The Gipper by Jack Cavanaugh

Author:Jack Cavanaugh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2011-02-11T05:00:00+00:00

For all of the euphoria across the Notre Dame campus in the aftermath of the latest victory over Army—Notre Dame’s third in a row with Gipp in the backfield—the school and the city of South Bend were abuzz over their upcoming first-ever homecoming game, against Purdue, which would draw hundreds of alumni back, including former players such as Louis “Red” Salmon, the star running back from Notre Dame teams of the turn of the century, who, until Gipp, had been regarded as the school’s most illustrious football player. The night before the game, almost the entire Notre Dame student body, about 1,500 students, marched to the Hotel Oliver to serenade the Purdue team, who was staying there. Players from both teams spoke at the rally, during which chants of Gipp! Gipp! Gipp! were shouted. Alas, but not surprisingly, Gipp was not on hand for the rally. A few cynics suggested that he might have been inside the hotel, which, of course, was one of his favorite playpens, shooting pool or playing poker for high stakes. In fact, though Gipp still had a room at the hotel, he usually had the good sense to spend nights before home games on campus in his rarely occupied bed in Sorin Hall.

Though bruised and still sore from the pounding he had taken at West Point, Gipp—described in an advance story by Arch Ward in the South Bend Tribune as “the Babe Ruth of the gridiron”—put on a dazzling display against Purdue before a standing-room crowd of roughly 12,000, about 4,000 more than the enlarged capacity of Cartier Field. For the second week in a row, Gipp totaled well over 200 yards on offense, rushing 10 times for 129 yards, an average of almost 13 yards a carry, and completing four of seven passes for 128 yards—a grand total of 257 yards—as Notre Dame routed the Boilermakers 28-0. Red Salmon, who had been keeping tabs on Notre Dame players since 1900, said after the game that Gipp was “the greatest player ever to play for the old school.”

Purdue players also had high praise for Gipp. “Many times I was sure I had him, but then ended up with empty hands,” guard Cecil Cooley said. “I remember looking around after he had evaded me and seeing him going down the field weaving, side-stepping, hesitating, speeding up, and twisting like a young colt that had just got out through an open gate.”

By that stage of the season, no other college player in the top tier of college football was producing such glittering offensive statistics, and the Associated Press was by now taking note and carrying stories of his achievements on its newswire to newspapers and radio stations throughout the United States. By then, almost everyone had heard of Gipp’s exploits, albeit not at the pool or poker tables. Sportswriters, far more restrained at the time, tended to overglorify famous athletes while divulging hardly anything about their lifestyles, no matter how scandalous, unless it was in a positive vein.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.