Ranking the 25 Best Sports Movies Scenes of All Time After Happy Gilmore 2's Release

Debating the best sports movie scenes of all time can yield a number of opinions. So, we decided to get downright scientific.

A Bleacher Report panel of voters nominated 100 scenes, then voted to determine the top 25. Sports had to be the core focus of the film, and we avoided documentaries since that's another category in and of itself.

That brings us to this list.

These 25 scenes have made us emotional. They've made us laugh. They've inspired us. They've pumped us up. And above all, they've stayed on our minds for ages. 

These are the 25 best sports movie scenes of all time.

25. The Fan: Rainiest Ballgame Ever

In the closing scene of the campy, chaotic, over-the-top cult classic The Fan, Wesley Snipes' Bobby Rayburn (a not-so-subtle nod to Barry Bonds) has a final showdown with Robert De Niro's psychotic title character. 

In what has to be the rainiest ballgame ever not to be suspended, De Niro disguises himself as the umpire, takes off the mask and delivers crazed lines like, "Where's my home run?" and "Bobby…Bobby!" 

It's a less heralded De Niro role, but it's one that masterfully makes us question the extremes of sports fandom.

24. Above the Rim: The Game

Besides being an all-time great rapper, Tupac Shakur was also an incredible actor. In Above the Rim's climactic streetball championship sequence, 2Pac's wave of emotions as the game transpires is a thing of beauty. 

Coaching the villainous Birdmen led by a bruising Wood Harris, 2Pac goes from pompous cigar-in-mouth confidence to disgust, desperation and downright petulance when Shep's Bombers claw their way back into the game. The rapper is like a blacktop Bobby Knight, kicking a chair as the game slips away. In the end, he's speechless, holding an L. 

The unwavering range from the generationally talented entertainer elevates this picture exponentially. 

23. Little Giants: That's No Cheerleader

Before there was the Waterboy, there was the Icebox. 

Becky O'Shea donned shoulder pads and a helmet while still wearing her cheerleading skirt and became a hard-hitting linebacker who showed young girls a world of football that they maybe hadn't seen before. 

Icebox upends a trash-talking ball-carrier, forcing a crucial fumble for the Giants, and Ed O'Neill delivers the lines we remember best: "That's no cheerleader. That's my niece, Becky. And she's pissed." 

22. The Mighty Ducks: Flying V

After The Mighty Ducks came out in 1992, every kid in America wanted to strap on a pair of skates (both on ice and on the pavement) and reenact their wild hockey plays.

The Flying V is maybe the most improbable maneuver, with its phalanx-like formation forming a barricade for a puck-handler who penetrates the line to score a pivotal goal.

It's a play that lives on across the Mighty Ducks movie franchise as well as in busted attempts to perform it in peewee skating rinks.

21. White Men Can't Jump: Woody Hustles Wesley

This scene is great for its depiction of Venice Beach basketball hustlers in the '90s, and it has a slew of epic one-liners like "Ain't no thing but a chicken wing on a string." 

While Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes gamble against each other in a free-throw shooting contest, money exchanges hands behind them as if it were an underground boxing match. 

The actors' famous on-screen chemistry was born here as a backward hat-wearing Woody ("a slow, white, geeky chump") hustles Wesley for the win.

20. Slap Shot: Hanson Brothers Kicking Ass

As far as hockey goons go, the Hanson Brothers were certainly unassuming. On the surface, the three glasses-wearing brothers look more like geeks than enforcers. 

But when they take the ice for the Charleston Chiefs for the first time, they put on a cross-checking, tripping, slashing, punching affair. Referees, bench players and even organ players don't escape their wrath. 

They skate off the ice following an ejection to cheers from the crowd and a place in sports movie history. The Hanson Brothers get extra points for inspiring the Bash Brothers in Mighty Ducks 2.

19. Bull Durham: Crash Woos Annie

In sending Susan Sarandon's (Annie Savoy) mind and heart into a complete 180, Kevin Costner's Crash Davis gives one of the greatest monologues on love and baseball. 

"I don't believe in quantum physics when it comes to matters of the heart" is a sublime lead-in to his laundry list of what he does believe in, which includes: the small of a woman's back, a hanging curveball, a constitutional amendment outlawing astroturf and the designated hitter, softcore pornography and long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days. 

Annie stood no chance. "Oh my."

18. Bloodsport: Matte! Fight Scene

At the illegal, underground Kumite martial arts competition in Bloodsport, Jean-Claude Van Damme's Frank Dux is blinded by his nefarious opponent, Chong Li, who throws a mysterious powder in his face. This is the backdrop for Van Damme's most dizzying array of acrobatic fight choreography. 

He channels the blindfolded training of his master into blocking punches, leaping into air splits to avoid Li and landing a quadruple roundhouse kick combo. With his opponent's life in his hands, he shows him mercy and forces him to shout "Matte!" in accepting defeat.

