Eighty-eight years ago this month, a plane crashed in the Flint Hills, killing all eight people on board. One of the passengers killed was legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne.
That's Bernie Kish, a lecturer in Sport Management at the University of Kansas and a huge fan of Knute Rockne and the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Kish helped lead an effort to build a new memorial near the site of the plane crash that claimed Rockne's life and the lives of the seven other men. The new memorial will be dedicated this Friday (March 29) at the Matfield Green service station along the Kansas Turnpike, which is about eight miles from the actual site of the 1931 plane crash. It's the third such memorial to be installed at Matfield Green. KPR's J. Schafer caught up with Bernie Kish to talk about the new memorial and why it's still important to remember this coach who died 88 years ago.
That's Bernie Kish, Knute Rockne fan and lecturer in Sport Management at the University of Kansas. He's also the Facility Manager at KU's Robinson Center. He was speaking with KPR's J. Schafer about a new memorial honoring Knute Rockne and seven others who were killed in a place crash near Bazaar, Kansas 88 years ago this month.
The memorial will be dedicated Friday at 10 a.m. at the Matfield Green service station on the Kansas Turnpike. The public is invited.
(Here's a longer version of KPR's interview with Bertie Kish than the one that aired on the radio.)