60 Fun Facts About Sports Movies

Sylvester Stallone wrote Rocky in about three days after watching Muhammad Ali fight which underdog in 1975?

The film was made for about $1 million and won Best Picture, beating Taxi Driver, Network and All the President's Men.

How many Academy Awards did Rocky win from its ten nominations?

Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing; Stallone lost both his acting and writing nominations.

Roughly how much weight did Robert De Niro gain to play the older Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull?

He won Best Actor for it, and Thelma Schoonmaker won Best Editing, the film's only other Oscar from eight nominations.

Field of Dreams is based on a novel by W. P. Kinsella with what title?

Ray Liotta plays the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson, who walks out of Ray Kinsella's Iowa corn.

In which Iowa town does Ray Kinsella build his baseball field?

The real field still stands and hosted a Major League game between the Yankees and White Sox in 2021.

Bull Durham follows the fortunes of a real minor-league team from which state?

Writer-director Ron Shelton drew on his own years in the minors; the rookie pitcher has 'a million dollar arm, but a five cent head'.

Hoosiers was inspired by which tiny Indiana high school's 1954 state championship?

On screen the school becomes Hickory, and Gene Hackman's Coach Norman Dale arrives there in 1951.

Which actor earned an Oscar nomination for playing the basketball-loving town drunk in Hoosiers?

He plays Shooter, whose son is on the team and who briefly gets to coach a game.

Rudy was the first film allowed to shoot on the Notre Dame campus since which 1938 movie?

Sean Astin plays Daniel 'Rudy' Ruettiger, who fought his way onto the practice squad and into one game.

In which Virginia city did coach Herman Boone integrate the football team depicted in Remember the Titans?

Denzel Washington plays Boone at T. C. Williams High School, now Alexandria City High School.

Who plays US coach Herb Brooks in the 2004 film Miracle, about the 1980 Olympic upset of the Soviets?

Brooks coached at the University of Minnesota before taking on the Soviets, who had won the previous four Olympic golds.

Moneyball is based on a Michael Lewis book about the 2002 season of which team?

Brad Pitt's Billy Beane tries to compete with a third of the Yankees' payroll after losing to them in the 2001 playoffs.

Which actress won the Best Actress Oscar for playing Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side?

Quinton Aaron plays Michael Oher, and country star Tim McGraw plays Sean Tuohy.

What is the name of the exclusive country club in Caddyshack?

Harold Ramis added the Chase-Murray scene after realising his two biggest stars never shared the screen.

Happy Gilmore's on-screen fistfight with which game-show host won an MTV Movie Award for Best Fight?

Happy is a failed hockey player who takes up golf to save his grandmother's house from foreclosure.

Slap Shot's Charlestown Chiefs are a struggling minor-league team in which sport?

Paul Newman's player-coach turns the goonish Hanson Brothers loose once he sees the fans love a brawl.

The year after The Mighty Ducks, Disney founded a real NHL team of that name in which city?

Emilio Estevez's Gordon Bombay is a Minneapolis lawyer sentenced to community service coaching a peewee team.

Which team do Geena Davis and Madonna play for in A League of Their Own?

Penny Marshall was inspired by a 1987 TV documentary about the real All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Who directed A League of Their Own?

Her cast included Tom Hanks, Rosie O'Donnell, Lori Petty and her brother Garry Marshall.

Million Dollar Baby was adapted from stories by "F. X. Toole", a man who really worked as what?

Clint Eastwood directed, produced, scored and starred, and it won Best Picture, Director, Actress and Supporting Actor.

Chariots of Fire follows Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams at the Olympics of which year?

Vangelis's electronic theme won Best Original Score, one of the film's four Oscars including Best Picture.

In Space Jam, the aliens who steal NBA players' talent transform into a team called what?

It grossed over $250 million and stayed the highest-grossing basketball film until 2022.

Cool Runnings is loosely based on the debut of Jamaica's bobsleigh team at which Winter Olympics?

Disney wanted Kurt Russell as the coach, but John Candy insisted on the part and took a pay cut to get it.

Who wrote and directed Jerry Maguire?

Cuba Gooding Jr won Best Supporting Actor as Rod Tidwell, the receiver who demands 'show me the money'.

Robert Redford's Roy Hobbs in The Natural comes from a 1952 novel by which author?

Barry Levinson's film famously flipped the novel's downbeat ending into a shower of exploding stadium lights.

Major League follows a fictionalised version of which real baseball team?

Former showgirl Rachel Phelps inherits the club and hopes to move it to Miami; Charlie Sheen's 'Wild Thing' has other ideas.

Who directed Creed, the 2015 film in which Rocky trains Apollo Creed's son?

He went straight from it to Black Panther, and Stallone earned his first Oscar nomination in 39 years.

In Dodgeball, what is the name of the run-down gym that Vince Vaughn's Peter LaFleur is trying to save?

Ben Stiller's White Goodman owns the flashy Globo Gym across the street and buys up the mortgage.

Which comedian plays the French Formula One driver Jean Girard, Ricky Bobby's rival in Talladega Nights?

Adam McKay and Will Ferrell wrote it together, and it has become a cult classic.

In The Karate Kid, what is the name of the aggressive dojo where Daniel's bully Johnny Lawrence trains?

Pat Morita's Mr Miyagi got an Oscar nomination, and the dojo name became a hit TV series thirty years later.

