The Pride of the Yankees Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper did a solid job portraying the boy-next-doorish Lou Gehrig. Gary Cooper's classic line, 'Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth', was derived directly from Lou Gehrig's goodbye speech at Yankees Stadium on July 4th, 1939. It was selected at #38 in AFI's 100 all-time greatest quotes list.

Answer: Engineering

It was Gehrig's mother's greatest wish that Lou study to become an engineer, much like his uncle Otto. His parents, German immigrants, did not seem to be entirely enthralled with Lou's baseball abilities. They eventually came around, however.

Answer: Columbia

Believe it or not, Lou Gehrig was an Ivy Leaguer. However, he did not play baseball for the university, as he had already played some professional ball for a summer league. He studied at Columbia with the intention of becoming an engineer, but he was signed by the Yankees in 1923 and never got a chance to pursue that career.

Answer: Wally Pipp

Lou Gehrig famously stepped in for Pipp on June 2, 1925. In the film, Pipp said he was suffering from double vision, but in reality it may have been that manager Miller Huggins wanted to shuffle the line-up in the hopes that the ball club would escape a slump.

Answer: Tanglefoot

Specifically, it was Eleanor Twitchell, Gehrig's future wife, who provided the hapless Lou with this absurd nickname. Gehrig would soon prove to be anything but a tanglefoot, becoming one of baseball's greatest players ever.

Answer: First baseman

Most experts consider Lou Gehrig to be the greatest first baseman of all-time. During his 16-year career, he hit 493 home runs, 163 triples, 534 doubles and had 2,721 hits total. His career batting average was .340.

Answer: Teresa Wright

You may recognize Teresa Wright from some of her other high-profile roles, such as 'The Little Foxes', 'Mrs. Miniver' and 'Shadow of a Doubt'. In fact, these three classic movies, along with 'The Pride of the Yankees', were the first four movies of her career.

She was nominated for Academy Awards for 'The Little Foxes', 'The Pride of the Yankees' and 'Mrs. Miniver', the first three films she made. She won an Oscar for 'Mrs. Miniver'.

Answer: True

Indeed, despite his advancing age, Babe Ruth was a good sport, playing himself in the film. This was not the only time Babe Ruth appeared in film as himself, but it was his most well-known film role. Ruth was not the only ball player to appear as himself in this film. Bill Dickey, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig and Bill Stern also appeared as themselves here.

Answer: Walter Brennan

Walter Brennan, one of Hollywood's most highly regarded character actors of all time, played Sam Blake, who was roughly based on the real life writer Fred Lieb. Brennan won three Best Supporting Actor Oscars for the films 'Come and Get It' (1936), 'Kentucky' (1938) and 'The Westerner' (1941).

Answer: The Iron Horse

Lou Gehrig was known as The Iron Horse because of his incredible resilience. Ironically, the poor fellow suffered from a rare disease now known as Lou Gehrig's Disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) which ended his career, and his life. Gehrig was only 37 years old when he died. In the film, the last moment you see Gehrig is when he walks off the field after making his famous final speech at Yankee Stadium. Quite a goodbye!

Thank you for trying this quiz, I hope you enjoyed it.