Movie Goof (anachronisms): Immediately after the Notre Dame Football tryout sequence, Coach Yonto (Ron Dean) speaks to Rudy (Sean Astin), and over his left shoulder, during the close-up, there is a set of Blue/White STX lacrosse gloves from the late '80s - early '90s.
Movie Goof (miscellaneous): In the movie, Rudy gets to play for the first time in a game against Georgia Tech. However, as they show Rudy running down the field during the kickoff, you can see a maroon and gold Boston College banner in the crowd behind him. This scene was filmed at the halftime of the real ND/Boston College game in 1992.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When Rudy is getting his mail, you can see Waddicks cafe behind him, which was not named that until the 1990s.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): Modern sodium-vapor streetlights and floodlights in the opening scene.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When Rudy's father enters the stadium for the first time, the band shown is wearing uniforms that were not worn in the mid-1970's.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): Goalposts seen in the movie are 18 1/2 feet apart and had been narrowed in 1991. At the time of the story, uprights were 23 feet, 4 inches apart in college football.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Rudy is signing up for the Booster Club, the camera goes back and forth between Rudy and D-Bob. There are characters talking behind D-Bob who finish a conversation and walk away. They continue to reappear and disappear in subsequent shots.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Rudy gets his acceptance letter and is reading it on the bench, there are Fall color leaves in the background. It would have been August in actuality. Also, at tryouts the players breathe can be seen as it is cold. In real life tryouts are at the end of Summer. Even in the Midwest it is not frosty in August.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Rudy and Pete are talking in the lunch room at the plant, Pete lights a cigarette with a match. The match burns down almost half-way, but when he sticks it into the cupcake, it hasn't burnt nearly as much.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In one practice scene, a Notre Dame player is shown wearing a football helmet with the "AIR" logo on front. Schutt Sports did not market the "AIR" model helmet until 1987, more than a decade after this movie was supposed to have taken place.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): As Rudy walks away from stadium, automobiles obviously more recent than 1971-1975 can be seen.
Movie Goof (factual errors): The Penn State Blue band is playing the Penn State fight song before the Georgia Tech game.
Movie Goof (factual errors): When the priest announces the trip to the Notre Dame campus in class, he says the sign-up deadline is November 5th. In the film, football season has already ended. In actuality, high school football season goes well into November.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): The football field at the old St Rita High School at 63rd and Claremont Ave where the scene was filmed was not named after Pat Cronin. When St Rita moved down the street to 77th and Western at the old Quigley Seminary they build a new stadium called Doyle Stadium. The football field at Doyle stadium is called Pat Cronin Field.
Movie Goof (continuity error): Towards the end of the movie, when Rudy finally is allowed to play, there is a close-up of the offensive line. The number on the jersey is backwards (flipped shot).
Movie Goof (continuity error): In the scene when the players lay the jerseys down on the desk of Dan Devine, the number 70 is laid down twice.
Movie Goof (factual errors): The Notre Dame players never staged a protest on Rudy's behalf.
Movie Goof (factual errors): At the end of the GTech game, after the defense gets the ball back the final time, there are only 37 seconds left in the game. Yet, the Irish run a play in bounds without a time out before the final play (the halfback pass touchdown) and when Rudy finally gets in for the ensuing kickoff, there is no way any time would be left on the clock. It would have actually run out before the touchdown pass.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When Rudy is talking to several of the players in the parking lot, you can see the Rolfs Aquatic Center behind him, which was not built until 1985.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When Rudy's family is arriving for the game in which Rudy plays, Rudy's dad is the first one off the bus. On the side of the bus, near the door, is an Illinois Fuel Tax/Road Tax sticker used in 1992. It is light purple in color.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Rudy looks into the crowd while the stadium chants his name, the scene behind him on the field is in preparation for a kickoff, yet in the movie the halfback pass play is about to take place.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): The Eck tennis pavilion (built in the late 1980s) is visible.
Movie Goof (factual errors): Rudy is walking around the stadium looking for tickets and a kid walks by in a Jerome Bettis jersey. Bettis didn't play at Notre Dame until the early '90s.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When the priest asks that anyone interested in attending Notre Dame that wants to take a tour to sign up for it, he says the tour is on Saturday December 15th and that they should sign up no later than Wednesday November 4th. This would mean that November 4th falls on a Sunday, not a Wednesday
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When Rudy comes home for Thanksgiving after his first semester at Holy Cross Junior College, his older brother walks in with a bag of groceries. At the top of the bag is a bag of Frito-Lay chips with the current Frito-Lay logo clearly showing, even though this was supposed to be from the mid-1960s.
