EP#19 | RUDY RUETTIGER on the Making of RUDY! | PT.2

Rudy and Noah dive into all things involved with the making of the movie "Rudy"!

Things like:

- Where the inspiration to sell there film came from
- How he got the writer of Hoosiers & ND on board
- How much he sold the script for
- His involvement with the making of the movie
- Casting the movie
- Joe Montana's negative comments about the movie

....5 best sports movies.....5 pillars of being a walk-on....Brian Kelly & Lou Holtz...& so much more! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Walkie Talkies is a production of I Heart Radio and
the College Athletes Network. Hey day, Yeah, the spirit of
the truth, the spirit of the truth. And this is
what Angelo says. What does that mean? What does the
spirit of What do you mean by that? Okay, okay,

(00:25):
I like that question because the journey is right on.
But the embellishment in what we call when you embellish
a moment or put composites in a moment, that means
you're putting different characters that we can't explain. We have
to put them on one character. Then we have to
embellish that moment to make the movie work. He says,

(00:48):
that's the spirit of the truth. It did happen, but
it's not gonna happen the way it happened. It's gonna
happen differently through my interpretation. That's the spirit of the truth.
Got you. I'm on board with that, me too, I'm
on board. Not that I've heard it. So Yaho, Walkie
Lucky's Gang. Welcome back into Walkie Talks podcast here on
the College Athletes Network, featured on I Heart Radio. I'm

(01:10):
your host, Noah Buono and this is part two of
w t Z sixteen and our two part series with
the legend Rudy Rudiger, and it's technically an episode nineteen
of the podcast, which is awesome. Part two with Rudy
is every bit of the follow up I've could have
asked for from part one, and here in part two
of the episode is directly about the making of the movie. Rudy,
where the inspiration came from to sell his story, how

(01:33):
he got the writer of Hoosiers and Notre Dame on
board with it, how much he sold the script, for
his involvement with the making of the film. Then we
get into all the kind of negative comments that have
been made about the film, like the ones Joe Montana said,
and Rudy kind of debunks those statements and um lays
out some really cool perspective on that, and we talked
about the type of people who have Rudy stories themselves,
and just so much more insight and wisdom from Rudy

(01:55):
that comes about organically within our combo. I'm telling you,
you guys gotta let this episode play while you're doing
whatever you do. Man, it can't hurt and there's just
so much to take away from it. You can refer
to the show description below that has more information on
what's inside both parts one and two. And lastly, before
we get into it, please make sure you subscribe to
Walkie Talkies Podcast, you leave us a review on whichever

(02:15):
app you listen to your podcast on, and follow us
on social media at w t Z podcast. Those are
all greatly greatly appreciated. Now let's not waste any more
time and get right into part two of my conversation
with Rudy Rudiger. Rudy, can you hear me? Yeah, you're good,
You're good. Yeah, I'm good. I thought you forgot about
me for a second. I get I knew you did.

(02:40):
But we're here, We're here, let's do this, okay. Yeah,
So I want to pick up off where we left
off with the movie stuff and kind of bleeding into that.
So you graduated from Notre Dame. You're like, what twenty
seven years old by the time you graduate, and a
few years later, you know, after selling some real estate
and whatever else you were doing, you decide to sell

(03:02):
your story as a feature film. So what did you
to do that and where did the idea come from
to sell your story? Well, that's a great question, and
you know that you never know where the inspiration comes
from but there's a movie called Rocky and because of Rocky,
the pot was given to me. In a Notre Dame
locker room after the game, a sportswriter came up to

(03:25):
me and basically say he's been coming to Notre Dame
football for thirty years. He's never felt or seeing this
reaction from the from the fans. He said, people don't
even know you, but you're still chanting your name. And
then they were carried off the field. You have no
name on your jersey. Who are you? I said, well,

(03:46):
I'm no one. Just to walk on, I said, my
probably my friends start chanting Rudy because I was a
boxer that Notre Dame, one of the Bengal box and
they chanted Rudy um from the fans and the audience
when I was a boxer, because I was smaller and
I beat the big guy and they like that. They

(04:08):
liked the little guy beat the big guy. So it
carried on. They did an interview of the student newspaper
did an interview with me. He asked me my dream
and I told him my dream is to play one
time for my father, to walk on that field, and
just step on that field. Play one moment for my
father to showing that dreams are possible. And uh, well

(04:31):
they caught the dress and they chanted Rudy as that
game was ending, and and uh they dressed me, not
because I wanted to get dressed or I was not
unaddressed list to that Friday until one of the kids
gave up his uniform so I could dress. The captains
went in to our defensive coach and said, we like

(04:54):
Rudy to dress because it was a sixty man roster
versus ten the year before. Because Arab Parsesian addressed all
seniors for their final home game, but Coach Divine, a
new coach, couldn't do that because of this rule the
n c A had. They come up one year. My year,

(05:16):
they come up with it. Uh that only sixty kids
could dress. So that wasn't that was a challenge in
an obstacle, But because of one student athlete gave up
his uniform so I could dress. So that was America
in itself, not that I went and lobbied it. I

(05:36):
didn't even know they were going to do it until
I went back out to practice that that Thursday, Um
and said you better come to practice on Friday. And
just kind of because they're gonna surprise me, and I
did because it was a walkthrough. When you do a
walk through, it's just preparation for the game. And that's

(05:58):
when Coach Divine announced after practices, UH called we we
go through what they call a checklist and anything changes,
it's uh, he gives the changes at that moment. So
there was a change in the address list, Rudy Rudiger
will be dressing for the game, and some of the

(06:19):
guys congratulating me. Other guys didn't say anything. So there
was one of those moments to where I was excited,
but some were some weren't. It didn't matter to them,
I guess, but it mattered to me and some other guys.
So that's that's was the magic. What that sportswriter saw.
He saw the magic in that stadium, how people reacted

(06:43):
to the underdog type of kid, and he said, this
only happens in Hollywood. That was the seed that was
planning in my head until I saw the movie Rocky,
and that's how it all started. So then where did
the conversations kind of go to after that? So he
put it in your head not to someone make you

(07:05):
an offer or did you have to make a pitch
first to someone in Hollywood? Well, what are you doing?
No one wants to see your movie or no one
talks about it. You go out to Hollywood, Well, well wait,
who were the who were the first couple of people
you're saying, like, no one wanted to see your movie? Like,
who are those? Who are those people? Oh? Just kids,

(07:25):
friends of mine family. Okay, So then you go out
to Hollywood and what happens. I just ventured out there.
I'm gonna go test it, right, And I went out
there and I went to Carnegie Delhi, and that's where
some producers hang out. I found out. I had a
friend that lived out in California. I said, let's do
a little scouting. Let's see if we're the producers sing out.

(07:49):
He said, they hang out at Carnegie Delhi, some of them.
So I go up to the Major D. I said,
any any producers in here? Any guys? Is there anybody
here that make movies? He says, yeah, there's a guy
sitting back there, Jake Steinfeld body by Jake. Oh, yeah,
I know who he is. I watched his program. So
I wandered back and he's having a little meeting and

(08:11):
I don't know how to how do you break up
with me? And I just sit there and listen to him.
All of a sudden it was a little break, said hey,
Mr Seinfeld, Rudy, Rudy Gert. I'm from from Indiana and
I went to Notre Dame and I played one time
and they carried me off the field. I have a
story behind that. He saw, that's wonderful, real nice. He said, well,
what's the story? And I told me. He said, wow,

(08:33):
sounds like me how I got out here. I came
out here not knowing anyone. I started training people and
one thing leads to another. Sounds like that's what happened
to you. Huh, I said, kind of. But your success,
there's a lot of you know, he goes, yet, there's
a lot of disappointment, a lot of hard work. I said,
you think I have a story? Said, oh, yeah, you

(08:55):
have a good little story. He says, in fact, maybe
he should go see my lawyer, maybe we could do something. Well,
they offer me five hundred bucks and I politely we declined,
you know that wanted to control it. But make a
long story short. That was a positive, right, But then
the nonsense started happening, and I call nonsense. You meet

(09:18):
a lot of people now thinking you had something. Now
there's a lot of people called wannabes, and you meet
those guys. Now, you're not gonna spend all the time
out there. You only have so much time to spending
up time. You come back to South Bend. I started
looking up who at Notre Dame. Um, we're in the
movies or didn't movies. Um, there was a couple of guys.

