Another good book on this is The Sunday Game by Keith McClellan - he says Rockne played pro ball for the Akron Indians in 1914, the Massillon Tigers 1915-1917, and the Fort Wayne Friars 1916-1917. Rockne's favorable view of pro football made him an outcast when he coached Notre Dame, which combined with anti-Catholic bias, kept them off the schedule of many other schools and forced them to travel great distances to find opponents. Likewise West Point was outcast because some of their players had already completed four years of football at other colleges before going to West Point. These two outcasts joined forces for one of the most popular of all college rivalries.
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