The Gipper -- Part One

Book excerpt: In 1928, against powerful Army, Notre Dame "won one for the Gipper" -- but who was the legend inspiring the upset? He was the ultimate rebel: George Gipp drank and gambled, and skipped classes, exams, and football practices. But when it counted, the whirlwind back beat the other teams running, passing, and kicking. And he was as skilled on the diamond as he was on the gridiron. Yet he flunked out of college. Women loved Gipp, with his baritone voice, wit, and nearly regal bearing, but he had only one girlfriend, who dumped him. And he chose to become close to only a few people. Though already famous to sports fans by 1920, Gipp dressed like a nonconformist, as if trying to hide his identity. The daughter of his South Bend friend George Hull, a prominent businessman, said that Gipp "was a handsome young man, unassuming and nonchalant.... People introduced to him were surprised to find out he was George Gipp." He was a swirling mass of contradictions, an existentialist before the term was coined. Through his own negligence, he died an early, tragic death. Maybe that's why he's remembered, but will he ever be understood? Read on....