Old School Sports

Knute Rockne, All American (1940)

The DVD box for Knute Rockne, All American features one of the supporting players very prominently while the title character is merely one of eight characters in a much smaller picture. 

This makes marketing sense, of course. Pat O’Brien, the actor who played the famed Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, is little remembered except by the aging fans who watch Turner Classic Movies. The actor who played George Gipp, the Notre Dame all-star football player, is better remembered. Not as an actor, particularly, but he was the 40th president of the United States. When people do remember Ronald Reagan as an actor, this role and the line, “win just one for the Gipper” tends to be what they think of. This film and Bedtime for Bonzo where he played papa to a chimpanzee.

If this were a blog on politicians in films that would all be very interesting. Since this is a blog about clergy and churches in movies, we really can’t spend time on Dutch and his ties to the Gipper. We won’t even focus much on the star of the film, Pat O’Brien, or his character’s gridiron innovations such as the forward pass and shifting lineman.

No, we must focus on the early 20th-century clergy at Notre Dame University, the ones who worked with Knute Rockne. We have to focus on the college president, Father John Callahan (Donald Crisp), who's portrayed as a faithful supporter of Rockne from his days as a student through his career as a coach when he became an American icon; and the professor of chemistry, Father Julius Nieuwland (Albert Bassermann), who encourages Knute to pursue a life of science.

Though Callahan and Nieuwland seem to be good men, the thing that struck me watching the film is the story wouldn’t be significantly different if the film was set at a secular school rather than a Catholic University. Father Callahan cherishes Rockne as a coach, as most any college president cherishes a winning coach. And Father Nieuwland appreciates a good student with a good mind and encourages him to pursue what he considers to be a more worthy goal than sports. But they perform their roles as president and professor pretty much as they would if they weren’t clergy.

Actually, that isn’t completely true. We do, at least, see Father Callahan perform a couple of priestly duties. When Knute’s first son is born, he performs the christening. And when Rockne dies, the priest gives the eulogy. But the priests rarely discuss matters of faith in the film, let alone matters specifically the Roman Catholic faith.

When Rockne is trying to decide between becoming a football coach and a career in chemistry, the two priests discuss his future. Father Callahan says, “Who can say for certain what a man was really born to be? That’s God’s will. Someday Knute will find his place in the world, and when he does, whether it be science or not, I have a feeling it will be the one he was meant to do.” So, sure, if you believe in God’s will, what happens must be it. But it’s a rather banal way to describe it.

Father Nieuwland has similarly vague things to say. He says, “Anyone who follows the truth in his heart doesn’t make a mistake.” He doesn’t seem familiar with the prophet Jeremiah who said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?”

Neither priest advises Knute to make his decisions a matter of prayer, which would be a fairly standard clerical thing to say. Nieuwland also says, “Anyone who helps mankind, helps God.” He seems to be making the point that football and chemistry can both be helpful to people and God likes that. The same can be said about almost any legal and moral profession, so it doesn’t provide much in the way of direction.

But again, for a film set in a Roman Catholic college, there isn’t much religion. I don’t think I remember hearing that fellow, Jesus, mentioned at all. God is mentioned as worth caring about, but I’m not sure where He would fall in the order of priorities between Him and football and education and America -- all lauded highly in the film.

Knute is always concerned with providing a good moral example to his team and encouraging his team, in turn, to set a good moral example for the kids out there. When a gambler comes to visit, Knute boots him out saying, “I won’t let gamblers ruin football like they ruined horse racing and baseball.”

Late in the film, Knute goes to Washington D.C. to testify when legislators debate about the dangers of football violence for the morality of the nation. Knute testifies that Father Callahan had considered moving to hockey, “but I wouldn’t want to be responsible for putting wooden clubs in the hands of Irishmen.”

The film does portray Knute’s early days in Voos, Norway, showing how Knute’s father took the family to America for the opportunity the United States offered. Knute was raised a Lutheran, but later in life converted to Roman Catholicism. I think that would be a very interesting bit of story to tell, but 1940’s Hollywood wouldn’t touch such a plotline with a ten-foot-pole.

God can be mentioned, but they can’t get too deep in the religious weeds -- which is fine for the film, directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Robert Buckner (based on the writings of Knute’s widow). The film is even preserved in the U.S. government’s National Film Registry, but they didn’t give us much to write about here at Movie Churches, so the rather bland clergy in the film receive a respectable 3 out of 4 Steeple rating.

Is This How We Play the Game? More School Sports

Rudy (1993)
If you were to listen to some of Twitter's great minds of the atheist variety, you'd think the Church has brought nothing of value to the world; only war, prejudice, and intolerance. I assume people who tweet such things have no respect for higher education because most of the major universities in the United States were founded as religious institutions. I’m writing, of course, about schools such as Princeton (Presbyterians), Yale (Puritans), and Harvard (yet other Puritans). (Harvard did just hire an atheist chaplain -- a choice the founders of the institution might find, um, questionable.)

And then there is Notre Dame, still very much a Roman Catholic institution and also one of the most respected universities in the country. It’s a school respected for its academics but loved for its football team. Going back to the days of Knute Rockne (widely regarded as one of the greatest coaches in football history which led to retellings of his story on the silver screen with Pat O’Brien and Ronald Reagan). The football team still has a tremendous following, and NBC has a contract to show all their games on their streaming service.

This love of Notre Dame football is the basis of Rudy -- and the foundation of the true story behind the film. It's the story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, who wanted to play Notre Dame football more than anything else in the world. This seemed rather unlikely as he was a small guy and a terrible student.

