Knute Rockne All American

I've decided to take up coaching as my life work, Knute Rockne says. Coach he does, revolutionizing football with his strategies, winning close to 90 percent of his games, and helping establish the University of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish as a gridiron powerhouse. But victories alone do not mean success to Rockne. He wants to shape his players into responsible and honorable men. This famed sports biopic combines a passion for the game (and footage of actual Notre Dame contests) with two superb performances: Pat O'Brien in the title role and Ronald Reagan as George Gipp, the gifted but doomed halfback whose deathbed plea is win just one for the Gipper. The line remains one of cinema's most memorable. And for the rest of his life, Reagan would often be called the Gipper.