He enrolled and attended nearby Holy Cross College, and after two years was accepted as a student at Notre Dame on his fourth try, in the fall of 1974. Ruettiger applied to Notre Dame and was rejected due to his low high school grades. Ruettiger joined the United States Navy after high school, serving as a yeoman on a communications command ship for two years then he worked in a power plant for two years.
He attended Joliet Catholic High School, where he played for locally famous football coach Gordie Gillespie. Ruettiger did not excel scholastically, at least in part due to dyslexia. He was born on August 23, 1948, in Joliet, Illinois, where he grew up with his German American family. Biography Early life and family ĭaniel Eugene Ruettiger (nicknamed 'Rudy') was the third of fourteen children.
