Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/51459
UNDER THE DOME 'Rudy' Fined For Fraud Charges Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, the nation's most well known former Notre Dame walk-on foot- ball player, couldn't quite make it in the SEC. That's SEC as in the Securities & Exchange Commission, which this December fined him in a pump-and-dump stock scheme. In a complaint filed Dec. 16 at U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, Ruettiger agreed to pay $382,866 to resolve U.S. reg- ulatory claims he defrauded investors in his sports-drink company by touting fake taste tests and sales. The terms of the settle- PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND THEY SAID IT "I think there's sort of a leeriness that attaches to trying to make what you think are the right decisions at the BCS level and continuing to have people challenge them and be unhappy with them. It certainly leads to some momentum, but as I say I'm not sure that the momentum is toward a plus-one. I'm not convinced of that." Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick on the future of the college bowl system (South Bend Tribune) "Teams play well against Notre Dame for whatever reason. That's not to say Notre Dame is special, it's just the way it is. Teams get more excited when there are more people watching, and we have people watching every week. … Guys can be down by 30 points in Notre Dame Stadium and they're still giving their all, or they could be up by 30 points and they are trying to pour it on you. It's different playing on the stage that we play on. It makes you more complete. Maybe at other places you might play 30 real snaps in a game. Here if you played 60, you played 60 real snaps." — Notre Dame senior defensive end Ethan Johnson "I still believe in trying to work with young men, developing young men's character, developing the whole person, developing the opportunities for them to be successful in life. I've really not gotten into the football factory mentality. For me, that's important. There isn't a place that sells that and does that better than Notre Dame." — Notre Dame running backs coach Tim Hinton while shooting down rumors that he would take a job under Urban Meyer at Ohio State "My background is that I like to keep things in house if I can. I think we have talented coaches in the program that are capable of more, being in leadership positions. If that's the route I go, I feel very comfortable with that, but I'm not closing off any doors as to how I go about doing that." — Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly on replacing former offensive coordinator Charley Molnar "It's not necessarily the duct-tape feel to the Big East Conference's latest expansion/reclamation. It's the still-shaking college sports terrain that keeps Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick away from absolutes. The Big East reacted to recent defections of Syracuse, Pitt and West Virginia by getting bigger but less Eastern. … None of which has Swarbrick crowing that ND's coveted football indepen- dence is now safe for the long term." — Eric Hansen, South Bend Tribune "When you look at Notre Dame you can kind of make the argument both ways. … You can make the argument that their losses were quality losses, but you can also make the argument that they haven't beaten many good teams and they didn't really put up a fight against good teams. It ultimately comes down to the quarterback position. They've got talent on the defensive front. They're loaded with young talent on defense. It just comes down to: Can they get Tommy Rees where they want to get him at the quarterback position?" — Todd McShay, ESPN 12 FEBRUARY 2012 ment included that Ru- ettiger will neither admit to nor deny the charges. How- ever, he had to forfeit his $185,750 in profits and pay a fine of $185,750 plus interest. Ruettiger was the inspiration for the 1993 RUETTIGER movie "Rudy," which chronicled his amazing story of fulfilling the dream to play football at Notre Dame despite his humble roots and small stature. After transferring from then Holy Cross Ju- nior College across the road from Notre Dame and toiling on the scout team, Ruettiger finally was given a chance to dress for a home game on Senior Day against Georgia Tech in 1975, was inserted in the closing seconds of the 24-3 Irish victory, and recorded a sack on the game's final play. That sack prompted several teammates to carry him off the field on their shoulders. Ruettiger and 12 others were charged with a stock scheme that generated $11 million in allegedly illegitimate profits in the energy drink company started by Ruettiger — Rudy Nutrition (which is no longer in business). According to the SEC, the illicit profits were generated by raising the stock of Rudy Nutri- tion via promotional news releases falsely claiming that Rudy Nutrition outsold sports- drink Gatorade by 2 to 1 in the Southwest and outperformed Gatorade and PowerAde in blind taste tests. From that, Rudy Nutrition's stock was in- flated for unregistered shares they were sell- ing to investors. The company's marketing slogan was "Dream Big! Never quit!" to play off Ruettiger's dream to play at Notre Dame. "Investors were lured into the scheme by Mr. Ruettiger's well-known, feel-good story but found themselves in a situation that did not have a happy ending," Scott W. Friestad, an associate director in the SEC's enforcement division, said in a statement. In September 2008, the SEC halted trad- ing in Rudy Nutrition because of delinquent public filings. BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED