Rock‧ne, Knute /ˈrɒkni $ ˈrɑːk-, nuːt/
(1888–1931) a US football coach (=someone who trains a team) at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, who developed new methods of playing that made his team extremely successful. According to a well-known story, when one of his players was ill, Rockne told his team to win the game they were going to play for ‘the Gipper’. Ronald Reagan appeared as an actor in a film about Rockne, and later, when he became US president, he often used the phrase ‘do it for the Gipper’.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