(09:43):
I'm not going to mention their names, but they weren't
interested at all. I mean, I mean I tracked them down.
They're not They're not interested. So no, okay, and and
and I think about this, and maybe if they were interested,
it would never have been the movie it would have
been because it would have been a more about Notre
Dame than about you know, life. And uh so uh.

(10:07):
I always said a rejection was doing me a favor.
At that time, I didn't know it was doing me
a favor. But I was selling insurance at the time,
and I ended up in Washington, d C. For this.
I was working for a company that I traveled forward
and I went to car dealerships set up help them,

(10:27):
set up some finance and insurance, and that's what we're in.
And then I started talking to other people and just friends,
and they got in fact, they liked the idea of
these guys. So we would meet every Thursday UM in
a meeting and just talk about how a movie could
be made. Well, I ended up going back to South Bend.

(10:52):
In the end, my job transferred me back to South
Bend where Notre Dame is and I was a manager
of the region and I had like maybe twenty six
car dealerships. So I time on my hand, which meant
I visited him when I needed it. But I wouldn't man.
I would get my friends over and we would talk

(11:13):
about making a movie. Then I would go out to
California trying to find more friends. Well, you attract some
goofballs as you go, right, and I did, and but
at least those guys kept me going, believe it or not.
So there was one time I don't know how this happened,
but I'm gonna it's too long of a story to

(11:36):
tell us, just cut it down. I wrote a script
my friend. My friend and I it was kind of
a just an idea. He he believed in the story.
So I looked right to script, so we did. It
wasn't We didn't know how to write a movie script.
It's like a story. And Um, I had sitting on
top of my my desk where I was living in

(11:58):
self man in my condom, and there was a kid
at Notre Dame. I got one came back to Notre Dame.
He was a star in nineteen sixty six and they'd
beat Michigan State and he was kind of like the
hero of the game. Now he's back at Notre Dame
as a graduate assistant. I said, well, I want to

(12:19):
go meet him. I love to meet that guy. And
I went over to practice where he was. School just
started and uh, and I meet him after practice. This
is really cutting through a lot of the years, but
it's about five years into the deal. Um, do you
know what you were in six? Okay, keep going. Nineteen

(12:42):
two I wrote a letterist stallone. UH asked him if
he would be interested, and he turned it down. Yeah,
in a nice way. Right. So then you go to
nineteen eighty six, you're talking to this gs. I'm back
at Notre Dame and see play with Bob Gladjaw and
I want to introduce myself to Mr Gladjaw and I

(13:04):
asked him, so you where you living? It said, I
don't have a place shut. I said, oh wow. You
know when I traveled most of the time, I would
love for a guy watch over my condo. Maybe you
could stay there, and says, yeah, let's check it out here.
He liked it, so he stayed at my apartment and
I was never home. I would travel at a time

(13:25):
for the business, but at least I had a place.
But make a long story short, his friend comes to town.
He was a fullback at Notre Dame. While he was playing.
He had another friend that lived in Scranton. That's where
he from. He was a writer. His name was Jason Miller,
who was a poll surprise writer. He was in movie
The Exorcist and he was the priest. And I'll never forget.

(13:51):
When I came back from my trip Bob Black, I said, hey,
my my friend likes your story. I said, what story?
He said, he read your read your little story like
and he thinks that his buddy can write the movie
movie on it. Said, really, said, who's his vice at
Jason Miller? He said, he's coming to a football game
here and I want you to meet him. And said, oh,

(14:14):
maybe we can go and meet him where he lives
where they live at the Pennsylvania Scranton. I said, I'm
going there to meet him because I'm not gonna wait
for him if he's interested, right, And uh so I
fly out to Scranton. I meet Jason. We hit it off.
We went to where he usually hangs out a bar
and he got his buddies there and he says, tell

(14:35):
your story, let's hear it. And I tell him. Everybody
loved the story because they were a big noted Dame fans.
They loved it, and one guy said, Jason, why don't
you write it? He said I would, but Jason had
other issues I'm not gonna go into. But he never
wrote it. But he had a ghost writer that wrote
all his scripts. He just he was just finishing the

(14:56):
Isaiah Thomas's story and the ghost writer said, Jason is
not going to write your story, let me write it.
I said, okay, So I write all his scripts. Anyhow,
he dictates the story and I write it, so that's fair.
And I thought Jason was on board. He wasn't on board.
And I found out Jason got upset with the guy
who tried to take the story from him, and but

(15:19):
anyhow just created a problem. But he did write a
screenplay okay, And the guy was kind of a scammer
in a way. He takes the screenplay after I asked
him to find out that him and Jason went on
board just to leave. I'm not part of this. It's
not fair to Jason, and I said, once't you just leave?
And he takes off of California and he takes my

(15:41):
movies are movie script, takes my name off of it
and puts his name on it and registers it with
the writer's guilt. And this becomes a problem later on.
I didn't know this. The first guy who registers the
movie script gets the rights to the movie. I had
no idea that was the deal. Now fast forward, I

(16:02):
meet my final I don't know how could you say
it is my final opportunity to get the movie done
after eight years into the dal Notre Dame says, absolutely not,
We're not interested. Please, uh, don't talk about this movie again.
Rudy would love you, but we already have a movie

(16:23):
called New Rocky all American, he says, we don't want
a movie shot here at Notre Dame said, okay, well,
that meeting only lasted maybe I wouldn't say no morening
thirty seconds, and uh, they were serious. Then the athlete
department also made a point to me never to talk
about the movie to the athletes again, because that that

(16:45):
I would see if they were interested, anybody would sit
and listen to the Star Wars tell But they asked me,
if you did, we have to, you know, suspend you
from campus and and borrow you from the university. You
keep doing this because we feel you're a threat to
our athletes and n C a rule, and that wasn't
it was just telling him the story, but they didn't

(17:06):
understand it, so I kind of left it at that,
And finally the opportunity came. I walked out of that
meeting from the one that Notre Dame would had, and uh,
the pr beatle at Notre Dame and he was nice.
He walks in and he says, we you know, we
love Rudy again. But Rudy, we told you time and

(17:30):
time ago, were not interested. The meeting's over and he
walks out and said, oh wow, I think I played
longer than he gave us an opportunity to at least
pitched the movie well that was it. So I walk
out and who do I see? But but the hotel manager.
I did not know. The hotel manager was telling his
brother about my journey to Hollywood. And I don't know

(17:53):
who his brother was. But his brother loved I mean,
I mean, he loved the story. He but he wanted
me to tell him and I didn't know that. So
he asked how the meeting goes, and you know, it
didn't go well, John, It really didn't go well. Uh.
They basically said I'm done. He says, oh, don't give

(18:16):
up on it. My brother's coming. Tell he wants to
talk to you. I said, okay, I don't know who
he was. So he comes to town, say, uh, go
have pizza at Barnaby's. It's a local place. So I
go there and I meet Donnie Stratagus, his brother. So
Donnie says, to me, tell me your story and I

(18:36):
told him. He said, oh, man, that is a movie.
I said, wow, would you know? Uh? He says, have
you ever seen the movie Who'sies? So yeah, I love
that movie, he says, because I would watch movies um
in between my travels just to get ideas. And he says, uh,
you need to speak to Angelo, the guy who wrote
Who's yours? So how do you know? Angelo said, we

(18:58):
put Hoosiers together. It's fraternity brother of mine. He and
David and Angelo and I will returned. David directed Hoosiers,
Angelo Rodosers, and I did the basketball coordination. So I said,
oh wow, because you never know who knows someone, and
that was my kind of like my I called the
second chance again, and um, I go out to meet

(19:21):
Angelo and Angelo for some reason, uh, I didn't want
to meet me, and he didn't show up for the meeting.
But I already flew out to California. I already spent
my money to go out there, and I need to
speak to this guy and a friend that was with me,
the relationships I built in California that I kept going

(19:43):
out to visit and pitched the people. He brought me
to this restaurant where Angelo was going to meet me,
and we sat there for three hours. And I was
used to waiting anyhow, because of insurance, people not shown
up when they're supposed to show up. But make a
long story short, I said I'm gonna go find him.

(20:04):
He said, are you nuts? I said no, He said,
this is l a man. How are you. How are
you going to find this piezo guy when you don't
even know where he lives. I'll find him. You just
sit here, I'll be back. I was so positive. I
cleansed my mind with all doubt. I walked down. I
see him mail man, whistling and smiling, and I thanked him.

