Efemeryda

Apparently on Sunday, an NFL announcer, Charles Davis, mentioned the name “Knute Rockne” and pronounced it with a hard K, i.e. Ka-nute. A fellow announcer, Ian Eagle, gave him a hard time about it.

I don’t watch the NFL, so I missed the live exchange, but the clip got sent to me, and I gave a little cheer for Charles Davis. Then I took a look a Twitter (I will never call it “X”) and all the tweets calling Charles Davis an idiot and other rude names for pronouncing it this way.

While I am by no means a football expert, this is one area I have some authority on. My great-grandfather is Knute Rockne and my family has always pronounced it “Ka-nute.”

Knute Rockne was born in Voss, Norway and his name was originally Knut Larsen Rokne, but at some point after coming to America, the spelling became “Americanized” (the “Larsen” was also dropped in favor of “Kenneth”). However, the pronunciation has always been Norwegian.

Here are some examples of where it’s pronounced correctly:

In 1940, nine years after his death, the movie “Knute Rockne, All-American” was made. This film relied heavily on input from Knute’s widow, Bonnie. It starred Pat O’Brien as Knute Rockne and Ronald Reagan as George Gipp. Yes, this is where he got the nickname “the Gipper.”

In 1988, the US Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating Knute Rockne, and Ronald Reagan, who was then president, gave a speech at the unveiling of the stamp at Notre Dame. In this speech, he remarked on the pronunciation of Knute.

Lastly, while the film “Rudy” is not particularly known for its accuracies, Knute is pronounced correctly before Sean Astin launches into his reenactment of Rockne’s famous pep talk.

So thank you, Charles Davis, for saying it correctly.

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