Sports Stories that Would Make Good Sports Movies

It gets even better, OHB. The assistant coach that took over when Chapman died was J.G. "Goober" Keyes. One of the starting backs was Howard "Hayseed" Alford. You just can't make that kind of stuff up.

A couple of other things: At the time, single-platoon was the rule and Texas played 15-minute quarters. In the state finals against Waco, Lubbock's starting 11 never came off the field.

The last article I've seen was from 2004, when they celebrated the 65th anniversary. There were only eight surviving team members, all well past 80.

 

Isn't it time for a Michael Jordan movie? His rise from not making the high school team, to the NBA, to the gambling woes and his father's death, baseball... a real deep psychological flick.

 

A movie on the CCNY teams that went from winning the NCAA and NIT titles in the same year to being involved in a point-shaving scandal. THe BC point-shaving scandal would be an interesting film, it's mentioned ever-so-briefly in "Goodfellas".

 

Buck O'Neil

 

A hockey movie made about the role of the enforcers -- but not limited to what they do on the ice.

 

Best story I've heard was a little country school and it was going to be consolidated with the city school down the road.
The small school went out and won two state titles, hoops and football, in the last year they were able.
And it was one of those tiny, no stoplight towns with maybe 100 kids in the entire high school. Smallest football playing school in the state. Underdog in every game they played with mayeb 15 kids on the football roster and seven or eight on the basketball team. Last I heard someone was working on a script, but I don't know how far it has gotten.
Also saw an NFL films thing on an 8-man (maybe 6-man) football team out in rural Texas. The star running back is now a country music star.

 

Sounds interesting. Do you have a link to an article on this or anything? Would love to read about that team.

Also, I referred to this earlier in this thread, but there's a great story about the Clay County, Kentucky highschool team that starred Richie Farmer and his brother, Russ. Clay County was the poorest county in the state, but the team - which didn't feature a player taller than 6'0" - went on to win the KY state title, against a number of much bigger city teams, and rallied the town.

Great story. An 80s version of "Hoosiers" - but real. Richie Farmer and Allan Houston apparently had an epic duel in the state tournament.

 

It has been done. Ever see Slapshot? Or more recently The Chiefs (2004).

Suggestions...

-A biopic of late NASCAR driver Tim Richmond. This screams for a screen treatment.

-A decent soccer movie. There's a billion stories to be told in that realm.

-A movie focusing on the athletic career of Paul Robesen.

-A biopic of British ski jumper Eddie the Eagle.

 

Hoosiers was based on real events.

 

You're right. My bad. Should have just left it at an 80s version of "Hoosiers".

Anyone remember this Kentucky team or hear of this story?

 

You also have the Plymouth, Indiana team in 1982 or 83, winning the state title with 400 or 500 kids in school, going up against 3,000-enrollment teams in the final rounds - Indiana hoops fans younger than about 50 remember that team as their version of "Hoosiers".

And there's also the Hebron, Ill. team of the early 50s (I think a year or so earlier than Milan's legendary title in Indiana), which won the single-class state title with a school enrollment of 50 or something like that. (That one's not as much of an underdog story, because one of the kids was 6-11, so they couldn't really play the David vs. Goliath role).

And it also should be noted almost all of these stories feature plucky little white country boys vanquishing run-and-gun "streetball" teams from The Big City. You know, slamma jamma dunkarama, and all that. But the farm boys "Play The Right Way." : :

 

That was written by Ernest Hemingway.