<em>Win one for the Gipper</em>. Has there ever been a better-knownand more widely-used exhortative phrase in sports? Notlikely. But who was “the Gipper,” this seemingly mythical athletewhose nickname has aroused, in turn, awe, wonderment, curiosity,and amusement since the second decade of the twentieth century,and whose death while still a student plunged the Notre Damecampus, the city of South Bend, Indiana, and indeed much of thecountry into collective grief? <p>More than eight decades after his death, George Gipp is stillregarded by football historians as Notre Dame's best all-aroundplayer. And it was Gipp and his legendary coach, Knute Rockne,who were largely responsible for putting Notre Dame, then a smallMidwestern all-male Catholic school, on the map. But their nameswere to resonate well beyond that era as they each attained immortalstatus, both because of their football achievements and theirdistinctive, albeit vastly different, personalities—Gipp, the enigmaticand undisciplined loner, and Rockne, the charismatic, highlyorganized, and disciplined coach, famous for his stirring orationsto his players and his ability to bring out the best in the insouciantGipp. </p><p>Exhaustively researched and meticulously reported, <em>The Gipper </em>isthe definitive examination of the enigmatic Gipp, his larger-thanlifecoach, and a bygone golden era in sports and American culture.</p>