by Phil Sicuso
If you do the math, you wouldn’t expect there to be many.
There aren’t.
Knute Rockne’s legendary 13-year coaching career at Notre Dame ended with his death in an airplane crash in spring 1931, 67 years ago. That means that even the 18-year-olds on his final freshman team in 1930 would be 86 today.
A search this past summer turned up 13 surviving members of Rockne’s teams. However, five of them — Ed Donohoe, 1929 Notre Dame graduate, Fred Davis ’30, Tom Listzwan ’30, Edwin Cunningham ’31 and Joe Sheeketski ’33 — are alive only according to usually reliable records. Repeated efforts to contact them came up empty.
The eight Rockne-era players confirmed as living all speak highly of their long-ago coach, saying he was respected and obeyed but rarely feared. He tried to learn the name of every player and made each feel like he was integral part of Notre Dame football, even those at the bottom of the depth chart. Which is where most of the following spent their college football careers:
Edward Agnew
A reserve long-snapper on the 1929 and 1930 teams, he never lettered at Notre Dame but, like all varsity reserves, he got to dress for home games. The 89-year-old recalls getting in for three or four plays in the 1930 stadium dedication game against Navy and chuckles about one of those plays. He snapped the ball over the punter’s head and it went out of the end zone for a safety. The final score of that landmark game: Notre Dame 26, Navy 2. After college — he left at the end of his junior year — he spent many years as a police officer then went into business with his wife selling church supplies. He lives in a retirement community in Chicago.
Joe Foley, 1932 ND graduate
After playing just one year of high school football, Foley came to Notre Dame and tried out for the varsity as an end but was cut. Instead he played quarterback for his interhall team and led Howard Hall to the campus championship of 1928. The next spring Rockne kept him on
the varsity as a backup quarterback. Often used on both offense and defense, he spent 1929 on the "B" Team, a kind of junior varsity that played games against other teams’ reserves. In 1930 he got in for a few plays at the varsity level, making an interception against Navy in the stadium dedication game. He also played in three or four varsity games in 1931. After college he worked for newsprint companies in Canada and later succeeded his father as president of the family lumber company. Now 88, he resides in Belleair, Florida.
Al Grisanti, ’31 grad
Once a 155-pound receiver on the scout or practice team, Grisanti is the first to admit that he had to use brains, speed and deception to survive on a football field. He never lettered but does hold the distinction of having earned a "Hering Medal" for winning a teamwide forward-pass-catching contest. A Cleveland resident, the 89-year-old retired attorney spent about 35 years of his life challenging — with little success — the constitutionality of national urban-renewal legislation, which he felt only helped "the rich get richer and the poor get homeless."
Robert Massey, ’31 grad
Massey played guard for the Irish for four years starting with the freshman team in 1927. Though he never earned a monogram, he was a regular on the travel squad and remembers getting some occasional playing time. In 1929, when the Irish played every game on the road while waiting for their new stadium to be built, Massey was one of the 33 players chosen to dress for each contest. A retired district manager for DuPont, the 89-year-old great-grandfather of 15 lives Birmingham, Michigan.
Art McManmon, ’31 grad
Apparently the only one of Rockne’s at least occasional starters still alive, McManmon was a regular at tackle on the 1929 and 1930 national championship teams. He also served as president of the Monogram Club for the 1930-31 academic year. In 1931, shortly after Rockne’s death, he, along with other Notre Dame greats like Bucky O’Connor, John Law and Moon Mullins, acted in a movie called The Spirit of Notre Dame, which that commemorated Rockne’s life. He later attended Harvard Business School and was president of the Indian Motorcycle Company for many years. Now 90, he lives Westwood, Massachusetts.
Fred Reiman, ’31 grad
A regular on the freshman squad in 1927, Reiman played two additional seasons as one of the centers on the "B" Team. After graduating from Notre Dame he spent three years traveling
around Wisconsin and Minnesota with two semipro football teams, the Old Style Lagers and La Crosse Trojans. He went on to work for a wholesaler of electrical supplies. Now 89, he still lives in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
John Yelland, ’30 grad
Though he never weighed more than 170 pounds, Yelland, 90, played center on the varsity’s practice squad from fall 1927 until he severely dislocated his shoulder at a spring practice in 1929. He never won a monogram but did compete on the "B" Team. The retired real estate agent also served in WWII (as a gunnery officer on an escort carrier in the South Pacific) and the Korean War (stateside). He lives in Minneapolis.
George Vlk, ’31 grad
Vlk had committed to attending Ohio State in 1927 but was shanghaied from Cleveland to South Bend that summer by his father and their parish priest. After an all-night train ride that brought the three to campus, the priest announced, "This is where you’ll be going to school. You’ll love this place." Vlk played a year of freshman football and three seasons on the varsity under Rockne, 1928 through 1930. He was a backup at end but played regularly and earned monograms in 1929 and 1930 on the national championship teams. Now 90, the former FBI employee under J. Edgar Hoover lives in Scotland Neck, North Carolina.
George Vlk, in the 1930 Dome