Judge Rules Against ESPN in Gipp Case

HOUGHTON, Mich. — ESPN must provide the relatives of George Gipp with any materials it has related to the exhumation of the Notre Dame halfback's body, according to a ruling in a lawsuit stemming from the exhumation.

The remains of the football star, who died in 1920 of pneumonia, were dug up Oct. 4 for DNA testing to determine whether he had fathered his girlfriend's child. The results were negative.

ESPN crews recorded the exhumation for a planned newsmagazine program.

Karl Gipp, who says he and George Gipp are first cousins once removed, and another cousin, Ron Gipp, filed the suit in November in Houghton County Circuit Court. In seeking damages of more than $25,000, they accuse the defendants of negligence, contending that the remains of the player's sister, Bertha Isabelle Gipp Martin, were disturbed because workers initially dug in the wrong spot. She was buried next to her brother.

The defendants include ESPN, which is owned by Walt Disney Co.; Mike Bynum, a sports writer from Birmingham, Ala., who helped arrange the exhumation and notified ESPN; Rick Frueh, of Chicago, who requested the exhumation and says he's Gipp's great-nephew; and Dr. Dawn Nulf, the county medical examiner who authorized the removal of George Gipp's remains from a grave near his Upper Peninsula hometown of Houghton.

A telephone message seeking comment on the ruling was left Thursday at the office of ESPN spokesman Rob Tobias.

Torger Omdahl, an Iron Mountain attorney representing the Gipp cousins, said it was too early to say how much benefit the materials will provide.

"After I see what's there, I'll know," he told The Daily Mining Gazette.

Frueh and Bynum, among others, have asked the case to be dismissed, saying that the Gipps are not close enough relatives to be able to have filed the suit.

The court will decide whether to move forward with the case on March 24.