Blooper

Roland Steele, the Cornerback and Captain who Devine calls an All-American, is never on the dress list that Rudy scans to see if he is going to dress. The name should have been visible just below Rudy's, but it is not there.

When the team captain walks into the head coach's office, there is a pen holder with two pens on the edge of the desk. Since laying the jerseys on top of the pen holder would have caused them to tent (instead of lay flat), it is conveniently missing before the jerseys are laid on his desk.

When Rudy and Pete are talking in the lunch room at the plant, Pete lights a cigarette with a match. The match burns down almost half-way, but when he sticks it into the cupcake, it hasn't burnt nearly as much.

When Rudy receives the acceptance letter from Notre Dame, he reads it on a bench outside the student center. The background is the fall season but Rudy received the letter in the spring semester.

When Mateus (75) is chanting "Rudy", the next shot shows him playing , then back to him chanting again on the sidelines.

Coach Dan Devine actually insisted that Rudy play in the final game.

When Ara tells Rudy he can't dress because the NCAA places limits on the number that can dress at home. This is incorrect. You could dress unlimited players at home. You were limited to 65 on the road.

The Notre Dame players never staged a protest on Rudy's behalf, although some did ask Coach Devine to allow Rudy to dress for the final home game.

As the team leaves the locker room to go on the field for the GA Tech game, they clearly pass the "Play Like A Champion Today" sign. That sign was actually not placed there until Lou Holtz' tenure. Definitely was not there in the '70s.

In the movie, Dan Ruettiger's big moment is a solo sack of the Georgia Tech quarterback on the final play after the crowd chants his name and the announcer talks about him. In actual TV footage of the game, you can see Ruettiger chase Tech quarterback Rudy Allen out of the pocket and into the arms of an Irish player play-by-play man Don Criqui identifies as "Jay Acterhoff." Criqui makes no mention of Ruettiger, who would probably get no more than a half-sack or tackle assist from a stat keeper. There is no special uproar from the crowd, except the typical cheer for the end of the home team's win.

Rudy breaks away from practice to talk to a girl on the sidelines ("Hey, don't I know you?"). Although Notre Dame practices are usually closed and there should be no spectators, the girl in question was a student manager for the football team. This was evident from her involvement in painting the helmets (a responsibility for the student managers). They are not only allowed on the practice field, but assist with the practice itself.

Rudy continually says that by not getting into Notre Dame sooner, he is losing eligibility. In reality as long as you do not play NCAA football at another college (which Rudy does not appear to do at Holy Cross), no matter when he got into Notre Dame he would always have four years of eligibility unless he officially graduates. However this is only true for D2 and D3. In D1 football and basketball, students have 5 years to complete their eligibility, once enrolled in a college or university full time. Whether they are competing or not.

At the end of the GTech game, after the defense gets the ball back the final time, there are only 37 seconds left in the game. Yet, the Irish run a play in bounds without a time out before the final play (the halfback pass touchdown) and when Rudy finally gets in for the ensuing kickoff, there is no way any time would be left on the clock. It would have actually run out before the touchdown pass. incorrectly regarded as a goof. before first run play it is shown that G-Tech still has 1 time out remaining. using it after the inbound run and before the half back pass touchdown.

There's a tight shot on the ball before the snap of the last offensive play of the season. The shot tilts up showing the center and part of his number. The "6" is reversed, revealing this to be a flopped shot.

The football scenes for Rudy's last Joliet Catholic practice are actually filmed in Doyle Stadium at the old St. Rita High School on 63rd and Claremont Ave, in Chicago, not at Joliet Memorial Stadium where they would have played/practiced.

After Rudy gets in the game and everybody is cheering, his father is looking to his right and his brother is looking to his left at such angles that there is no way they were both looking at Rudy.

When Rudy gets his acceptance letter and is reading it on the bench, there are Fall color leaves in the background. It would have been August in actuality. Also, at tryouts the players breathe can be seen as it is cold. In real life tryouts are at the end of Summer. Even in the Midwest it is not frosty in August.

Rudy's helmet at the Georgia Tech game is missing the Riddell logo on the front of it. The other players are not missing the logo.

In the movie, Rudy gets to play for the first time in a game against Georgia Tech. However, as they show Rudy running down the field during the kickoff, you can see a maroon and gold Boston College banner in the crowd behind him. This scene was filmed at the halftime of the real ND/Boston College game in 1992.

The time elapsed during the discussion about changing the final offensive play from Victory formation to a halfback pass, was at least 50 seconds. Notre Dame should have been called for Delay of Game.

While Rudy is walking through the streets, he passes a bar that has a Coors Light sign. Coors Light wasn't produced until 1979.

At the dinner scene with the family and visiting neighbor kids, the one boy asks permission of Papa Ruettiger (Ned Beatty) if they could switch channels from the Notre Dame football game in order to check the score of an in progress U. of Illinois football game. Prior to 1984, the National Collrgiate Athletic Association (NCAA) forbade more than one game to be telecast in a particular TV Market area. The NCAA was successfully sued under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by the colleges for constraint of trade. The scene would be set in the early 1960's, when the rule concerning one game only policy was in effect.

When Rudy is at the bus station leaving for Notre Dame, the poster in the Greyhound station has a picture of the World Trade Center towers on it. They weren't completed until 1973.

When an intoxicated Rudy talks to Mary at the bar, a Miller Genuine Draft beer sign can be seen slightly in the back. Miller Genuine Draft wasn't produced until 1985.

Goalposts seen in the movie are 18 1/2 feet apart and had been narrowed in 1991. At the time of the story, uprights were 23 feet, 4 inches apart in college football.

Before the final game vs. Georgia Tech, the audio heard is the band playing the tune "Down the Line" when the visual footage is of the band marching and moving while playing Hike Notre Dame.

During the Rudy's first play on the field - the kickoff to Georgia Tech - a hand-held 35mm production camera with follow-focus and matte box is visible. (There is an edit right after the kickoff and the camera can be seen in the lower left of the frame during the second shot).

Rudy's bus ride from Chicago to South Bend is depicted as an overnight trip. In reality, South Bend is only one and a half hours from Chicago.

When Rudy is confronted in the school's parking lot by a much larger football player, as the scene ends and the players start to enter their car, the boom pole is clearly seen reflected in the car's windows.

In the scene where father Cavanaugh is walking through the hall with two other priests and he spots Rudy sitting by himself in one of the pews, as he approaches him to talk to him, you can see the boom mic briefly pop-up and go back down below the pew in between the two of them.

Rudy has figured out a way to get passing grades without being a good student, to live without proper housing, to sneak showers at the Holy Cross dorms, to get secret access into the maintenance building, become a faux football booster, yet he can't figure out a way to get into Notre Dame Stadium for the first football game.