"Win one for the Gipper." Has there ever been a better-known sports expression, whether used as a rallying cry or even in jest? But ninety years after George Gipp supposedly uttered those words on his death bed to legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, the validity of the expression remains shrouded in doubt, even after the first game between Army and Notre Dame in New York since 1969.
One of the reasons for that doubt is that Rockne waited eight years before recounting Gipp's purported dying wish to his team before the Nov. 10, 1928 game between Notre Dame and Army in Yankee Stadium when the highly motivated Fighting Irish, a prohibitive underdog, upset the unbeaten Cadets, 12-6. Further, so far as is known, none of Gipp's teammates ever called him "Gipper." Even Gipp's closest friend and teammate, Hunk Anderson, told me years ago it was unlikely that the carefree and unsentimental Gipp would have uttered the "win one for the Gipper" expression.
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