Sports Films Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tin Cup

In "Bull Durham" (1988), Costner played Crash Davis who teaches new pitcher, Ebby Calvin Laloosh, the ropes. "Field of Dreams" (1989) has Kevin playing Ray Kinsella in Iowa who is being told "if you build it, he will come". "For Love of the Game" (1999) is about 40 year old pitcher Billy Chapel who is approaching the end of his baseball career. On the other hand, "Tin Cup" (1996) with Rene Russo is about Roy McAvoy, a golf pro with a bright future and a bad attitude, playing the sport about which Mark Twain said "a good walk, spoiled", i.e. golf. Oh, lest you think Costner avoided football, there is always "Draft Day" from 2014.

Answer: Rubin Carter

"The Hurricane" is a 1999 movie about middleweight boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (1937-2014) who was arrested in 1966 for a triple homicide at a bar in Paterson, New Jersey. He was tried and convicted twice (in both 1967 and 1976); however, the verdict was overturned in 1985 and the case was not prosecuted a third time.

In the film, Denzel Washington played Carter as the innocent man who wrongly served 20 years in jail. The wrong choices are: Jake LaMotta ("Raging Bull"), Rocky Graziano (the subject of "Somebody Up There Likes Me") and Charley Davis, the fictional boxer in 1947's "Body and Soul".

Answer: The Babe

There have been many movies both about the great Babe Ruth or with Babe actually in the cast. The 1927 silent film "Babe Comes Home" was about fictional Babe Dugan and his relationship with a laundress. In 1941, the 'bambino' was portrayed by the somewhat stocky William Bendix in the appropriately titled "The Babe Ruth Story".

The following year Babe Ruth appeared in "Pride of the Yankees" which is really the story of first baseman Lou Gehrig, played well by Gary Cooper. It was the 1992 movie "The Babe" which starred John Goodman as the troubled orphan boy who went on to become one of baseball's biggest stars.

Answer: Ice Hockey

The 2004 movie "Miracle" was about Coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) and the 1980 American Hockey Team's win over the much-favored Soviet Team at Lake Placid, New York. The Soviet Team had won every Winter Olympics hockey tournament since 1960. The US scored three goals in the third period to beat the Russians 4-3. Most people think that defeat gave the United States the gold, but they had to go on and beat Finland in the final game of the tournament.

In "Slap Shot" 1977, Paul Newman played the coach of a losing minor league hockey team in its final season. "The Mighty Ducks" (1992) is about a lawyer who has to coach a hockey team for his community service for drunk driving.

Answer: Pat and Mike

All of the movies listed starred Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, but "Pat and Mike" (1952) was a comedy about Pat Pemberton (Hepburn), a college athletics director trying to compete on a professional level in women's tennis and golf. Mike Conovan (Tracy) sees her talent and offers to train her, all the while trying to keep her condescending fiancee from distracting her, while discovering he may have feelings for her himself! In case you wondered, Tracy and Hepburn appeared in nine movies together with the kind of rapport that enhanced the believability of their characters.

Answer: The Longest Yard

"Fever Pitch" was a 1997 movie based on a book by Nick Hornby about romance and soccer with Colin Firth (not the 2005 "Fever Pitch" which is about baseball). "Bend It Like Beckham" from 2002 stars Parminder Nagra as an 18 year old Indian girl whose strict parents do not want her to play organized soccer. "Escape to Victory" (1981) stars Michael Caine and features a bunch of WWII POWS in a prison camp forced to play soccer against Nazi players - sort of like "The Longest Yard" goes Stalag. So it is "The Longest Yard" which is the gridiron classic about prisoners playing football against the guards in 1974 with Burt Reynolds, remade in 2005 with Adam Sandler.

Answer: Mickey Rourke

Mickey Rourke plays Randy 'the Ram' Robinson, an aging wrestler who decides to hang up his tights in this 2008 film with Marisa Tomei. He tries to form a relationship with an old stripper (Tomei) and reconnect with his estranged daughter, but the lure of the spotlight forces him to try one more comeback. And as life mimics art, Mickey Rourke was an aging actor with a very bad plastic surgery job, who tries to make a comeback with this movie, after being out of major films for a number of years; Rourke does get nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for the role.

The wrong choices are all wrestlers: John Cena "the face of the WWE", Dwayne Johnson "the Rock", Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea).

Answer: Vangelis

All the choices feature famous modern composers; however, it was the Greek composer Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou who wrote the Academy Award winning music for "Chariots of Fire" (1981). Vangelis has his own original style which includes electronic, progressive and orchestral music.

The movie is about two young runners training for the 1924 Paris Olympics: Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a devout Christian, and Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) trying to overcome prejudice by winning. The music is a beautiful complement to the story. Vangelis has also scored other films like "Blade Runner", "Missing" and "Alexander".

Answer: Robert Redford

Malamud's novel was made into a 1984 baseball film about a rookie named Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) who was on a train on his way to tryouts with the Chicago Cubs for a spot on the club. He is shot by a young woman, but comes back 16 years later to be a rookie with the last place New York Knights, bringing them to the top of the league.

He fashions a bat cut from a lightning struck tree. When Hobbs hits a pitch into the stadium lights, the image created is unforgettable. Robert Redford has been acting since the early days of TV, e.g. he was Death on a "Twilight Zone" episode.

He is a producer, director, environmentalist and Oscar winner for "Ordinary People" (1980).

Answer: Hoosiers

"Hoosiers" (1986) is the perfect sports movie. The story is about failed college coach Norman Dale, played by Gene Hackman, who is hired to run the basketball program at a small Indiana high school. His bad temper and his unconventional choice of the alcoholic 'Shooter' (Dennis Hopper) as assistant coach draw criticism from the community.

Despite the lack of support, Dale continues to try and create a winning team, and winds up with a basketball team that wins the state championship! For Norman Dale, it's redemption and a second chance at life.