Interesting People
Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger
His Story, The Movie, His Book
Interesting People
Family; Church; Ears;
Mild Dyslexia
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Ruettigers/landowners: lost everything
– Cattle/disease
Turret gunner/twenty-two missions
Covered in grease; “just get it done”: Union Oil;
gas station; construction
Seven boys and seven girls
Church, school, park, grocery store; 700 square
feet
– Dad/church/ears would fall off
Sox ballpark “I got it!”
– New York Yankees, Green Bay
Packers/Notre Dame football
First five presidents
– “With that attitude, Mr. Ruettiger, you will
never amount to anything.”
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Interesting People
Football: Joliet Catholic (1966)
• The high school
– 857 students
– Tuition: $7,900
• 5’7”; 165#; All-Sub Conf. Guard, Inside
linebacker: 10-0
• Joliet Catholic
– Thayer (1979; Super B Bears), Alstolt (1992;
Super B Tampa Bay), George Miken (shot
clock)
– Gordon Gillespie: 1,800 wins; “Coach of the
Century”
• Science book; wood shop; Big Nick/dead
– “Your son’s not smart.”
• Third from bottom; GPA: 1.73
• “This is for college-bound student. Not you.”
• “That’s Alan Page!”/ Ara Parseghian
– “I’m gonna play football for Notre Dame!”
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Interesting People
Power Plant; Vietnam War (1969);
Navy; Notre Dame Ring
• Coal-fired power plant/priest
– “Go get a bucket of steam!”
• Yeoman - USS North Hampton (CC-1) comm ship
– 2 years
– 2,000 on the 664’ vessel
• Runs/lifts weights
• Lieutenant’s ND ring
• 18 months/opt out early
– GI bill/tuition
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Interesting People
Back: Power Plant: Siskel
• Dream right along with me; Siskel
– Coal onto conveyor belt
– Just do it
• Flat on his back on top of the conveyor, passing
under the feeders/crusher
• That was my job
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Interesting People
Holy Cross
• Holy Cross/Notre Dame
• Diagnosed: mild case of dyslexia (reading
fluency)
• Room so narrow
• First class - math
• Freddy
– How to study the right stuff
– Including Albert Einstein
• All Bs and a couple of As
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Interesting People
Kneeling/Grotto
• Four semesters at Holy Cross; didn’t listen
– “We regret to inform you...”
• Set Freddy up/girls
• Stadium maintenance crew; “grunt work”
– Players’ helmets/gold paint
• Intramural tackle football; USMA
– Middle linebacker/fullback
• “No, no, no, Father, I don’t want to be a priest.”
– “You know, son, Notre Dame’s not for
everyone.”
• Complete four semesters
– Admitted females
– Merged/St. Mary’s
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Interesting People
Bengal Bouts
• Interhall football; Rat Pack
• The Bengal Bouts
– “Rudy, are you a student at Notre Dame?”
• Cum Laude; transfer approved
• “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
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Interesting People
Walk On: Scout Team
• Maintenance closet/Notre Dame
• Janitor/Rudy
– “When I lost my leg (diabetes), I thought my
whole world was over”
• The walk-on’s tryout
– Fifteen other guys; five remained
– Next day five walk-ons showed up
– Two made it/“See you tomorrow”
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Interesting People
ND Sociology
• Dan Devine (5’7”; 185)/Packers
• 130 players
– Joe Montana (1977 round #3; SF; MVP/NFL),
Ken MacAfee (SF; 7th NFL), Jerome Heavens
(6’0; 200), Bob Golic (6’3”; 240), Ross
Browner (6’3”; 240), Jim Stock (6’3”; 217)
• 8-3 record
• Just numbers; never names
• Human tackle dummies
• Elvis Presley; Elvis’s Cadillac finally
– “He’s afraid to go on stage”
• He had to gather the courage to perform. Elvis!
– A hound dog from Elvis!
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Interesting People
@ ND; Still Fighting
• Greats was Ara Parseghian; .836 %
– “I bet you will.”
• Coach Dan Devine
– “Nice fights, Rudy.”
• Plasterer
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Interesting People
Scout Team (1975)
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Rudy: 5’6”; 185#
Merv Johnson; coach
No scout team player listed
Varsity locker room…with my name on it. That
was huge!
