Notre Dame Legend George Gipp's Body Exhumed for DNA Testing

(Hat tip: Dale Price)

From Associated Press (via The Evansville Courier & Press):

Park in Laurium, Mich., dedicated to the memory of George Gipp,
the Notre Dame football legend known as "The Gipper."
The park is located near the cemetery where Gipp is buried.
Photo source: AP Photo/John Flesher
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- The body of George Gipp, the Notre Dame football player who inspired the rallying cry "Win one for the Gipper," was exhumed recently for DNA testing in his Upper Peninsula hometown.

The test was sought by the Gipp family and met legal requirements, Houghton County Medical Examiner Dr. Dawn Nulf said Wednesday, although it angered some relatives who live in the area where Gipp was born and raised.

Nulf declined comment about why the request was made.

An ESPN crew filmed the exhumation for an upcoming story, but a spokesman said the network played no role in arranging it.

Gipp's remains were taken Oct. 4 from Lake View Cemetery near the village of Laurium, about 550 miles northwest of Detroit, where he was buried in 1920 after dying from pneumonia and a strep infection during his senior year at Notre Dame. They were returned to the grave the same day, Nulf said.

Gipp was a prolific runner, passer and kicker who was Notre Dame's first All-America selection. He scored 83 touchdowns and held the school career rushing record for more than 50 years.

But he's best known for the deathbed exhortation attributed to him years later by coach Knute Rockne. During a pregame pep talk, Rockne inspired his underdog Fighting Irish with the story of a dying Gipp urging the team to "win one for the Gipper."

The phrase became a political slogan for Ronald Reagan, who portrayed Gipp in the 1940 movie "Knute Rockne, All American."

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George Gipp at Notre Dame
Ronald Reagan starred as George Gipp
in "Knute Rockne - All American"

From the National Archives:

In 1989, just two days before he left office, President Reagan received a visit from sixty Notre Dame players, their coach, and the university president. They presented the President with a priceless university relic: the monogrammed letter sweater that the real George Gipp wore during his 1917 - 1920 tenure with the Fighting Irish. "That's a great sacrifice by the university," said Reagan. "No one will treasure it more than I will."

George Gipp's Notre Dame sweater.
Photo source: National Archives/Ronald Reagan Library