(20:26):
At that moment, I thank him like meeting a hotel manager.
And he was just I call him angels and I said, hey, man,
thanks for that smine I needed. Then he said where
where where are you from? No one's ever thanked me?
And from Indiana said oh, I'm from Michigan. Man. I
said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got gratitude, dude. He said, yes,

(20:47):
I do it. So I could be passing this stuff
out the snow rain or sweet He's going out and
I said, yeah, man, it's beautiful out here. He said,
why are you out here? You don't want to hear
my story is too complicated? I said, very complicated. I said,
what's complicated about your story? Trying to make a movie.
He goes, oh, yeah, I bet it is complicated. How

(21:10):
long you've been trying? I said, many years? But now
I have a break. I was supposed to meet this
writer who wrote Hoosier's Angelo Pizza. But he didn't show up.
He said, Angela Pizza. Well, what's your story? And I
told him you man, I love that story and I
know him. I passed his mail out every day. Follow me.

(21:31):
I'll show you where he lives, but you can't tell
him about how you got there. I said, deal. So
he walked by his house. He points, and I walked
up to his door and I knocked, and he said,
who is this? Said, Rudy said how did you find me? Man?
It said, never mind, you're right late for lunch. And
he says two very important phrases. Rudy, I'm not going
to write another sports story. I don't want to be

(21:53):
pigeonholed out here or labeled out here. Plus I hate
Notre Dame. I said, oh wow, okay. Then he said,
but you have a good story. Said, well, you go
to lunch at least. I flew all the way out here,
and I don't want at least to meet you. See,
I'll go to lunch, but don't talk about the movie.
As a deal. So I developed a relationship with him,

(22:16):
and he liked me, and that's all. It took kind
of liked me, kind of sat on it for two years.
And there was a gentleman at Columbia Pictures. He was
a president of Columbia Pictures, called Frank Price, and he's
a graduate of Michigan Standing. He was a walk on.
And he called this one producer and who gave two
picture deal too, And he was at Ryan Pictures. Uh,

(22:38):
he was an executive there and he gives him a
two picture deal. Sports movie. He wanted in a comic
relief movie. So the comic relief movie he put together
with Sorry Marry Max for her. And he brought Angelo
and David and see if they had any ideas to
do a sports movie, because he worked with those guys

(22:58):
at O Ryan Pictures that did Hoosiers. Now, they were
totally against the idea when they walked into the meeting.
And because we need a sports idea, we got twenty
five million dollars to do it for P and A
and production and uh, David Ansbach says, Angela. Yeah. There

(23:20):
was a kid eat met for Notre Dame that tracked
him down, showed up at his house trying to tell
him a story about he wanted to play Notre Dame
for his father and he was a walk on. He
was in the navy blah blah blah, who was an
older kid, but he ended up playing and uh, they
carried him off the field. He graduated and Frank Price

(23:40):
linked over the desk. He says, write it, Angelo, your
commissioned to write it. And Angelo didn't turn down that opportunity,
even though he hated Notre Dame. But when Angelo and
then called me and tell me the break that just came,
I did not tell him about how Notre Dame felt
about the idea of a movie. So I didn't tell him.

(24:00):
But they wrote the script, got it approved, they were
ready to go to shoot in Frank Price gets fired.
So the movie is dead. No more movie. I mean
we we're all excited, we're ready to kind of take
the next step to go. I said, no, I needed
courage to go talk to another dame about it. But hey,
that ended that deal. When Frank Price got fired and

(24:21):
the movie was dead. But Rob Freed, the producer calls me.
He said, look, we have an idea. We want to
fly you out of here. We're gonna go pitch this
movie to our sister company called Try Start, and we're
gonna walk over there and you're coming with us and
we're gonna pitch this movie. What do you think I said,
I'm there. He said great. So anyhow, it was a

(24:44):
better conversation and that that's a short side of it,
and uh, make a long story. Show walked over. They
approved it and they're ready to go. They liked the movie,
and believe it or not, I never told them about
Notre Dame, so I had to tell him even though
they approved. I said, well, they said, we gotta say meetings.

(25:05):
I put Notre Dame and set the production because they
want to start shooting this thing. And I said, oh, wow,
Notre Dame really doesn't want this movie. He says, wow,
we're not going to shoot unless none of Dame gets
on board. Well, you got four to eight hours to
get them on board. Routing. So I go back to
South Bend. I don't know what to do, but another
angel shows up in I call him Angels but a

(25:28):
friend and I gave a script to love the script.
He has a little bit of influence and he said, no,
that's a good story. So I had enough courage and belief.
He just gave me that little belief that I needed,
and I walked over to Notre Dame, got a meeting
with the head priest that was in charge of the
university to uh have a meeting with David and Angelo,

(25:51):
and he took the meeting and when they came to
town that Monday, in twenty minutes, we had the movie
approved and ready to go. But the Apple department did
not want this movie for some reason. They were not cooperative,
but we didn't care. We still shot the movie around
the football practice fields. The challenges we had was sixty

(26:13):
people that we needed for a crowd to shoot the
final scenes. But we also David and Angelo and everyone
had a script meeting, decided to bring the NFL films
and shoot football and uh that was the magic of that.
And there was one other little thing. When I watched

(26:33):
movies years ago, I saw a movie called Goonies and
Sean Aston was Mikey and I followed his career and
I saw him in the movie Memphis Bell and that's
how I got their attention to look at Sean to
play the main part. And they did regretfully look at them,
but they liked him because everybody cast a cryst O'donald

(26:56):
for the part because his dad was one of the
executives that try star, but hey, they won. They got
Sean and the nex thing. We started casting and remember
Jason Miller. I promised Jason, if he was a good guy,
if we ever got this movie made, you would play
Era procession. So I called him, got him on board.

(27:18):
He played Era John Faber on Vince Van We're at
Second City. We went and casting him at Second City
in Chicago, and they got on board. Lily Kaylor got
on board, That Beatty got on board. John Boyett was
supposed to play the priest, but his mother got real sick.
So we're to pick up Prosky, Robert Prosky, so the

(27:40):
whole team start coming together and uh Notre Dame approved,
gave his production facilities and the whole movie was shot
in thirty days. And then Jerry Goldsmith, um, we couldn't
afford him, but he took the music rights and he
scored that movie for no money and he did very
well with Rooty the music, the soundtrack. So that was

(28:04):
his pay day and he died two years after. He
scored the movie Rudy, So that was it. That's kind
of like The journey Man, the layers and details of
that story to make the movie and the persistence from
Rudy to make it all happen was really top tier.
We're gonna take a quick break here, but don't go anywhere,
because when we come back, Rudy gets into the money
side of the movie, how much he sold it for,

(28:26):
and working on set for the movie and with the
actors and so much more cool stuff about the movie. Rudy,
remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a
review during this quick break. Stick with us. We'll be
right back and we're back here on Walkie Tucky's podcast.
Make sure you are subscribed and downloaded. Follow us on
social media. Is at w t Z podcast for video
highlights of every episode. And let's bring back in Rudy Rudiger. Yeah,

(28:49):
so before we get into some of the the relationships
you had with the actors and the casting, let me
rewind slightly too. You said that for five dollars was
the initial initial offer, and you're you know, you packed
your bags and you said no. So when this does
come together and you get this um secondary production company

(29:11):
on board, you get Notre Dame finally on board. What
did and if you did at all, what did you
end up selling it for? Like did you sell your story, like,
how did that part of it work? And what happens
is now they give you an offer for your rights.
They actually gave me. I didn't know what was good,
what was bad. I needed a lawyer, so I thought,

(29:32):
because of a friend I knew who had relationships with
some entertainment lawyers, I got to call them and they,
in fact, we got lucky on that. I called him
and when he first answered the phone, he wasn't interested
because he just thought, hey, you got a movie deal. Yeah, well,
you send us a tenth thousand dollar retainer. We'll see

(29:54):
what you have. I said, I don't have ten thousand dollars, sir,
he says, uh. But the movies that try to start pitchers,
he says uh. I said, well, you do a favor.
Just call them and see and and I'll give you
a percentage of whatever you need. He said, yeah, that's fair.
He called well, he was also a lawyer at Columbia

(30:15):
Pictures at one time. He was an inside lawyer, so
he knew who to call. He called me back within
ten minutes and we got a deal, he says. He said,
what do you want for the for your rights? I said,
you figured that I had no idea, I don't care,
and he made a nice deal and he gave me
a consulting credit as well money, and I had enough

(30:36):
money to pay off all the guys who helped me
get the movie and the journey. I just start calling
because I knew I had to do that, because I
kind of like, for ever get this movie made, but
they couldn't be part of the productions, so I had
to make deals with him and pay him. Right, So
let me put you on this. Let me put you

