Best movies like The Halfback of Notre Dame

A story about football, love and letting your heart go into overtime.

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Halfback of Notre Dame Starring Gabriel Hogan, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Allen Cutler, Scott Hylands, and more. If you liked The Halfback of Notre Dame then you may also like: 23 Blast, Undefeated, Varsity Blues, When the Game Stands Tall, Wildcats and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

A high school halfback must choose between the gridiron dreams of his football coach father, and his own dream of becoming a musician.

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Know any good movies to watch like The Halfback of Notre Dame 1996. With a similar plot or stoyline. Suggest it.

23 Blast

When a high school football star is suddenly stricken with irreversible total blindness, he must decide whether to live a safe handicapped life or bravely return to the life he once knew and the sport he still loves.

Undefeated

Set against the backdrop of a high school football season, Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin’s documentary UNDEFEATED is an intimate chronicle of three underprivileged student-athletes from inner-city Memphis and the volunteer coach trying to help them beat the odds on and off the field. For players and coaches alike, the season will be not only about winning games — it will be about how they grapple with the unforeseeable events that are part of football and part of life.

Varsity Blues

In small-town Texas, high school football is a religion, 17-year-old schoolboys carry the hopes of an entire community onto the gridiron every Friday night. When star quarterback Lance Harbor suffers an injury, the Coyotes are forced to regroup under the questionable leadership of John Moxon, a second-string quarterback with a slightly irreverent approach to the game.

When the Game Stands Tall

A young coach turns a losing high school football program around to go undefeated for 12 consecutive seasons.

Wildcats

Molly is a high school track coach who knows just as much about football as anyone else on the planet. When a football coach's position becomes vacant, she applies for the job, despite snickers from fellow staff members and her former husband.

Woodlawn

Love and unity in a school torn by racism and hate in the 1970s. A gifted high school football player must learn to embrace his talent and his faith as he battles racial tensions on and off the field.

The Pigs vs. The Freaks

In a small town, the hippie faction often clashes with the mainstream. To settle their differences, the hippie "freaks" take on the town police "pigs" in a football game. On opposing sides of the fence are Frank, the police sergeant, and his son Neal. Also at odds are Neal and one time friend Doug, a returned Vietnam Vet who has joined the police force, who is also protective of his younger sister who prefers the hippie element. To make things even more intense, Mickey South, who has fled to Canada to avoid the war, returns to play for the Freaks football team. Tensions mount and all are challenged as the climax of the film approaches.

Rudy

Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team.

Johnny Be Good

It's recruiting time and despite being short and scrawny, Johnny Walker is America's hottest young football prospect. His dilemma: should he take one of the many offers from college talent scouts or should he attend the local state college with his girlfriend and give up his football career?

Air Bud: Golden Receiver

Josh and Buddy move from basketball to football in this first of several sequels to the original Air Bud.

All the Right Moves

Sensitive study of a headstrong high school football star who dreams of getting out of his small Western Pennsylvania steel town with a football scholarship. His equally ambitious coach aims at a college position, resulting in a clash which could crush the player's dreams.

The Best of Times

A small-town loser determines to have one more shot at the big time by winning a football game.

Gus

The California Atoms are in last place with no hope of moving up. But by switching the mule from team mascot to team member, (He can kick 100 yard field goals!) they start winning, and move up in the rankings, Hurrah! The competition isn't so happy.

Before the Dawn

A young high school teacher moves to a new town for a fresh start and falls for a troubled student.

Friday Night Lights

A small, turbulent town in Texas obsesses over their high school football team to an unhealthy degree. When the star tailback, Boobie Miles, is seriously injured during the first game of the season, all hope is lost, and the town's dormant social problems begin to flare up. It is left to the inspiring abilities of new coach Gary Gaines to instill in the other team members -- and, by proxy, the town itself -- a sense of self-respect and honor.

12 Mighty Orphans

Haunted by his mysterious past, a devoted high school football coach leads a scrawny team of orphans to the state championship during the Great Depression and inspires a broken nation along the way.

Facing the Giants

A losing coach with an underdog football team faces their giants of fear and failure on and off the field to surprising results.

Good News

At fictitious Tait University in the Roaring '20s, co-ed and school librarian Connie Lane falls for football hero Tommy Marlowe. Unfortunately, he has his eye on gold-digging vamp Pat McClellan. Tommy's grades start to slip, which keeps him from playing in the big game. Connie eventually finds out Tommy really loves her and devises a plan to win him back and to get him back on the field.

Horse Feathers

Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley U, hires bumblers Baravelli and Pinky to help his school win the big football game against rival Darwin U.

Little Giants

When Danny O'Shea's daughter is cut from the Peewee football team just for being a girl, he decides to form his own team, composed of other ragtag players who were also cut. Can his team really learn enough to beat the elite team, coached by his brother, a former pro player?

Lucas

A socially inept fourteen year old experiences heartbreak for the first time when his two best friends -- Cappie, an older-brother figure, and Maggie, the new girl with whom he is in love -- fall for each other.

The Slaughter Rule

A young man finds solace with a young woman, his mother, and a high-school football coach who recruits him to quarterback a six-man team.

Gridiron Gang

Teenagers at a juvenile detention center, under the leadership of their counselor, gain self-esteem by playing football together.

Home Team

Two years after a Super Bowl win when NFL head coach Sean Payton is suspended, he goes back to his hometown and finds himself reconnecting with his 12-year-old son by coaching his Pop Warner football team.

