Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger

Rudy Ruettiger

Ruettiger (45) at 1975 Georgia Tech game
Notre Dame Fighting Irish – No. 45
Position	Defensive end
Class	1976
Major	Sociology
Career history
College	Holy Cross College (1972–1974) Notre Dame (1974–1976)
High school	Joliet (IL) Catholic
Personal information
Date of birth	(1948-08-23) August 23, 1948 (age 69)
Place of birth	Joliet, Illinois
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Weight	165 lb (75 kg)
Career highlights and awards
The first player to have been carried off the field at Notre Dame. Played only two defensive snaps recording one sack.

Daniel Eugene "Rudy" Ruettiger (born August 23, 1948) is a motivational speaker who played college football at the University of Notre Dame. His early life and career at Notre Dame was the inspiration for the 1993 film Rudy.

Daniel Ruettiger (nicknamed "Rudy") had a hard time in school because he was dyslexic. He was the third of fourteen children. He attended Joliet Catholic High School, where he played for locally famous coach Gordie Gillespie. Ruettiger joined the United States Navy after high school, serving as a yeoman on a communications command ship for two years; then he worked in a power plant for two years. He applied to Notre Dame, but due to his marginal grades he had to do his early college work at nearby Holy Cross College.

After two years at Holy Cross, Ruettiger was accepted as a student at Notre Dame on his fourth try, in the fall of 1974. It was during his time studying at Holy Cross that Ruettiger discovered he had dyslexia.

Ruettiger harbored a dream to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, despite being undersized at merely 5'6" and 165 pounds. Head coach Ara Parseghian encouraged walk-on players from the student body. For example, Notre Dame's 1969 starting center, Mike Oriard, was a walk-on who was eventually nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship and an NFL contract with the Kansas City Chiefs.

After working as hard as possible and showing that he was willing to work as much as he needed to, Ruettiger earned a place on the Notre Dame scout team, a practice squad that helps the varsity team practice for games. Merv Johnson was the coach who was instrumental in keeping Rudy on as a scout-team player.