(30:57):
on the spot. Are you willing to are you willing
to ballpark the number that your lawyer there's two? And
in all of this aftermath of the movie, do you
have any like royalties off of it? Like, is there
any money that you're still collected? Well, you get what
you call net proceeds. Well, go figure that out net

(31:20):
proceeds creative counting. Okay, break that down for us. It
means they record a lot of losses in the movie
that maybe aren't really there. I don't know, but you're
in a slush fund with other movies Cliffhanger, Slippers, since
sand look at stock Lass Action here they are raised

(31:42):
this money. A lot of those movies lost money. So
that one against your money. Uh like, like we're all
part of that. They get money to make movies, and
Cliffhanger lost a lot of money. It didn't it cost
him a hundred and over a hundred million. That means

(32:03):
you gotta you gotta make three million to break even
and they didn't make so. But but Rudy, the movie
grossed about I think I saw when it came out.
It was it was twenty two million total. But when
it came out it was like sixty nine ranked in
the box office. It didn't jump right when it came out,
but it was right. But so so two million and

(32:28):
you only see two is that is that it's your story?
That's crazy. Well that's what. I didn't go out there
to make money. You just went out there for the storytelling.
That was it. I was good. I just wanted to start.
But look what it did for gave me a platform?
It did Now, so I so your motive was not money.
Your motive was like because I loved this, I thought

(32:49):
the story it's always for money, would never got made right,
right because you would have had the wrong intentions. Yes,
so okay, no royalties, you get these net proceeds now,
money doesn't matter. It sets you up for what you
started doing with motivational speaking. But before I hit on that,
I want you to kind of talk about your role

(33:09):
while they filmed the movie. How often were you on set?
How much? Say do you have? Yeah? Yeah, I was
kind of neat. It was kind of neat because I
was with the um first of all, involved with every
aspect of the movie. Um, let's say, let's go to wardrobe.
They wanted to make sure we had the right clothing
and the priests wore the right clothes. And then the

(33:32):
football Gary had to make sure we had the right units.
So I was involved in all that. Then then the
prop guy were involved with him make sure we had
the right stuff, and in the art director making sure
we built the right So I was involved with all
of it. I was so busy at times, I wasn't
even wrong. When they shot certain scenes, We're out doing

(33:55):
a little things to make the next scene happen. So
but I was involved in the whole thing. And uh,
and I like that. You worked sixteen hours a day sometimes, uh,
maybe eighteen. We shot scenes at midnight, you know, and uh,
the lighting and it had to be sometimes you sat

(34:17):
around all day for the right lighting, so it was
interesting how it worked. Then we had to go to
Chicago and just filmed a little kid playing in the field.
Maybe five percent of the movie was shot in Chicago,
where the rest of the movie shot in South Bend.
So we had to go scouting. I was on a
scouting team too, looking for certain spots. With that. Guys

(34:38):
who scouted you were kind of a producer slash director,
and you had a lot of you know, free space too,
I would say in that's the other I didn't want
any titles either, no titles, but you had you had
your own creative space to kind of like, yes, you know,
operate because I loved them alone and I didn't push

(35:02):
any idea on them because I gave them the freedom
and they liked that. And when they needed me, they
asked me, Rudy, what do you think? And that's the
only time I interacted because to me, it was the
interpretation of them, not me, because I saw this story
a little different and how they saw they saw the movie,
how they would see it, the interpretation, how the movie

(35:25):
would work. And that's one of the when I first
met the writer, he says, I will interpret your story
that will make a movie. Uh, so you may not
recognize certain moments or yourself. I said, it's not about
me anyhow, It's about the message. It's it's good we're
on the same page. It's about the message. I love that.
So how much interaction did you have with the actor

(35:49):
who played you, Seawan Aston? You said you kind of
had been eyeing his career. Yeah, a lot. We had
a lot of interactions. Yeah, we just kind of like
hung around and make sure he got trained right physically,
make sure your new football moves. And uh, it was
kind and he met her young lady out of in
theanity end up getting married. So Sean was important. It

(36:10):
was a good kid. His mother was Patty Duke and
he's very grounded and uh, he had some issues with
his youth as a young actor. His mother was Patty Dooke,
had issues and he had to go through those challenges,
but she became a beautiful person. Towards the end of
her life. She changed. She met another guy. His stepdad

(36:32):
iss Sean John Aston, and his real dad lives here
in Vegas. So it was kind of one of those
situations I didn't know about. But when he told me
his story. I understood. He understood the struggles of a
large family and some of the conflict you're going through.
So he was the right guy, Yeah, for sure. And
did you know when you were, you know, putting this

(36:54):
all together and you went on that eight year journey
to just get this script sold, to get this thing
written in film, did you know or did you think
that it could slash wood and being this big? What
were your what was your expectation that you can't There's
no expectation. That's the other thing. Don't put expectations on
this because just you know, just get it done and

(37:17):
and hopefully people will connect to it, and you know,
you kind of let go and let God do the
rest of the work. That's my my feeling. I had faith.
I'm a man of faith, so I'm not I'm not
going to be preachy or tell your scriptures. I just
believe in that feeling. And you know what, And when
Mark Platt, the president of try Star, says, you know, Rudy,

(37:42):
he showed me all the movies he's ever been involved
and said, look, we're not going to put a lot
of money into your movie as far as promotment, but
we're gonna put you in eight hundreds and theaters. But
I promise you I'll make a comment. Your movie will
last longer than Cliff Fanger. Look who's talking on the
last action here? Uh, I'm on it. It's gonna because

(38:06):
we love the message. But we get you know what,
Our job is to get oscars for some of these
guys like Tom Hanks and these guys. So I get it.
I get it, you know. But you keep promoting the
story and and we'll put it out there and see
where it goes. I believe that, and that's what happened.
And you've been quoted numerous times saying that the film

(38:28):
Rudy is true. So I want to the spirit of
the truth, the spirit of the truth, and this is
what Angelo says. What does that mean? What does the
spirit of What do you mean by that? Okay, okay,
I like that question because the journey is right on.
But the embellishment in what we call when you embellish

(38:50):
a moment or put composites in a moment, that means
you're putting different characters that we can't explain. We have
to put them on one character. Then we have to
embellish that moment to make the movie work. He says,
that's spirit of the truth. It did happen, but it's
not gonna happen the way it happened. It's gonna happen
differently through my interpretation. That's the spirit of the truth.

(39:13):
I said, got you, I'm on board with that, me too.
I'm on board, not that I've heard it. So the
thing that the funny thing though, is that, like, of
course there's dramatization when making movies such as these, and
that's natural, that's fine. But over the years there's been
a number of things that have been said that I
want that I feel like kind of not negatively, maybe

(39:35):
some but have sort of tried to tear tried to
tear down the legend of Rudy. Like I said, not
all negative, but I would like to go ahead. I
would like to go through them one by one with
you and then hear your side for each of them,
if that's cool. So alright, So I have five number
one and what we can kind of run through these
pretty quickly. Number one is you have the antagonistic role

(39:57):
that Coach Divine played in the movie, but was actually
said to be more supportive in real life. That's true.
He was supportive, and we went to coach Divine, Angelo
and I and David would say, you have to be
the heaviness movie. Would you accept that? And we explained
to him the heavy see yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever helps
the movie, I think gets his lawyer involved, who said, well,

(40:20):
you know, this is a real interesting moment with Divine
and Parcision. Divine and Procision had a conflict because Divine
comes in and Ary didn't know he was leaving Notre Dame,
and and Divine comes and takes over the job, where
Parcision gets upset. Divine gets upset what they had conflicts,

(40:42):
so he didn't want to look uh, he wanted himself
to look better than Parcesian. Parcision wanted to look better
than Divine. So so that moment, that's why we had
explained to Divine, here's your deal. Then when he felt
he didn't look better, and here's how I answered him, said, Coach,

(41:03):
I'll say, I think it's fair. I understand where you're
coming from, but let's send the movie at an University
of Missouri were you coach for all those years, and
let's see what they say. And they agreed, the producers
and everybody agreed. Senting I don't make up. Someone said
that I agreed, Yeah, that'd be good to do that,

(41:24):
and they sent it to Missouri and they said, wow,
you made him look good. So he didn't have anything
to say, did he? No? Al right, next next one,
there's there's coach Divine getting on on a radio station
and saying that if anyone would have put their jersey
on his desk, they would have never seen it. Again,
he's absolutely right. But the spirit of the truth. Yeah,

(41:50):
I figured that's going to be a common common answer.
So was there a similar moment aside from this, Yes, yes,
and yes, Remember Divine makes the announcement that I'm going
to address, and they were the captains went in to
talk to the defensive coach, let Rudy Dress, and this
one kid gave up its jersey. Well, what what Angela

(42:13):
want to do is show the support of the team
what this kid meant to the team. So that's the
spirit of the truth. Okay, cool, I love that. So
then the last couple they're kind of uh coupled together,
is there's a few sort of bashful statements from someone
you mentioned before, Joe Montana, who was a freshman at
Notre Dame. Your your senior season, and for the listeners

(42:34):
who don't know, I'm just going to run through a
couple of them so that they are familiar. He kind
of downplayed the moment and he said three different things.
One was that they kind of just picked you up
and carried you off as a joke. The second one
was he said the crowd wasn't chanting, and the third
one was he said that no one threw in their jerseys,
So why would he make comments? Yeah, why would he

(42:55):
do that? Why would he feel the need? Let's dress
each point. John Montana was a prankster at Notre Dame,
so he said he was a prankster. Prankster, he liked
the pull jokes, so that's why he said it. Uh
everything was a joke to him, something like that, because
he didn't understand the background of this kid just walk on.

