Knute Rockne III, grandson of the famous coach, has carried on not only his name but his profession as well. Knute III spent his career as a high school teacher and football coach, mostly in Utah. 

He has always strived to impart the most important aspects of the original Knute Rockne to his students and athletes.

“Through the years, especially when I wear some Notre Dame gear, they have an idea of who my grandfather was,” Knute says. “They understand my connection to Notre Dame.”

Of course, in many ways, football today is a completely different game than what Rockne coached in the 1920s, when gauged by strategy, and Xs and Os.

“The biggest difference, when you talk about Grandpa and his impact on the game, he was one of the very first coaches who talked about the mental aspect of the game,” Knute III says. “He was more concerned about getting smart players than the great big giant, physical guys who just played smash-mouth football.

“Through things like the Notre Dame Shift, he was able to take smaller players, and using things like speed and quickness and mental agility, in order to defeat their opponents.”

The values of coordination, precision and teamwork are also vital aspects of the Rockne coaching style, emphasized by both coach Rocknes. “I want to play my best eleven, not my eleven best,” Knute Rockne was famous for saying.

Away from the field itself, Knute’s famous grandfather was highly skilled in the art of promotion.

“He was one of the first individuals to understand the importance of mass media. He was very attuned to the power and influence of the newspapermen, and did everything he could to help them cover the sport. And of course that benefited Notre Dame.”

Knute III enjoys his occasional trips back to the Notre Dame campus, including in the spring of 2024, when he helped coordinate an important family operation. The graves of Coach Rockne, wife Bonnie and other family members were exhumed from Highland Cemetery in South Bend to Cedar Grove Cemetery on the Notre Dame campus.

Originally, the Rocknes were sold burial plots at Highland, which was a fairly new cemetery and offered perpetual care, while graves at Cedar Grove were sometimes unkempt.

“Grandma was very much concerned that Grandpa’s grave not turn into a memorial site,” Knute III said.

Going forward, Notre Dame fans will be able to pay their respects to the legendary coach without leaving campus.

Some will learn more about just how far-flung was the fame of the original Knute Rockne. That was evidenced at the funeral held at Notre Dame’s Sacred Heart Church (now Basilica) on April 4, 1931, four days after Rockne’s death in an airline accident in Kansas.

“It was a major, major event,” Knute III says. “It was huge, with numerous dignitaries from far and wide.”

Paying respects to a legend. That’s much of what Knute Rockne III’s life has been about.