ESPN Classic to commemorate 70th anniversary of Rockne's death

Author: Dennis Brown

The 70th anniversary of the death of legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne will be commemorated in a special one-hour program at 7 p.m. Wednesday (March 28) on the cable television sports channel ESPN Classic.p. Titled “SportsCenter Flashback: The Death of Knute Rockne,” the show will focus on events the day of and immediately after March 31, 1931, when Rockne and seven others were killed in an airplane crash near Bazaar, Kan. The program will be rerun at 4 p.m. Saturday (March 31).p. Among the show’s highlights will be interviews with four people who were on the scene after the crash, including Easter Heathman, then 14 and now 83, who is the unofficial caretaker of the Rockne Memorial Monument at the crash site. Other program segments will include highlights of Rockne’s career, film clips and commentary on the nationwide mourning as news of his death spread, and analysis by aviation experts of the ill-fated aircraft, a Focker F-10.p. Notre Dame’s coach from 1918-30, Rockne led his teams to three national championships and a cumulative record of 105-12-5, an .881 winning percentage that is the highest in college football history. He died at age 43.

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