(43:16):
So it's kind of a joke to him that the
kids will come out and carry him off the field.
He wasn't even at that game, by the way, Where
was he injured? His story he was injured and didn't
dressed for that game, and uh so I don't know
where he'd come up with the crowd and check. He
wasn't even there, so I don't know where he could.

(43:37):
He would probably said it because I think he got
sick and tired of people coming up to him and
asked him, do you play with Rudy? Remember he won
four Super Bowls. I'm sure he gets tired of here.
And and Joe is a good guy. He's not a
bad guy. He's a guy guy. He says it like
it is and as a joke, more as a joke
than than than what he meant. I understood Joe because

(44:00):
I know Joe, and and I don't mind his comment
because it's true, because the kids would never throw their
jerseys on the on the coach's death. That would never happen.
But what he didn't realize was the student body chanted Rudy,
not the crowd. The crowd picks up on the chant
from the student body. He wasn't at the game, so

(44:21):
he even if he heard, he wouldn't understand it. Does
that make sense? And and and so. But the director
and the writer and all they understood the spirit of
the truth right because it was about the moment, and
even at about the moment of every kid who ever
wanted to play for Notre Dame or any step up

(44:41):
to the plate one time and it was about bells.
It was about yeah, and I just think it's funny that,
you know, and he said it like you're saying he's
a jokester. He said it on the Dan Patrick Show
football game. Uh, and he says, hey, look there's John
Candy right in the middle of a real serious game.

(45:03):
He wanted to He was that type of kid. Who
was that kid at Notre Dame the same way. So
did you ever have any conversations with him with Joe
Montana about any of that stuff? We laugh about it,
Joe Man, these people could spend your answer to no
eny Yeah, I know, yeah, like I swear he said,
you know, you know he said, you do you are

(45:25):
right with us? Yeah, I'm all right with that. It's
I'm alright, but you don't worry about it. And that's
how we answer. It's super easy to take, uh, you know,
a two minute bite from him saying something and take it.
They will spend anything to get an audience. Yeah. Well,
there's no context behind what he was saying. And of course,
like all of it came out like if you were

(45:45):
google and it comes up as Joe Montana, you know,
had he ruins the legend of Rudy. It's like, you know,
these little kids never look up Joe Montana. They don't
even know who he is. And when Rudy comes up,
that's not the first. That's about the that's would say
that are the ox sniffers. I call him anyhow, what

(46:07):
do you and who are those guys? Guys who lived
through other athletes? Okay, yeah, and I'm sure you don't.
I get a lot of They called me a poser,
they call he didn't do anything. You know, I was
at here, I'm at Notre Dame. Charlie White who was
a coach at Notre Dame, right, and uh he was.

(46:28):
He was a student while I was at Notre Dame,
and he never played football, but he had a very
talent and a skill where he was very smart. He
had a perfect a team and he was very smart
and he would critique the games that Divine would coach.
And he had a roommate that was on the football
team at Notre Dame and they kind of did a

(46:49):
spoof on him by saying, coach Divine wanted to see
you because he would critique the game to his buddies. Right, hey,
coach wants to see you, and he goes over and
coach didn't want to see him, so he kind of
got upset. But he had a skill of do how
to read a defense and how to read an offense.
And he ended up after he graduated from Notre Name

(47:11):
as a football coach in New Jersey. But he worked
part time for the New York Giants and Bill Parcel
and Belichick was there, and he would brief these guys
on offensive defense and write a script on offense why
they should do it this way, and they liked that,
so they hired him. Then he becomes the three offensive

(47:33):
coordinator for the New England Patriots. He wins three Super Bowls.
And he never played football, but he was he could
dictate what gave what plays to actually show in this situation.
And then he gets a job at Notre Dame and
he asked me to come in to speak to the team.
He's the only coach I ever did this, and I

(47:55):
did because he was a classman of mind. And I'll
never forget he didn't really get along. Uh, he wasn't
not a real personal guy with the alumni or I mean,
he was tough, but that but he was like he
understood a lot of different things. So I guess my
answer to all this is, um, there are certain people

(48:16):
that understand Rudy. There's certain people who don't. And he
understand the journey because he was a Rudy. You gotta
be you gotta be a weird person to not be
able to understand Rudy, Like, you know, it's, well, it's life.
I get girls who don't even understand football, but they
understand life who play sports, soccer, volleyball, baseball. During the sport,

(48:42):
they get the message. That's not a hard message to get.
It's it's you know. But I say to you the wannabees,
the jock sniffers I call him, and they are the
armchair quarterbacks, you know, because they're criticized everything you do.
They criticize Tom Brady. Come on. Speaking of speaking of criticism,

(49:05):
that was the last part of some of the things
I wanted to to debunk, is what do you say
from the jock sniffers or to the jock sniffers who say, well,
Rudy was off sides on the play that he sacked
George Georgia. Guess what they didn't call it, did they,
you know? So yeah, I said, they didn't call it,

(49:27):
so how could I be offsides? And plut If you
watch the Rudy play on the YouTube, right, you see
I wasn't offside, but they would wear shirts literally when
Notre Dame plays like different, they would wear T shirt
Rudy was off side And that's a positive to me.
At least they know who Rudy is. Right. It's so

(49:48):
funny that they will, like people will try to find
any which way to diminish a moment. Talk about the message?
Do they No, It's just like, what's the negative in this?
Let's talk about the damn negative? How about this? Yeah? Yeah,
well that's they were if you're on top. Look they
do it in business, they're doing it and everything. So
uh what it does? It builds character and I Sean

(50:12):
Sean Aston said on the Dan Patrick Show, he was like,
you know, people always asked me like what and he's like,
I came up with a good answer when people ask
me like you know what about Rudy being off side?
And he said exactly what you just said and was like,
they didn't call it, so he wasn't. And it's like
I think was that they didn't make the call, Like hey,
Sean and I talked about that and yeah, I'm sure

(50:33):
he still stole those words from you. Yeah, that's okay.
You know, Sean was a real cool kid because we
talked about all that. He would call me and we
would have our anniversary story we called I'll show you.
I don't have it, but if you look at we
did a behind the scenes of Rudy. We interviewed Joe
Montanan when he was at San Francisco and they asked,

(50:56):
before he won these super Bowls, right, were you there
when Rudy played? Yeah, I was there. It was like
winning the Super Bowl was like winning the national championship
when he played we can't tape. Then years later he said,
it's a joke. What change? How great? How great is
that too many people will come up to the guy

(51:18):
and bug him about where you did you play with Rudy?
And of course Eagles have a lot to do with that,
But how much how much of the attention that you
were getting and it was deflecting I guess attention that
maybe a four time Super Bowl champions should have been getting,
even though he wasn't alive in that time, he got enough.
Let me finish that story and I'm glad you brought
that up. I was in the tunnel Notre Dame and

(51:41):
Charlie Wiss brought Joe Montana and Tim Brown, Chris the
Origin myself to speak to the crowd our PEP rally
and uh, there were fifty thousand people in the stand,
first time they had it in the stadium. Will play
in usc This is a big if we win, we
win a national championship. But he brought me in and
Joe and Tim Brown and then we're sitting in the

(52:03):
tunnel go on and this this is what's strange. I
don't get it, but I get they hire these guys
as ushers and as security, and they think they're Notre Dame.
They're the jock Sniffer's Land of these guys, right, some
of them, not all of them. And this one usher says,

(52:25):
why is Rudy here? He didn't do anything, and I
kind of let it go by, and then he said
it a couple more times, and I turned to him
and I said, you know, dude, let me ask you
a question. How many Super Bowls did Montana win? He
said four? He knew exactly the stats, so how many
times he was most valuable? Three? How many times did

(52:45):
Chris Orange when he gave the Outland Trophy this trophy?
That how many times Tim Brown go to the All
Pro nine times? He knew all the stats? I saw.
Many tackles did I make? He said one? I said, okay,
that's fair. I said, uh, the difference between my one
tackle and all those two for Bowls and Troll Bowls?

