My Favorite Underdog Sports Hero Films

We have to give it up for this one. It has it all, a great soundtrack, a great story to reel us in, and of course Denzel. He showed those kids how to get along in football and life.

Could there be a larger underdog. The whole team including coaches, players, and boosters dies in an airplane crash on the way back from a game. They fight the odds to put a team back on the field the following season.

If Marshall University is the largest underdog team, the largest underdog player is Rudy. Not having near the grades are football playing ability, this guy dreamed of being a Notre Dame player. He moved in and camped out until he got a chance, a small chance, then took advantage of every single moment, until he eventually got to play football.

These women changed history and perhaps just a little bit of baseball as well, as they ultimately proved to Tom Hanks that yes, there can be crying in baseball. With starring turns for Hanks, Gene Davis, Madonna, and Rose O'Donnell, you just can't do much better.

The character Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays here is perhaps an unsung underdog sports hero. He becomes part of the team, whether the team likes it or not, and no one would have ever given him the credit to take this as far as he did.

The town learns it will end its longstanding baseball tradition after one final season, and it's up to Sean Astin, a girls' volleyball coach, to lead them there. Yet another true story.

The one that started it all, and so much so, that the name of the film has become a colloquialism for underdog teams that just won't quit.