50 Best Sports Movies Ever

4. Hoosiers

Year: 1986
Sport: Basketball
Starring: Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper
Director: David Anspaugh

“They needed a second chance to finish first.” Not much more needs to be said than that.

If you were to refer to Hoosiers as the greatest basketball movie of all-time, very few would put up a fight. There have been other memorable films about the sport, but few compare to David Anspaugh’s sports classic starring Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper, and Barbara Hershey.

There are flaws in the film, but 30 years later, Hoosiers is still referred to as the standard for films about basketball.

Hackman stars as head coach Norman Dale, a former college coach whose spotty past forced him off the sidelines and away from the game he loves. He gets a second chance—or more accurately, one last chance—by taking over for a small-town basketball team in the state of Indiana.

Fresh out of the Navy, Dale emphasizes selfless teamwork on both ends of the floor, which simultaneously rubs local fans the wrong way and leads Hickory to great success.

Kicking key players off of the team, benching a red-hot scorer, and being ejected from games for being too confrontational with the referees; that’s all a part of Hackman’s marvelous performance.

Hoosiers received two Academy Award nominations, with Hopper going up for Best Supporting Actor and Jerry Goldsmith for Best Original Score. Hackman may not have been nominated, but Hoosiers is one of the two-time Academy Award winning actor’s most prominent roles.

Loosely based on the story of the 1954 Milan High School team, Hoosiers is the single most recognizable and heralded basketball film of all-time.

Next: 3. Pride of the Yankees