(53:06):
And they made my movie. They didn't make their Instead,
they just shut them up. What can you say? That
was actually another thing. I'll go ahead, go ahead, Sorry,
don't want it was just I was on a tour
one time when a friend of mine going through the
stadium tour that they haven't under Dame, and uh, this
is kind of a sad moment to me. It was

(53:28):
because they were representing under Dame and representing all the
kids who ever played at Notre Dame, any athletes, and
they were representing there's a Jack Sniffer in charge, right,
and uh, we get to where the monogram room is
and where all the athletes playing their names are up
there on the wall, and I'm there were two of
my friends and and uh, forty forty of us in

(53:52):
the Uh in the tour, they didn't know who I was.
I don't tell people who I am. And one guy
raised this as Hannah says, he has Rudy up on
that wall, and the guy said, absolutely not. Why would
he be up there? Well he did play, didn't Hey, yeah,
well he was a walk on. Now this guy's putting
down every walk on that, every ever existed, and he's

(54:14):
beating up Rudy was no one. He don't belong up there.
He's just beating me up right. And I'm sitting and said,
holy cow, this guy represents Notre Dame and he's telling
all this garbage. And he was one of those guys
again because you know, he believes in the spoof in
the pranks that Joe Montana would say. You know, he

(54:36):
believes it all. He doesn't know who Joe Montana he's
going on. And I's like, finally, my friend raises his hand.
He says, are you sure Rudy's done up there? And
I raised my hand, said yeah, I think he's up there.
I saw his name follow me, so all the people
follow me, and I pointed out my name. The guy
said that's not him. I said, then who is it?

(54:58):
He says, I don't know, but that's not that's the Rudiger.
That's Rudy. And I said, you know, let me teach
your lesson, sir, and here's a lesson of the day
and probably the lesson of your life. Never ever, ever,
I said, put down another athlete that worked his butt
off to get up there. He could be a walk on,

(55:20):
he could be in all America. It doesn't matter. He
got up there because he paid the price. You just
put down every kid who had a dream, whoever wanted
to go to Note and they want to be part
of this tradition. You just put them down. Shame on you.
And you never know who's in the audience. Dude, and
the guy my friend said, yeah, you just now met
the real Rudy. And the guy shut up right, and

(55:43):
uh all the crowd, man, they just come around me
shaking my hand, and some people will got emotional and
uh he leaves. No one followed him for the rest
of the tour. That guy. That's what happens. If you
want to know the critics. And there are people still

(56:04):
out uh that there that don't understand. Not dame there.
They lived through these athletes. Just kids, come on, the
kids who have dreams and goals. It's like when they
said to me, uh, when I was going to school,
Notre Dames not for guys like you, Rudiger, he said,

(56:25):
the rich kids and great athletes. When I want to
finally got the Notre Dame, I knew it wasn't for
rich kids. And the parents are on second mortgages, third mortgages,
so the kids can go there. Is that crazy? Right?
It's funny you bring that up because I was going
to ask you about in two thousand twelve, the moment
that Rudy was just referring to. For all the listeners

(56:46):
who are confused, is uh. In two thousand twelve, Notre
Dame football celebrated It's on anniversary and Joe Montana, Jerome Battist,
Tim Brown, and Rudy Rudiger, we're the ones that got
to be a part of that small group that spoke
to the Notre Dame football community. And that's what that's
the moment you're referring to. So in that moment it
I was going to ask you what it was like

(57:07):
to be a part of that group and how special
that moment was for you. But then again, what you
already just answered was how you respond to negative people
like that? Who were asking like, oh, well, why is
Rudy up there? Why is Rudy talking like you know?
Because that that obviously exists. But that moment had to
be great for you because sure you only had twenty seconds,
twenty seven seconds of glory, but they made the movie

(57:27):
about you. They didn't make the movie seven years to
play twenty seven seconds. How many people, even I had
to get there academically first, that was the child. Let
me read you something I meant notre Dame six months
ago speaking right, I see a mother and a young
boy in the restaurant right before I was going to speak.
It didn't look like a very happy conversation. She looked

(57:48):
stressed out. Wait, Rudy, we I think we talked about
this in part one, right, the kid and he ended
up getting back. Yeah, but I guess I'm going back
to and because we did do that story, I want
to tie that in what we're doing here now. Yeah,
for sure, go you know you're tying in because this
kid grew up with Rudy the movie. Now you're gonna

(58:11):
take this moment away from this mother and this child
or this young boy. You gave him hope by telling him, Hey,
I'm Rudy, I could help you. Here's what you need
to do. Now. That's better than that usher saying what
did Rudy do. I just helped the kid get back
to Notre Dame because he believed that. You know, you
gotta go back and fight for what you believe in.

(58:33):
You had some disappointments, but you gotta go back and
find out what you need to do in order to
get back. That's the tie in, and that's what they connected.
They don't connect to the fact that I was a star,
because people really don't care whether you want a super
Bowl National championship years later anyhow. But the fact that
you played for Notre Dame meant you had to pay
a price. And that's that's the point I was making,

(58:57):
right and and and you want the and rightfully deserve
and have earned the respect for paying that price. I
don't look for that, but at one at one point,
you you know, when that usher disrespected you and the
work you put in your statements, him was like, you know,
you just disrespected every athlete whoever, every kid who had

(59:19):
a dream, so to a certain extent, like the disrespect
that came off and him not even knowing that he
was disrespecting you right to your face. You didn't even
know you were there. Um, that always stings. I don't
think anybody likes to be, you know, disrespect. It's interesting
you become callous to that, but you love to put
those people in their place. You know. When I when

(59:42):
I speak, I have I always there's m I speak
the corporate American people. I've seen the movie Rudy. At
least nine there maybe ten percent to happen. But there
are guys out there who asked the questions where you
carried off? You know, and because they still don't want
to believe that you were carried off, but they saw

(01:00:03):
the movie. And that's why we did the documentary Rudy Reverdy.
Get the walk on the show, the actual carry off,
and show the actual kids players who were involved. What
what that moment that gave up their uniform so I
could play. So that's so I said, I refer to
the documentary. Go watch your documentary and you answered, then

(01:00:25):
your questions will be answered. Whether I was carried off
or not doesn't matter, sir. It's the message, uh that
moment it is more important than whether I was carried
off or not. And that's how I man, yeah, No,
that's that's the best way. I love the spirit of
the true thing. I think that will stick with a
lot of people who have maybe wavered in their well,

(01:00:46):
Rudy was really true. I think that it just it
solidifies what you're saying. It just it hones in on
the importance of what was being shown. And that is
the message and the idea that like, you can achieve
anything you put your mind to, and you know the
proof is in the pudding with with your story. All right,
well can talk. He's gang last quick break coming up here.

(01:01:06):
But when we come back, Rudy touches on his defining moment.
He hits on the things that changed in his life
over the last thirty years. Is more and more generations
have seen the movie. Rudy talks about his top five
sports movies. I asked him a little bit about Lou
Holtz and Brian Kelly what a true walk on is.
It's all coming up in the home stretch of part two,
So stick with us. We'll be right back and we're

(01:01:29):
back on Walkie Talki's podcast on the home stretch of
Part two with Rudy Rudiger. Make sure you are subscribed
and downloaded, follow us on social media. Is at w
t Z podcast for video highlights of every episode. And
let's bring back in Ruddy Rudiger. What what do you
think changed in your life as the movie came out
and then years passed and more and more generations saw
it and also fell in love with it. How has

(01:01:51):
your life continued to change over these last thirty plus
years since the original lease of the original release of
the movie. Well, that's a great question, but it got
me to the point of of you only live for
a short period of time and you have, uh, so
many moments and so many opportunities you have to capture.

