50 free The Bad News Bears trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
A drunk pool cleaner, a team sponsored by a bail bondsman, an 11-year-old ace pitcher and a cigarette-smoking kid on a Harley: The Bad News Bears (1976) was rude, profane and unexpectedly sweet, and it has been the template for every underdog kids' sports movie since. These 50 questions cover the original film's cast and production, the plot beats of the championship game against the Yankees, the Bizet-scored soundtrack, the two sequels (the Astrodome trip in Breaking Training and the Japan film with Tony Curtis), the short-lived CBS sitcom with Jack Warden, and Richard Linklater's 2005 remake with Billy Bob Thornton. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, and each explanation adds one more detail. Play it solo or print it for a baseball-season movie night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who plays coach Morris Buttermaker in the 1976 film?
Walter Matthau
Matthau was paid $750,000 plus a share of theatrical rentals for the role.
Q 02Who directed the original 1976 Bad News Bears?
Michael Ritchie
Ritchie had directed the satirical sports film Downhill Racer and the political satire The Candidate earlier in the decade.
Q 03The 1976 screenplay was written by the son of which Hollywood star?
Burt Lancaster
Bill Lancaster's script won the Writers Guild award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen.
Q 04What is Buttermaker's day job in the 1976 film?
Pool cleaner
The team eventually helps him clean pools, and Timmy Lupus turns out to be able to mix him a martini.
Q 05Which opera provides the principal themes of the 1976 film's score?
Carmen
Jerry Fielding adapted Bizet's music, so the Toreador Song plays under a Little League game.
Q 06Who plays Amanda Whurlizer, the Bears' star pitcher?
Tatum O'Neal
O'Neal was paid $350,000 plus a percentage of the profits, three years after her Oscar for Paper Moon.
Q 07How old is Amanda when Buttermaker recruits her in the 1976 film?
11
Her mother is Buttermaker's ex-girlfriend, and he taught her to pitch when she was younger.
Q 08Who plays motorcycle-riding troublemaker Kelly Leak?
Jackie Earle Haley
Haley is the only child actor who appears in all three Bears films, and he later called the Japan sequel the worst movie ever made.
Q 09What brand of motorcycle does Kelly Leak ride?
Harley-Davidson
Kelly is also the neighborhood's best athlete, excluded from the league in the past for delinquency.
Q 10Which actual local company sponsors the Bears' uniforms in the 1976 film?
Chico's Bail Bonds
Finding the sponsor is about the only thing Buttermaker accomplishes before the first game.
Q 11Why does Buttermaker forfeit the opening game?
The Bears allow 26 runs without an out
The humiliation makes the whole team want to quit, which finally spurs him to actually coach.
Q 12Which team do the Bears face in the 1976 championship game?
The Yankees
The Yankees are coached by the aggressive Roy Turner, played by Vic Morrow.
Q 13Who plays rival coach Roy Turner in the 1976 film?
Vic Morrow
Morrow, best known for the TV series Combat!, died in a helicopter accident filming Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1982.
Q 21Which bookworm Bear memorizes baseball statistics and helps with strategy?
Alfred Ogilvie
Alfred W. Lutter, who plays him, is named among the principal cast alongside Matthau and O'Neal.
Q 22Which major leaguer does outfielder Ahmad Abdul-Rahim adore?
Hank Aaron
Ahmad strips off his uniform in shame after the first game's errors before Buttermaker coaxes him back.
Q 23What does nervous relief pitcher Rudi Stein get asked to do to reach base?
Get hit by pitches on purpose
Rudi is a terrible hitter with glasses, so Buttermaker treats him as a walking hit-by-pitch.
Q 14What does Turner do to his son Joey during the 1976 championship game?
Strikes him for throwing at a batter's head
Joey retaliates by holding a comebacker until the Bears' runner scores, then walks off the field.
Q 15Who wins the championship game at the end of the 1976 film?
The Yankees, narrowly
Buttermaker puts in his bench-warmers so everyone plays, and the Bears nearly win anyway.
Q 16What does Buttermaker hand the team after the 1976 trophy ceremony?
Beer
The kids spray it over each other as if they had won and tell the Yankees where to put their trophy.
Q 17What kind of car does Buttermaker drive in the 1976 film?
A green Cadillac convertible
Engelberg breaks its windshield with a baseball at the very first practice.
Q 18Which Bear is the short-tempered shortstop who fights the entire seventh grade?
Tanner Boyle
Tanner initially bullies Timmy Lupus, then becomes his fiercest protector.
Q 19Which Bear plays catcher and breaks Buttermaker's windshield at the first practice?
Mike Engelberg
Engelberg's feud with Yankees pitcher Joey Turner drives the climax of the championship game.
Q 20Which player is introduced by Tanner as a "booger-eating spaz"?
Timmy Lupus
The shy right fielder makes a key play in the championship game that keeps the Bears alive.
Q 24Who secretly pays Buttermaker to coach the Bears in the 1976 film?
Councilman Bob Whitewood
Whitewood had sued the league to force it to let less-skilled kids, including his son Toby, play.
Q 25Where was the Bears' home field for the 1976 film located?
Mason Park in Chatsworth
Most of the film was shot around the San Fernando Valley, with one scene in the Los Angeles City Hall council chamber.
Q 26How much was the star paid to play Buttermaker in 1976, before his share of rentals?
$750,000
On top of the fee he took more than 10% of theatrical rentals, later estimated at $1.9 million.
Q 27Which studio released The Bad News Bears in April 1976?
Paramount
Paramount also released both sequels and the 2005 remake.
Q 28Matthau's BAFTA Best Actor nomination paired this film with which other performance?
The Sunshine Boys
BAFTA nominated him jointly for both 1975–76 films at its 30th awards.
Q 29Variety called the 1976 film the funniest adult-child comedy since which movie?
Paper Moon
The comparison was pointed: Paper Moon had won Tatum O'Neal her Oscar in 1974.
Q 30How many stars out of four did Roger Ebert give the 1976 film?
Three
He called it an unblinking, scathing look at competition in American society.