RUDY MOVIE CHARACTERS AND PLOT SUMMARY
Characters
Rudy
Sherry (girlfriend)
Daniel Ruettiger (Rudy’s father)
Frank (older brother)
Pete (best friend)
Fortune (Grounds keeper)
Father Cavanaugh (Priest)
D-Bob (Rudy’s friend and tutor at Holly Cross College)
Coach Ara Parseghian (Head Coach)
Plot Summary for Rudy (From Wikipedia)
Daniel Eugene "Rudy" Ruettiger grows up in Joliet, Illinois dreaming of playing college football at the University of Notre Dame. Though he is achieving some success with his local high school team (Joliet Catholic), he lacks the grades and money necessary to attend Notre Dame, as well as talent and physical stature. Ruettiger takes a job at a local steel mill like his father Daniel Sr., who is also a Notre Dame fan. He prepares to settle down, but when his best friend Pete is killed in an explosion at the mill, Rudy decides to follow his dream of attending Notre Dame and playing for the Fighting Irish. He perseveres to do everything he can to get into the football powerhouse.
He leaves for the campus, but fails to get admitted to Notre Dame. With the help and sponsorship of a local priest, Rudy starts at a small junior college nearby named Holy Cross, hoping to get good enough grades to qualify for a transfer. He also manages to get a part-time job on Notre Dame's groundskeeping staff and befriends D-Bob, a graduate student at Notre Dame and a teaching assistant at his junior college. The socially-awkward D-Bob offers to tutor Rudy if he helps him meet girls. Suspecting an underlying cause to Ruettiger's previous academic problems, D-Bob has Rudy tested, and Rudy learns that he has dyslexia. Rudy learns how to overcome his disability and becomes a better student. At Christmas vacation, Rudy returns home to his family's appreciation of his report card, but is still mocked for his attempts at playing football and also dumped by his fiance, who starts seeing one of his brothers.
After numerous rejections, Rudy is finally admitted to Notre Dame during his final semester of transfer eligibility. He rushes home to tell his family, and his father announces the news to his steel mill workers over the loudspeaker. After "walking on" as a non-scholarship player for the football team, Ruettiger convinces coach Ara Parseghian to give him a spot on the practice squad. An assistant coach warns the players that 35 scholarship players won't make the "dress roster" of players who take the field during the games but also notices that Ruettiger exhibits more drive than many of his scholarship teammates.
Coach Parseghian agrees to Rudy's request to suit up for one home game in his senior year so his family and friends can see him as a member of the team. However, Parseghian steps down as coach following the 1974 season. Dan Devine succeeds him in 1975 and honors Parseghian's promise only after a player protest. Led by senior team captain and All-American Roland Steele, the other seniors rise to his defense and lay their jerseys on Devine's desk, each requesting that Rudy be allowed to dress in their place. In response, Devine lets Ruettiger appear for the final home game, against Georgia Tech.
At the final home game, Steele invites Ruettiger to lead the team out of the tunnel onto the playing field. As the game comes to an end, and Notre Dame is ahead, Devine sends all the seniors to the field, but refuses to let Rudy play, despite the pleas from Steele and the assistant coaches. As a "Rudy!" chant spreads from the Notre Dame bench into the stadium, and the offensive team, led by tailback Jamie O'Hare, overrules Devine's call for victory formation and they score another touchdown instead. Devine finally lets Rudy enter the field with the defensive team on the final kickoff. He stays in for the final play of the game, sacks the Georgia Tech quarterback, and to cheers from the stadium, is carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates.