Countdown to kickoff: Notre Dame vs. Ohio State is only 45 days away
To preview one of the most anticipated games for Notre Dame this century and the official start of the Marcus Freeman era, BlueandGold.com is counting down the days until the matchup against Ohio State on Sept. 3.
This daily series of 99 stories celebrates by the numbers some of the most notable names, dates, moments and memories related to the past and present of Notre Dame football.
With 45 days remaining until kickoff, we look back at former walk-on defensive end Rudy Ruettiger, who wore No. 45 for Notre Dame in his one 1975 game made famous by the 1993 movie Rudy.
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He’s the most celebrated college football player with three career snaps to his name. He’s likely the shortest defensive lineman in Notre Dame history, at least in the forward pass era. He’s surely the smallest to ever record a sack.
Rudy Ruettiger’s Notre Dame football career is secondary to the story of how he made it happen. Irish fans know it well. Heck, even supporters of other college football teams and plenty of non-college football fans do. The movie depicting his story is one of the most popular sports films of all time.
Ruettiger – all 5-foot-6 and 165 pounds of him – enrolled at Holy Cross College across from Notre Dame in 1972 with a dream of playing football for the Irish. He gained admission into Notre Dame on his fourth attempt, walked on to the football team, became a valued scout team member and, in his last home game, finally saw the field.
Wearing his No. 45 jersey, he authored a final chapter of his career built for Hollywood.
Then-Notre Dame head coach Dan Devine sent Ruettiger in for the final moments of the Irish’s 24-3 win over Georgia Tech on Nov. 8, 1975. He went in for a kickoff, remained in the game for the ensuing first-down play (an incompletion), and on the next snap, sacked the ironically named Yellow Jackets quarterback Rudy Allen. He left the field on his teammates’ shoulders.
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It was hardly a consequential moment in that game or season. But thanks to the film, it put the No. 45 Notre Dame jersey in the spotlight.
Fittingly, the last player to wear it was also a walk-on: linebacker Colin Gutzmer, who donned it last year. Linebacker Jonathan Jones (2016-19) was the last scholarship No. 45. He inherited it from defensive lineman Romeo Okwara (2012-15), who was a starter his final two seasons. Three-year starting linebacker Darius Fleming wore it from 2008-11.
No player on Notre Dame’s 2022 roster is listed as No. 45.
