50 Best Sports Movies Ever

48. We Are Marshall

Year: 2006
Sport: American Football
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, Anthony Mackie, David Strathairn, Ian McShane, Kate Mara
Director: McG

I’m not one to compare tragedies, but you’d have a hard time finding one as heartbreaking as what happened to the 1970 Marshall Thundering Herd football team. On the way home from a game against the East Carolina Pirates in Greenville, North Carolina, Marshall boarded Southern Airways Flight 932.

The flight crashed less than 5,000 feet from the runway, killing 36 players, nine coaches, five flight crew members, and 25 boosters passed away in one of the deadliest events in the history of sports.

We Are Marshall is a film about a coach’s vision and a community’s heartbroken desire to recover from this unspeakable tragedy. Matthew McConaughey stars as Jack Lengyel, who took the head coaching job when no one else wanted it and used football to bring the town together again.

Film often illustrates how life is bigger than sports, but We Are Marshall does an outstanding job of showing how sports can influence life.

The movie may be relatively recent, but that scene is already living as one of the most powerful in all of sports cinema.

McG, director of Charlie’s Angels, This Means War and 3 Days to Kill, made a successful trip into the football world with We Are Marshall. It was a well-received film that paid tribute to a town that triumphed through tragedy.

We Are Marshall isn’t the greatest sports film of all-time, but it’s one that managed to make a powerful statement due to its tender and well-executed handling of a tragic event.

Next: 47. Creed