‘Rudy’ Fans Get a Kick From Tackling Odds

In “Rudy,” an Irish Catholic boy from Chicago with average athletic ability and dyslexia defies the odds and fulfills his heart’s desire to play football for Notre Dame--in the final seconds of the last game of his senior year. (Rated PG)

Even if your mother hates football, she will probably let you see this movie.

She might even insist.

Kids themselves recognize that this story, based on somebody’s real life, is obviously more about achieving a dream than playing sports.

But more in the mold of “Free Willy” than, say, “Searching for Bobby Fisher,” it had the audience applauding and whooping at the end, even though, without the trumpets and timpani drums, one might wonder if Rudy was a little, dare we say it, obsessive. Or, if football, at the college level, really resembles bloody warfare more than sport. Or, if it really is preferable to end up on the shoulders of your buddies rather than in the arms of your girl.

But we seem to be in the minority here.

Parents and kids left the theater pumped up with the excitement of the Big Game, the winter coats, the marching band, the shoulder-to-shoulder camaraderie of spectators watching athletes trying to give one another concussions.

But what they loved most was the sure victory of the underdog--the guy nobody thought would make it.

It all left 9-year-old Brooke Sprowl in tears.

“At the beginning, everyone was telling him, ‘You can’t do it. It’s impossible.’ He was so short, and no one believed in him. At the end, everyone believed in him. The whole stadium was saying that he could do it.”

Brooke’s brother Barrett, 7, and his best friend Casey Beshore, 9, also liked the movie. But it didn’t move them to tears.

“They’re too male-like,” Brooke said.

For some kids, the highlight of the story came at the end when Rudy finally gets to be in the game and is carried out on the shoulders of his buddies. But to Tyson Thurston, 13, the most memorable scene was a quieter one--when Rudy, after being rejected twice by Notre Dame, opens and reads his acceptance letter.

“It’s just that he tried so hard and his dream came true,” Tyson said.

Kevin Harty, 11, said what he remembered most was Rudy getting knocked down and getting up again.

It’s clear the national obsession with football has waned since Rudy’s day. Kevin went to sign up this summer for Pop Warner football in Laguna Beach, but not enough other kids showed up to make a team.

Said Kevin’s twin, Margaret: “I don’t like the hitting and stuff. I liked the movie, but I didn’t like all the getting tackled.”

Parents adored the movie on both levels, for the football and the inspiration.

Kevin’s father, who attended Notre Dame, recalled watching a game there.

“It is the best place in the world to see football. You’re so close to the field; there’s so much tradition. It’s a wonderful atmosphere.”

Brooke’s mother said her father, a 1942 graduate of Columbia University who played football there, always said he could never re-create the experience of running onto the field with people yelling for the team. But she hoped her children understood the message of working hard to achieve your dreams.

“In our education system, we teach kids that if they’re smart, they can achieve. In Japan, the kids are taught if they try and put forth their greatest effort, they can succeed.

“That’s what Rudy did.”