No. Not that one. With room for nearly 81-thousand people, and brand new field turf, Notre Dame Stadium isn’t likely to go on the market any time soon. However, Knute Rockne‘s other house is, and it’s well within a Four Horseman’s gallop of Touchdown Jesus.
Credited as the driving force behind the construction of the current Fighting Irish home field, Rockne also commissioned a personal residence in South Bend, and for the first time ever it’s available to the public, priced to move at $500,000.
Completed in 1929, Rockne’s second-to-last season at the helm of Notre Dame, and two years prior to his perishing in a place crash, the house is described as being both “stately and handsome.” Just like Knute.
According to Encore Sotheby’s International Realty in Indiana:
Commissioned by Famed University of Notre Dame football Coach Knute Rockne in 1929, this home is located in the highly sought East Wayne Street Historic district, and is just a few miles from the University of Notre Dame’s campus and the revitalized South Bend downtown. The English Tudor style home set on a double lot is stately and handsome, and is marked by many features of a home built in the 1920s era, including leaded glass windows, limestone fireplace, wrought iron fixtures and railings and much more. Though much of the home remains unchanged since the Rockne era, the home is in impeccable condition and rests among appealing homes and on a picturesque lot. Knute Rockne lived in four homes in South Bend during his tenure as coach, though this home was the home in which Rockne’s wake was held after his tragic death in 1931. Mrs. Bonnie Rockne and family resided in the home on Wayne Street until her death in 1956. In 1957 the current home owners, family friends of the Rocknes, purchased the home from the Rockne estate. Rich in University of Notre Dame and football history, this home is truly extraordinary.
During his 13 seasons on the South Bend sideline, Rockne registered 105 wins, ripped of five unbeaten campaigns, and collected three national titles (note: how do you go undefeated, and untied, and NOT win the national championship? Seems the BCS wasn’t the first flawed system.)
And in addition to popularizing the use of the forward pass, and urging his 1928 squad to “Win One for the Gipper,” Rockne is widely regarded as the first football coach to take his team cross-country in search of stiffer competition and a seat at the country’s kitchen table. Nearly a century since, perhaps it’s fitting that his legacy comes full circle, allowing the most ardent of Notre Dame fans to call his home, their own.
Highlights of Knute’s House:
• 4 bedrooms, 3 baths
• 4,180 sq. ft.
• 2.3 miles from Notre Dame Stadium
Mortgage: In the $2k range/mo. before taxes and someone to cut the grass
