Rockne's death... Say what?

[BobbyMac]

Is this old news? Is this common knowledge? Is it even the least bit true?

I feel like I just woke up in an episode of The OA.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wait - WHAT? <br><br>Al Capone (inadvertently) killed iconic Notre Dame FB Coach Knute Rockne by putting a bomb on his plane? Because Capone was trying to kill a witness? <br><br>So posits Jeff Harrell in book “Rockne Of Ages” excerpted in of all places (not online) ND’s Alum Mag <a href="https://twitter.com/ndmagazine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ndmagazine</a> <a href="https://t.co/QAQETJH78G">pic.twitter.com/QAQETJH78G</a></p>— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) <a href="https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1116155223247151104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[ulukinatme]

Sorry, can't take anything with Olbermann seriously after Ben Affleck impersonated him on SNL

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/countdown-with-keith-olbermann/n12348

That said, I've never heard this rumor before, so it's news to me. I would have to see some concrete evidence though.

 

[NorthDakota]

Keith Olbermann is still around? I figured after 2016 and 2017 he may have given himself a heart attack and died.

 

[Irish#1]

Is this old news? Is this common knowledge? Is it even the least bit true?

I feel like I just woke up in an episode of The OA.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wait - WHAT? <br><br>Al Capone (inadvertently) killed iconic Notre Dame FB Coach Knute Rockne by putting a bomb on his plane? Because Capone was trying to kill a witness? <br><br>So posits Jeff Harrell in book “Rockne Of Ages” excerpted in of all places (not online) ND’s Alum Mag <a href="https://twitter.com/ndmagazine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ndmagazine</a> <a href="https://t.co/QAQETJH78G">pic.twitter.com/QAQETJH78G</a></p>— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) <a href="https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1116155223247151104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Never heard that before.

 

[Irish YJ]

https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/mob-bombs-rockne-plane/

https://www3.nd.edu/~wcawley/corson/rockneplanecrash.htm

 

[Irish#1]

https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/mob-bombs-rockne-plane/

https://www3.nd.edu/~wcawley/corson/rockneplanecrash.htm

Thanks for posting. Interesting read. After all of these years I had never heard the story or was aware of it until NDC posted.

 

[RDU Irish]

It was part of a series on cryptids, ghosts and other voodoo mumbo jumbo. I found it all pretty lame and would have preferred OMM contributed 12 pages of juice instead. Our paranormal thread is light years better but really just setting up for letters to editor for the next edition.

 

[Legacy]

Knute Rockne plane crash (Emporia (Ks) Weekly, 9 April, 1931)

The account relates a wing of the plane was seen "severed" from the fuselage, coming down separate from the rest of the otherwise intact plane, landing a half mile away. The closest witness, R.E. Blackburn, describes a "splintering sound" and witness the plane "spin down". Bodies, not pieces of bodies, were mentioned. The boy, Edward Baker, is mentioned and saw "the roaring Fokker spin down." The wreckage did not burn which you would expect with an explosion, despite a full tank of gas in KC.

Rockne's sons were going to school in K.C. and a former roommate lived there.

Blackburn was a rancher, not a farmer as described in "The Spirit of Notre Dame" article from "Made in Hollywood", and the explosion that article quotes him as saying differs with his description in the contemporary article.

Mentions explosion seen:
https://www.gendisasters.com/kansas...-others-killed-plane-crash,-mar-1931?page=0,0

 

[Old Man Mike]

Conspiracies are not my thing, so I'm no expert here. BUT --- to my knowledge this is complete bunkum.

Probably all of you already know this, but just in case: the plane that Rockne was flying in was a very small (8-person in this case) prop plane whose structural frame was made of WOOD not metal. This wasn't unusual for the 20s 30s. Most stunningly for us "moderns", things like serious parts of that structure were GLUED together. The examination of the debris indicated that it was likely that these parts of the one wing had gotten wet, and the wing integrity was --- you might say --- rotting. The glue failed and the wing tore away.

Rockne's death inflamed public opinion about air safety for these wooden planes and wooden parts altogether --- so much so that we owe him for the elimination of such planes (aircraft companies whined about this) from commercial operations.

Our great Knute gave us a last superior gift even in death.

WAY ill-timed though ... my Dad went to ND a year-and-a-half later and as a walk-on center would have been able to say that he "played" (sat the bench in pre-season camp) for Rockne. More likely, as a Chemical Engineer and the Ace of his class in that, he would have probably known "Chemistry Professor Rockne" on the academic side.