Knute Rocke 3-Page Handwritten Letter w/Plays

A Knute Rocke important hand written three page letter with diagrammed plays. Also includes the envelope addressed in Rockne's hand. This lot requires payment via wire transfer or Zelle. Here is the provenance as submitted by the family that has consigned the letters. DC: This Knute Rockne letter offered for sale was written and sent by Knute Rockne in 1916. He sent this to provide some of his plays and helpful information to my grandfather, Arthur Melvin Cunningham who was a teacher and football coach at the Park River High School. The letter was sent to Cunningham through a young Park River businessman, Jacob Vivian Birder, who had asked Rockne to provide some suggested plays for their new high school coach. We don’t know the history of Birder’s friendship with Rockne, but we do know that Knute Rocke responded with a personal letter using a tone obviously written to a friend. Rockne had finished his own collegiate football career only a few years earlier and was early in his coaching career at Notre Dame when he responded to his friend’s request. Rockne laid out 3 plays that he thought would be simple enough for a high school squad to implement and could all result in a touchdown. Based on the postmarks and family oral history, we believe the letter arrived and was passed on to Cunningham to be used by the Park River team towards the end of their six-game 1916 season. In their final game they played in and won the North Dakota State Championship Game defeating the opposing team 39-0. Much of the history of those involved in getting this letter from the prestigious Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne to the coach of a rural North Dakota high school is lost to the passing nearly 110 years. Coach Cunningham died in 1940 from a brain tumor leaving behind 4 children. His youngest child was my 5-year-old father who grew up never really knowing his dad but with a love of football, the letter from Rockne, stories passed on by his mothers and other family members, and a lot of unanswered questions. In 1996 Robert spent time in North Dakota, looking at archival collections of 1916 Park River Herald newspaper stories, other historic information, and visited the town of Park River and its high school. Based on this trip, the text of the letter and other research we have gathered this relevant information: The request to Rockne for several plays came from Jacob Vivian Birder, who is mostly referred to in historic newspaper references and online information as J.V. Birder. We don’t know the history of the friendship between Rockne and Birder however we do know that both attended Notre Dame at the same time. Birder graduated in 1913, Rockne graduated in 1914. Rockne’s salutation was to “ My Dear “Viv” ” and he signed the letter “With kindest personal regards and every good wish I am as ever Rock”. This use of nicknames may suggest the kind of friendship developed between college friends as young men; roommates, fraternity brothers, classmates or something else? The definitive answer is likely lost to history. In 1916 Birder was a young up and coming businessman in Park River. He was still single and was in his mid 20’s. We believe he married his wife in Ohio in 1917. Coach Cunningham was new in town, also single and in his mid 20’s. Rockne was a couple years older. Cunningham had gone to college in Ohio at the College of Wooster where he had played football on the college team and then coached at he college for one or two years after graduating before going to teach school and coach in North Dakota. An article in the Park River newspaper of the time referenced another school staff member who had attended college in Wooster; perhaps the connection that pulled Cunningham to Park River. Rockne also spent some time in Ohio in this time. We don’t know if an Ohio connection was made between any of these three. Following the school year with the winning 1916 season, Cunningham enlisted in the army. We don’t know if he was drafted or enlisted but with WWI heating up either was possible. Ironically, he was then sent back to be stationed in North Dakota with the Army Meteorological Corps. He returned to Ohio following his service. Tragically one of his championship team’s members, right guard Paul Farup who was so young that he needed to talk his parents into giving him permission to enlist, went into the army, saw combat, and was killed in action in France on July 22, 1918; just 20 months after the glory days of winning the state championship. He remains buried at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in France. J.V. Birder remained in Park River for much of his life, raised his family and was a successful and influential businessman. He died in a train crash in San Francisco California. Interestingly Birder’s oldest son, Rodney flew B-17’s in WWII, was shot down, survived bailing out and spent the remainder of the war as a POW in German before returning home. And so a single football season, a state championship, a rural town in North Dakota, the relatively new game of football, a request for some help, 3 young men and their friendships, a famous college coach, an unknown high school coach, and a small town businessman all set in the innocent days on the eve of WWI all are threads in the fabric of this story woven together by the letter from Knute Rockne. Includes full Beckett Letter of Authenticity. Measures 10.5 x 9 x .125 for shipping purposes. USPS Registered Mail is our preferred method of shipping for this item, although the winning bidder may request and/or approve other. These letters have been professionally sealed in mylar.