Top 10 Sports Movies of All Time

There are six different sports represented on my list of best sports movies of all time. There are a few sports movies that are considered great which I have never seen, such as Raging Bull and a handful of others. Obviously if I haven't viewed the films for myself they were not considered for my list.

Jerry McGuire, Bull Durham, Field Of Dreams, the original Bad News Bears, and Hoosiers were all worthy of consideration, but did not make my cut. Fine films all, but not quite good enough in my opinion, so I showed Jerry McGuire the door instead of the money.

In fact, the "show me the money" line was so cliche and "you had me at 'hello'" so irritating they are a big reason the film is not on my list.

Here is my list of the Top 10 Sports Movies of all time in chronological order with the oldest listed first:

Rocky starring Sylvester Stallone. Who can forget this 1976 release about the lovable loser who somehow manages to get into a championship bout with the world's Heavyweight Champion? Rocky Balboa's highly unorthodox training methods and fighting style were central to the storyline.

Great performances by Stallone and Burgess Meredith as Rocky's crusty trainer. Too bad Stallone, like Brett Favre, didn't know when to quit.

Slapshot starring Paul Newman. This 1977 comedy gave us Newman in one of his finest performances as Reg Dunlop, an over-the-hill hockey player/coach of a second rate team in a third rate town. The film spoofs hockey fights and introduced the world to the goofy Hanson brothers.

There is a hilarious scene near the end when Michael Ontkean strips down to his jock as the rest of the players fight. Guess which was more offensive to the "purists?"

North Dallas Forty starring Nick Nolte. This film, based on a book by Peter Gent, a former NFL player, takes a look at the seamy side of pro football, where the players are mere commodities. G.D. Spradlin plays a ruthless, bloodless dictator of a coach reportedly based on Tom Landry.

Don't worry though, this Top 10 sports movie of all time is not a downer, there is plenty of comedy. One of the great trash talk lines of all time is when Bo Svenson tells a lineman opposite him played by former NFLer Bubba France "you suck" to which his counterpart replies "your mama was the best teacher."

Also in the late 70's was Heaven Can Wait starring Warren Beatty. In this top sports movie of all time, Beatty's character plays a star quarterback for the Rams who is killed and asks James Mason in heaven for a 2nd chance, but only if he can come back as a QB.

Beatty instead comes back as a megabucks industrialist who buys the Rams for an outrageous sum, then installs himself as the starting signal caller. And you thought Dallas' Jerry Jones was a meddler!

Breaking Away was a late 70's release with Dennis Quaid in one of his first roles along with Daniel Stern, but with long forgotten Dennis Christopher as the star. This top sports movie of all time is about a college age boy in Bloomington, IN who idolizes an italian cycling team.

He assumes an italian persona, speaks the language, much to his father's dismay, and dreams of racing with his idols. Alas, when he gets the opportunity he finds there is more to the team than meets the eye. Central to the story is Christopher's introduction to the real world such as his girlfriend finding out he's not really italian...

No list of thre top sports movies of all time would be complete without 1980's Caddyshack starring Michael O'Keefe with Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and Rodney Dangerfield. Critics savaged this film at the time, making fun of the mechanical gopher serving as the villain.

You can still buy a replica gopher at novelty stores such as Spencers and critics completely missed on this classic. Rodney Dangerfield is one of the most hilarious characters in film history as the new money construction magnate Al Czervik who infuriates the stuffed shirts of Bushwood Country Club with his antics such as when he was introduced to Judge Smail's obnoxious grandson Spaulding, Czervik exclaims "now I know why tigers eat their young".

A League Of Their Own starring Geena Davis and Tom Hanks. This top sports movie was about a real women's baseball league formed while many of the male players were fighting in World War II. Geena Davis is very good as the catcher of the team who has a younger sister playing on the team also.

Tom Hanks is great as the hard-drinking, tobacco-spitting manager who is forced to take over the team but developes a grudging admiration for the women and their team. There's no crying in baseball!

Kingpin starring Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid. This Farrelly brothers comedy is one of the top sports movies of all time because of the narrative of the young hotshot Roy Munson (Harrelson) who falls to the bottom of the heap after losing right hand after hustling some rubes and having his partner in crime, Bill Murray, abandon him.

We see Munson hit bottom with his boozing ways after he stoops to sleeping with his hideous landlady in lieu of paying rent and getting caught hustling her. The film opens with Munson's father teaching the then 10 year old to bowl and telling him one day the name Munson will be famous. There are several jokes about someone being 'Munsoned" later as the name is more infamous than famous.

With his Amish student and sexy Vanessa Angel, the three hit the road to Reno, NV for a bowling tournament with it's $1 million prize. Munson comes up just short, losing to his archrival Ernie McCracken (Murray) in the finals in spite of bowling with a prosthetic hand.

This film is a laugh riot from start to finish and has a positive message even though it could be overlooked among all the gags.

Soul Of The Game starring Delroy Lindo and Mykelti Williamson. Lindo stars as baseball player Satchel Paige, a man who was American League Rookie Of The Year in his 40's! This is based on the true story of Paige, an amazing athlete and one of the great pitchers in baseball history.

Paige and Josh Gibson and other black players watched in the negro leagues as younger Jackie Robinson became the first to play in baseball's Major Leagues instead of more accomplished players. Paige finally got his chance late, but sadly Josh Gibson and many others never got their chance to make their mark in the big leagues. This is an important story and an overlooked movie on top sports movie lists.

Another important story on the list of top sports movies is based on a true story also. 2000's Remember The Titans stars Denzel Washington as a black coach who takes over an integrated team in previously segregated Virginia.

Washington plays real life coach Herman Boone who must fuse together a team of resentful white players and their black counterparts as most of the young men are co-mingling with the other race for the first time. The film is set in 1971, a year in which I as a high school sophomore went to school with blacks after having known only two blacks in my life. So this top sports movie of all time strikes a personal chord with me.

Sports is considered by many to be the toy department, but as we see in some of these of all top sports films of all time is that sports has served as the catalyst for societal change in so many instances. There are many important lessons to be learned in the "perspiring arts" that are carried into the "real world" which is the reason that some of these films made the list.

Others made it just because of their entertainmant value, Caddyshack mainly, but in the other nine top sports movies of all time on this list, there are important life lessons to be learned along with entertainment.

These top sports movies can be purchased online at CD universe.