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When he remarked in his 1965 memoir that with “the great ‘Gipper’” it’s “hard to tell where legend ends and reality begins,” he didn’t yet know how the dance between legend and reality would unfold in his own life. In each case that nickname, “the Gipper,” combines fact and fantasy - or, if you will, real history and reel history - that for Reagan served different purposes at different times. Of course, what brings Reagan and Gipp enduringly together is a nickname. The SS George Gipp, a cargo ship, came into service during World War II, and the USS Ronald Reagan, an aircraft carrier, was launched in 2001. Laying their lives side by side reveals that, despite conspicuous differences, Reagan and Gipp shared uncanny personal similarities as well.īoth men were born in Midwestern villages during the month of February - 16 years apart - and both grew to the height of 6 feet, 1 inch.īoth stayed in the Midwest to attend college and played football at their respective schools.īoth were “naturals” in their fields, showmen driven to display their talents to large audiences.īoth, according to their biographers, were friendly when dealing with other people but displayed little interest in forming close friendships.īoth would have naval vessels named for them. Reagan’s regard for Gipp’s athletic prowess and the football player’s stature as “a legend” who died young help explain the actor’s attraction to the role he coveted. Indeed, the Hollywood portrayal gave Gipp a status almost rivaling Rockne’s.
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In the movie version, he’d be a saint,” Spitz wrote in Reagan: An American Journey. “Never mind that George Gipp was a reprobate who drank, smoked, hustled pool, rarely practiced with the team, bet on Notre Dame games, and was expelled from the university for misconduct. Reagan “knew that playing Gipp could steal the show,” in the judgment of biographer Bob Spitz.
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In 1920, his senior season, he averaged 8.1 yards per carry, still a University record.
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The first Notre Dame All-American, Gipp played on offense and defense, becoming a triple threat with the ball for his running, passing and kicking. Gipp, Reagan wrote, was “a man I had always admired” as “one of the greatest football players of all time,” and the portrayal served as “the springboard that bounced me into a wider variety of parts in pictures.” Two principal reasons undergirded the actor’s enthusiasm for the part. Twenty years after Gipp perished in 1920, and nearly a decade after Rockne’s death in a plane crash on March 31, 1931, Reagan concentrated on what he would call, in an article for The Saturday Evening Post, “the role I liked best.” That connection, though, lay over a quarter of a century in the future. Little did the sports announcer-turned-actor know how portraying Gipp in the 1940 film Knute Rockne All American would contribute to Reagan’s third and most significant career. “My reward was the part of George Gipp - the immortal Gipper.” In his post-White House, 748-page autobiography, An American Life, Reagan confesses he “never thought about getting paid” for this aspiration. “I wanted to tell the story of Knute Rockne,” Reagan admits in his pre-politics memoir, Where’s the Rest of Me? His ardor to bring Rockne to the big screen even drove him to try his hand at writing a script.
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He carried with him a dream beyond acting. Then, after graduating from college in 1932 and working nearly five years in sports broadcasting, the Illinois native headed west to Hollywood. Throughout his youth a century ago, Ronald Reagan followed the life and career of a certain football coach. The 29-year-old actor’s resolute campaign to play a small yet memorable role in the movie about his hero showed determination that, decades later, directed higher ambition.