Sorensen Classic: In 2000, Tom ranked his Top 20 sports movies

This Tom Sorensen Classic column originally ran Oct. 27, 2000.

I saw a preview the other night for a soon to be released golf movie, "The Legend of Bagger Vance." I rarely watch golf, but I'll watch a movie about golf.

Some sports lend themselves to movies. I ranked my top 20 sports movies of all time Thursday, and golf finished third with three. Boxing and baseball each had four, and no other sport had more than one. Football almost had two, but I didn't count "Heaven Can Wait" as a sports movie.

Here's my list and, in parenthesis, the year in which the movie was released. If you have a list, send it to me, and I'll try to print it.

20. "Tin Cup" (1996).

19. "Requiem for a Heavyweight" (1962).

18. "Happy Gilmore" (1996). I know I'm not supposed to think Adam Sandler is funny, but I think he's hilarious. Also, this was some of Bob Barker's best work.

17. "Rocky" (1976). The first Rocky was better than the next 14.

16. "Beyond the Mat" (2000).

15. "Ben-Hur" (1959). Some of the best racing scenes ever filmed. Unfortunately, the movie is best remembered for off-camera controversy. The star, Charlton Heston, insisted his character carry a rifle.

14. "Fear Strikes Out" (1957).

13. "Kansas City Bomber" (1972). To act is one thing. To act on skates is another. Don't ever tell me Raquel Welch is not a thespian.

12. "Hoop Dreams" (1994).

11. "Caddyshack" (1980).

10. "Jerry Maguire" (1996).

9. "Kingpin" (1996). A hard look at the dirty underbelly of today's professional bowling tour.

8. "Chariots of Fire" (1981).

7. "Bull Durham" (1988). The best movie ever set in Durham.

6. "When We Were Kings" (1996). Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Zaire.

5. "The Waterboy" (1998). I saw it twice with children, laughed at least as hard as they did and damaged my I.Q. only marginally.

4. "Field of Dreams" (1989). Mysterious and beautiful, it makes you believe in magic, crops, Iowa and baseball players who know when to leave.

3. "Raging Bull" (1980). What a brutal movie this was. I interviewed the subject, former boxer Jake LaMotta, not long after it came out. I had also read LaMotta's biography, which differed wildly, and asked him which was accurate. "You must be one of those cynics, " he said. If I were a cynic, Jake, I would have ranked the story of your life beneath "Kansas City Bomber."

2. "The Natural" (1984). The novel on which the film is based has a much darker ending. Yet, I don't find "The Natural" corny or false. Everybody needs to believe in something. Why not this?

1. "The Hustler" (1961). Bleak and beautiful, this one is tough to walk away from. Even the theater-sized "The Hustler" poster at Dilworth Billiards, my favorite piece of art in Charlotte, is tough to walk away from. One of the best movies ever made.

This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 9:18 AM with the headline "Sorensen Classic: In 2000, Tom ranked his Top 20 sports movies."