By BRIAN COSTELLO
June 22, 2008
As both New York baseball stadiums prepare to close, The Post looks back at the 25 most memorable moments in the history of Yankee Stadium. This week: No. 14.
Nov. 10, 1928
The most famous halftime speech in college football history came in this game between unbeaten Army and Notre Dame.
With the game tied 0-0 at halftime, Fighting Irish coach Knute Rockne delivered the address that would be featured in a movie, a presidential election and cited over and over in years to come.
A crowd of 90,000 packed the Stadium with others watching from roofs and fire escapes nearby. Rockne went into the locker room at halftime and brought up former Notre Dame star George Gipp, who had died eight years earlier at age 23. He recounted what Gipp said to him from his deathbed.
"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, ask 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."
Army scored the first touchdown in the third quarter, but the Irish got touchdowns from Jack Chevigny and Johnny O'Brien to take a 12-6 lead. Army drove to within a foot of the goal line, but time expired before it could snap the ball and the Irish won the game.
Reports of Rockne's speech surfaced a few days later. Eventually, it would become famous in the 1940 movie "Knute Rockne, All American." Ronald Reagan played Gipp, and the future president often would say "Win One for the Gipper" on the campaign trail.
There is some evidence the event the speech is based on was made up by Rockne. There have been reports that Gipp, who died of pneumonia, was too ill to speak during his final hospital stay, and there is also no record Rockne ever went to see Gipp.
Nevertheless, the speech became part of Notre Dame lore and a Rockne halftime speech became a sports cliché.
