The Notre Dame football legend made a special video for students at his Illinois high school:
World-famous Joliet Catholic High School graduate Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger has created a short motivational YouTube video to give Joliet Catholic Academy students hope amid the new coronavirus outbreak. Joliet Catholic, like all Illinois public and private schools, was forced close its campus for the remainder of the school year amid the health crisis.
Rudy’s rags to riches story of becoming a walk-on college football player at the prestigious University of Notre Dame became a hit movie in 1993, “Rudy.”
On Tuesday, the 1966 graduate from Joliet Catholic produced a two-minute video in hopes of boosting the spirits of Joliet Catholic’s high school students as they remain at home and away from their regular classmates.
“All right guys, Rudy Ruettiger from the movie,” Ruettiger’s video message begins. “You know, in 1975, I played at the University of Notre Dame. In 1976, in the spring of 1976, I graduated from the University of Notre Dame. In 1966 from Joliet Catholic, I graduated in the lowest third of my graduating class from Joliet Catholic, not because I was a stupid kid.
“It’s because I didn’t believe in myself. I listened to the wrong people.”
“Things will get better,” Ruettiger assured Joliet Catholic students in his video.
Rudy’s message “Dream Big and Never Quit” continues to inspire millions worldwide, Joliet Catholic officials said.
Despite being just 5-foot-6 and 165 pounds, Ruettiger’s early goal had been to play football for the University of Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish. He was chosen to be on the school’s scout team, and finally given a chance to play in the last home game of the 1975 season, where he made a sack of the quarterback in the third of three plays.
He is one of only two Notre Dame players in the university’s history to be carried off the field by his teammates.
There’s more at the link. And the video itself is below.
And if you haven’t seen the movie based on his life, here’s the trailer for “Rudy.”
