My
interest in old cars began in 1975 when one of my brothers and
friend of his who dabbled in collector cars/trucks took seriously
my passing statement that I might someday like to have an old
car to drive around. Presently they came by my home with a 1929
Dodge Brothers sedan. It looked pretty good, drove out pretty
well and was reasonably priced. And so I bought it - with the
assurance that brother and his friend would be available to assist
in the car's maintenance and upkeep.
My then-young daughters and I enjoyed driving around in "Daddy's
Dodge" for a while, but I developed a desire for an old car with
a bit more pizzazz. Word got around of my notion, and I was called
about a possibility -- a 1929 Studebaker Commander Victoria Coupe.
It was an interesting body style, and pre-WWII Studebakers were
not common in our area. I sold the Dodge and, since I had somewhat
of a Studebaker connection -- my parents had a 1935 Commander
St. Regis when they married, and after WWII my father bought a
new 1947 Starlight coupe, which he later traded for a new 1950
Land Cruiser, and, of course, Studebaker was located in South
Bend during my undergraduate years at Notre Dame - I decided the
slightly unusual Studebaker was just what I needed.
I joined The Antique Studebaker Club and The Studebaker Drivers
Club, both international clubs of Studebaker owners, and learned
that in 1932 and 1933 there were Studebaker cars named for Knute
Rockne, the celebrated Notre Dame football coach.
As a centerfold advertisement from The Saturday Evening
Post issue of December 5, 1931, stated, over the name of
A.R. Erskine, Studebaker board chairman: "We are calling it the
Rockne Six in honor of a man who was our former business associate.
Knute Rockne would have been Vice President of Rockne Motors Corporation
had he lived. It was his intention to give up active football
direction after the 1931 season."
The fatal airplane accident in Chase County, Kansas, (about
70 miles from my home in Wichita) occurred on March 31, 1931,
so that change did not occur. Studebaker, meanwhile had developed
a lower-priced car intended to compete with Ford, Chevrolet and
Plymouth, to be manufactured and sold by a subsidiary company.
After the coach's death, the new company was named Rockne Motors
Corporation. The cars it manufactured were called the Rockne 65
and Rockne 75 in 1932, and Rockne 10 in 1933.
As an ND graduate, I thought it would be exciting to one day
own a Rockne car, preferably a roadster or coupe. That would be
the ultimate ND memorabilia item. I filed that idea in the back
of my mind and went about the business of enjoying the Studebaker
I had at the time. Over the years, I have had four Studebakers,
but only one at a time -- the 1929 Commander Victoria, a 1935
President Regal Sedan, a 1963 Grand Turismo Hawk and a 1957 Transtar
Deluxe Cab pickup truck -- each one in either excellent original
or restored/rebuilt condition.
While attending the Cotton Bowl football game in January 1978,
I noted in a Dallas newspaper's Sunday magazine section an article
about a local man who owned a 1932 Rockne 75 rumble-seat coupe.
Notre Dame was in town to play No. 1 Texas (the Irish won 38-10
and won the 1977 national championship), so the article explained
the relationship of ND football to the late Coach Rockne, and
how he had become the car's namesake.
I kept the article and began a Rockne car information file.
Periodically in conversations with Studebaker friends, I would
note that one day I would like to own a Rockne car. In October
1998, a Studebaker club friend in Pennsylvania told me a man in
Texas had contacted him, requesting referrals of those who might
want a Rockne car. The information my Studebaker friend passed
along seemed familiar, so I retrieved my Rockne car file and the
1978 Dallas newspaper article -- the car and its owner were the
same!
I called the owner and told him how I had heard of the car being
for sale. I reminded him of the 1978 article, and we laughed about
that coincidence. The car was priced too high, I thought, but
I spoke with the owner several times about it and intended to
travel to Dallas to see it, even if I could not buy it. Before
I got there, however, the owner called to tell me he had sold
the car for his price and it was gone. Too bad, but apparently
the end of a fun experience.
Not quite. Two years later, in mid-2000, I received a call from
the man who had bought the Rockne. He had been given my name as
a potential interested party should he want to sell the car in
the future. Might I be interested if he decided to sell it? Again,
I was interested and asked if I could visit him in Fort Worth
to see the car. I did just that and found that some things needed
to be done to the car to make it worth (in my opinion) the price
being asked. We engaged in some good old-car talk, I educated
him a bit about Studebaker and Rockne cars, he asked for my best
price consideration, which he allowed he could not accept, and
we parted friends. A few months later the owner decided the Rockne
was no longer for sale. End of story, again.
Again, not quite. On a Friday afternoon in May 2004, the same
owner called me. He now needed the Rockne's garage space. If I
could come and get the car within two weeks, he said, I could
buy it for an amount that was nearly what I had been willing to
pay for it four years earlier. I wired the money to his bank the
following Monday morning and was able to have the car transported
to Kansas the following Thursday. Two professional automotive
friends, a mechanic and a body repairman -- both Studebaker experts
-- checked the car for me and helped me to put it in presentable
condition without re-restoring it.
I now have my ultimate item of Notre Dame memorabilia, a 1932
Rockne car -- and a rumble seat coupe at that, just a step below
a coveted, and even more rare, roadster.
Larry Tholen is a retired banker in Wichita, Kansas. He knows
two other ND graduates with Studebaker vehicles but would like to
know if there are any others who have Rocknes. He is a director
and, since January 2004, treasurer of The Antique Studebaker Club,
a world-wide club of 1,600 members, which encourages the preservation,
restoration and maintenance of Studebaker-related vehicles of WWII-era
vintage and older. E-mail him at Ltholen@cox.net.
(July 2005)
