I'm here atthe History Museum of South Bend for something that football fansthis time of the year, especially with the season nowback.

This is a great exhibitto come to.

I'm here with Emily.

Emily, tell me a little bitabout this exhibit.

It's about Newt Rockne and his life and legacy,and there's so much to see.

Yeah.

So this exhibit covers Rockne'sentire life from his origins in Norway.

His travel across to Chicago,how he got to Notre Dame and then how his, coachingcareer went, and also all of his other extracurricular activitiesthat he did aside from coaching as well as eventuallyhis death, on a plane.

And how long have you been putting this togetherto have this?

I mean, did you just open itin time for football season?

That was obviouslyplanned as well.

We just started getting thistogether last September, open just in timefor football season to start.

So we're hoping to geta lot of Notre Dame fans in once the home games start.

So yeah, it's great.

And I know we're going to have a lookaround the museum at some of the some of the highlightsof this exhibit.

So starting with a sweater.So let's go there first.

All right.

So tell me about here.

It's a sweater and a whistle.

So this isthis actually belonged to him.

Like did he wear it or.

Yeah.

So this was wornused by Knute Rockne and very much well used,from what Notre Dame told us, they got this sweaterfrom a player of Rockne's who said, that he wore topractice all the time.

And then they actually foundthis photograph of him with a hole in the exactsame spot.

Exact same size.

And then this whistle,we have the side facing up.

One side has Notre Dame, the top side that is facingus, says Newt Rockne.

This is actuallythe fashion today.

But that was just actually because that'show much he wore it back.

Yes, exactly.

All right.

And we've got some little fanshere who love seeing it as well.

My little daughter is herewith me today as we look at the lifeand legacy of Knute Rockne.

And I also knowthat, in this building is the Studebaker Museum, which is,you know, your neighbor museum.

And actually, this exhibit hasa bit of a crossover with that, which is a vehiclethat's over here in the corner.

So I didn't know thisabout Knute Rockne, but he actually workedfor Studebaker as well.

Right.

So yeah.

So he started working for Studebakershortly before his death.

This car, the cars didn'tcome out until after, Rockne has passed.

And while the sign says,the Studebaker Rockne, this was actuallya completely separate company.

It was a subsidiary of,Studebaker.

So a completelydifferent company.

There'sa couple different models.

This was one of the newer ones.

So we were actually ableto borrow this from the Studebaker Museum.

It's absolutely beautiful.

And, of course, football coachesdidn't make as much money back then.

It's not like it is todaywhere, you know, you might get$5 million a year or something.

So he had to have a real jobas well.

Yeah.

He had, several projectsthat he worked on, not just, with the Studebaker company, but he was also creatingother promotional items.

He workedwith the Wilson, company.

We actually have a helmetthat has his name on it.

And his pants.

He has a humidor that was madefrom a real football as well as a football kind ofgame board situation over there.

Now, there is actually one thingthat I want to look at real quick,and we can go over there because it actually says,please touch.

Yes.

So I want to see thatreally quick, okay.

Because, my brother is here with me today and my brother was holdingthis football.

And I said,what do you do when you get.

And he said, no,it says, please touch.

So I just want to see thisreally quick.

So yeah.

So one thingthat we wanted to add was something that our peoplecould actually handle, because all these objects,we obviously don't want people touching these 100 yearold artifacts, but these we actually got from a companythat makes reproductions.

Yeah.

Footballsand helmets from the field.

What it was like.

Yeah.

So this one is actually kindof the style that nobody would wear, especially with the blackcrosses.

Yeah.

And that football is actuallybigger than the modern day football.

It's more like a rugby ballthat it is today.

Well, I just like that the museum, because I think it'sso important for people to be able to feel thingsand touch things and, and so that's really cool.

And of course, his life ended in a very tragic way,which I know you also have, an exhibit here, part of that.

So we're going to have a lookat that as wellto finish off this today.

But when can peoplecome to see this.

Are you open all yearround to open all week long?

Yeah, all week long.

Except for of coursemajor holidays.

Monday through Saturday,we're open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.. Sundays, noon to 5 p.m..

Okay.

And, this exhibit is going ontill when this closes May 31st.

So.

Okay.So the school year.

Yeah.

Okay.

Nice.

All right.

So, his endwas in an airplane in Kansas, and, tell me a little bitabout this part of the exhibit hereand what you have going on.

Yeah.

So Rockne was actually on ajourney for, business purposes.

He was going out to LA, discussa movie promotion.

Actually meant to see his boys.

Our school in Kansas,before, arriving on the plane.

Sadly, their train was late,and so he didn't get to see his, boys.

So he got on the plane.

And at this timeperiod, people are a little bit skeptical about plane travel, but he consideredit incredibly safe.

Unfortunately, mechanical issueshappened.

And the plane ended up crashing,in a farm field.

So we have some piecesof that plane here, as well as the cufflinksthat he was actually wearing.

Oh, wow.

It was in that plane.

We actually have a piecefrom the from the wing.

Yeah.

So these are all kind of different pieces of that planethere.

This is a model of, that plane.

Yeah, it's a Fokker F ten.

Yeah.

That's the actual name.

Okay.We didn't say a bad word.

No, it's called the Fokker.Okay.

So, yeah.

And then the cufflinksthat he was wearing as well.

And so.

Yes.

Wow.

And so where didmost of these pieces come from?

Like, is this stuff that was already at Notre Dameor is this stuff from different collectorsaround the country?

A little bit of both.

The cufflinks come from NotreDame archives.

These items here,come from Augie's locker room.

He has these, typically on display in a store,not for sale, but, for people to be ableto kind of see these pieces.

And is there anything elsethat as you look around here, I mean, we've lookedat some of the different things, like the carand the airplane here as well.

Is there anything that you thinkis really cool that you think, okay, that'ssomething like the sweater, but what's your kind of favorite thing herethat you think people, can I show youmy favorite photographs?

I absolutely, yeah.

If youwant to follow me on.

Yeah.

All right.

So many people, of course, know that Rockne was a very athletic man, but he also had a bunchof other extracurriculars, that he did whilehe was a student at Notre Dame.

One of them beinghe did marbles.

He also didtrack and stuff like that.

But they also,did plays at Notre Dame.

And this is at a time periodwhere women were not students at Notre Dame.

So like the Shakespeare Times, if you neededa female character.

Yeah.

It was going to be a manin a dress.

So we have this photographthat we brought borrowed from, learning archives of Rockneand a wig and, and a dress.

And he actually,got a very good review in the Scholastic,which is a Notre Dame.

Student newspaper there.

It's so funny,the difference in mentality of, couldyou imagine Marcus Freeman now dressing up as a womanin a play at Notre Dame because, or, you know,this is so many things.

And just the role of a coachhas changed so much.

And just football in generalhas become such a big business and such abut this is really cool.

As I mentioned, it's the life and legacy of Knute Rockne, somebody thatI hear about a lot.

I mean, there's been so muchtalk about them, constantly, but I didn't knowthat much about him.

So even as I'm here,I'm learning a lot.

But then again, I didn't even watch the movieRudy until last year, which I feel like if I had admitted thatwhen I first moved to South Bend,people might have actually, like,made me go back to Ireland.

So.

And but this is really cool.

And as you mentioned,the opening hours again, 10 to 5, Monday throughSaturday, 12 to 5 on Sundays.

Okay.

So you're open every day ofthe week, every day of the week.

Awesome.

All right.

Rockne, the life and legacy.

Emily, thank youso much for showing me around.

You guys did a great jobwith the exhibit.

That's really wonderful.

Make sureand come see it and go Irish.