Masters of Life - Part 13

“Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!” You probably remember the inspiring and powerful movie “Rudy.” “Rudy” is the real life story of Rudy Ruettiger; a short, small-framed young man growing up in a blue-collar Indiana family whose only dream is to play football for Notre Dame. For years Rudy struggled to even get accepted to Notre Dame. Then, he was told that he was too small for the team. So, Rudy volunteered his body as a human tackling dummy allowing the other players to hit him as hard as possible during practice in preparation for other teams. According to the movie, Rudy so inspired his teammates that they insisted he be allowed to wear the Fighting Irish uniform during a game. Rudy, tiny little Rudy, even got to play a few inspiring minutes in the game. Wow! You may know the movie. But you don’t know the grit, tenacity, and just plain anger it took for Rudy Ruettiger to get the movie made. Today, we celebrate Rudy as a Master of Life not for his movie, but for what he teaches us off-screen.