Hoosiers (1986)

Description: Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) is a volatile basketball coach with a dark past who arrives in a small, rural Indiana town to attempt to lead the high school team to victory. This group of underdogs needs all the help they can get, and no one would have ever suspected that it would come from the unlikely duo of Dale and his newly hired assistant coach, the town's recovering alcoholic, Shooter (Dennis Hopper). Under Dale and Shooter's guidance, the Hickory team surprises their town - and themselves - by not only becoming an unstoppable team during the basketball season, but also taking home the 1952 State Championship. Hoosiers has received abundant accolades, and can be found on the top film lists of over 100 movie critics. It has been highly ranked on movie lists created by AFI, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated, and was also chosen by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant".