All too often, real world coaches live only to disappoint. They steer your favorite team into a first round playoff exit. Or they muster their troops for an 0-16 season. Or they get caught in a cheating scandal. But not in the movies. There, coaches always have the perfect speech ready, the ultimate strategy in mind, and the suitably disturbing psychological problem simmering just below the surface that'll deliver the big game win and maybe, just maybe, teach us all a little bit about ourselves.

Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) - Hoosiers
Underdog (read: all white) basketball teams need a man to give them the tough love, sense of discipline, and boost of confidence to play David to a whole conference full of Goliaths. That man, naturally, is Hackman.



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