(01:02:13):
Work for him. Uh, don't take life for granted. Don't
take a risk. What your life? Take a risk? What
your dream? Um, all those little things made sense. Uh,
you're gonna fall in love for all the love. You
can't get married, You're gonna get divorced, You're gonna have issues,
You're gonna make some bad charges, but you're gonna make mistakes.
Don't don't make yourself bad because you made a mistake.

(01:02:35):
Just correct it and move forward. I don't care what
it is, and just show a lot of a lot
of compassion and love but don't get involved with goofy
people that gives you goofy thoughts and though that's what's changed.
I hang around dreamers and I hang around guys who
are positive, and that changed my life. Uh, I don't

(01:02:57):
hang around any why guys, let's hang around, Let's do
A type of guy you know makes a big difference.
So it's about who you you know. There's always those
cliches that run around who you surround yourself with, and
it's like you always see these I always see these
quotes on social media that are like you, you know,
the five people you surround yourself with the most are

(01:03:19):
the people that you're going to end up being like
or doing similar things. Like if you hang out with
five guys who love to do coke and party, you're
probably gonna do a lot of coke and party hard.
So if you hang out with guys who read investment
books and you know, are working sixteen hour days for
Morgan Stanley, you're probably you know, in that space. So
I think it's cool that you know someone who's done

(01:03:40):
what you have done is able to just like bring
it right back to that. Is like I just started
surrounding myself with better people and you know you and
you're gonna go through your moments of you don't know
who the better people are sometimes too, because you do
your self esteem as well. So uh, and people make
you feel inferior and you're gonna find out that's not

(01:04:01):
the guy you want to be around anyhow, makes you
feel bad because they don't feel good about themselves. So
you have to recognize that. Not that you get mad
and you just quit asking for advice and you find
out the guys who help you the most, other guys
who want you to succeed, they're not selfish. You gotta
become selfless. I just had a great conversation with Dallas Page. Uh.

(01:04:22):
He wrestled professional wrestling and he becomes very selfless in
his life. And he was very selfish at first, but
he learned by helping people makes him feel better instead
of helping himself. Yeah. Yeah. Being a giver um, which
you've touched on multiple times during part one and part

(01:04:42):
two of just your ability and your likeness to give
and give back, and that's what you wanted to do
with this movie. So what would you say like throughout
all of this, Uh, you know you had the sack
against Georgia Tech. As you had the story about going
and making this movie and fulfilling that dream. What of
all of these things would you consider to be your
defining moment that you look back on the most. The

(01:05:03):
spirituality of noted aim that they cleansed all the doubt
from your mind. And it wasn't about academics or football.
It was about a space that you felt very good
and powerful and that you could be anybody you want
to be. And I fought for that feeling. And because
it was about academics, I would have failed. It was

(01:05:23):
about football would have failed. It was about contributing to
something you felt good about. And you don't have to
be the best to be that. Uh, you don't have
to be the best looking or the smartest, as long
as you contributed and help people. And I think that
was a defining moment when I first stepped on campus
and felt that feeling. It's so funny too, because, like

(01:05:46):
for someone who when you were at Notre Dame was
not being helped by really anybody, you still had that
mentality of like, how can I help? Because I was
in the Navy, and in the Navy I learned a
very important point of how you succeed collaboration, and if
you show that and gen you attract the right people.

(01:06:07):
I attracted my tutor the minute I walked into St.
Joe Hall where I lived as a Holy Cross student,
and he became my tutor. He's a federal judge today.
Uh wow. He's a very successful man and very good man.
And he helped me academically, showed me how to study,
showed me what to read. So if it wasn't for him,

(01:06:30):
I wouldn't be here. Do you ever think about where
and how your life would have been different had you
never gotten the chance to go in that game, or
if you got to go in the game but never
made the sack. That's a great question. I don't look
at that. I don't live in the past. Yeah, I
guess you don't need to think about it ever, But
I think it. God has a God has a plan.

(01:06:52):
Go with it. Bro Go with it, bro Um. So
you know, we got a couple more that you know,
just some some people I talked to would like for
me to ask that I'm also interested in, then we
can wrap it up. But your story to so many
is an inspiration, and your story is loved by just
about everyone minus Joe Montana. You know, O kiddy um,

(01:07:16):
but can you give your perspective and your wisdom that
you've you know, gained over the years on what it's
been like to be a figure and a name that
really resembles the word belief and the word dream and
embodies like what it means to go after any dream
you have, Like what's it meant to be like that
sort of symbol around the world. Don't be bullied, man,

(01:07:36):
Don't let it to be bully you. Uh, stick to
your beliefs, um your character. Don't chase money, don't chase
the material things that all that will be taken care
of if you're doing the right thing. Uh. It's good
to have a nice car, it starts to have a
nice phone, but don't if you make a lot of

(01:07:57):
money and you don't make it for the right reasons,
you become very selfish. So the selflessness really pays off
in life. And that's what I learned. Uh. Just you're
not gonna go out and say, hey, can I help you?
You're always there through words an example, and you live
your life and you're gonna make some mistakes now because

(01:08:17):
you get to get around people that you believe in
that they don't have the right intentions because you have
a big heart. So what I had to learn was
trust and verify. But you had to learn that the
hard way. And I've learned that the hard way. Trust me.
But I also learned to forgive those people who did
that to me. And I say, I don't hold any

(01:08:39):
anything against people. I Joe, there's a lesson learned, and
I'm not gonna get into that. But you do through,
whether it's a marriage or whether it's a business opportunity,
or you still love the people and forgive them. Yeah,
that's awesome, That's that's great. It really resonates. Um. So

(01:08:59):
a couple of let's keep it lightheard a couple of
fun quick hitters and what and then we'll get out
of here. How did you did you feel about Brian
Kelly leaving to go to l s U. Did you
have any feeling about that? Good for Brian Kelly? Uh,
he deserves it, um, and he should have that opportunity. Um.
He did his job at Notre Dame. He became the

(01:09:20):
most warning his coach at Notre Dame, so he deserved
that next level. Why shouldn't he? He had a million
reasons to do it. Let's um, let's make the Notre
Dame fans feel good. Though. Did you ever see those
videos of him when he got to l s U
and all of a sudden he had a country accident
with He was just kind of fit in. I get it,

(01:09:41):
I get it, But what the hell is that? Come
on like interview with a thousand times and yeah, he
was just maybe trying to have fun. You don't know
that moment, but they spun that moment. He's probably having fun,
like I have fun with the audience. When I talked
to my audience, I may have uh something that they
would laugh about, or you know, I think it was

(01:10:04):
a spend. They showed so much. They didn't show the
ending or the beginning, and all I'm saying they they
they love that little clip, that little moment that they took,
and they spun it in the wrong direction. That's my
my take. You you probably or correct. I was just

(01:10:24):
trying to give the Notre Dame fans something to feel
good about. Since he Dame fans, if they're living through
Brian Kelly, shame on them. You know, come on, guys,
get real, give every you know, you know this Marcus
Freeman deserves a shot at the deal too. Absolutely, he's
gonna do a great job. He's gonna do a great job,
do a great job. You know what I loved about him.

(01:10:46):
I met him at Notre Dame and he's so grounded.
He just respects you right away. And that's key because
he played professional football. He knows what it takes to
be somebody, whether you're a walk on or whether you're
a starter. He understands hard work and work ethic, and
like you and I talked about Kobe Bryant too in
that moment. He understood that work ethic, how would get

(01:11:09):
you there? And the sacrifice to do the work. You know,
and I love athletes like some people don't have to
work hard to be great, but even you know when
you have that work ethic and you could help your
teammates through work ethic. Hey, you're a man of character. Yeah,
you're absolutely right. Do you Something Something that um A

(01:11:32):
couple of people wanted me to ask also, was if
you had any great Lou Holtz stories that you could
think of. I respect Lou Holtz was his son. He
has a great family, great kids. You always judge a
man by his family, by his kids how they were raised.
And uh, Lou Holtz was just one of those guys

(01:11:52):
who wasn't supposed to be a coach, or wasn't supposed
to be this, wasn't supposed to be that. But he's
a great entertainer, he's a great speaker, and he's been
through a lot. And I wish you the best because
he is one of the guys at Notre Name at
that time who did give us that. He wasn't part

(01:12:12):
of that plane decision, but he did honor the fact
that we shot that movie. So I respect that. I
even gave him the original script of the of Rudy.
I don't know if you read it, but years later
I saw him at a speech he says, hey, I
finally read that script. Um, so there's a there's a

(01:12:33):
couple of things with and there's only a couple more
questions and we'll wrap this up. But there there's a
couple of things that I kind of always equate with
the Walk On Journey, and um, the biggest one is
is that you know, we essentially embody the underdog role.
Now even if you're not the guy that comes out
on top and you get a scholarship or you make
it to the professional league, Like, like Baker Mayfield started

(01:12:54):
as a walk on, now he's just started. He was
a number one overall draft pick, Like, you don't have
to be that guy to be considered an underdog. Like
but however, I always I equate you know, walkie talkies
the walk ons as underdogs, and I also like to
look at the pillars of walk ons. Well, before I

(01:13:14):
get into that, what do you think about that? Like,
do you think the walk on thing is the underdog?
Like do you think what do you feel about that? Well,
what's a true walk on? Baker Mayfield had skill and talent.
He you know, he loved a couple of schools to
get to where he wanted to go. So he wasn't
given a skull because he loved to school to get
a better shot at what he needed. And that took

(01:13:37):
a little character too in a chance to do so
he was kind of going through a walk on deal differently,
but he has some skill and talent to do that,
where a true walk on hand, no skill, no talent,
but he was a contributor. Baker Mayfield wanted to be
a contriver, but he also wanted to be the guy.
So yeah, but he had that ability to do that.

