From a down-and-out boxer in Philadelphia to an undersized high school basketball team in rural Indiana, great underdog stories in sports movies can be found in many places. It’s not just boxing and basketball; every sport has inspired amazing stories of the little guy overcoming adversity and winning it all. Here’s our list of the 22 best underdog stories in sports films.
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Rocky Wins The Cold War – Rocky IV
Rocky Balboa is the ultimate underdog and while my first inclination was to just put the original Rocky on this list, it’s missing one thing – a victory. He was just as big an underdog in that ultimate Cold War film: Rocky IV. After the robotic Soviet, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), literally kills Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in the ring, it’s up to Sylvester Stallone’s character to save the world from communism, and he almost died in the process. Let freedom ring.
(Image credit: Buena Vista Pictures)
USA Wins The Hockey Gold Medal – Miracle
The USA hockey team defeating the Soviets at the 1980 Winter Olympics might rank as the biggest upset in sports history, and unlike Rocky’s victory, this one happened in real life. The movie about it, Miracle, starring Kurt Russell as legendary coach Herb Brooks, inspires all the same dramatic emotions as the game did and gets us all to believe in miracles.
(Image credit: Columbia Pictures)
Daniel LaRusso Wins The Title – The Karate Kid
With a little help from Mr. Miagi (Pat Morita), Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) wins the Under 18 All-Valley Karate Championship tournament against all odds (and with an injured leg), defeating one of cinema’s most infamous bullies, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). It was such a big win, an entire franchise was launched, and almost 40 years later, we still can’t get enough of it .
(Image credit: Columbia Pictures)
Kit Beats Dottie – A League Of Their Own
A sibling rivalry reaches a boil in A League Of Their Own after Kit (Lori Petty) is traded to a different team than her sister, Dottie (Geena Davis), in the All-American Girls Baseball League. It sets up the climactic scene of the movie, where the sisters play against each other in the World Series. It looks like Dottie is going to get the best of Kit again when she drives in a run to take the lead in Game 7. Kit gets a chance to bat in the 9th and scorches a ball to the outfield. As she rounds third, the ball comes into Dottie at the plate and Kit levels her, knocking the ball out of her hand and winning the series for the Belles
(Image credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Jess Succeeds Against All Odds – Bend It Like Beckham
In Bend It Like Beckham, Jess (Parminder Nagra) faces a hostile family unhappy with her choice to play soccer, which they see as something a girl shouldn’t do. Eventually, as angry as her father is, he sneaks in to watch her play and is devastated by the racial slurs she endures and realizes what it all means to her. After winning the final match of the season, Jess gets a scholarship to college in the U.S. and more importantly, respect from her family.
(Image credit: TriStar Pictures)
Rudy Makes The Team – Rudy
Rudy is one of the most iconic underdog movies of all time. Based on the true story of Rudy Ruettiger (Sean Astin), it follows the longshot walk-on at Notre Dame’s quest to make one of the most prestigious college football teams in the country. There is some dispute over how it all went down in real life, as ND quarterback Joe Montana explained to Dan Patrick, but on film, it’s one of the best sports movies we’ve ever seen, with the unlikely underdog defying all odds to succeed.
(Image credit: Tri-Star Pictures)
Roy Hobbs’ Home Runs Wins The Game – The Natural
A thrilling sports movie is The Natural, starring Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs, a baseball slugger who never really got the opportunity to become an all-time great after he is shot by a stalker (Barbara Hershey). Many years later, the forgotten Hobbs gets signed to the struggling New York Knights. In one of the most iconic scenes in movie history, Hobbs comes to bat in the bottom of the ninth and hits a home run that shatters the lights, wins the game, and clinches the pennant.
(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)
The titular Lucas, played by the late Corey Haim, is a high school “loser” who is constantly tormented by bullies on the football team. Even worse for him is that he’s got a crush on Maggie, a new girl in town who befriends him, but later draws his ire as she falls in with the popular crowd. In a desperate attempt to woo her, Lucas joins the football team. He’s bullied by his so-called teammates until, finally, he’s hit so hard in his first game that he winds up in the hospital. It earns the respect of his teammates and he receives a varsity letter.
(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)
Misfits Win The Dodgeball Title – Dodgeball
In the mid-’00s, dodgeball was kind of like pickleball is today. You can thank the comedy, Dodgeball, starring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn. Sure, the plot is a little cliché, pitting the unathletic “Average Joes” against the Globo Gym jocks, but the jokes make up for it. In the climactic finale, Vaughn’s character takes the bold strategy of blindfolding himself while going against Stiller’s character in a sudden death face-off for the championship. Vaughn dodges one ball and plants another in Stiller’s face. The Joes win and the prize money saves the gym.
