Knute Rockne: Polymer Chemist

Given that the lab he worked in at Notre Dame discovered Neoprene about fifteen years after he left but that he was reportedly very close to working it out much earlier, what might Rockne have helped develop had he stayed a polymer chemist instead of a football coach?
 
Given that the lab he worked in at Notre Dame discovered Neoprene about fifteen years after he left but that he was reportedly very close to working it out much earlier, what might Rockne have helped develop had he stayed a polymer chemist instead of a football coach?

Maybe he ends up designing football pads and equipment and develops chemicals that are used in sports equipment
 
So is this meant more as "What if Neoprene was developed earlier?" or "What if Knut Rockne didn't become a football player?"

Potentially yes to both, it depends on what the responder thinks.

Neoprene is chemically similar to SBR, one of the major synthetic rubbers used by the Allies in World War II, and later key to solid-fuel missile systems. Would Rockne have an impact on this and if so how? Does the Axis benefit from his work somehow if he publishes early enough?
 
For that matter, if the U.S. has neoprene by the 1930's, how does that affect WWII? Does Japan bother invading Burma, if the Allies don't need rubber?
 
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