Hollywood's greatest high school coaches

Friday Night Lights, a television show centered around the fictional Dillon Panthers in Dillon, Texas, enters its final season this fall. The star of the show is coach Eric Taylor (played by Kyle Chandler) and the basis of most storylines centers around how football and small-town issues shape the lives of the main characters, the members of the Panther football team.

Friday Night Lights the television series is based on the movie Friday Night Lights, which is based on the book of the same name by H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger. The name of the team and the town are different in the TV show and movie, as are the names of the characters. However the theme is the same: How does a coach deal with the everyday issues that confront him and his team?

So where does Friday Night Lights coach Gary Gaines (the movie equivalent of Eric Taylor) line up among the great movie/TV coaches of all time? Here's a look at 10 of the best coaches Hollywood has produced.

10. Coach Nickerson, Ampipe (All the Right Moves - 1983)
Following a loss to Walnut Heights High School, Ampipe Coach Nickerson (played by Craig T. Nelson) calls out the player who fumbled away the game, calling him a quitter. This doesn't set well with star defensive back Stefen Djordjevic (Tom Cruise), who calls the coach a quitter. Nickerson kicks Djordjevic off the team and later finds his house vandalized. He then blacklists Djordjevic from all colleges looking to give him a scholarship. Eventually Nickerson realizes he made a mistake, takes a job at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and offers Djordjevic a scholarship.
Coach Quote: "That pass-interference penalty was no fluke. If you had done it the way I taught you, they never would've been down there in the first place, and they never would've scored, and we would've won that game!"



9. Molly McGrath, Central (Wildcats - 1986)
The daughter of a famous football coach, Molly McGrath (played by Goldie Hawn) wants to coach her own football team. She's given the chance to coach inner-city Central High School but must deal with racial and gender prejudice. She eventually wins over the team with her enthusiasm and leads Central to the city championship game.
Coach Quote: "You owe me a new stopwatch!"

8. Ken Carter, Richmond (Coach Carter - 2005)
Carter (played by Samuel Jackson) takes a job at his alma mater, Richmond High, where he is appalled by the players' disrespect and their poor academic standing. He insists on strict academic rules and initially the players rebel. The players begin to see the light and heed coach Carter's advice. The team begins winning games, only to perform poorly when grades are released. Carter then locks the team out of the gym and instead holds study hall every day rather than practice. The players' grades improve, the team reaches the playoffs, but falls to powerful St. Francis by a few points.
Coach Quote: "I came to coach basketball players, and you became students. I came to teach boys, and you became men."

7. Jim Morris, Big Lake (The Rookie - 2002)
A former college pitcher, Jim Morris (played by Dennis Quaid), impresses his players with his fastball during batting practice. He makes a pledge with the students: If they win the district championship, he will go to a professional tryout. Inspired, Big Lake goes on to win the district championship. Jim holds up his end of the bargain and blows away the scouts with his 90-plus mph fastball. Morris signs with a big league club and works his way into a major league game by the end of the season.
Coach Quote: "You know what we get to do today Brooks? We get to play baseball."

6. Sean Porter, Camp Kilpatrick (Gridiron Gang - 2006)
In an effort to motivate the inmates at Camp Kilpatrick Detention Center to avoid gangs and rehabilitate their lives, Sean Porter starts a football team. Initially several of the players on the team refuse to cooperate because they are members of rival gangs, but Porter eventually gets the players to work together and they become a successful team, advancing all the way to the championship game.
Coach Quote: "On the Gridiron, we do it my way, not your way. Your way got you here. Whatever gang you claim, whatever hood you're from, this is your hood now."

5. Harold Jones, T.L. Hanna (Radio - 2003)
TL Hanna coach Harold Jones notices that a developmentally challenged young man hangs around the football field during practices, constantly listening to his radio. After some of the players on Jones' team play a joke on the young man, Jones punishes the players and invites the young man, whom he nicknames 'Radio', to come to practice. The newfound relationship develops into a long friendship between Jones, Radio and the TL Hanna students who grow to see Radio as one of their own.
Coach Quote: "Let's play with Hanna pride and never stop believing in each other."

4. Ken Reeves, Carver (The White Shadow - 1978)
After a knee injury ends his NBA career, coach Ken Reeves (played by Ken Howard) takes a job as a high school basketball coach at Carver High in South Central Los Angeles. Reeves takes a collection of oddballs, hoodlums and at least one legitimate ballplayer (the 6-foot-8 Warren Coolidge) and turns them into a cohesive unit that goes on to win the city championship.
Coach Quote: "I'd pull you too Coolidge. But you're so fat, you need to run."

3. Gary Gaines, Permian (Friday Night Lights - 2004)
Billy Bob Thornton plays Coach Gary Gaines, head of the Permian High School football team, one of the most powerful teams in the state of Texas. When star running back Boobie Miles goes down with a knee injury from overuse, Gaines is blamed. His job security is uncertain the rest of the season and reaching the playoffs could be necessary for him to keep his job. Ultimately Permian reaches the playoffs, but loses in the finals.
Coach Quote: "Gentlemen, the hopes and dreams of an entire town are riding on your shoulders. You may never matter again in your life as much as you do right now."



2. Herman Boone, T.C. Williams (Remember the Titans - 2000)
T.C. Williams becomes integrated and Herman Boone, who is played by Denzel Washington, is chosen to coach the team over current head coach Bill Yoast, who is white. The white players initially balk at playing for an African American coach, but Boone puts the team through a torturous training camp and the players begin to bond. A school board member later tells Boone that if he loses a single game, he will be fired. Thus the Titans go on to an undefeated season and win the state championship.
Coach Quote: "We will be perfect in every aspect of the game. You drop a pass, you run a mile. You miss a blocking assignment, you run a mile. You fumble the football, and I will break my foot off in your John Brown hind parts and then you will run a mile. Perfection. Let's go to work."

1. Norman Dale, Hickory Huskers (Hoosiers - 1986)
After not coaching basketball for nearly 20 years due to hitting one of his players, Norman Dale (played by Gene Hackman) arrives in tiny Hickory, Ind., with one last shot at redemption. However, he'll have to do it without the school's best player, Jimmy Chitwood, who is still grieving the death of the former coach. Getting the players to play by his rules is the biggest challenge. Meanwhile the townspeople aren't sure they like the new coach and they vote him out of the job. However Jimmy decides to play ball again, but only if coach stays. The rest is history. The Huskers advance to the state finals and defeat South Bend Central on a last-second shot by Jimmy.
Coach Quote: "If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book we're gonna be winners."