"Knute Rockne: A Portrait of a Notre Dame Legend" by Michael Steele is a pleasant combination of photographs, detailed text and interview transcripts that will leave any reader with a complete picture of the man who was Knute Rockne.

The cover of "Rockne: A Portrait …" fittingly features a stunning portrait of the Notre Dame legend, painted by sports artist Ron Stark. Inside the book, one will find many more visually appealing pages.

Almost every page is laden with photographs, and the reader, or, possibly, the non-reader, could derive a substantial amount of enjoyment and information on Rockne's life and career just by observing each photo. Within the first few pages, the reader is supplied with aerial photographs of Voss, Norway, where Rockne was born in 1888, and several charming photos of Knute as a child.

Rockne the football player and coach is, of course, the primary subject of the book, and each stage in Rockne's athletic progression is dutifully covered in visual form. A well-placed photo or two illustrates any and all salient characters and players in the Rockne football tradition. Additionally, many of Rockne's teams are represented by the familiar medium of the team photograph.

The astute reader can determine the magnitude of Rockne's celebrity by observing certain included photographs. For example, one can see Rockne smiling for a Studebaker automobile advertisement, posing with football legend Pop Warner or standing next to a hulking Babe Ruth (who is, for some unknown reason, clad in a Notre Dame uniform). Other photographs show sides of Rockne's private life, such as portraits with his wife and a scene of Rockne playing with his children at a beach.

Overall, the sizeable amount of photographs function effectively as either the centerpiece of the book or as a compliment to the book's text.

Those who prefer reading over looking should not be turned off by the amount of photographs present — the excellent text provided by Steele does not disappoint. Steele's credentials as a Rockne biographer are certainly unassailable: He is a 1967 graduate of Notre Dame, has published two editions of "The Fighting Irish Football Encyclopedia," is a distinguished professor of the humanities and peace studies at Pacific University and has published a scholarly work on Rockne's life in 1983, which forms the basis for "Rockne."

Steele covers the full extent of Rockne's life, from his birth in Voss, Norway, in 1888 to his death in a Kansas field in 1931 after a plane crash. Steele generally sticks to a pure, factual account of Rockne's life, but does, at appropriate times, provide a bit of analysis of the inner Rockne. In a similar manner, Steele gives the reader a glimpse of Rockne's life outside of football, such as his academic endeavors or burgeoning celebrity. But for the most part, he stays close to what defined Rockne in the eyes of most: Notre Dame football.

Steele is in no way stingy with the details of Rockne's football career. Rockne's playing days as a star left end for the Irish from 1911 to 1913 are given considerable coverage, as are Rockne's days as an assistant to Notre Dame coach Jesse Harper from 1914 to 1917.

But it is the 13 years of Rockne's head coaching career for the Fighting Irish that constitute the overwhelming majority of "Rockne." Steele includes the score of each game played during Rockne's coaching days (even those against such opponents as Kalamazoo and Haskell), usually accompanied by a description of the events that transpired during each of the games. Every star player is identified, with some receiving special attention.

One such player is George Gipp, the star running back, kicker and mysterious loner. Gipp's bizarre life, outstanding football career and untimely death are analyzed thoroughly by Steele. Gipp's ultimate importance outlived him, as he played a part in one of Rockne's legendary pre-game speeches a few years after the player's death. The veracity of the legend of the "Win one for the Gipper" speech is one of Steele's favorite topics in the book. An examination of Rockne's coaching styles and innovations is also one of Steele's favored topics, especially the famous "Rockne shift," which made the running game so effective.

An interesting topic addressed by Steele that is relevant today is the relationship between football and academics, called "the overemphasis issue" by Steele; meaning the possible overemphasis of college football in America. Steele suggests that Rockne looked at football and sport in a somewhat idealized manner — although he was no naïf — and saw a relation between education of the mind and education of the body. Rockne neither wanted to see the abolition of sport nor the corruption and overemphasis of it.

The final third of "Rockne" is devoted to the transcripts of four interviews with significant people who had first-hand knowledge of Rockne: former Notre Dame student and professor Richard Sullivan, former Notre Dame football player and athletic director Ed "Moose" Krause and former Notre Dame football players and historians Chet Grant and Paul Castner. Each of the four interviews, conducted in 1979 by Steele, provides a unique perspective on Rockne the man and the football coach.

Steele's thorough text combined with the wonderful photography make "Rockne" a winning book of winning character. This unique combination of the visual and the textual makes Rockne a book that would fit equally well on one's coffee table or in one's library.

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