“I wish you guys had more heart, like Rudy.”
“Why don’t you try putting as much energy on the
field as you’re putting into all your complaining?”
One player is going to give up his uniform…and
Rudy Ruettigers gonna dress.”
– Sean Astin: knee surgery
“Ruettiger --- #45”
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Interesting People
Georgia Tech: 27 Seconds
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Life intersections
– Fifth grade, humiliation/inadequacy and hurt
– Deaths of Big Nick, Ralph, and Siskel
– Never hugged by my father
– Ringside/ND halfback
“Rudy, you lead us out!”
27 seconds / age 27
– 3 plays
– Kickoff, incomplete pass, sack of Rudy Allen QB
Howard Meyer and Ronnie Cullins; shoulders
– Marc Edwards (USC upset)
He put it on his finger and looked at it; a Notre Dame
ring
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Interesting People
Post ND
• Graduate assistant/scout team
• Coaching kids who were just like me
• Rocky/ Hoosiers (Gene Hackman, Dennis
Hopper)
• Pat Ryan & Associates N.D.
• Insurance add-ons to car dealerships
– Over $40,000 in a single year!
– Maybe, this isn’t me
– Cleaning business/Ara Parseghian;
$20,000/“write him a check”
• College football Rudy Award
– Character, courage, contribution, commitment
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Interesting People
Hollywood Dreams
• Hoosiers
– A town drunk. A victory as powerful as
Rocky’s
• Sports movie that wasn’t really about sports at all,
but about life and drama and who we are as
people.
• Angelo Pizzo, Hoosiers
• Interim job: condominium association take over
maintenance at our development
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Interesting People
Movie: A Success?
• “Rudy, do you have a lawyer?”
– Columbia TriStar
– 1991, Angelo Pizzo
• Why didn’t he include my entering the Bengal
Bouts?
– “Too many victories”
• “You don’t have permission?” they said
• Pizzo had taken my personal story of hope,
perseverance, and never giving up on your
dreams
• My attorney, “you’d win,” he told me, “but while
you’re fighting… The movie will never get make.
• No money from the film
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Interesting People
Making Rudy; $12M Budget
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Priest threatening to shut the film down
– “I need ten thousand dollars”
– Sean Astin, two stunt doubles
– Charles S. Dutton as old janitor, Rudy
– Ned Beatty; Al Cowlings
Forty-four ex-college and semi-pro football players from
all over the region
– 6’6”, 310 pounds; union
– 20 pounds; shoot; 16 hours of football
– ND v. Boston College
Halftime seventeen minutes long
Whole communication system went dead
“Go, go, go!”
6 minutes to capture the entire climax of this movie
Release in October 1993
– 6 years
– ND cooperation
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Interesting People
Rudy Nutrition/Real Estate
• Securities Exchange Commission
– $185,750/$382,866
• Nevada
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Interesting People
Hope
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Difference between Golden Dome and power plant/10°
apart
A matter of turning my head/different perspective
Rudy Awards
“This movie’s about dreams, it’s about perseverance,
it’s about heart, it’s about endurance, it’s about
overcoming the odds, and that’s a story that you’re
going to see repeated throughout the history of this
country”
Wall commemorating Rudy
First hug
Sean/finish his degree at UCLA
Kobe Bryant had watched Rudy/age 16
– Reason he’s in the NBA
– Reason he’s always the first guy to practice,
working out longer and harder than everyone else,
he said
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Interesting People
Dream
• “You’ve gotta go after your dreams, because you
never know who you’re going to influence”
• “Isn’t that what America’s all about?”
• “The truth is you are someone”
• The unconditional support they gave to each other
in that moment was a beautiful thing
• That hour had been exactly the connection, the
boost, the sign, and the answer I needed
• Getting the message; living the message
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Interesting People
Post-Movie
• White House, D.C.
– Clintons, Larry King, Joe Montana, Colin
Powell
– Access pass
– Rudy hat
– Hillary Clinton
• Reviews
– Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
• “… powerful demonstration of the human
spirit”
– Holden, NY Times
– Harrington, Washington Post
• 2005 – Best of the 25 sports stories
– 4th by ESPN
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