Raider movie football story like rudy plus#

“They were like, ‘Rudy, are you kidding me? We’ve got our movie. “They loved it and the more I told them the more inspired I got.”īut the school’s hierarchy - which hadn’t allowed a movie to be shot on campus since the 1940 classic “Knute Rockne, All-American” - wasn’t interested. “Every Thursday night, all the coaches would come to Skip’s house on the deck and I would tell them the ‘Rudy’ story,” he said. Working as an insurance salesman and car dealership manager in South Bend, Ind., in the mid-1980s, Ruettiger told his story to anyone who’d listen, including the Fighting Irish football coaching staff, which included Barry Alvarez and Skip Holtz, who was his neighbor. Ruettiger pitched his movie idea to Sylvester Stallone’s office but was turned down in what was among the first of countless rejections from Hollywood. “But he taught me a lesson - what did you do to get there? That’s when it kicked in and my movie came together. “I said, ‘Dude, I played.’ Because the guy didn’t want to believe me. “I said, ‘Yeah,’ and the guy’s kind of laughing at me,” Ruettiger said. When Ruettiger told the guy watching the game next to him that he’d played with Montana, the man was incredulous - “You played at Notre Dame?” 10, 1982, when Joe Montana connected with Dwight Clark on “The Catch” to carry the San Francisco 49ers over the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game. However, he didn’t really embark on his movie quest until Jan. Ruettiger first considered putting his story on the silver screen in 1976 after he saw “Rocky.” “We just thought it was important to deliver this message of hope.” It’s not about football,” said Ruettiger, who has lived in Henderson since 1995 and has worked as a motivational speaker for 20 years. Ruettiger will share his improbable life story - including his quest to make the film and the impact it has made on people - in the debut of his one-man show, “Voices of Rudy: The Journey to the Movie,” on Saturday at The Smith Center’s Troesh Studio Theater.

Raider movie football story like rudy plus#

“You can’t go to Notre Dame with your hands out and say, ‘Hey, give me $25 million to make the movie, plus we want to use the campus and create your image.’ Are you kidding me?”īefore the walk-on finally dressed for a 1975 game for the Irish, Ruettiger studied hard for two years at nearby Holy Cross College to earn admission to Notre Dame and toiled another two years on the practice squad.īut it took more than a decade to get the movie made. You had to bring the giants together,” said Ruettiger, 65. “You had to struggle with Notre Dame and Hollywood. The effort it took to get “Rudy” made was even more inspiring than the movie, Ruettiger said.

One of the most inspirational sports movies ever, “Rudy” is based on the true story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, an undersized underdog who refused to let anything stop him from realizing his ambition of attending Notre Dame and playing football for the Fighting Irish. Fortune (Charles Dutton) in “Rudy” (1993) In this lifetime, you don’t have to prove nothin’ to nobody except yourself.”

And you’re also gonna walk outta here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. And you hung in with the best college football team in the land for two years. “You’re five feet nothin,’ a hundred and nothin,’ and you got hardly a speck of athletic ability. Rudy Ruettiger and Sean Astin, who portrayed him in the movie, pose on the red carpet for the 'Rudy' 20th anniversary celebration in Las Vegas.