Bend It Like Beckham's Jess Bhamra is the daughter of Punjabi Sikhs living in which part of London?

Parminder Nagra and a young Keira Knightley star; Gurinder Chadha directed.

In Invictus, Matt Damon plays Francois Pienaar, captain of which 1995 Rugby World Cup team?

Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela, and Clint Eastwood directed from John Carlin's book Playing the Enemy.

Who plays Jackie Robinson in the 2013 film 42?

Harrison Ford plays Dodgers boss Branch Rickey; the film opened three days before Jackie Robinson Day.

Ford v Ferrari builds towards which race in 1966?

Christian Bale plays driver Ken Miles and Matt Damon plays Carroll Shelby; the film was retitled Le Mans '66 in parts of Europe.

In White Men Can't Jump, Rosie Perez's Gloria dreams of appearing on which TV game show?

Woody Harrelson's Billy has to sink a hook shot from beyond half court to get her on the show.

Hoop Dreams follows Chicago students William Gates and Arthur Agee in what kind of film?

Members of the International Documentary Association voted it the best documentary of all time in 2007.

Whose career was revived by an Oscar-nominated turn as an ageing pro wrestler in The Wrestler?

He won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for playing Randy 'The Ram' Robinson.

In Seabiscuit, the undersized horse's great match race is against which Triple Crown winner?

Laura Hillenbrand's book was the source, and Tobey Maguire plays jockey Red Pollard.

Under what title was Burt Reynolds's 1974 prison football film The Longest Yard released in the UK?

Adam Sandler remade it in 2005 with Reynolds in a supporting role.

In The Bad News Bears, Walter Matthau's Morris Buttermaker cleans pools but used to be what?

He takes the coaching job for a secret cash payment from a lawyer whose son is on the team.

Who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Tonya Harding's mother LaVona in I, Tonya?

Robbie was nominated for Best Actress; Sebastian Stan plays Jeff Gillooly.

The Fighter tells the story of boxer Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund from which Massachusetts city?

Christian Bale and Melissa Leo both won Oscars; the film was inspired by the documentary High on Crack Street.

Which Depression-era heavyweight champion does Russell Crowe play in Cinderella Man?

Ron Howard directed, with Paul Giamatti as manager Joe Gould earning an Oscar nomination.

Friday Night Lights follows the 1988 Permian High School Panthers from which Texas town?

Peter Berg's film spawned the TV series; Billy Bob Thornton plays coach Gary Gaines.

Which actor plays the Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky IV?

Scholars have read Drago's defeat and the Moscow crowd cheering Rocky as a preview of the Soviet collapse.

In Kingpin, Woody Harrelson's washed-up bowler manages a talented newcomer from which community?

Randy Quaid plays Ishmael, and Bill Murray's Ernie McCracken sports cinema's most notorious comb-over.

Which 1990 NASCAR film with Tom Cruise inspired Paul Walker's pitch for The Fast and the Furious?

Tony Scott directed for producers Simpson and Bruckheimer, and Cruise met Nicole Kidman on the shoot.

Warrior pits Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as estranged brothers in a $5 million tournament in which sport?

Nick Nolte earned an Oscar nomination as their recovering-alcoholic father Paddy.

Which comedy star plays wrestling-obsessed millionaire John du Pont in Foxcatcher?

Du Pont recruited Olympic champion brothers Mark and Dave Schultz, and murdered Dave in 1996.

Which Best Actor Oscar did King Richard win at the 94th Academy Awards?

Venus and Serena Williams were executive producers on the film about their father and coach.

Which footballing legend appears with Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine in Escape to Victory (1981)?

Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles and Mike Summerbee were also in the Allied side; John Huston directed.

Rush dramatises the 1976 Formula One rivalry between Niki Lauda and which British driver?

Chris Hemsworth plays the playboy Brit and Daniel Brühl the methodical Austrian; Ron Howard directed.

In The Hustler, 'Fast Eddie' Felson challenges which legendary pool player, played by Jackie Gleason?

Newman finally won his Oscar 25 years later playing the same character in The Color of Money.

Which golf pro coached Kevin Costner's swing for Tin Cup and cameos in the film?

Costner repaid the favour by writing the foreword to McCord's book Golf For Dummies.

In The Sandlot, what breed of dog is 'the Beast' that lives behind Mr. Mertle's fence?

Set in the San Fernando Valley in 1962, the film was actually shot in Midvale, Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah.

Who wrote and directed Eight Men Out, the 1988 film about the Black Sox scandal?

Based on Eliot Asinof's 1963 book, it was mostly filmed at Bush Stadium in Indianapolis with Charlie Sheen and John Cusack in the cast.

In Any Given Sunday, which fictional team does Al Pacino's Tony D'Amato coach?

Their made-up league, the AFFA, stands in for the NFL; the Orange Bowl served as the team's home ground on screen.

At the end of Any Given Sunday, D'Amato announces he is taking over which expansion team?

He also signs Jamie Foxx's Willie Beamen as his starting quarterback and franchise player.

In Remember the Titans, the Titans hold their 1971 training camp at which Pennsylvania college?

Coach Boone's early-morning run to the nearby National Cemetery is where the divided team finally comes together.

Who directed Remember the Titans, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for Disney?

The $30 million film grossed about $136.8 million worldwide after its September 2000 release.