The television remake of A League of Their Own retells the sports story with an exciting cast, including Nick Offerman as reluctant coach Dove Porter. Coaches sometimes have a difficult time standing out in sports movies as they aren't in the play, but some of these characters have used humor to become sports movie icons.
These hilarious coaches may know the sport they are leading, but they are often surly, poor communicators, or just plain ridiculous. So with Offerman providing plenty of humor in his role, fans can check out some other sports movie coaches who delivered laughs from behind the bench.
Jackie Moon - Semi-Pro (2008)
Will Ferrell is a comedic actor who has appeared in a lot of sports comedies over the years. Semi-Pro finds Ferrell stepping into a period basketball story as the ridiculous Jackie Moon, owner of the American Basketball Association's Flint Michigan Tropics.
As if owning the team wasn't enough, Jackie also serves as the coach-player for the team. Seeing him juggling all these positions, none of them very effectively, is great fun and his flamboyant attitude make it all the more ridiculous.
Irving Blitzer - Cool Runnings (1993)
Perhaps because it surrounds the unique topic of bobsledding, Cool Runnings is seen as an underrated sports movie by many fans. Loosely based on a true story, it follows a group of Jamaican athletes who compete in the Olympics as a bobsled team under the guidance of Irving Blitzer (John Candy).
Blitzer is a disgraced bobsledder who looks to find redemption with this unexpected team. He fits perfectly into the outcast feel of the group and Candy's natural winning personality makes him a great character to laugh along with.
Dicky Eklund - The Fighter (2010)
The boxing movie The Fighter is certainly not a full-blown comedy. It features brutal fight scenes and deals with intense subject matter. However, it is also filled with colorful characters like Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), a former boxer who trains his brother Micky Ward.
Dicky's struggles with drug addiction make him a complex character, but his larger-than-life persona is also hilarious. He is a loudmouth, wild, and scheming man who poses as police officers, jumps out of buildings, and talks about himself as he is the greatest boxer who ever lived. Despite his many flaws, it is hard not to love him.
Reggie Dunlop - Slap Shot (1977)
Though Slap Shot is not just a hilarious sports comedy, but also perhaps the best hockey movie of all time. Paul Newman stars as Reggie Dunlop, a player-coach of a failing hockey team who decides to attract a bigger crowd to the games by turning the team into a group of violent goons.
The role shows just how versatile of an actor Newman is as he brings terrific comedic charm to Reggie. Seeing his childlike glee at the outrageous and immature way he and his teammates play is so much fun, and he feels like a big kid who just wants to keep playing.
Coach Klein - The Waterboy (1998)
The outrageous football comedy one of Adam Sandler's best movies. He plays a simple and gentle man who unleashes his inner rage on the football field. With such a wild athlete at the center of the story, there needed to be an equally odd coach.
Coach Klein (Henry Winkler) is a terrific fresh take on the usual blowhard and intense movie coaches as he is a deeply insecure man. It is refreshing to see a character in a position like this filled with fear and self-doubt, making him relatable as well as hilarious.
Chubbs Peterson - Happy Gilmore (1996)
Adam Sandler's other sports comedy in which he stars as a rage-filled athlete is Happy Gilmore. Sandler's failed hockey player turned golfer doesn't feel like he belongs at all in the usually refined sport. But he is taught the game by Chubbs (Carl Weather).
Unlike some of these other comedic coaches, Chubbs is actually very effective at making Happy a better golfer. But he still has so many hilarious quirks, including his wild backstory in which an alligator bit off his hand and how it leads to his darkly comedic demise.
Roy Munson - Kingpin (1996)
It is hard to take bowling seriously as a sports movie topic but it has made for some funny comedies. Kingpin is a perfect example of this with Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) sharing similarities to Happy Gilmore's Chubbs as a former promising competitor who lost his hand and ended his bowling career.
The movie follows Munson as he trains a promising but clueless Amish bowler in hopes of using him to regain his glory. Munson is a brash, disgusting trainwreck of a human being. It is just as funny watching him attempt to pose as an Amish man as it is watching him working as a bowling alley hustler.
Patches O'Houlihan – Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
Patches O'Houlihan (Rip Torn) is another one of the gruff coaches who puts his team through a lot in order to make them great. But what makes that even funnier is that he is so intense about a game as silly as dodgeball.
Patches makes for some of the funniest moments in Dodgeball as he hurls insults and wrenches at his players. Sometimes it is hard to tell if these tactics are actually meant to help them get better or if he is just an unpleasant man.
Jimmy Dugan - A League Of Their Own (1992)
Though Nick Offerman steps into the new coach role for the show, the movie version of A League of Their Own already featured a memorable coach with Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks). Like many coaches, Dugan is a former player now washed up, drinking too much, and reluctantly coaching a female baseball team.
The reason that Jimmy is one of Hanks' best characters is that it allows the likable actor to play a bit of a jerk. His total lack of communication skills or manners of any kind makes him a poor match for the team. His incredulous cry that "There's no crying in baseball!" shows what an oblivious slob he is.
Coach Buttermaker - The Bad News Bears (1976)
Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) would be considered rough around the edges in a league of adult athletes. He feels especially out of place coaching a little league team in The Bad News Bears. Fortunately, the kids on the team are just as rough, so it makes for a good match.
It is endlessly entertaining seeing Buttermaker exemplify how terrible of an influence he is on these youngsters. He drinks throughout their games, gets a bail bonds business to sponsor the team, and has them as free labor for his pool cleaning business. Overall, he is the least mature member of the team.
