Greatest sports movies?

I don’t have much to do with sports in real life, but there have been some very powerful movies made with a sports setting. For some reason some of the greatest are set in the world of possibly my least favorite sport: boxing. Maybe it’s the power of the drama of two lone men pitched in battle against each other; very fertile ground for metaphor.

For me the number one greatest sports film is The Setup (1947). The rest are listed in no particular order. What have I missed? Maybe we’ll do a poll after some nominations. (For the purposes of this discussion, I’m omitting documentaries: we can do a separate thread on those.)
The Setup (1949)
Raging Bull (1980)
The Wrestler (2007)
Breaking Away (1976)
The Champ (1931)
National Velvet (1947)
Eight Men Out (1988)
The Bad News Bears (1976)
Body and Soul (1947)
I’ve left off some obvious titles, but I wanted to contribute only my own favorites, rather than anticipate what others would suggest.

Slapshot has always been one of my favorites.

The Blood of Heroes

Bull Durham is often described as the consensus greatest baseball movie ever. Deservingly, imho.

The Sandlot. I don’t even like baseball and I’ve always LOVED this film.

That’s my vote. We watch it every year. "

I just watched “Jerry Maguire” again for about the third time, and it is a freaking good movie, too.

One of my favourite movies of all time is Any Given Sunday. You know how when people say such-and-such movie is about “more than football (or whatever the subject happens to be)”? Well, Any Given Sunday is ONLY about football, but covering every aspect it touches on. Oliver Stone likens it to Balzac, and while I understand that I don’t think it necessarily touches on what is great about that movie.

Also, to mention a sport probably no one else will be able to come up with an example for, let me nominate Stick It for gymnastics. A fun movie.

Ugh, I found Stick It unwatchable and I’m a big Missy Peregrim fan. (The only reason I tried to watch it in the first place.)

I guess I should toss out some obvious omissions:

Friday Night Lights
Cinderella Man
Seabiscuit

Ditto. The OP is a quality list, but Durham is essential, and I’d also add When We Were Kings and another vote for Slapshot. Not quite in the same league (ha!) but worthy of mention are Chariots of Fire, Miracle, Lagaan (cricket) and Friday Night Lights.

Radio
Remember the Titans
Hoosiers
The Natural
Field of Dreams
Brian’s Song
Rocky
Bend it Like Beckham
The Other Side of the Mountain
Murderball

Karate Kid is the best sports movie. Mighty Ducks movies are awesome as well.

And, yes, I’m serious.
ETA: Saw it in Hazle’s post just as I submitted but I’ll second Bend it Like Beckham.

Hoosiers and Rudy are the best for their respective sports.

The Hustler
The Color of Money
Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings
Caddyshack
Damn Yankees

And of course the best example in the large field of blind figure skating movies: Ice Castles.

My favorites, per sport:

basketball: Hoosiers
baseball: The Natural
football: The Longest Yard
hockey: Slapshot
golf: Tin Cup
boxing: Rocky
martial arts: Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
horse racing: The Black Stallion
skating: Rollerball

Happy Gilmore.

Has there been a movie about dominoes? What about synchronised swimming? I’d love to see a movie about cross-country ski shooting biathlon whatever it’s called.

North Dallas Forty! I hate football with a passion, but I do love that movie. I 3rd(?) Friday Night Lights. Not mentioned yet is A League of Their Own. I tend to like most sports movies I see, even though I don’t follow sports.

A few titles for the list, not that they would be considered great, but I like them:

Invictus (I’m still completely mystified by rugby, but I liked the movie)
Victory (it is a John Houston film, after all. My first exposure to football/soccer)
We Are Marshall (shut up, I cried)
The Final Season (shut up, I have a thing for Sean Astin, I should watch Rudy one of these days)

I don’t care what people say about Kevin Costner…Tin Cup is funny.

Pride of the Yankees. Makes me cry every time. Cooper might have been a bit too old, but he still nails the part. Plus, I love how ballsy Hollywood was at the time. Lou Gehrig’s speech is one of the most famous speeches in American sports history and they STILL changed it. It’s like making a movie about Lincoln and changing the Gettysburg Address. Balls.

Chariots of Fire is probably my favorite.
I have also liked Raging Bull, The Hustler, Bull Durham and Iqbal (a Bollywood film about a deaf cricketer)

It is, isn’t it? I’m always surprised how much I enjoy that film.

Costner, I think, can be very appealing when playing an “ordinary guy”. It’s when he feels the need to act the hero (or the villain) that he stumbles, badly