A Beauty of a Uni Watch Book Review: Movies With Balls

Good morning, Uni Watchers. It’s Friday — we made it!

Longtime pal and conrtibutor Jimmy Parker has authored many articles for Uni Watch over the years, and when I took over the ediorship from Paul back at the end of May, I asked Jimmy if he’d like to contribute more articles, on about a monthly-ish basis, and he heartily agreed.

Jimmy is the proprietor of the most excellent Beauty Of A Game website, and he also goes by that handle on Twitter-X. Since May, Jimmy did an absolutely fantastic piece on the Top 10 Sports Movie Posters of all time, as well as two wonderful articles on Norman Rockwell: Norman Rockwell — Uni Watcher? and Norman Rockwell — Behind The Scenes, and a look back at James Earl Jones’ Man Cave in The Sandlot. Another incredible piece from Jimmy was IDing souvenirs from Ebbets Field.

When Jimmy and I spoke recently, he mentioned he had another piece in mind (which he’ll still be writing/researching), but noted a designer friend had been working on some things that would be right up Uni Watch’s alley:

“Last night I attended a book launch for a buddy of mine and former co-worker. He’s co-written a book (Movies With Balls) that discusses and ‘illustrates’ sports movies. Rick’s a talented designer, and the book grew out of a series of ticket stubs he designed a few years back for fictional sporting events (Rocky IV’s bout in Russia, The Longest Yard, etc.). I think the book would be of interest to UW’s audience so I’d love to take a closer look at the book and share some thoughts. If that’s cool with you let me know and I’ll round up with Rick and get some inside scoop.”

I told Jimmy, “Absolutely!” Jimmy was able to interview Rick Bryson and I think you’ll agree, what follows is pure Uni Watch!

Here’s Jimmy…

• • • • •Movies With Balls: A Review for Uni Watch
by Jimmy Parker

This past summer I wrote an article for Uni Watch on The Top 10 Sports Movie Posters of all time. The afternoon the article appeared I got a text from a buddy of mine, designer Rick Bryson. Rick mentioned that my timing was impeccable, as he actually had an illustrated book coming out soon about sports movies – Movies With Balls: The Greatest Sports Films of All Time, Analyzed and Illustrated.

As Rick and I used to work together, I knew both his design skills and sense of humor were top notch, so I eagerly awaited the book’s publication. Monday night I attended a launch event at a local bookstore and was able to sit down with Rick afterwards and ask him some questions about the book and how it came about.

__________Jimmy Parker: Where did the inspiration for the book come from?

Rick Bryson: The inspiration for MWB came from my love of old ticket stub designs and watching Rocky 3 (the best of the series IMHO) with my kids. I’ve collected tickets from sporting events and concerts ever since I was a kid. Atlanta Braves, Tar Heel basketball, old Van Halen shows and Guns N’ Roses. I have a cigar box full of them.

As a graphic designer it depresses me that because of smart phones, printed tickets are becoming a thing of the past. Now it’s a just a barcode on your phone. So a couple of years ago, I thought it was time to take my kids through all the Rocky movies. An American rite of passage. It was while we were watching Rocky fight Clubber Lang in the rematch in Madison Square Garden that the graphic designer side of my brain kicked and asked “I wonder what the ticket design for that fight looked like.”

That was sort of a light bulb moment and I started designing these fictional ticket stubs to the greatest sporting events in movie history. Karate Kid, Mighty Ducks, The Natural, Rocky 4, etc.

After I had several of the designs under my belt, I thought I had the makings of a pretty cool coffee table book. So I originally pitched it as that to publishers, but it evolved into something more.

JP: How does your background as a designer/art director impact your view of sports movies?

RB: As a designer, I always watch films with a critical eye for art direction. I nitpick everything! Especially when it comes to sports films. I’m incredibly hard on fictional sports team logos and jersey designs. Very rarely do they nail it. Many times it takes me out of the movie. This may be a hot take, but I can’t watch the film Any Given Sunday, because the team logos and branding is so bad. Horrible!! It’s like they didn’t even try. I may be the only weirdo out there that is bothered by stuff like that. I hear it’s a great film, but I can’t get through it. Thankfully it didn’t make the cut for the book.

JP:. What was your criteria for which movies to cover?

RB: The criteria for which movies made the book was, first and foremost, it had to be 100% fictional. If it was based on a true story, we didn’t touch it. We wanted to really dive in and unpack these movies on a fictional level. “What if this player had done this or that? Or where did this coach end up years after the game was over?” You can’t do that with movies based on real events, because we already know what happened.

This book plays around with a little bit of fan fiction which was fun. It all went back to our ticket stubs; if there was a real ticket stub out there for the game in the movie, it didn’t make the book. Miracle is an awesome sports flick, but that story and game really happened, so it didn’t make it. After that, it was hard to choose. We only had so many pages and we had a firm number of 25 films. It was hard. Several films that I love didn’t make the cut, but the hardest one for me was The Best of Times, with Robin Williams and Kurt Russell. I adore that movie and it was an early Ron Shelton script. But in the end, it wasn’t as well-known as the other films in the book and it was left off. Maybe in the sequel if we get to write one!

JP: What was the most fun thing about doing the book?

RB: Getting to rewatch a lot of films I haven’t seen in a while. I remember watching Slap Shot back in college. I remember liking it but it didn’t really make much of impression on me. I grew up in the South and hockey wasn’t my thing. But after rewatching it for this book… HOLY COW! What a great film!

Newman is so funny in this thing. The writing and dialogue is razor-sharp. It’s defiantly in my Top 10 of all-time sports flicks.

JP: What are the best and worst uniforms in sports movie history?

RB: Hands down the best is The New York Knights for me. Those colors of navy blue and orange. That old hand lettered typeface on the front of the jersey. Then you add that lightning bolt patch on the sleeve…come on!! Absolute perfection.

Worst uni, well there are several contenders for me… not a fan of the logo for ESU Timberwolves in The Program, looks kinda cheap. Same with the logo for SCLSU Mud Dogs in The Waterboy, though I do like their team colors. In Teen Wolf, for the Beacontown Beavers, they didn’t even try to create an original logo, they just straight up swiped Oregon State’s mascot logo and I have to believe with the budget being so low on that film, they didn’t pay OSU a dime.

But the absolute worst unis in a sports film is Any Given Sunday. Like I said, the design is so bad to me I can’t even watch the film. It’s like they didn’t even try. All of the team logos look like bad clip art. Apologies to any graphic designer reading this that worked on that film, but you could have given those designs a few more rounds of concept revisions.

__________Some additional selections from the book are below:

• • • • •Thanks, Jimmy (and Rick)! Movies With Balls actually sounds like a fantastic book, and one that I’m sure will strike a chord with Uni Watch readers. I’m particularly enamored with the “fake” ticket stubs; UW Pal Todd Radom has for years railed about the disappearance of physical tickets. I myself had dozens I had kept as a kid and young adult and thumb-tacked to an old corkboard (I’m pretty sure my parents threw that out when I moved out in the 1990s) — I’d kill to have saved those. They were from concerts (including dozens of Grateful Dead shows) as well as sporting events. Ah well. So thanks to Rick for drawing more attention to the disappearing ticket stubs, something which I highly doubt will ever make a widescale return. And I think MWB just may be on my holiday wish list!

Jimmy will make a return appearance shortly with another “Beauty of a Game” special!

What say you, readers? How do you feel about the disappearance of ticket stubs? And how do you feel about poorly designed fictional uniforms in movies (or well-designed ones)? Are you as passionate about the uniform designs in the Natural and Any Given Sunday as we are here about “real” uniforms?

Love to have your thoughts!