In the film we see Rudy (Sean Astin) in his high school years at a Catholic school in Joliet, Illinois, giving his all on the football field but not so much in the classroom. The priest who taught civics told Rudy the opposite lesson to that taught in almost all sports films. He told Rudy that dreamers don’t accomplish things in this life, but instead, “The secret to happiness is to be thankful for the things the good Lord has bestowed upon us. Not everyone was meant to go to college. You don’t have the grades to go to community college, much less Notre Dame.”

This priest takes a group of students to visit Notre Dame, but refuses to let Rudy on the bus. Since Rudy has no chance of attending the school, he believes Rudy is just coming to sightsee and gawk.

This might not be how priests are supposed to act in sports films, but I’m not going to be too hard on the guy. Our society, particularly the media, often looks down on those who pursue blue-collar jobs though these are honorable and vital jobs. The steel workers in Rudy’s family do important work. The advice the priest gives Rudy is not bad advice. But Rudy has something that keeps him following his dream even after this decent little speech from his high school priest.

Rudy doesn’t go to college out of high school. Instead, he works in a steel mill, but when his friend is killed in an accident at the steel mill, Rudy decides he has to give his dream a real shot. At the funeral, the priest implores God to spare Rudy's friend Peter from everlasting punishment. Rudy decides to think of this world and not just the world beyond, so he takes a bus to North Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame is one of the only football programs in the country that encourages walk-ons for the team.

Rudy arrives at the Notre Dame security post early in the morning, well before anything is open. Rudy says to the security guard, “There must be someone I can talk to.” The guard says, “You can always talk to a priest.” (That kind of line almost guarantees a bonus Steeple in our Movie Churches ratings.)

Rudy finds Father Cavenaugh (Robert Prosky), a priest on the campus. When Rudy tells the priest about being there to follow his dream, the priest thinks Rudy wants to be a priest. He is surprised to learn Rudy wants to be a football player. Rudy tells the priest his story, including his poor academic record.

The priest can’t get Rudy into the university, but he tells Rudy, “I can get you one semester, at a junior college, Holy Cross. If you get the grades there, you can go one more semester. Then you might get a chance to go to Notre Dame.” It’s a small chance, but good for the priest for offering it. Rudy takes full advantage of it.

At Holy Cross, Rudy takes a religious studies class where he talks about the inspiration of Scripture with a very low view of the doctrine of inerrancy. A classmate, D-Bob (Jon Favreau), offers to help Rudy with his studies. He tells Rudy that with the priest teaching that class, “all you need to remember is ‘sitz im leben’ and you’ll be good.”

Rudy does well at Holy Cross but still worries about getting into Notre Dame. He goes to one of the university’s chapels to pray, and Father Cavenaugh finds him there and asks if Rudy is “taking [his] appeal to a higher court.” 

Rudy asks the priest if he can help him get in. The priest responds, “Son, in thirty-five years of religious study, I’ve come up with only two hard, incontrovertible facts; there is a God, and I’m not Him.”

Rudy gets in at Notre Dame -- and gets on the football team. (Otherwise there would obviously not be a movie). We see a couple more priests in the film, one on the sidelines and another praying with the team before a game.

The priests all come off pretty well, as does the school -- which isn't surprising when one considers that this was the first film that Notre Dame permitted to be filmed on campus since Knute Rockne, All American in 1940. Therefore, the priests in this film, for their good work of pursuing higher education and meaningful life, earn our highest rating of Four Steeples.

In Theaters Now! Run the Race

Run the Race (2019)

Years before Colin Kaepernick created controversy by kneeling on the football field, Tim Tebow was creating controversy by kneeling on the football field. Tebow won the Heisman during his college career, but his stay in the NFL was rather short. He’s currently playing outfield for a Mets farm team, and now he has a new role: movie producer.

Not surprisingly, the movie he produced, Run the Race, is about football. And faith.

Tebow was a controversial figure because he was outspoken about his Christian faith -- and this is a Christian film. Tebow has said it's the kind of Christian film he’s always wanted to see, where everything isn’t easy and bad things happen. Turns out, it’s not a horrible film. 

Likable actors were cast in the lead roles of two brothers who lose their mother to cancer and are estranged from their alcoholic father. Tanner Stine plays Zach, a football star who has lost his faith. Evan Hofer plays his brother, Dave, who was knocked out of football by injury but has a strong Christian faith. The boys are supported by their godmother, Nanny, played by Francis Fisher (Unforgiven). Kelsey Reinhardt plays the girlfriend who faces conflict with Zach over issues of faith.

The boys face dramatic challenges and not everything is resolved on the football field.

Most importantly (for this blog anyway), the boys are supported by Pastor Baker played by Mario Van Peebles (director of New Jack City). The pastor is a casual guy, preaching in khaki pants and a plaid flannel shirt. Though Dave usually attends church alone or with his Nanny, both boys attend a Christmas service together. The sermon is theologically sound -- about a “moment” that changes everything, the moment God entered the world. We hear bits of two other sermons which are fine, but I don’t remember any specific Scripture.

He serves a small country church in Bessemer, Alabama*. The building is worn but respectable, which is more than can be said for the town as a whole. Bessemer just seems worn, but it does seem real. You can understand why the brothers want to escape the place.

Finally, the film does convey a tangential, but important message: the superiority of Dr Pepper over Coca Cola.

As for our Movie Church ratings, the little church and its pastor show no flaws, so they earn the full four steeples.

*Bessemer, Alabama is a real town, by the way. During our Alabama week in 2016, we camped at Tannehill State Park outside McCalla, the next town south.