(Image credit: Walt Disney Studios)
The Ducks Beat The Hawks – The Mighty Ducks
The Mighty Ducks is the ultimate underdog story. It’s The Bad News Bears of hockey with one major difference, the Ducks win the end. The plot sees an underfunded team of misfits coached by the head misfit (Emilio Estevez), triumph over the too-well-funded powerhouse in a kids hockey league. In the championship, the Ducks win on a penalty shot, but the important thing is the lessons we all learn along the way.
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
Big Mike Oher Succeeds – The Blind Side
Based on the true story of Mike Oher (Quinton Aaron), who went on to play for the Baltimore Ravens, The Blind Side follows Oher’s journey from high school to college while guided by his adoptive mother (Sandra Bullock). He had an incredibly tough childhood and it takes the effort of a village, led by Bullock’s character, to get his grades and confidence up, and see him through to college.
(Image credit: Orion Pictures)
Hickory High Wins State – Hoosiers
You knew we couldn’t get through this list without Hoosiers. Another movie based loosely on a true story, it’s become the ultimate tale of the underdog winning it all and maybe the best basketball movie of all time. Led by coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman), the undersized Hickory High School beats South Bend on a buzzer-beater to win the title.
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
Richard Williams Raises Champions – King Richard
King Richard vividly shows how difficult it was for a family from Compton to become the GOATS in a sport usually reserved for country clubs and the elite. Will Smith, who plays the Williams sisters’ father, Richard, was so great in the role he won an Oscar, and his performance is one for ages.
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The Titans Go Undefeated – Remember The Titans
Remember The Titans, starring Denzel Washington as real-life high school football coach Herman Boone, tells the story of Boone’s task to integrate the football team at T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, VA. He’s chosen over the popular white coach, which makes things that much harder in a culture resisting integration. In the end, Boone wins over the school and the town. The Titans win it all, and, in the words of President Richard Nixon at the time, “saved the city of Alexandria.”
(Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures)
Jackie Robinson Integrates Baseball – 42
Speaking of integration, there is no bigger story in sports than Jackie Robinson becoming the first Black player in the Major Leagues in 1947. 42 tells the inspiring story of both Robinson (the late Chadwick Boseman), and Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) doing what was thought to be impossible: integrating the national pastime. Despite the horrible reception Robinson received from fans and even teammates, he diligently goes about his business and proves his worth as a player and as a man, becoming an American hero in the process.
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)
Ford Beats Powerhouse Ferrari – Ford V Ferrari
Is it possible for one of the largest companies in the world to really be an underdog? Well, when you are going against the great Ferrari, you’re almost guaranteed that position. Such is the case for the Ford racing team, led by Matt Damon as the legendary car designer Carroll Shelby, and Christian Bale as driver Ken Miles. Together, they take on the most prestigious and successful racing team of all time, Ferrari, at the iconic La Mans endurance race and win.
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)
South Africa Wins The Rugby World Cup – Invictus
For years, South Africa was a pariah in the international community due to the racist policy of apartheid. Shunned from all sporting events for decades, it emerged from the apartheid system in the early 1990s with the election of Nelson Mandela as president. Only two men, according to the film, believed in South Africa at the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Mandela (Morgan Freeman), and team captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon). The Springboks, inspired by an adoring nation, take the title, by defeating the intimidating All-Blacks, New Zealand’s legendary national team.
(Image credit: Universal Pictures)
The Chiefs Win The Championship – Slap Shot
Slap Shot is the anti-hero of underdog movies and has become the ultimate hockey cult classic. Paul Newman plays Reggie Dunlap, who decides to go a different direction with the minor league hockey team he plays for and coaches. Years of unsuccessful seasons convince him to get violent. Very violent. And it works, eventually turning around the team to win the championship.
(Image credit: Paramount Pictures/20th Century Fox)
The Indians Win The Division – Major League
The Indians in Major League are kind of anti-hero underdogs, too. This team of inexperienced/aging misfits was put together by a ruthless owner hell-bent on moving them to Miami from Cleveland, and they suck in the beginning. Soon, though, they reel off win after win as they find their stride. When star player Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger) fakes out the Yankees by bunting after “calling his shot” the team wins the last game of the season and goes on to the playoffs.
(Image credit: Atlantic Releasing Corporation)
Scott Howard Wins The Game As Himself – Teen Wolf
It’s the classic tale of a boy who becomes a wolf, making him the best athlete and coolest guy in school. Eventually, that boy becomes disillusioned by being half man/half beast, and in the end, wins the big game as himself. It’s become one of the truly classic ’80s teen comedies – and a franchise that has been somewhat controversial lately. Michael J. Fox plays the high school kid-turned-wolfman. As the wolf, he leads his team to the championship, before deciding he needs to win it as himself. He does, and also gets the girl, because that’s the way all werewolf stories should end, right? Poor Jacob.
We never get tired of the underdog. At any given sporting event in the world, if a spectator doesn’t have a favorite, they will inevitably root for the underdog. It’s because of wonderful stories like these that we all have it in our hearts to see the little guy win in the end.