Daniel E. “Rudy” Ruettiger lived his dream.  His story was depicted on the big screen in 1993 and is considered one of the best sports movies ever.  Now I don’t take everything from movies to be based on true stories to be fact, but I would imagine this one was a close to the real deal.

Without giving away a whole lot, I will point out that one part of the movie pissed me off immensely.  In the beginning of the movie when Rudy was in high school, there was an announcement from the priest that there would be a bus leaving for Notre Dame.  Sure enough Rudy wants to go and take a tour of the campus.  He shows up to get on the bus.  The priest doesn’t let him on the bus.  He takes Rudy aside and tells him, “not everyone is meant to go to college.”

I was livid.  Let the kid see the campus.  If that part was true, shame on that idiot.  Anyway the rest of the movie for me was very telling.  Rudy’s dream was to play football at Notre Dame.  A simple dream.  Not so simple when your family doesn’t think you can do it.  He gets through that and tragedy in the beginning to finally pursue his dream.

It’s not a walk in the park and along the way he makes some new friends.  One of them was the head groundskeeper at Notre Dame Stadium.  Fortune was his name.  He was played by Charles S. Dutton.  Rudy was working for him to get the feel for being on the same field as his favorite Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Fortune was an important character who got Rudy back into focus on his dream.  Just when things were at their lowest for Rudy, Fortune gave him the pep talk he needed.

Fortune: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey what are you doing here don’t you have practice?

Rudy: Not anymore I quit.

Fortune: Oh, well since when are you the quitting kind?

Rudy: I don’t know I just don’t see the point anymore.

Fortune: So you didn’t make the dress list, there are greater tragedies in the world.

Rudy: I wanted to run out of that tunnel for my dad to prove to everyone that I worked…

Fortune: Prove what?

Rudy: That I was somebody


Fortune: Oh you are so full of crap.  You’re five foot nothin’, a hundred and nothin’ and hardly have a spec of athletic ability and you hung in with the best college football team in the land for two years, and you were also going to walk out of here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame in this life time you don’t have to prove nothing to nobody except yourself and after what you gone through if you haven’t done that by now, it ain’t gonna never happen, now go on back.

Rudy: I’m sorry I never got you to see your first game in here.

Fortune: Hell I’ve seen too many games in this Stadium.

Rudy: I thought you said you never saw a game…

Fortune: I’ve never seen a game from the stands.

Rudy: You were a player?

Fortune: I rode the Bench for two years thought I wasn’t being played because of my color I got filled up with a lot of attitude so I quit, still not a week goes by I don’t regret it, and I guarantee a week won’t go by in your life you won’t regret walking out letting them get the best of you.  Do you hear me clear enough?

That sums up the entire Rudy story in a nut-shell.  He had to fight through a lot of crap and still knew he had a chance to succeed at one of the finest universities in the country.  Rudy showed us that no matter the dream, if you work hard to achieve you will have lived it out.  Rudy stands alone as one of many examples that what you dream can come true.  There’s always hope, don’t ever forget that.  Rudy-Rudy-Rudy-Rudy.

This top 10 list is sports movies that I’ve seen.  Not what others recommend, but only what my eyes have seen and that I truly enjoy.  If you haven’t seen this movie, netflix it, pirate the movie, however you go about watching movies, just do it.