It's Van Damme at his late '80s finest. 

17. Rocky IV: I Must Break You

Each of the Rocky films is its own breed of underdog story, but no moment was as haunting as Ivan Drago proclaiming "I must break you" when the boxers touch gloves to begin the final fight. 

The towering 6'5" Dolph Lundgren played the Axis of Evil fighter to a T, encapsulating a menacing Cold War rival mentality in fearsome fashion. 

16. Kingpin: Big Ern in the Clutch

It says a lot when the best scene in the best-ever bowling movie centers on the film's primary antagonist. That's a testament to the comedic genius of Bill Murray. 

Big Ern McCracken, needing three straight strikes to defeat the film's underdog, increasingly works the crowd on each roll of his flamboyant clear bowling ball with a rose inside of it, as his exaggerated combover gradually loses its form. 

With Woody Harrelson reeling in defeat in the background, Murray is magnetic, flailing on the floor in triumph proclaiming that he is "the greatest." It's a spectacular hyperbolic enactment of the excessive celebrations that televised bowling is known for.

15. Cool Runnings: Slow Clap

Disney's retelling of the tale of the Jamaican bobsled team had all the makings of a feel-good movie. Its most memorable scene comes in the support that the Olympic crowd shows for the Jamaican sledders as they carry the rickety bobsled that failed them in their most important hour across the finish line. 

Beyond the heavy sled, they hold the weight of a nation on their shoulders as the crowd begins quite possibly the greatest slow clap in human history.

14. Remember the Titans: Left Side! Strong Side!

For a Disney movie, Remember the Titans has some uncomfortable—yet nonetheless crucial—depictions of racism in 1971. It makes for a tense setting as Denzel Washington's Coach Boone tries to lead a newly integrated high school football team.

This racial tension mires much of the first half of the movie, but when pass-rushers Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell finally have a breakthrough in practice, their "Left side! Strong side!" rallying cry shows the underlying hatred that permeates the town of Alexandria beginning to dissolve. 

As their teamwork develops, it takes on a newfound strength that extends beyond the football field and into the greater society around them.

13. Miracle: The Speech

Kurt Russell delivers Coach Herb Brooks' pregame speech to the 1980 USA Hockey team in impeccable fashion. 

In Brooks' Midwest accent, he addresses the "Miracle On Ice" team who came back to beat the heavily favored USSR squad in the 1980 Olympics, and you just feel like you're right in that locker room with them. 

When he concludes by saying, "This is your time. Now go out there and take it," it's a total mic-drop movie moment.

12. The Sandlot: The Great Hambino Insults the Rich Kids

Telling someone that they play baseball "like a girl" is one of the parts of The Sandlot that hasn't aged as well as others. But it's The Great Hambino's litany of insults hurled at his preppier, better-equipped crosstown nemesis as a whole that encapsulates the childhood baseball charm of The Sandlot. 

From "fart-smeller" to "pee-drinking crap-face" and telling Phillips that he mixes his Wheaties with his mama's toe jam, Ham destroys his opponent in this battle of zingers between castoffs and well-to-dos.

11. The Karate Kid: Wax On, Wax Off

There's a moment in The Karate Kid when Daniel-san starts losing his patience with Mr. Miyagi's laborious, unorthodox way of "teaching" him karate. Just when the pupil is about to throw in the towel and give up on karate, the wise master brings it all together for his understudy. 

As it turns out, every motion that Daniel-san repeated ad nauseam while working on the old man's house and cars was an effective self-defense maneuver. When it finally clicks for Daniel, his eyes are wide and he sees the method to the madness of the Miyagi way.

They bow to each other, and Miyagi tells him to "come back tomorrow." He did.

10. The Sandlot: The Beast Chasing Benny

Fueled by the amazing power of P.F. Flyers kicks, Benny Rodriguez showed us why he was known as "the Jet." 

Trying to rescue a horribly compromised Babe Ruth-signed baseball, the Jet gets chased by a massive English Mastiff across town. They crash through windows, rip through a movie screen and even flip a five-tiered cake at a Founders Day picnic. 

When all seems lost, it turns out The Beast was just a gentle giant looking for a friend. What a marvelous twist. 

9. The Natural: Homer Off the Lights

There are certain moments in film when a hero is made. Roy Hobbs' home run off the stadium lights is among the most pristine. 

A battered, wounded Hobbs steps to the plate, down to his last strike, using a replacement bat after his lucky "Wonderbat" was sawed off by a fastball. Bleeding from his stomach, Hobbs musters the strength to hit a moonshot that shatters the lights in dramatic fashion, securing the pennant for the Knights and emotionally impacting every person in the stadium in a different way. 

With apologies to Kirk Gibson, this is the most epic home run in the history of home runs.

