Rockne helped to popularize the forward pass and made the Notre Dame Fighting Irish a major factor in college football.

After Rockne graduated from high school, he took a job as a mail dispatcher with the post office in Chicago for four years.

On November 1, 1913, the Notre Dame squad stunned the highly regarded Army team 35–13 in a game played at West Point.

During 13 years as head coach, Rockne led Notre Dame to 105 victories, 12 losses, five ties and three consensus national championships, which included five undefeated and untied seasons.

He used his charm to court favor from the media, which then consisted of newspapers, wire services and radio stations and networks, to obtain free advertising for Notre Dame football.

[21][22][23] During the war-torn season of 1918, Rockne took over from his predecessor Jesse Harper and posted a 3–1–2 record, losing only to the Michigan Aggies.

He likely contracted strep throat and pneumonia while giving punting lessons after his final game, on November 20 against Northwestern University.

The national champion 1924 team included the "Four Horsemen" backfield of Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden.

[33] Carnegie Tech used the coach's absence as motivation for a 19–0 win; the upset likely cost the Irish a chance for a national title.

"I sat at Grant Field and saw a magnificent Notre Dame team suddenly recoil before the furious pounding of one man–Peter Pund", said Rockne.

"[34] Rockne wrote of an attack on his coaching in the Atlanta Journal, "I am surprised that a paper of such fine, high standing [as yours] would allow a zipper to write in his particular vein ... the article by Fuzzy Woodruff was not called for.

[36] Rockne entered the locker room and told the team the words he heard on Gipp's deathbed in 1920: "I've got to go, Rock.

The phrase "Win one for the Gipper" was later used as a political slogan by Ronald Reagan, who in 1940 portrayed Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American.

[39] Rockne met Bonnie Gwendoline Skiles (1891–1956) of Kenton, Ohio, an avid gardener, while the two were employed at Cedar Point.

Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Sandusky, Ohio, on July 14, 1914, with Father William F. Murphy officiating and Gus Dorais as best man.

Rockne died in the crash of a Transcontinental & Western Air airliner in Kansas on March 31, 1931, while en route to participate in the production of the film The Spirit of Notre Dame (released October 13, 1931).

[44][45] Coincidentally, Jess Harper, Rockne's friend and the coach he had replaced at Notre Dame, lived approximately 100 miles (160 km) from the spot of the crash.

The memorial is surrounded by a wire fence with wooden posts and was maintained for many years by James Heathman, who, at the age of 13 in 1931, was one of the first people to arrive at the site of the crash.

[50] Rockne was buried in Highland Cemetery in South Bend, the city adjacent to the Notre Dame campus.

Most football historians agree that a few schools, notably St. Louis University (under coach Eddie Cochems), Michigan, Carlisle and Minnesota, had passing attacks in place before Rockne arrived at Notre Dame.

Additionally, few of the major Eastern teams that constituted the power center of college football at the time used the pass.

In the summer of 1913, while he was a lifeguard on the beach at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, Rockne and his college teammate and roommate Gus Dorais worked on passing techniques.

That fall, Notre Dame upset heavily favored Army 35–13 at West Point thanks to a barrage of Dorais-to-Rockne long downfield passes.

In May 1949, Knute Rockne appeared in the Master Man story on Kid Eternity comics, Vol 1, number 15.