I knew Ronald Reagan was an actor before he got into politics. And I knew he got his ‘Gipper’ nickname from some old football movie. But until last night I never really understood why the silly ‘win one for the gipper’ slogan carried so much weight and had such an impact on people.

That’s because last night I was watching old movies on the hotel TV and I ended up seeing a young Reagan portray George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American.

It was your typical 1940-era film with simple characters and predictable dialogue and, to be honest, […]