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| Image from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division |
A front-page article in the March 6, 1925 issue of
the Sandusky Register reported that
football genius Knute Rockne gave the address at a Sandusky Kiwanis banquet which
was held at the Elks Club on March 4, 1925. The Register
article stated, “With raptor like forensic thrust and fairly bubbling with
the college athlete spirit, the man who last year coached the first national
collegiate football eleven in the nation’s history, gave what was unanimously
declared to be the best address scholastic athletes ever heard here.”
Sandusky
City Solicitor Edmund H. Savord, a Notre Dame alumnus, introduced Knute Rockne
to the crowd of two hundred fifty people. In his opening remarks, Coach Rockne
recalled his summers at Cedar Point, where his boss had been J.F. Singler. Rev. William F. Murphy, who had
officiated at the wedding of Knute Rockne to Bonnie Skiles, sat next to Rockne
at the speaker’s table.
According to Rockne, there were five components of
success needed in football. They included brains, ambition, hard work,
dependability, and proper psychology. Knute Rockne stated that the ideals of
college athletes also “make for better men and better citizenship.” In his closing remarks, Coach Rockne quoted
the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “Don’t foul, don’t flinch; and when you hit
the line, hit hard.”
Members of the Sandusky High School football and basketball teams attended the banquet. Each of the football players
have been identified in this picture from the 1925 Fram, which covered the school year of 1924-1925.
The uniforms of the basketball
players for SHS in 1924-25 were quite different from the high school uniforms
we see today.
After Coach Rockne’s address, George W. Wiles led
the group in singing. Sandusky High School’s “Victory” song was sung by the
high school athletes first, and then sung again by all guests at the banquet.
Lloyd Weninger, who wrote the words and music to the “Victory” song, was given
an ovation.
Knute Rockne and his wife were married in Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church on Columbus Ave.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been some address Mr. Rockne made that March evening in 1925. My father Frederick Tight, then age eighteen; shown here in the players composite photo of the 1924 SHS football team attended. Dad enjoyed talking of that evening and thrilling speach by Rockne for the rest of his life. Dad passed in 1995 at age eighty-nine. Boy! Would you ever like to see a film or hear a recording of that wonderful evening at the Elks' Club so long ago?
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