From
Sports Illustrated Volume 99, NO. 4, August 04, 2003
Illustration by: Richie Fahey
The top 50 Sports movies
of all time were covered in the Sports Illustrated issue
listed above. Here are the top ten, the comments for "Rocky"
and the illustration that accompanied the article.
1: Bull Durham
2: Rocky
"In America's bicentennial year Rocky Balboa
became the first of the post-Vietnam War heroes,
a frenzied expression of old-fashioned individualism. A slow-on-the-uptake
palooka who gets a chance to survive a fight with the heavyweight
champ (Apollo Creed, played with panache by Weathers),
Balboa has a Philadelphia story with heart and purity
and just enough cruelty for resonance. Stallone informed
his loser with a colossal goofiness that was impossible not
to watch. He was so convincingly sincere that audiences actually
jumped up and screamed for him to win.
3: Raging Bull
4: Hoop Dreams
5: Slap Shot
6: Hoosiers
7: Olympia
8: Breaking Away
9: Chariots of Fire
10: When We Were Kings
Thanks to Big John Beatty!
- Craig Zablo