Hoop Dreams

Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white suburban school well-known for the excellence of its basketball program. Gates and Agee dream of NBA stardom, and with the support of their close-knit families, they battle the social and physical obstacles that stand in their way. This acclaimed documentary was shot over the course of five years.

Hoosiers

Failed college coach Norman Dale gets a chance at redemption when he is hired to coach a high school basketball team in a tiny Indiana town. After a teacher persuades star player Jimmy Chitwood to quit and focus on his long-neglected studies, Dale struggles to develop a winning team in the face of community criticism for his temper and his unconventional choice of assistant coach: Shooter, a notorious alcoholic.

Maker of Men

Bob plays football badly so his father Coach Dudley, his girlfriend Dorothy and his school reject him. He joins a rival college team and aims to defeat his dad's team.

Maybe It's Love

A very young Joan Bennett tops the cast as Nan Sheffield, the daughter of a college president. The nominal leading man is Tommy Nelson, the black-sheep son of a wealthy alumnus. Though Nelson is an ace football player, President Sheffield refuses to enroll the boy because of his bad reputation, whereupon Tommy's father withdraws his financial backing and bars his son from ever setting foot on Sheffield's campus. Falling in love with Nan, Tommy signs up with the college under an assumed name, giving up his wastrel ways to lead the football team to victory. Joe E. Brown steals the show as Speed Hanson, a goofy gridiron star who emits a loud and long yell whenever scoring a touchdown (this was, in fact, the first film in which Brown's famous "Yeeeeowww" was heard -- but certainly not the last).

Pigskin Parade

Bessie and Winston "Slug" Winters are married coaches whose mission is to whip their college football team into shape. Just in time, they discover a hillbilly farmhand and his sister. But the hillbilly farmhand's ability to throw melons enables him to become their star passing ace.

Safety

The story of Ray-Ray McElrathbey, a freshman football player for Clemson University, who secretly raised his younger brother on campus after his home life became too unsteady.

Brian Banks

An All-American football player's dreams to play in the NFL are halted when he is falsely accused of rape and sent to prison.

Run the Race

Reeling from his mother’s death and his father’s abandonment, Zach, an All-State athlete, finds glory on the football field, working to earn a college scholarship and the brothers’ ticket out of town. When a devastating injury puts Zach—and his dreams—on the sidelines, David laces up his track cleats to salvage their future and point Zach toward hope.

Tru Loved

Recently relocated from San Francisco to conservative suburbia by her lesbian mothers, Tru struggles like all teens to fit in and find love, but her quest is complicated by sexual politics, closed minds, and closeted friends as she seeks to establish her school's first Gay-Straight Alliance.

Radio

High school football coach, Harold Jones befriends Radio, a mentally-challenged man who becomes a student at T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson, South Carolina. Their friendship extends over several decades, where Radio transforms from a shy, tormented man into an inspiration to his community.

Alex & Me

An uplifting story of the passion and drive it takes to succeed and the power of family to help realize your dreams.

The Way Back

A former basketball all-star, who has lost his wife and family foundation in a struggle with addiction, attempts to regain his soul and salvation by becoming the coach of a disparate ethnically mixed high school basketball team at his alma mater.

My All American

Freddie Steinmark, an underdog on the gridiron, faces the toughest challenge of his life after leading his team to a championship season.

If I Had Wings

Alex, blind since the age of two, dreams of running for his school's cross-country team. His father, a probation officer, finds a running partner who spends his time 'running' from the law.

College Coach

Ruthless Coach Gore creates turmoil at a college by hiring players and alienating students. Along the way, the coach loses his wife Claire Gore to a grandstanding player. Inside look at college football of the 1930s replete with fake grades, non-student players, and the importance of football to a college's reputation.

Smith of Minnesota

This biopic takes an in-depth look into the life of Minnesota All-American football player Bruce Smith. The story is framed by a screenwriter's interview with the famed halfback. In order to garner information, the scenarist is assigned to live with Smith. During the film, Smith shares his thoughts on football and anecdotes from his life.

Bottoms

Unpopular best friends PJ and Josie start a high school self-defense club to meet girls and lose their virginity. They soon find themselves in over their heads when the most popular students start beating each other up in the name of self-defense.

Underdogs

The story of a small-town high school football team in rural Ohio destined to play their cross-town rival, a perennial powerhouse, while standing up for an entire community.

Believe in Me

In a conservative small town, a young man's wish to coach high school basketball are tweaked by a school board decision that makes him the new coach of the girls' team.

America Brown

A coming-of-age drama that centers on a young quarterback from West Texas, a priest in New York, and the two women in their lives.

American Underdog

The true story of Kurt Warner, who went from a stockboy at a grocery store to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback.

Touchback

A former high-school football star loses his shot at a college scholarship due to a devastating gridiron injury, but gets a second chance at living his dream.

College Rhythm

The story deals with the college rivalry of a piccolo player and an All-American halfback on the football team who both love the same co-ed. After graduation they carry their their feud and collegiate ideas over into the department store business.

Greater

The incredible true story of the greatest walk-on in the history of college football.

The Last Whistle

A high school football coach struggles with the fallout after one of his players dies onfield during practice.

Blood Sport

A searing commentary on the "win at all costs" mentality of American high school sports. David Lee Birdsong is the smalltown quarterback hoping to escape with a college scholarship and a pro career. David's father is the overbearing taskmaster vicariously living through his son. The third side of the triangle is Coach Marshall, a hypercritical and cruel man who sees David as the key to his future success. David's lockstep commitment to his father and coach is altered when he witnesses a teammate die after a grueling practice.

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