Sylvester Stallone Creed
Sylvester Stallone has been recognized at multiple award shows for his performance in “Creed.” Getty

The 88th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, with Sylvester Stallone earning a best supporting actor nomination for “Creed,” in which he reprised his role as Rocky Balboa from the “Rocky” franchise. “Creed” should be recognized among the all-time best sports movies, though there have been plenty to choose from over the years.

The Oscars often overlook nominating sports films, and they rarely win. The original “Rocky,” “Chariots of Fire” and “Million Dollar Baby” are the only sports movies to win Best Picture, while 13 others have been nominated for the award. The most recent film to get a nomination was “Moneyball,” which went 0-6 in overall Oscar nominations.

The “Rocky” movies stand out among the rest with seven films in total and Stallone receiving nominations 39 years apart for playing the same character. The “Major League” and “Karate Kid” franchises have also made successful sequels, though not to the degree of “Rocky.” The originals are included in International Business Times’ list of best sports movies.

This list ranks the 50 greatest sports movies with a slight bias toward comedies over Academy Award honors, which rarely recognize films that get laughs. This list also excludes documentaries and TV movies.

  1. Raging Bull
  2. Rocky
  3. Hoosiers
  4. Rudy
  5. Bull Durham
  6. White Men Can’t Jump
  7. Field of Dreams
  8. Chariots of Fire
  9. Caddyshack
  10. The Hustler
  11. The Bad News Bears (1976)
  12. Slapshot
  13. The Pride of the Yankees
  14. Fat City
  15. Kingpin
  16. The Karate Kid (1984)
  17. Major League
  18. Moneyball
  19. Seabiscuit
  20. The Natural
  21. Jerry Maguire
  22. The Boxer
  23. Eight Men Out
  24. The Sandlot
  25. Warrior
  26. The Fighter
  27. Heaven Can Wait
  28. Rocky II
  29. The Wrestler
  30. Creed
  31. Happy Gilmore
  32. Rush
  33. Victory
  34. Million Dollar Baby
  35. The Blind Side
  36. He Got Game
  37. Cobb
  38. The Color of Money
  39. Bang the Drum Slowly
  40. A League of Their Own
  41. Miracle
  42. Space Jam
  43. North Dallas Forty
  44. Tin Cup
  45. Cinderella Man
  46. Sugar
  47. Invictus
  48. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
  49. Ali
  50. Cool Runnings

Honorable mentions: Foxcatcher, The Waterboy, Big Fan, Invincible, The Longest Yard, Any Given Sunday, 42, Bend It Like Beckham, Knute Rockne All American, Fever Pitch (2005), Blue Chips, Friday Night Lights, Remember the Titans, Goon, The Great White Hope, This Sporting Life, The Basketball Diaries, Blades of Glory, Breaking Away, all of the unmentioned Rocky films.

Bobby Ilich contributed to this report.

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