Today's Tidbit... Knute Rockne, Notre Dame’s Famous Track Coach

The Irish students dedicated the 1921 yearbook to Rockne, with Discobolos winding up on the opposite page. (1921 Notre Dame yearbook)

As Notre Dame's head football coach from 1918 to 1930, Knute Rockne accumulated a 105-12-5 record during his 13 seasons at the helm. His 88.1 winning percentage is the highest all-time among major college coaches. Rockne's tenure as Notre Dame's head track coach is less well known, a position he also held for 13 years from 1914 through 1926.

Rockne entered Notre Dame as a 22-year-old, having worked four years as a postal worker after graduating from high school. He did not participate in athletics as a freshman because he worked numerous side jobs to pay his tuition and board while excelling in the classroom. Rockne excelled after joining the football team and famously was on the receivin’s passes that helped beat Army in 1913.

But Rockne also excelled on the track and more often in the field events, achieving team bests during his senior season with a 21 feet 5 1/2 inch broad jump and a 12 feet 4-inch pole vault that set a school record. (Pole vaulters used steel poles and landed in sawdust pits at the time.)

Rockne and teammates on the 1913 track team. (1914 Notre Dame yearbook)