I love sports movies, and the best ones always have a moment (some more than one) that give you that tingly feeling. I’m compiled five such moments. Feel free to add your own in the comments…
5. ”I’ll make it” (Hoosiers, 1986) - Jimmy Chitwood was only supposed to be a decoy on the last play of the 1952 Indiana High School Basketball Championship game. The Hickory Huskers were the smallest school to ever reach the finals, facing the big bad South Bend Central Bears. Coach Norman Dale called the play but the team stood in silence. Then, Chitwood says, “I’ll make it.” He gets the ball, then as time winds down he dribbles to the top of the key, gets just enough separation, and lofts it over the outstretched arms of the defenders. Game.
4. The best hitter Pop Fisher ever saw (The Natural, 1984) - Roy Hobbs just left the maternity hospital after being poisoned, the lining of his stomach hating every second of it. Yet, there he was, in the bottom of the ninth, with the New York Knights trailing the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0 with two out and two on. Hobbs looked bad on two strikes, then suffered the loss of his beloved bat, “Wonderboy,” that he made from a tree after his dad died. Enter the “Savoy Slugger,” the hand-made bat of the bat boy, Bobby Savoy, who awkwardly backs away from the plate. Hobbs swings and the ball doesn’t stop until it’s exploded into the stadium lights.
3. Indians-Yankees one game playoff, bottom of the ninth (Major League, 1989) - This is the best sports comedy ever, and we’re going to forget they ever made two more, but in the bottom of the ninth you’ve got a great sequence. Willie “Mays” Hayes reaches on an infield hit and then steals second. Jake Taylor comes to the plate and calls his shot. After getting brushed by the pitcher, here comes the next pitch. Hayes takes off for third as Taylor bunts, then reaches first on his bad knees as Hayes bolts for home. He slides and… “Safe! Safe!” the umpire screams. Bob Uecker, er, Harry Doyle takes it from there, “The Indians win it! The Indians win it! Oh my God the Indians win it!” The use of the word “God” aside, a very fun sports movie moment.
2. Balboa-Dixon, the tenth round (Rocky Balboa, 2006) – The boxing is the best and most realistic of any of the Rocky movies. The scene really picks up with Dixon nails Rocky with a right hook that should have floored him. The crowd Ooooooohs, and then you get Rocky talking to himself, “What is it you said to the kid? ’It ain’t how hard you hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.’” Then he says to himself, “Get up.” The round closes with the best back and forth action, culminating in a couple of hard shots by Rocky as the final bell sounds. He loses by split decision, as he did in the first movie, but it doesn’t matter. He went the distance.
1. Herb Brooks’s pre-game speech (Miracle, 2004) – Just as the greatest David-Goliath moment in sports history was about to take place, Brooks tells his team, “Great moments… are born from great opportunity. And that’s what you have here, tonight, boys. That’s what you’ve earned here tonight. One game. If we played ‘em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, WE are the greatest hockey team in the world. You were born to be hockey players. Every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time. Their time is done. It’s over. I’m sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. . . . This is your time. Now go out there and take it.”
What are your sports movie moments?