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).