George Gipp - "Win Just One For The Gipper"

"Win Just One For The Gipper"

It was on his hospital bed that he is purported to have delivered the famous,"win just one for the Gipper" line. He apparently said this line to Knute Rockne, the football coach of Notre Dame. The full quotation from which the line is derived is:

Rockne used the story of Gipp, along with this deathbed line that he attributed to Gipp, to rally his team to a 12-6 underdog victory over the undefeated Army team of 1928 with Jack Chevigny making the famous, "that's one for the Gipper" tying touchdown at Yankee Stadium. Chevigny was later killed in action in WWII at Iwo Jima.

The phrase "Win one for the Gipper" was later used as a political slogan by Ronald Reagan, who in 1940 portrayed Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American and was often referred to as "The Gipper". His most famous use of the phrase was at the 1988 Republican National Convention when he told Vice President George H. W. Bush, "George, go out there and win one for the Gipper." The term was also used by President George W. Bush at the 2004 Republican Convention when he honored the recently deceased President Reagan by stating, "this time we can truly win one for the Gipper."

Win one for the Gipper was also imitated by Dwight Schultz at the end of the episode The Bells of St. Mary's in the third season of The A-Team.

The speech was featured in the classic underdog football movie "Rudy" starring Sean Astin as the real life Daniel Ruettiger who is a walk-on at Notre Dame during his senior year. Ruettiger rode the bench the entire season and it was only during the last game on November 8, 1975 that he was substituted in for one official play making him officially part of the team.

The story was parodied in the 1980 movie Airplane! when Dr. Rumack tells Ted Striker the story of George Zipp, and to "win one for the Zipper".