updated 4:55 p.m. ET March 30, 2006

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Knute Rockne was one of the most prominent figures in America — let alone the famous coach at Notre Dame — when his plane crashed in a Kansas pasture 75 years ago Friday.

Easter Heathman, however, didn’t know anything about him that morning. The 14-year-old boy merely heard a loud noise, ran to the scene — and later helped carry Rockne’s body on a stretcher.

“I remember it just like it was yesterday,” Heathman said in a telephone interview from his Kansas home.

Rockne’s death at age 43 at the height of his career — having led the Fighting Irish to consecutive undefeated seasons his final two seasons — shocked football fans nationwide and made front-page news across the country. President Herbert Hoover called it “a national loss.”

“The fact that he died when he did, when he was at the top of his game, is a true travesty,” current Irish coach Charlie Weis said.

Heathman, now 89, recalls his uncle calling on March 31, 1931, saying he’d seen a wing fall off after the plane emerged from clouds.

“He said the plane was turning end over end, and the wing came fluttering down to the ground a half-minute or so after the plane crashed,” Heathman said.

Over the years, Heathman has become the unofficial caretaker of the crash site near Bazaar, Kan., and the monument that was built there. He and others plan to gather Friday to commemorate the life of Rockne and the seven others who died.

Another ceremony will be held Friday in Rockne’s hometown of Voss, Norway. At Notre Dame, the video documentary “Knute Rockne and his Fighting Irish” will be shown hourly Friday afternoon.

“It’s a time for us to reflect on true greatness, which is what he was,” Weis said.

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With a 105-12-5 record in 13 seasons, Rockne’s major college football winning percentage of .881 remains unmatched.

“He set the bar,” Weis said. “And everybody else just tries to live up to that bar he set. It’s probably unreachable, but at the same time it’s great to have something for everyone to shoot for.”

Murray Sperber, an Indiana University professor emeritus who wrote “Shake Down the Thunder,” a history of Notre Dame football, said Rockne did more than build a great football team. The money he raised through football helped build Notre Dame.

“When he took over, Notre Dame was a small school and it was hard to schedule games,” Sperber said.

Rockne hired game officials who were friendly to the Irish, promoted himself and the school to sportswriters, and permitted any radio network to broadcast Irish games for free, allowing them to become better known, Sperber said.

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