George Gipp

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George "The Gipper" Gipp (February 18, 1895 – December 14, 1920) was a famous college football player who played for the University of Notre Dame.

Born in Laurium, Michigan, he entered Notre Dame intending to play baseball for the Fighting Irish, but was recruited by Knute Rockne for the football team, despite having no experience in organized football. During his Notre Dame career, Gipp rushed for 2,341 yards and threw for 1,789. A versatile player, Gipp scored 21 touchdowns, averaged 38 yards a punt, and gathered 5 interceptions as well as 14 yards per punt return and 22 yards per kick return in four seasons of play for the Irish.

Gipp died 14 December, 1920, two weeks after being elected Notre Dame's first All-American by Walter Camp. The apocryphal story of Gipp's death begins when he returned from a night out to Notre Dame's campus after curfew. Unable to gain entrance to his residence, Gipp went to the rear door of Washington Hall, the campus' theatre building. Gipp was a steward for the building, and knew that the rear door was often unlocked. Gipp usually spent such nights in the hall. On that night, however, the door was locked, and Gipp was forced to sleep outside. By the morning he had contracted pneumonia, and eventually died from a related infection. It is more likely that Gipp contracted strep throat and pneumonia while giving punting lessons after his final game, on 20 November against Northwestern University.

It was on his hospital bed that he delivered the famous, but possibly fictional, "win just one for the Gipper" line. The full quotation from which the line is derived is:

I've got to go, Rock. It's all right. I'm not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock. But I'll know about it, and I'll be happy.

Rockne used the story of George Gipp, along with this deathbed line that he attributed to Gipp, to rally his team to an underdog victory over the undefeated Army team of 1928.

He was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame on December 14th, 1951, at 3:27 AM, in memory of the time and date of Gipp's death. George Gipp Memorial Park was dedicated on August 3, 1935, in his home town. In World War II the United States liberty ship SS George Gipp was named in his honor.

The phrase "Win one for the Gipper" was later used as a political slogan by Ronald Reagan, who in 1940 portrayed Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American and was often referred to as "The Gipper". His most famous use of it was at the 1988 Republican National Convention when he told Vice President George Bush, "George. Go out there and win one for the Gipper."