John Wayne

Coming up on TV: John Wayne as crooked football coach

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On March 17, Turner Classic Movies is airing Trouble Along the Way (1953). John Wayne plays a gleefully corrupt football coach who buys players in an attempt to build up the football program overnight at a small Catholic school.  And he utters the famous coachspeak, “Winning isn’t everything – it’s the only thing.”  John Wayne wasn’t the first to utter that line – it was UCLA coach Red Sanders.  But the Duke said it nine years before Vince Lombardi did.

I discuss Trouble Along the Way and other football movies on my Best Sports Movies (scroll down for football).

Coming up on TV: Stagecoach

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John Ford's Stagecoach

This iconic 1939 Western was John Ford’s first Western sound film and the first of the seven that he shot in Monument Valley. It’s a conventional Western plot, exquisitely executed with a young and vital John Wayne leading an outstanding cast. Watch for stuntman Yakima Canutt jumping from horse to horse in front of the runaway stagecoach.  Plays on TCM on Saturday, December 18

Yakima Canutt jumps horses in Stagecoach

For other great movie choices on TV, see my Movies on TV.

"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."

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That’s a pretty famous football quote, often attributed to Vince Lombardi.  Lombardi did say those words as early as 1959.  But the quote was originated by UCLA football coach Red Sanders in 1950.

It turns out that the famous line was also spoken in a 1953 movie – by John Wayne!  In Trouble Along the Way, Wayne plays a gleefully corrupt football coach who buys players in an attempt to build up the football program overnight at a small Catholic school.

I’ve added Trouble Along the Way to my discussion of football movies in my Best Sports Movies.

John Wayne in Trouble Along the Way