Laurium Walking Tour Part 3 - 2019 Camping Post #8

     I promise this is the last time (this year!) that I write about Laurium, Michigan. I just have to tell you about a couple parks and then tell you the tragic tale of the city’s “favorite son”.

 Daniell Park is located on the corner of Pewabic and Third Streets. The W. J. Duncan home was built on this site in 1900. In 1937, the house and the three city lots it took up were given to the city by Joshua Daniell, and the house was razed for $150. Concerts began to be held there, and the WPA constructed a concrete bandshell atop a poor rock foundation. The park was used occasionally from the 1940’s through 1970’s and was finally renovated in 1974 by the Village Street Department. An annual summer concert series began in 1985. It doesn’t look like a big enough park for much of a concert, but maybe a cozy concert is better anyway.    

 The George Gipp Recreation Area is located on the corner of Isle Royale and Second Streets. It holds four ball fields, including the Billy Miller Memorial field, along with a basketball court, a tennis court, sand volleyball court, horseshoe pits, bocheball and children’s playground. 

 Maybe it was just because it was a dreary day, but it did look like the facilities could use a little sprucing up. 

 And finally, The Gipp Memorial Monument at 535 Tamarack, built in 1935. I visited this park in 2012 and posted a short blog about it.

 But here’s the rest of the story:

 George Gipp was born in Laurium on February 18, 1895, to Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Gipp. He attended the Calumet Public Schools, playing a wide variety of sports, but never high school football. In 1917, Gipp entered Notre Dame to play baseball, but Knute Rockne recruited him for the football team. In his last three seasons playing for the Fighting Irish, Gipp led the team in rushing and passing. He is still Notre Dame's all-time leader in average yards per rush for a season (8.1), career average yards per play of total offense (9.37), and career average yards per game of total offense (128.4).

 In the summer of 1920, Gipp’s tonsils became infected, and even though his doctor wanted to remove them, apparently, George never got around to it. In November, he contracted a serious streptococcic infection in his throat, and Coach Rockne kept him out of Notre’s game against Northwestern. When Notre Dame continued to trail in the game, the crowd began to chant "Gipp! Gipp!" Rockne finally relented and put Gipp in. On the very next play, he scored the winning touchdown.

 His sore throat however worsened, and two weeks later Gipp was hospitalized with pneumonia and strep infection. In 1920, antibiotics were not available, and George Gipp’s life began to ebb away.

 Somber Rockne entered Gipp's room and told him he had been selected Notre Dame's first All-American. Gipp answered with, "Sometime, Rock, when the team's up against it, when things are wrong, when the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go in there with all they've got and win one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, but I'll know about it and I'll be happy." 

Shortly after, on December 14, 1920, the Gipper passed away at the age of 25. 

 His story is not only immortalized in the residents and athletes of little Laurium, but in the minds of everyone who has watched the movie, “Knute Rockne: All-American”, with our future president Ronald Reagan in the role as George Gipp.