Much debate has been made as to what the best sports movies of all time are.
For this sweltering summer, devoid of any new, quality sports flicks, here come the Post’s Top Ten Sports Movies of All Time. The first-and-foremost collection of the greatest sports films ever made, according to the cracker-jack staff here at the paper with the Best Sports in Town.
These must-see sports films have all left indelible impressions on us with memorable scenes, great characters and trumpeting soundtracks.
Here are the best of the best:
1. ROCKY (1976)
This movie is so good, people from Philadelphia will admit to being from there after seeing it.
What sets Rocky apart from other classic boxing movies like Champion and Body and Soul is the film’s staying power and ability to inspire.
Since it hit theaters, Rocky has been a part of mainstream pop culture, giving us the greatest underdog hero of all time. Wait at the stairs of the Philadelphia Art Museum any afternoon and you’ll see where we’re coming from.
2. FIELD OF DREAMS (1989)
If you build it, he will come.
If you watch it, you will cry.
Of the hundreds of other baseball movies, we fell in love with this one because no other film makes us want to have a catch more than this classic.
The ultimate father-son baseball story, Field of Dreams is a journey into baseball’s past and the relationship between a dad and his boy who longs to have one more toss together.
That’s something everyone can relate to.
3. SLAP SHOT (1977)
Ever want to start throwing elbows in the middle of Sixth Avenue?
Hockey films are rare, and in addition to taking an accurate look at old-time hockey and the business of sports, Slap Shot is a slapstick comedy so funny you’ll laugh the teeth out of your face.
Paul Newman is a player-coach for the Johnstown Chiefs, a minor league hockey franchise on the verge of extinction. Instead of letting the team be sold, Newman gets his band of colorful skaters to goon it up in an effort to fill the stands with bloodthirsty fans.
4. BULL DURHAM (1988)
Director Ron Shelton brings you inside the world of minor league baseball that he used to be a part of as a player in the Carolina League – riding the buses, hanging in the clubhouse and going home with the groupies at night – better than any other baseball movie.
The film includes superlative dialogue as Kevin Costner’s Crash Davis spews his philosophy in one classic scene and schools Nuke on the finer points of what it takes to make it to “the show,” something he did for 21 days, once.
5. HOOSIERS (1986)
You know a film is great when it takes a corny David-and-Goliath story and turns it into something that makes you want to run through a brick wall. Hoosiers does that, with Gene Hackman as the barking high-school basketball coach of a group of timid hayseeds that he molds from into champions.
Simple story, but the way in which it’s told over a jumping soundtrack, is the only basketball movie to make the cut.
6. THE NATURAL (1984)
Watching a folk hero in-the-making strike out the Bammer on three straight pitches, hooks us to this baseball fairy tale right from the start.
Returning to the game as an aging rookie with a divine aura, Roy Hobbs becomes a Ruthian hero, hitting tape-measure homers with a homemade bat made from a tree struck by lighting. Hobbs’ storybook, pennant-winning homer makes this Hollywood ending one for the ages.
7. HOOP DREAMS (1994)
Do you have what it takes to be a pro basketball player?
Think again.
This film pulls no punches, tracking the lives of William Gates and Arthur Agee in this documentary about two teens struggling to make the NBA. The film takes an unflinching view at life in Chicago’s inner city and the pitfalls awaiting high-school phenoms trying to get into college to become pro hoopsters.
8. RAGING BULL (1980)
Take one of the greatest actors of all-time, one of the best directors of modern cinema and put the bloody brutality of boxing on film and you have what the American Film Institutes classifies as one of the best ever.
Robert DeNiro shuffles up to the camera with his fists as high as Jake LaMotta, the real-life middleweight boxer with a self-destructive and paranoid personality. DeNiro’s portrayal won him an Oscar for best actor in 1981.
Directed by Martin Scorsese, the film contains some of the fiercest, most realistic scenes ever captured on film that in one cut, DeNiro actually breaks one of co-star Joe Pesci’s ribs.
9. PRIDE OF THE YANKEES (1942)
A staple for any baseball movie fan.
In the story of Lou Gehrig’s life, Gary Cooper plays the Iron Horse concluding with his famous “luckiest man” farewell speech at the old Stadium.
Because Cooper was a righty and Gerhig a southpaw, all of his baseball scenes were shot while Cooper wore a backward Yankee jersey and ran from home to third, rather than to first.
When the movie was edited, the film was reversed.
10. THE HUSTLER (1961)
Sure, it’s a movie about pool, but Paul Newman makes it look so cool.
He and co-star Jackie Gleason sank all their own shots in this film that still entertains 40 years after its release.