8. Field of Dreams: People Will Come

Blind faith is a powerful thing. When James Earl Jones delivers his paean to exactly that, you'd think that author W.P. Kinsella himself was reading from the pages of his book Shoeless Joe, which Field of Dreams is based on. 

"Baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. People will come, Ray. People will most definitely come," he says in his ubiquitous baritone, as the ghosts of the Chicago Black Sox stand behind him. 

It drives Kevin Costner's character to believe even deeper in the power of something far, far bigger than himself: baseball.

7. The Karate Kid: Final Fight

The ultimate David vs Goliath battle. Nobody thought little Daniel LaRusso from Reseda had a chance against dirty-fighting Johnny Lawrence from Cobra Kai. 

The scene's "Sweep the leg," and "Put him in a body bag, Johnny!" quotes became maxims for all bullies for eternity, transcending the context of the film. Then, embodying the Miyagi dojo ideals of perseverance and discipline, Daniel-san executes the mystical crane kick to beat Lawrence and win the All Valley Karate Championship. 

It filled generations of kids with the belief that they could also overcome insurmountable odds in sports.

6. Happy Gilmore: Bob Barker Fight

Who knew that Bob Barker was such a tough SOB? For 35 years, all we ever knew of the daytime TV host was that he was great at schmoozing moms, college kids and military folks while they guessed the price of groceries on CBS. But in Happy Gilmore, Barker is a trash-talking, fist-fighting boss. 

Barker scraps with Happy on the golf course before seemingly getting knocked out. "The price is wrong, b---h!" is a vintage Adam Sandler line. But just when he thinks the butt-kicking is complete, Barker springs up like a cyborg to finish kicking the absolute crap out of the Sandman. 

It's dynamite comedy that marries both Happy's past as a hockey goon and his present as a rough-around-the-edges golfer.

5. Rudy: Rudy Gets Carried Off

Talk about a buildup. Rudy Ruettiger dreamed his whole life of getting into a game for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team and worked his tail off to get to the sidelines. Just when it looks like he's out of time in his final game as a senior, his teammates and the entire stadium begin chanting his name, and Rudy makes his way onto the field.

While his game-ending sack of the Georgia Tech quarterback didn't affect the outcome of a contest that was already won, the determination he embodied as a walk-on rang through the stadium as he was carried off on the shoulders of his teammates. Composer Jerry Goldsmith's score just adds to the scene's sweeping payoff.

This scene was also forever immortalized in meme form, for Charles S. Dutton's pronounced clapping that lives on in an endless trove of GIFs.

4. Major League: Wild Thing Entrance

The most badass moment in sports movie lore sees Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn marching out of the bullpen as 40,000 fans are singing along to "Wild Thing" by The Troggs. There's something unassuming but nonetheless intense about Vaughn stoically lumbering to the mound with his black-rimmed skull-and-crossbones eyeglasses on, ready to throw 101 mph heat. 

The energy in the stadium oozes with peak late '80s vibes as third baseman Roger Dorn walks over to the mound and says to Vaughn what every person in the house is thinking: "Strike this motherf--ker out!"

3. A League of Their Own: There's No Crying in Baseball

Tom Hanks is the most decorated actor on the planet. In his famous rant as downtrodden, alcoholic ex-ballplayer Jimmy Dugan managing a women's baseball team, he lambastes right fielder Evelyn Gardner for throwing past the cutoff and letting a runner advance. 

Evelyn can't take Dugan's roast and starts crying. The half-drunk skipper delivers the "there's no crying in baseball" line as only Hanks can. His mannerisms elevate the scene, especially contrasted to the umpire who calmly suggests, "perhaps you chastised her too vehemently." 

Dugan tells him he looks like "a penis with a little hat on," gets tossed from the game, and a full managerial meltdown ensues.

2. Jerry Maguire: Show Me the Money

It's hard to narrow down which of the countless memorable one-liners in Jerry Maguire is the best. From "You had me at hello" and "Who's coming with me?" to "Help me, help you" to "You complete me," it might be the most pound-for-pound quotable sports movie.

But none are as resonant as Jerry Maguire, with his life falling apart and desperate to keep Rod Tidwell as a client, shouting "Show me the money!" on the phone loud enough to both stir up a cacophony in the office and make his coworkers feel sorry for how low he's sunk.

1. Rocky I: Montage (Climbing Steps)

No scene symbolizes the American sports triumph quite like Rocky Balboa climbing up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and throwing his hands up in the air as he celebrates his workhorse-like drive amid the grandeur of his city. 

Bill Conti's music is perfectly set as Rocky runs through the streets of Philly training for his big match. The moment is so iconic that a statue of Rocky with his hands in the air (commissioned by Sylvester Stallone, who wrote the movie) has stood on that spot in the city since 1980. 

Tourists regularly flock to the statue to take pictures beneath it with their own hands in the air. That's a testament to this being the greatest scene in sports movie history.