Thomas Edison said it: Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. He should have also squeezed out a percentage point for luck.

During the 1913 Penn State contest, Knute Rockne was scooting out for a pass when he slipped and fell. The pursuing State back overran him. Rockne scrambled to his feet and was in the clear for a quick pass thrown to him by Dorais.

The lucky mistake worked so well that our heroes decided to build a play around it. They called it the button-hook pass. Today the button-hook is so basic, so common, we forget someone had to invent it. 

Rockne was two steps ahead of everyone else even when he was falling down on the job. 

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Rockne's most successful pupil, Frank Leahy, was often accused of driving hurt and exhausted players. But Leahy never asked anything he did not expect of himself.

In the 1929 Army game, Leahy dislocated his right elbow, and wore a cast for the next three weeks. When the plaster came off, the doctors told the scrappy tackle to forget about football for the year. Instead, Leahy promptly forgot what the doctors told him and reported to Rockne.

"Frank, how's that elbow?" The coach was concerned. 
"Wonderful, Rock. I'll be able to play this week."
"That's not what the doctors say. Let's see you flex it."

Leahy could feel his right elbow throb at the mere mention of being moved. So he flung out his left arm: twirled it, flexed it, moved it up and down like a contortionist.

If Rockne knew that Leahy was using his good arm, he never let on. "You know, Frank" he shook his head, "those doctors keep telling me I'm washed up too. We'll show them."

Leahy started the next game, playing with an elbow that could not push open a swinging door.

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