Movie Goof (factual errors): In the movie, Dan Ruettiger's big moment is a solo sack of the Georgia Tech quarterback on the final play after the crowd chants his name and the announcer talks about him. In actual TV footage of the game, you can see Ruettiger chase Tech quarterback Rudy Allen out of the pocket and into the arms of an Irish player play-by-play man Don Criqui identifies as "Jay Acterhoff." Criqui makes no mention of Ruettiger, who would probably get no more than a half-sack or tackle assist from a stat keeper. There is no special uproar from the crowd, except the typical cheer for the end of the home team's win.
Movie Goof (boom mic visible): When Rudy is confronted in the school's parking lot by a much larger football player, as the scene ends and the players start to enter their car, the boom pole is clearly seen reflected in the car's windows.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): The football scenes for Rudy's last Joliet Catholic practice are actually filmed in Pat Cronin Stadium at the old St. Rita High School in Chicago, not Joliet.
Movie Goof (factual errors): In one scene, the scoreboard shows Notre Dame vs. Penn State. The only game between the two teams from 1928-1981 was played in 1976 in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL.
Movie Goof (factual errors): When Ara tells Rudy he can't dress because the NCAA places limits on the number that can dress at home. This is incorrect. You could dress unlimited players at home. You were limited to 65 on the road.
Movie Goof (factual errors): When Rudy's parent enter Notre Dame stadium, a band is on the field playing a Penn State fight song.
Movie Goof (boom mic visible): In the scene where father Cavanaugh is walking through the hall with two other priests and he spots Rudy sitting by himself in one of the pews, as he approaches him to talk to him, you can see the boom mic briefly pop-up and go back down below the pew in between the two of them.
Movie Goof (continuity error): After Rudy leads the team onto the field, the team huddles around the coach for last minute instructions. In the first shot in the huddle, you can clearly see Rudy behind the coach. The next shot shows Rudy directly in front of the coach.
Movie Goof (continuity error): After Rudy leaves Father Cavanaugh, he is shown walking through Main Quad, often referred to as God Quad. He stops and looks up to see the stadium. The stadium is not near Main Quad, it is halfway across campus.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In one scene, someone can be seen wearing a current Chicago White Sox baseball hat, but that logo was not introduced until 1991.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): Rudy's helmet at the Georgia Tech game is missing the Riddell logo on the front of it. The other players are not missing the logo.
Movie Goof (factual errors): Coach Dan Devine actually insisted that Rudy play in the final game.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When Rudy decides to leave for South Bend after Pete dies, he waits at the Greyhound bus terminal in the evening. There is a full-length mural inside the station featuring the Manhattan city skyline, with the World Trade Center. The twin towers - WTC 1 and 2 - were not completed until 1972 and 1973 respectively, but this scene took place in 1971.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): There's a tight shot on the ball before the snap of the last offensive play of the season. The shot tilts up showing the center and part of his number. The "6" is reversed, revealing this to be a flopped shot.
Movie Goof (continuity error): Rudy breaks away from practice to talk to a girl on the sidelines ("Hey, don't I know you?"). Notre Dame practices are closed (a point made explicitly in the movie), so there should be no spectators on the sideline, including the girl in question.
Movie Goof (factual errors): In the scenes taking place in Rudy's high school, girls are present. However, Joliet Catholic High School was all-boys until 1990.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In the scene before Notre Dame's first home game, where Rudy is walking outside the stadium, 1980s/1990s vehicles can be seen parked on the street.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): After Rudy gets in the game and everybody is cheering, his father is looking to his right and his brother is looking to his left at such angles that there is no way they were both looking at Rudy.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): During the 4th quarter of the Georgia Tech game, a Notre Dame stocking cap can be seen behind an offensive lineman's shoulder. This was not produced until the 1990s.
Movie Goof (continuity error): Rudy continually says that by not getting into Notre Dame sooner, he is losing eligibility. In reality as long as you do not play NCAA football at another college (which Rudy does not appear to do at Holy Cross), no matter when he got into Notre Dame he would always have four years of eligibility unless he officially graduates.
Movie Goof (continuity error): Roland Steele, the Cornerback and Captain who Devine calls an All-American, is never on the dress list that Rudy scans to see if he is going to dress. The name should have been visible just below Rudy's, but it is not there.
Movie Goof (audio/visual unsynchronized): Before the final game vs. Georgia Tech, the audio heard is the band playing the tune "Down the Line" when the visual footage is of the band marching and moving while playing Hike Notre Dame.
Movie Goof (factual errors): As the team leaves the locker room to go on the field for the GA Tech game, they clearly pass the "Play Like A Champion Today" sign. That sign was actually not placed there until Lou Holtz' tenure. Definitely was not there in the '70s.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): At the end of the scene where Rudy is looking for tickets three or four '80s and '90s vehicles are seen including a Toyota Corolla, Ford Explorer, and a Chevy Caprice wagon.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When the team captain walks into the head coach's office, there is a pen holder with two pens on the edge of the desk. Since laying the jerseys on top of the pen holder would have caused them to tent (instead of lay flat), it is conveniently missing before the jerseys are laid on his desk.
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