DNA tests on the moldering corpse of Notre Dame football legend George Gipp have proven that the old fella didn't father a baby that his former girlfriend gave birth to months after he died of pneumonia and strep during his senior year in 1920. Another 87-year-old rumor bites the dust.
The Gipper -- made famous by coach Knute Rockne in a half-time pep talk and played in the movies by a nearly unknown actor named Ronald Reagan -- was dug up last month amid great secrecy. Why?
Years ago, a Gipp biographer stumbled on an Internet posting by a woman who claimed to be a descendant of the football great. Her grandmother was Eva Bright, whom Gipp had dated for about a year before he died. Her claims caused a Gipp grand-nephew to exhume the body for a DNA test.
So last month, Gipp's right femur was snatched and his other legless remains were reburied. A Dallas testing lab this week confirmed no link between Gipp and the Bright granddaughter.
In other news, 1-9 Notre Dame's backfield still sucks. Perhaps they can put the Gipper's spare leg to good use.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Gipper's Zipper: DNA proves George Gipp didn't father illegitimate child
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Out of the Box: Bopper's casket hits the road
The Bopper's son, Jay Richardson (left) and forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bassexhumed J.P. Richardson's casket last March in Beaumont
In what will certainly be one of the most macabre musical mementoes in Texas history, the new Texas Musicians Museum will display the "used" casket of J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, the Beaumont pop star killed in the same 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Take the kids!
The Bopper was exhumed from his next-to-final resting place in Beaumont's Forest Lawn Cemetery last March and moved to a new grave in a brand-spankin'-new casket. The old one was stored secretly by his son, Jay Richardson of Katy, while he considered donating it to an appropriate museum, such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
On Saturday, Nov. 10, a vintage 1949 hearse will deliver the Bopper's original box to the Hillsboro, Texas, museum. Rock 'n' roll authority Bill Griggs of Lubbock -- who observed the Bopper's exhumation and autopsy in March -- will talk about the famous 1959 plane crash, what the autopsy revealed, and the Bopper’s musical legacy.
The casket will be displayed through November in Hillsboro, about 60 miles south of Dallas/Fort Worth.
Coming in December 2007: Willie Nelson's booger collection.Thursday, October 11, 2007
Dig One for The Gipper: George Gipp exhumed
They've gone and dug up the Gipper.
The family of George Gipp (left), the Notre Dame football player who died from pneumonia and a strep infection during his senior year in 1920 and inspired Knute Rockne's locker room exhortation to "win one for the Gipper," sought a DNA sample from from the 87-year-dead corpse.
Why? Was George adopted? Is someone claiming to be his love child? Did the fantastically popular Gipper pull an Elvis and fake his own death to escape the limelight? Or is Notre Dame hoping to clone the Gipper to bolster its awful backfield this season? Nobody's telling. But ESPN filmed the exhumation in Laurium, Mich., and a noted sports author was on hand. So we're likely to find out in the good old-fashioned American way: Marketing!
Some cousins believed the exhumation desecrated Gipp's grave and memory, but Gipp was dug up because at least one family member -- reportedly his sister's granddaughter -- asked for it.
I love a mystery, even a fabricated one. After attending the exhumation and autopsy of J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson last March, I'm even more fascinated by what modern forensics can tell us about long-ago deaths of famous people. But I'm not sure we should go digging them up willy-nilly merely to satisfy idle -- and ultimately unimportant -- curiosities.
Perhaps the exhumed Gipper will answer some important questions. I desperately hope he wasn't disturbed just to sell some books.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
A day in the death of The Bopper & Son
How do you say goodbye if you never got to say hello?
Jay Richardson, son of the famed 1950s rocker J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson got his chance this week. Can you imagine if the first time you laid eyes on your own father it was when they opened his casket 50 years after he died?
I was privileged to be the only journalist allowed to observe the exhumation and autopsy of The Bopper, almost 50 years after he died with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens in an Iowa plane crash ... the day the music died. What did I see? What did we learn?
The emotional moment is captured right here.
