be a dreamer. You will succeed.

To this day, Notre Dame understands that media about their program is great for building a fan base and recruiting players. Under Brian Kelly, A Season With Notre Dame Football was released to give fans a chance to watch how to program operates.

That association between Notre Dame and American culture was built in Hollywood. It has seeped into the national consciousness. Notre Dame, through its relationship with Hollywood, became the All-American team. Through Hollywood, Notre Dame avoided being another, forgotten school in the Midwest. Make no mistake, without Rockne’s marketing, and Hollywood’s films, Notre Dame would not be where it is today.