Rudy Ruettiger discusses dreams, shares Ara Parseghian stories, and weighs in on Brian Kelly
The man who became an inspiration for millions who wanted to chase their dreams is coming to Chicagoland next week. The real-life Daniel ‘Rudy’ Ruettiger, who the movie was made about, will be at Elmhurst University in the near-western Chicago suburbs on February 23. Tickets are free but must be reserved to attend and you can get them by visiting the Elmhurst website.
When I saw that Rudy was coming to town I decided, why wait until then? I want to talk to the man now! So for roughly a half hour on Wednesday I was able to sit down and chat via Zoom with Rudy about his story, finding and creating motivation, and hear a few stories from a man who has seen a ton.
In this episode of the newly launched “Fighting Irish Wired” podcast (yes, I spent the last month thinking of a name) hear Rudy discuss, in addition to his message of positivity:
His legendary high school football coach, Joliet Catholic’s Gordie Gillespie
What made Tom Brady so great for so long
The actual events that led to Rudy dressing (no, it wasn’t Joe Montana being hurt)
The greatness of Ross Browner
How Ara Parseghian used to take pressure off the team each game-week
How he actually introduced himself to Ara in real-life (better than the movie portrays)
His reaction to the comments Joe Montana made about ‘Rudy’ in recent years
Brian Kelly’s exit from Notre Dame
And finally, hear Rudy discuss a made-up part of the movie that would have been handled differently in real-life than it was in the movie…had it been true, at least!
Listen to and subscribe to the Fighting Irish Wired podcast on:
Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify
In full disclosure I have been working on recording a few episodes of a new podcast over the past month. I was shaking out the cobwebs with our very own Jeff Feyerer recently so if you’re so inclined, feel free to listen back to our now very much dated episode discussing how excited Tommy Rees has to be to be leading Notre Dame’s offense in 2023 as well 😉