Newman is Fast Eddie Felson, a hot-shot young shark looking to knock off the great Minnesota Fats, played by Gleason. The film peeks into the cigarette-stained underbelly of pool-hall hustling where only the strong survive.
Top 10 Baseball Films(MD-BO)
1. Field of Dreams (1989)
2. Bull Durham (1988)
3. The Natural (1984)
4. Pride of the Yankees (1942)
5. The Jakie Robinson Story (1950)
6. The Stratton Story (1949)
7. It Happens Every Spring (1949)
8. Eight Men Out (1988)
9. Major League (1989)
10. A League of Their Own (1992)
Top 10 Boxing Films(MD-BO)
1. Rocky (1976)
2. Raging Bull (1980)
3. Body & Soul (1947)
4. Champion (1949)
5. Gentleman Jim (1942)
6. Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)
7. Rocky II (1979)
8. When we were Kings (1996)
9. Fat City (1972)
10. City for Conquest (1940)
Top 10 Football Films(MD-BO)
1. Brian’s Song (1970)
2. The Longest Yard (1974)
3. All the Right Moves (1983)
4. North Dallas Forty (1979)
5. Everybody’s All American (1988)
6. Knute Rockne, All-American (1940)
7. Rudy (1993)
8. The Program (1993)
9. Wildcats (1986)
10. Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Top 10 Hoops Flicks(MD-BO)
1. Hoosiers (1986)
2. Hoop Dreams (1994)
3. White Men Can’t Jump (1992)
4. One on One (1977)
5. Go, Man, Go (1954)
6. Fast Break (1979)
7. The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh (1979)
8. He Got Game (1998)
9. Cornbread, Earl & Me (1975)
10. Drive, He Said (1972)
Top 10 Horse Racing Movies(MD-BO)
1. Let it Ride (1989)
2. Saratoga (1937)
3. Casey’s Shadow (1978)
4. Phar Lap (1983)
5. The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)
6. Derby Day (1952)
7. Run for the Roses (1978)
8. Sporting Blood (1931)
9. A Day at the Races (1937)
10. The Killing (1956)
Best 10 of the Rest(MD-BO)
1. Slap Shot (1977), hockey
2. The Hustler (1961), billiards
3. Caddyshack (1980), golf
4. Victory (1981), soccer
5. Personal Best (1982), Olympics
6. The Jericho Mile (1979), running
7. Vision Quest (1986), wrestling
8. Chariots of Fire (1981), Olympics
9. Youngblood (1986), hockey
10. Tin Cup, (1996), golf
Sports Movies Trivia
1. Who did the producers of Rocky originally want to play the title role before Sylvester Stallone took the part?
Ryan O’Neal was first slated to play Rocky Balboa. Producers agreed to let Stallone play the part only if production costs remained under $1 million. They went overbudget by $100,000.
2. What real-life boxing match inspired Stallone to write Rocky in three days time?
Rocky was derrived from the 1975 fight in which Chuck Wepner went the distance against Muhammad Ali.
3. What real-life author does Ray Kinsella seek out in the novel that was the basis for Field of Dreams?
J.D. Salinger was featured in the book instead of the James Earl Jones character, but when he threatened to sue over his name, the ’60’s author was dropped from the film version.
4. In the film “The Longest Yard,” Burt Reynolds plays Paul Crewe, a convicted former football great. In real life, Reynolds was also a college football star at what NCAA powerhouse?
Reynolds played halfback and defensive back for the Florida State Seminoles from 1954 to 1957.
5. What are the first names of the three Hanson Brothers in Slap Shot?
Jeff, Steve and Jack Hanson.
6. What major league baseball team’s organization are the Durham Bulls actually a part of?
The Bulls are the AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. At the time of the film (1988), the Bulls were part of the Atlanta Braves family.
7. What minor league baseball record does Crash Davis own at the end of “Bull Durham?”
Crash Davis breaks the all-time minor league home run record when he hits his 247th as a member of the Asheville Tourists.
8. What fictional team does Roy Hobbs play for in “The Natural?”
The New York Knights.
9. What sequel came of “The Hustler” that starred Tom Cruise in 1986?
“The Color of Money.”
10. What is the name of the country club depicted in “Caddyshack?”
Bushwood Country Club.
11. What was the nickname of the Hickory High basketball team in Hoosiers?
The Huskers.
12. What college did Gene Hackman’s character coach at before going into the Navy and then coming to Hickory?
Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY.
13. What is the name of Rocky’s dog? His two pet turtles?
Rocky’s dog’s name is Butkus, and his two pet turtles are named Cuff and Link.
14. The first movie featuring boxing was titled “The Ring,” a silent film released in 1927. What Hollywood legend directed it?
Alfred Hitchchock
15. What was the name of Roy Hobbs’ bat in the Natural?
Wonderboy.