The truth of the story depends on who you ask.
At the bottom of the story in Notre Dame Magazine, Harrell is described as:
Jeff Harrell is an award-winning journalist who spent 10 years covering police, crime, federal courts and the mob for the Staten Island Advance. His book, Rockne of Ages, details the circumstances surrounding the plane crash that killed the legendary coach.
For someone that covered crime, courts, and the mob for a decade it seems like a reach to say he made it all up. However, there are those that dispute the claim.
Tom Ley went deep into disputing the Reynolds story back in 2013 and shared why Reynolds could have been the perfect person to believe much of the tale.
I won’t pretend to know what actually happened as to why that plane went down 91 years ago, but I do know it is one helluva story.
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Notre Dame head football coaches who also played college football