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Gipper's Family Seethes Over Exhumation

Paternity questions, and Gipp, put to rest, but not controversy

By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 10, 2007 3:04 PM CST
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(Newser) – Ronald Reagan played George Gipp in a movie about the football star’s life, but now a furor has erupted over the exhumation of Gipp’s body, 87 years after his death, the New York Times reports. Relatives and residents of his Michigan hometown remain incensed about the televised removal of his remains to prove—unsucessfully as it turns out—he fathered an illegitimate baby.

“It was crazy what went on at the cemetery," said a relative. A family lawyer says the backhoe at first dug up the wrong grave. Critics blamed sports writer Mike Bynum for staging the exhumation to help sell a book about Gipp, immortalized by a 1940 Reagan movie with the line “win one for the Gipper.” A relative laments, "I hope it doesn't do anything to soil his legacy."

George Gipp was an All American from Notre Dame. (AP Photo/File)
George Gipp was an All American from Notre Dame. (AP Photo/File)   (Associated Press)
This photo taken June 29, 2007, shows a park in Laurium, Mich., dedicated to the memory of George Gipp, the Notre Dame football legend known as The Gipper. The park is located near the cemetery where Gipp is buried. His body was exhumed for DNA testing Oct. 4, 2007. (AP...
This photo taken June 29, 2007, shows a park in Laurium, Mich., dedicated to the memory of George Gipp, the Notre Dame football legend known as "The Gipper." The park is located near the cemetery where...   (Associated Press)
Ronald Reagan attends a traditional Hollywood world premiere, December 23, 1945, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo)
Ronald Reagan attends a traditional Hollywood world premiere, December 23, 1945, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo)   (Associated Press)
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Author says he was trying to unite family, not promote book
Detroit News

More on the life of George Gipp
Associated Press

Sports • Health • US

 
ESPN • DNA • Michigan • Ronald Reagan • Notre Dame Fighting Irish • George Gipp • paternity test • exhumation • Laurium

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