(01:14:00):
Let me challenge you on this though, because you're saying
that a true walk on doesn't have skill or ability
or maybe just not as much as Baker Mayfield did.
But like you know, there's plenty of walk ons out
there that get put in positions where they are skilled,
they are talented, but it's the wrong environment. There's no opportunity,
or there's minimal opportunity. It's the wrong environment. So it's

(01:14:20):
like that person, in my mind is not a true
walk on. How do you feel about it? Well, he
still has to go through that mindset, that struggle. Uh
you think, let me have you think Tom Brady is
not a rooty or walk on? You bet you bet
he is. He wasn't you know, he wasn't getting that
starting job. But he's not the fastest right or the quickness.

(01:14:42):
But he had a skill he had to develop and
a talent he had to develop. So that's a walk
on skill he had to develop. All walk on to
develop some type of skill, whether it's in football, whether
it's in business. They can learn from football, they can
learn from being part of a team, from the camradery,
from being part of something. They take that on to
their next step in life. So walk and could be

(01:15:05):
a walk on in business, can be a watch and
I want to start my own business, but I don't
anything about that's a walk on. That's a walk on. Yep,
I agree, that's a walk on. He lives in naive faith.
I'm gonna do this. He doesn't do a market study.
He just goes for it. That's a walk on. You know.
He learns to punishment, mistakes and ridiculee, but he wants

(01:15:27):
it so bad he's gonna make it now. I always
equate these certain pillars with guys and girls who walk on,
and it's you gotta be selfless. You gotta sacrifice, You
have to be patient, and you have to you know,
it has to be the wee before me was. Is
there anything else pillar wise that you would add to those.

(01:15:48):
Your faith has to play a big part of it.
You gotta believe in yourself. That's the number one pillar,
the belief in yourself. If you don't have that, you're
not gonna make it. Give me your pillars. Okay, First,
my first pillar is character. You gotta have the character.
If you don't have character, you don't you're not gonna
have the courage to move forward. What character is. You're

(01:16:11):
doing things that no one else wants to do, and
you're doing things that other people aren't doing. But you're
not telling people, look what I'm doing. You're just doing it.
Like for an example, Uh, you're going out doing more
sit ups, are more push ups? Are gonna run? Or
you're gonna study more or or other guys don't have
to study as much as you. You've got to develop

(01:16:31):
some character, have a courage to do that, in a
commitment to do that. Those that those three pillars. Then
the contribution pillar is very important. You gotta be willing
to contribute to your teammate. Now, the big one to
me is called common sense. Those are the five pillars.
You know, if you don't have common sense and you

(01:16:51):
don't have a sense of humor, I mean you gotta
have that. If you don't, nothing's gonna work well. The
reason that I bring up selflessness is because if you
want to be a walk on you you got to
literally put everyone before yourself and have no end and
no ego. The reason I bring up um sacrifices. You know,
the same same regard as as selflessness is kind of

(01:17:12):
understanding that you're gonna put all this work in you're
gonna make You're gonna do the same thing the scholarship
guys do, and you're not gonna get anything near in
return that those guys get. Right, you're not gonna get
the here's a good example. Uh, you go on walking
in football, you're not gonna get the same lacker as
a starter, or you're gonna be putting a baseball lacker room.

(01:17:34):
So your goals become different. Then, hey, scholarship player, your
goal now is getting that football locker room. You're not
gonna go ask a scholarship player what your go get.
He's already in the locker rooms. For those guys that
that don't get the gold pants like yourself until that
second year, and the guys that get put in the

(01:17:55):
different locker rooms. Like but you're saying, they've got to
change their goals if their goal remains the same. You know,
I want to play in the NFL, I want to
play in the NBA. Yeah, you say, what do you
say to them? Like? How do you navigate it? Never
never lose focus on what you want. But you've got
to be willing to change the process. The process changes.
So what are you doing to change that process and

(01:18:17):
make it, make it better so you can get better,
get better each day, get something, do something better each
day here. You know, like today I was I went
early to work out, and um so I'm gonna do
my I'm gonna I'm gonna do better than I did yesterday.
So I swam two more laps and I did yesterday.

(01:18:40):
To me, that's a great moment for me. And tomorrow
I need better than I'm gonna do, maybe extra. I'm
just saying that's how you do. You don't do it
all at once. You're doing a little bites and all
of a sudden you're doing it all at once. Right, right, Okay,
last last little funny one for you. If if Rudy
is the answer, that's great, but I want a second

(01:19:02):
answer on top of that. What is your opinion the
best sports movie ever? Rocky? Which one? Do you have?
A Rocky One? So many lessons and Rocky One? You
watch it, it's kind of like, that's why I connected
to it, that's my life. Well, he's going he's given

(01:19:24):
a second chance. You know, he's just a nobody, but
he's got this. But now he gets us and he
starts working hard working, hard working, hard No one believes
that him. He finds a girlfriend, he finds little things
like a turtle and a dog, and uh, you know,
and the boys. It's so awesome. Rocky is incredible. It's

(01:19:46):
a great answer. How many uh, if you had to
unbiasedly answer this, where do you rank Rudy on the
list of best sports movies? Is it top ten? Is
the top five? Is the top three? Well, Rudy's are
in the top three, So I'm happy with that. All right.
So if you got Rocky one and Rudy two or three,
what's your third one? Remember the Titans. It's a great list.

(01:20:10):
It's a great list. Who's yours? Um Field of Dreams?
I love? All right? That's your top five then? Because no, yeah,
I mean you get I won't make you put him
in order, but yeah, those are all fantastic movies. Man,
Rudy Rudiger to one of the most legendary walk ons
of all time and most certainly the most beloved walk
on of all time. I just want to thank you

(01:20:30):
for being a part of the Walkie Talkies Gang and
Walkie Talkies podcasts and sharing your story and just I
mean that you've shared a million times, but just given
me the opportunity to interview you and talk about this
and hear your perspective and stuff on walk Ons back
then and now and you know your journey with getting
this movie made and just the whole thing. I couldn't
be more grateful for you coming on this show and uh,

(01:20:50):
you know, giving me this moment and and the show
this moment. So thank you so much. I appreciate it. No,
you're a big winner, You're a truth champion. You're gonna
do well. So good luck to you and God bless you,
my brother. That's a rap for Part two with Rudy.
What an honor man, a great guy. Just what an
honor to have Rudy Rudiger part of the Wakie Talkies gang.
As I've released this Part two with Rudy on September eight,

(01:21:14):
that's five days shy of when I released the very
first Wakie Talkies podcast episode last year in two thousand one,
and to see the growth in the direction of the
show and just just a year and now being with
I Heeart and the College Athletes Network and talking with
the ultimate walk On like Rudy Rudiger and even all
the other guests that have you know, been kind enough

(01:21:34):
to come on the show. Um, just a special moment
for w t Z as we near that one year mark.
I just want to say thank you to everyone that's
been listening and supporting and subscribing. Please keep sharing and
passing along these amazing walk on messages for more and
more to hear, because there's so much good stuff for
people to take away from it. So I appreciate that
there'd be no podcast next week, but we'll tie in
episode twenty nicely the following week with another great guest

(01:21:57):
and I'm not going to tell you who it is,
and I will see you all then Remember comes a
cute Walkie Talkies is a production of I Hear Radio
and the College Athletes Network. For more podcasts for my herradial,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts.