My Top Ten Sports Movies List

I decided recently to do a top ten list of my favorite sports movies. I know some people would give you this long drawn out diatribe about how they came up with their rankings and how they weighted each category. This would go on for like four paragraphs and in the end, you wouldn’t really care you’d just skim through the list and see how it compares to your personal list. You’re not going to get that here because I honestly couldn’t tell you what criteria I used in picking my list. I just know that I liked them. I did have one hard and fast rule. If you were more “chicky” than “sporty” you get thrown off the list. So no Jerry Maguire, sorry Cameron Crowe. Besides, doesn’t the fact that Tom Cruise is turning out to be so nutty mean we have to go back and reevaluate every role he’s ever done? I know I’ll never watch “The Firm” the same way again. The not too chicky rule is also why Tin Cup wasn’t higher on the list.
I’ll go through my list in reverse order and try to recall when I first saw the movie about how many times I’ve watched it. Also, I’ll include any other anecdotes I think are funny. Now, on to the list.

10. Young Blood ( 1986)

A movie about hockey so you know it’s making my top ten. Also, this is also one of the first movies I can remember watching where I saw a female breast. Two of them even. An unassisted goal for Mr. Youngblood on the coach’s daughter!! Rob Lowe stars as a promising young hockey star that is trying to make it to the pros and is starting out in the minors. Patrick Swayze plays the role of grizzled veteran showing the young kid the ropes. This is made even more hilarious by the fact that now that I’m older I know that guys at this level are in their early 20’s. A veteran at 22? maybe in porn. Speaking of, this would’ve been considered a breakout role for Rob Lowe except he never broke out. Rob did invent the celebrity sex tape however, which is nice.

9. Hoosiers (1986)

Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper and ultimate “that guy” Chelcie Ross. Who played Harris in Major League and Dan Devine in Rudy. It even had Barbara Hershey playing the Love interest before the wheels completely fell off for her in the looks department. I mean have you seen The Pallbearer ? Then she has some work done and she’s shacking up with Sayid. Go figure. Everybody knows Hoosiers so I don’t feel I need to give you a synopsis. I just remember being amazed that a bunch of white kids played such good team basketball. “God wants you on the floor son.” Hoosiers was an overall feel great kind of movie. It probably doesn’t get higher on my list because I’ve never played organized basketball.

8. Tin Cup (1996)

Now this one is dangerously close to being labeled a chick flick. But it has golf in it so it’s ok in my book Kevin Costner plays Roy McAvoy a golfer who never quite got it together and tries to win the U.S. Open to impress a chick.. The script writer worked in a few scenes inside of a strip club so that’s good. Don Johnson plays a douchebag and it’s given me tons of great golf quotes to regurgitate on the course. Creech Marin plays the caddy. This movie shows you what it’s like for an underdog to play in the U.S open. Only if that Open was being played on your local muni track.

7. Let it Ride (1989)

Anyone who’s ever gambled can relate to this movie. Richard Dreyfus plays Jay Trotter, a career loser at the horse track who caught lightning in a bottle and goes on the betting/winning streak of a lifetime. This movie stands out to me and the last movie where Teri Garr was still kinda hot. “That guy” roles are all over the place. Trotter is a great character played to perfection by Dreyfus. A must see for anyone who loves to play the ponies or just likes gambling. The script was written by Nancy Dowd who also wrote Slap Shot. Looks like she knows how to write a screwball sports movie and that’s about it.

6. King Pin (1996)

This is a great bowling movie starring Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray and Randy Quaid. Vanessa Angel plays the female lead. ( It was good to see her working again, “times were getting tough” as they say.) The plot is just like every other bowling movie ever made. Guy shows promise, blows it, end up down on his luck and uses someone else’s talent and makes a comeback, finds redemption. Wash rinse repeat. Hilarious lines throughout. I actually tried a Tangueray and Tab in honor of this movie. Needless to say it didn’t make it into my drink rotation.

5. Major League (1989)

The Cleveland Indians suck, the owner wants to move the team, she does everything she to make them worse, yet somehow they find a way to win the pennant. Chuck Sheen and Tom Berenger are together in this movie for the first time since Platoon. Sadly, Willem Dafoe was left out, waiting by his phone for the call that never came. I used to live in Cleveland and remember how bad the town was. I mean my dad used to take me to Orioles games when they played at the old Memorial Stadium and let's just say it wasn't in the best part of Baltimore. But he wouldn't take me to any Indians games. So if you're keeping score at home, Cleveland was worse than the city from the HBO series' The Wire. Then they cleaned up the “flats” area of town, built a new ballpark and made hanging out dowtown cool/safe again. Thus becoming a great party town after I moved away. Just my luck.

4. Rocky (1976)

Everyone knows the plot so I won’t go into it. I was a bit young for this when it first came out. I was more of a Rocky II guy but grew to appreciate the original once I got older. Paulie might be the best sidekick ever next to Short Round. He even makes up for Ms Wet Blanket, I mean Adrian. This is just a great feel good movie. Americans love to root for the underdog and this might have been the first example of that put to film. Plus. Stallone got to use his nickname, “The Italian Stallion” for something other than porn. Who cares that if anyone took the kind of beating Balboa took, they’d be dead by the fourth round. You gota admit, Apollo Creed was a pretty good villain. Who knows Carl Weathers might not have been acting all that much. Turns out, he took such a beating from Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV that he threatened to call his agent if Dolph touched him again. Way to suck it up Carl.

3. Bull Durham (1988)

This was the defining baseball movie of my generation. I don’t care what people say about Field of Dreams. Both did star Kevin Costner though, which is weird. It’s like the only halfway decent movies he makes are centered on sports. I mean have you seen Message in a Bottle? Right, neither have I…..moving on. I thought Crash Davis was a great character and Susan Sarandon still had a little left in the tank. Speaking of, I saw Into the Valley of Elah last week. I’ve seen Bananas age better than her…yeesh. There’s just great dialogue throughout in this flick. Tim Robbins was pretty good as the doofus with too much talent who didn’t appreciate it. In looking back on this flick I think I use quotes from this flick a lot more than I’d ever realized. That has to be worth something.

2. Caddy Shack (1980)

I’m not sure what more can be said about this movie. Funny as can be, with great performances all through out. You watch this and you remember what it was like when Chevy Chase was funny. It’s impossible to play a round of golf with anyone over thirty without at least one quote being busted out. I’m not sure what ever happened to the guy who played Danny Noonan. Hang on, I’ll go check IMDB…..ok, so it looks like he was on Roseanne for a bit married to Roseanne’s sister. He was married to Bonnie Raitt for most of the 90’s. I don’t really have a comment except to say that Lacy Underalls was hotter and I wonder what ever happend to that Scottish chick.

1. Slap Shot (1977)

This is favorite sports movie. I remember watching it as a kid and thought it was hilarious. It’s also the last movie I remember learning a swear word. Here I was ten years old and I’d peaked as a curser. I didn’t know this at the time as I might have had a moment of silence in honor of the occasion. This movie is one of those that if I’m flipping through channels at night, and it comes on; I’ll watch the rest of it. A buddy of mine played in a celebrity hockey tournament one time and on his team, getting dressed in the stall next to him was none other than Dave” Killer” Carlson. My buddy, not to be intimidated blurts out. “I want that $100 bucks Reg”. Killer Carlson pipes back, “Well, you’re gonna have to earn it.”. My buddy follows with, “my mind is right”. Thirty plus years later these guys are still making hay off a flick about a minor league hockey team that starts gooning it’s way to victories. I love America.


Well that’s my list. I’m not sure if this list is static or changes with my moods. But I do know this, I’ll bet anyone reading could probably quote a few lines from these lines and maybe even do entire scenes. As to why guys like to quote movies, I’m not sure. It’s just one of those things that can’t be understood. Like why Chewbacca could understand English but couldn’t speak it and Han could understand Wookie, but responded in English. Same goes for Luke and R2D2. And if C3PO was fluent in over 6 million forms of communication why didn’t he speak to R2 in a series of beeps and blurps? And how do people find Dane Cook funny? Ok let’s stop now, my head hurts.

Dickie Dunn

“If Dickie Dunn wrote it, it’s gotta be true”