There was Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger sitting across from me.

There were so many things to ask and so little time. Rudy was scheduled to speak at Cardinal Hayes Friday afternoon. I heard from the Hayes brass that the man the 1993 movie Rudy was based on was a talker and he didn’t disappoint.

His story as a 5-foot-6 walk-on defensive end at Notre Dame was about never giving up and it was part of the message he preached to the Hayes students. There were many times Ruettiger was faced with that choice and not just on the field, but with getting the movie made also.

“Even today I am realizing how important that decision was not to quit on that movie,” Ruettiger said. “There were a lot of times that I wanted to quit trying to get that movie made. It’s not an easy thing going to Hollywood and saying, ‘Hey, make my movie.’”

It was a movie culminating in one tackle, the one Ruettiger said former football players joke he is still living off of. He ended his lone game in an Irish uniform with a sack of Georgia Tech quarterback Rudy Allen in 1975 and was carried off the field. Ruettiger still gets a kick out of all of it, the play, the movie, and its success.

“It isn’t that interesting that they made a movie about one tackle,” he said. “It’s the journey.”

He described the play like any big-time athlete would the biggest of their careers. Everything slowed down, Ruettiger said. After getting rejected so many times on the football field, there was no looking back. He talked about his preparation putting him into a zone.

“You knew you had five seconds,” Ruettiger said. “We went into a very big zone of focus. If you take your mind to that level, you hear no noise, there are no distractions. You just see the target and no one can stop you.”

The one person who stopped Ruettiger from attending Saturday night’s Notre Dame-Army game at the new Yankee Stadium was his 8-year-old son who had a soccer tournament. Ruettiger gets back to see the Irish play at least once a year and receives a warm reception. The school shows the movie “Rudy” to the freshmen at orientation.

Notre Dame has recently fallen from national prominence, Ruettiger said it is hard to watch and he wishes he could give his input to the school’s decision makers. But he is impressed with new coach Brian Kelly.

“I met him and I liked him,” Ruettiger said. “He has direction. Let’s see what happens. He has earned his way so that’s important.”