Inspirational Sports Films | Nashville Public Library

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1) We are Marshall

Description

The inspiring story of how a small town in West Virginia, steeped in the rich tradition of college football, struggled to cope with a devastating loss and restore their community after one of the worst disasters in the history of American sports. On the evening of Saturday, November 14, 1970, a chartered jet carrying Marshall University's football team, coaches and fans, was on its way home from a hard-fought game in North Carolina. Less than a minute...

Description

When a shoulder injury ended his minor league pitching career twelve years ago, Jim Morris resorted to the next best thing: coaching. But Jim's team, knowing their coach is a great ball player, makes a deal with him: if they win the district championship, they want Jim to try out for a major-league organization. Going from worst to first, the team makes it to state, and Jim is forced to live up to his end of the deal. While there prove to be a lot...

3) Coach Carter

Description

Based on an incredible true story, COACH CARTER is the inspirational account of controversial basketball coach Ken Carter, who received both high praise and staunch criticism when he made national news for a gymnasium “lockout” of his entire undefeated team for poor academic performance. With the players, the parents, and the community rallying to get the team back on the court, Carter must overcome the obstacles of his environment and show the...

4) Chariots of fire

Description

The story, told in flashback, of two young British sprinters competing for fame in the 1924 Olympics. Eric, a devout Scottish missionary runs because he knows it must please God. Harold, the son of a newly rich Jew runs to prove his place in Cambridge society. In a warmup 100 meter race, Eric defeats Harold, who hires a pro trainer to prepare him. Eric, whose qualifying heat is scheduled for a Sunday, refuses to run despite pressure from the Olympic...

5) A league of their own

Description

A washed-up ballplayer is hired to coach in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League while the male pros are at war in 1943, and finds himself drawn back into the game by the heart and heroics of his team.

6) Cinderella man

Description

During the Great Depression, an everyday common-man hero, James J. Braddock was to become one of the most surprising sports legends in history. With the Depression going strong in the early 1930s, the impoverished ex-boxer was seemingly as broken-down and out-of-luck as the rest of the America. Driven by love and determination, he returned to the ring. He did not have much of a shot, but James was fueled by something beyond mere competition. He kept...

7) bend it like beckham

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

Description

Vince Papale is a down-on-his-luck substitute teacher in Philadelphia who, at the age of 30, was out of work, abandoned by his wife, and biding time as a part-time bartender when he decides to answer an open call for tryouts on the Philadelphia Eagles NFL football team in 1976. Going with his gut instinct, new coach Dick Vermeil rewards Papale's diligent efforts with a place on the team.

Description

Based on a true story. A half-blind ex-prizefighter and mustang breaker team up with a millionaire and his rough-hewn, undersized horse, Seabiscuit. The men bring Seabiscuit to incredible heights, helping to turn a long shot into a legend. Eventually, Seabiscuit earns Horse of the Year honors in 1938.

10) Remember the Titans

Description

A drama of forced high school integration in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971. After leading his team to fifteen winning seasons, white football coach Bill Yoast is demoted and replaced by African-American Herman Boone, tough, opinionated and as different from Yoast as could be. The two men overcome their differences and turn a group of hostile young men into champions. A rousing celebration of how a town torn apart by resentment, friction and mistrust...

11) The natural

Description

Roy Hobbs determines to fulfill his boyhood dream of being a baseball superstar; he is making progress when a mysterious woman shatters his dream and later, overcoming physical pain, he has a chance to lead his team to the pennant.

Description

Don Haskins, a future Hall of Fame coach of tiny Texas Western University, bucks convention by simply starting the best players he can find: history's first all-African American lineup.

13) Rudy

Description

Although people have told Rudy all his life he's not good enough, smart enough or big enough, nothing can stop his impossible dream of playing football for Notre Dame.

14) Field of dreams

Description

Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella is inspired by a voice he can't ignore to pursue a dream he can hardly believe. Supported by his wife, Annie, Ray begins the quest by turning his ordinary cornfield into a place where dreams can come true.

Description

A basketball coach with a checkered past leads him to a last-chance position with a last-chance team.

Description

Based on the true story of the most famous team in the history of American sports: the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Follow from the team's selection process to the ultimate victory over Finland for the gold.

17) Rocky

Description

Rocky Balboa, a club fighter seemingly going nowhere, gets his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go the distance and come out a winner when fate puts him in the ring with the world heavyweight champion.