12 Great Sports Movies

Remember the Titans

I asked some fellow psychologists to give me "12 for 12" lists for the year the world ends. These lists could be favorite movies in a particular category, songs, TV episodes, books, games, whatever.  Anything that is entertainment related from a psychologist's perspective. 


Two of my colleagues, sports psychology gurus, Nyaka Niilampti and Shaun Tyrance, the founders of Mind Over Body, have given me a great list of 12 sports movies.  Dr. Niilampti is a former collegiate athlete at Princeton.  She has a master's in sports psychology and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology.  I have a lot of other nice things I could say about her, but she would just get embarrassed, so I'll stop now.  Dr. Tyrance was the starting quarterback at Davidson and has consulted professionally with collegiate teams and professional sports organizations, including some Nascar and MLB teams.  These two folks, along with their colleague, Dwight Hollier, are the best sports psychology team in the country.  Here's their list, given in no particular order, along with a couple of bonus picks:


1.   Bull Durham: The trials and tribulations of a minor league baseball player...and takes place in the great state of North Carolina.

2.   Any Given Sunday: Oliver Stone captures a great deal of the real life world of pro-football. 

3.   Remember the Titans: Sport as the great equalizer.  

4.   Tin Cup: See the Hollywood version of a psychologist working with an athlete. 

5.   Jerry McGuire: Based on the story of real life agent Leigh Steinberg. "Show me the money!" 

6.   Ali: Will Smith shows that Ali had real reason to be cocky.

7.   Hoop Dreams:  The original 30 for 30. 

8.   Friday Night Lights: Great book.  Good movie. Life IS highschool football in small town West Texas.  

9.   Million Dollar Baby: It's never too late to realize your dream...anything can be accomplished with desire and hard work.

10.   Love and Basketball:  Playing like a girl is a good thing....

11.   Rocky (the first one ONLY): Sylvester Stallone wrote, directed, and starred himself.  Need we say more?

12.   Hoosiers: Persistence, consistency, structure, and teamwork...necessary ingredients for any good sports story.

And two others (because we couldn't keep them off the list):

Blue Chips:  What people will do to win basketball games...and unfortunately still too relevant. 

Miracle:  Brings out the patriotism in us all. 


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