Pierce-Arrow and the Rockne: the luxury badge and the coach's car

1928 – 1933

Pierce-Arrow: In August 1928 Studebaker bought control of the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company of Buffalo, the luxury maker, to stand at the top of its range as Cadillac stood at General Motors'. Erskine became Pierce-Arrow's chairman; Myron Forbes remained its president; Pierce-Arrows gained Studebaker's dealer network and purchasing power, and some Pierce-Arrow bodies and engine blocks were made in Indiana while design, engineering, machining, and assembly stayed in Buffalo. The money is stated two ways in the record: the Buffalo histories give the purchase of control as $2,000,000, approved by stockholders on 7 August 1928 with the agreement signed on 15 August, and the Pierce-Arrow Society's history puts Studebaker's stock purchase at $5.7 million. Both statements stand as their sources give them. The first two years were prosperous — Pierce-Arrow reported a $2.5 million profit in 1929 — and in January 1929 the Buffalo cars took the straight-eight engines the merger was assumed to have prompted.

The Rockne: The Rockne was the other end of the range: a low-priced car for hard times, built by a subsidiary, the Rockne Motors Corporation. Its name was not a marketing invention but a memorial. Knute Rockne, Notre Dame's coach — Notre Dame and Studebaker were South Bend's two institutions — had been traveling the country giving pep talks to Studebaker salesmen, engaged, as one newspaper put it, to boost sales "through his knowledge of psychology and ability to lead men." On 24 March 1931 the South Bend Tribune headlined "Rockne Accepts Studebaker Job": he had been named manager of the company's sales promotion department, days before, in Erskine's expectation, he might leave full-time coaching for the work. On 31 March 1931, flying to Los Angeles, he was killed in the crash of his airliner near Bazaar, Kansas. Studebaker created the new car as his memorial and launched it in December 1931; the first one built was presented to Mrs. Knute Rockne. Erskine said at the unveiling: "It seems to be highly fitting that the finest qualities of Knute Rockne, the man, should be so brilliantly reflected and recalled by as fine an automobile as the Rockne Six will be." The 1932 line ran in two series — the "65," built at the former Detroit plant, from $585, and the "75," built at South Bend, from $685. Production ran from November 1931 to July 1933, into the receivership; the Rockne was a good car in the worst market in the industry's history, and it did not sell enough to matter.

Sources:

1. Roger Squier, Manufacturers of Wheels and Motors (Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, 1969), via Buffalo Architecture and History — the $2,000,000 purchase of control in 1928, and the $1,000,000 Buffalo repurchase of 1933 (carried in the receivership entry).
3. American Car Historian, "Rockne," from the period press — the coach's pep talks to salesmen and the "psychology and ability to lead men" line, the sales-promotion appointment as reported in the South Bend Tribune of 24 March 1931 and the Press of Atlantic City of 25 March, the crash of 31 March 1931, the December 1931 launch as a memorial, the first car to Mrs. Rockne, Erskine's unveiling words, and the 1932 "65" and "75" prices; Conceptcarz, Rockne marque history — the Rockne Motors Corporation subsidiary, production November 1931 to July 1933, the "65" built in Detroit and the "75" in South Bend.