The World's Greatest Athlete

Who: Bill
What: The World's Greatest Athlete
Where: Turner Classic Movies
Why: It's a classic Disney movie.

I've never seen anything like this in my entire illustrious career!
-- Howard Cosell


The Walt Disney Studios have produced some notable sports-themed films in recent memory: Invincible, The Greatest Game Ever Played, Miracle, Remember the Titans, The Rookie and others. But going back much further to 1973, Disney’s idea of a sports movie came in the form of The World’s Greatest Athlete.

Marrivale College’s head coach Sam Archer (John Amos) is in charge of perennially-losing teams for football, baseball, basketball and track and field. Seeking some relaxation, Archer and his assistant coach Milo Jackson (Tim Conway) travel to Africa where they encounter an exceptionally athletic young man called Nanu (Jan-Michael Vincent) who was orphaned and raised in the jungle. Archer and Jackson convince Nanu to go back with them to Marrivale, much to the concern of Nanu’s mentor Gazenga (Roscoe Lee Browne). At the college, Nanu excels as an athletic superpower, culminating in an exciting track and field finale where the visiting Gazenga seeks to temper Nanu’s attempts at breaking several NCAA records through witchcraft.

“Realistic” is a term that could never be applied to The World’s Greatest Athlete but it still makes for a fun family-friendly comedy. Even the romance between Nanu and his tutor Jane (Dayle Haddon) is mostly played for laughs. Three legendary ABC sportscasters are seen in cameos: Jim McKay, Frank Gifford and especially Howard Cosell. Cosell’s over-the-top commentary is not far off from what he actually did on Monday Night Football and most every other sporting event telecast by ABC from the late 1960’s through the mid 1980’s. It was a brilliant move on the part of Disney’s casting people to get Cosell to appear as himself.

Strong casting is a major reason why this movie works. Soon after its release, John Amos was cast as James Evans, the father in the classic sitcom Good Times. This was followed by a starring role in the ground-breaking mini-series Roots. Tim Conway was already well-known for his frequent (and later co-starring) appearances on The Carol Burnett Show. He would appear in several more Disney live-action comedies through the rest of the 1970’s, most of them with Don Knotts. Jan-Michael Vincent was often seen in heavier, dramatic feature film roles. His career culminated with the 1980’s action series Airwolf. Actress/Model Dayle Haddon had been appearing on many magazine covers and could have been cast in other Disney movies. A pictorial in Playboy published soon after the movie’s release changed those plans. She would continue to act and model, and has most recently been a contributor to CBS’s The Early Show and in early 2008 named a spokesperson for UNICEF. Roscoe Lee Browne was a distinguished award-winning character actor appearing in countless movies and television shows. Nancy Walker (Archer and Jackson’s landlady Mrs. Petersen) was also a recognizable supporting player primarily on television in Rhoda, McMillan and Wife and her many “Bounty”-full years advertising paper towels. Comedian Billy DeWolfe appears only briefly as Merrivale College’s Dean Maxwell, but his voice is still heard every Christmas as the inept Professor Hinkle in Frosty the Snowman.

No doubt that the all-star casting contributed to the movie’s box office success. The World’s Greatest Athlete was among the top-grossing films of 1973.