When Peyton and Eli Manning made a stop in South Bend for an episode of Eli’s Places (Season 2, Episode 2), they weren’t just there to tour the famed Notre Dame campus. They were diving into the roots of college football, where one name still echoes louder than most: Knute Rockne.
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The coach of the Fighting Irish from 1918 until his untimely death in 1931, Rockne wasn’t just a college football legend. He was the benchmark. In 13 seasons, Rockne compiled an almost mythical record of 105-12-5.
That record gave him the highest winning percentage (.881) in college football history, until Larry Kehres broke it with a .929 win percentage. Understandably, Rockne’s teams had no shortage of silverware.
Under him, the Fighting Irish won three national titles outright, shared three more, and went undefeated five times. Add to this his knack for coming up with modern plays like the forward pass and his fiery pre-game speeches, Rockne revolutionized college football.
So as a nod to that legacy, Peyton made sure he and Eli’s arrival in South Bend was historically on point. They cruised in a 1932 Rockne Studebaker, a car that carried the name of the late coach. “If you’re going to knock on Rockne’s door,” Peyton told his younger brother, “You might as well do it in a ’32 Rockne Studebaker.”
The car, a symbol of posthumous tribute, was part of Studebaker’s attempt to honor the local icon. Although Rockne had agreed to join the automaker as a sales promotion manager in 1930, he tragically died in a plane crash before the first car rolled off the line in December 1931.
Sadly enough, the vehicle — released during the depths of the Great Depression — only lasted two years, with just 37,879 units made before the model was discontinued.
Coming back to the Mannings, while they rolled through the streets of South Bend in the vintage vehicle, Eli randomly noted how people “don’t really name cars after football coaches anymore.”
In response, the elder Manning didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah. How about a Belichick? The only car to run exclusively on Lawrence Taylor anecdotes,” he said, jabbing at the stoic, former Patriots coach.
Eli, never the one to be upstaged, joined in: “Anybody buy a Brady Roadster?” And the Broncos legend, clearly locked in, delivered the final punchline. “I don’t think any car is going to run on avocado ice cream. Besides, who wants a car that lost to an Eli?”
The dig landed perfectly — a callback to Eli’s two Super Bowl wins over Brady and the Patriots. Naturally, as a response, the Giants legend, barely concealing a smirk, simply let the moment breathe.
It’s moments like these that make watching the Manning brothers so fun. What started as a tribute to Knute Rockne and the legacy of Notre Dame football ended up being much more.
Peyton and Eli celebrated history, reflected on Rockne’s legacy, and still found room to troll the GOAT… All from the back seat of a long-forgotten car named after one of the game’s greatest.
