Reports: ESPN there as Notre Dame hero George Gipp's body is dug up

Star Tribune

Last update: October 10, 2007 - 10:35 AM

The body of George Gipp, the legendary Notre Dame football player who was immortalized with actor Ronald Reagan's cinematic "win one for the Gipper" line, has been exhumed nearly 87 years after its burial, news reports said.

Gipp, a native of Larium in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, was exhumed last week from Lakeview Cemetery near Calumet, Mich., in connection with an upcoming book on Gipp's life by historian Michael Bynum, the Hougton Daily Mining Gazette reported Tuesday.

Gipp, an All-American, died in December 1920 at age 25 from complications from pneumonia. As the story goes, Gipp was on his death bed when he uttered to Fighting Irish coach Knute Rockne to urge the team to "win one for the Gipper."

That moment was captured in the 1940 movie "Knute Rockne All-American." Reagan portrayed Gipp, and that scene became the most famous for the future president.

Bynum, who also edited Knute Rockne: His Life and Legend, has been researching Gipps life off and on since 1977, the Mining Gazette said.

An ESPN film crew was at the exhumation, the newspaper said. ESPN is planning a profile on Gipp as part of its new E:60, the shows coordinating producer Robert Abbott told the newspaper.

We played no part in the exhuming of the body; we merely documented it for the piece that will air on E:60 in the coming weeks, Abbott said.

According to the Mining Gazette, Bynums book had been scheduled for release this fall but was delayed to include the DNA testing results.

Ron Gipp, a distant cousin of George, confirmed to WLUC-TV television in Marquette, Mich., that the exhumation was for DNA testing. "I stayed right until the end when he was buried in the ground again," Ron Gipp told the station. "And this time, he'll rest in peace, and this will be over with."

Gipp's great-nephew, Rick Frueh, who authorized the exhumation, told TV6 his family will release more about the exhumation and the testing in the next few days.

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