{"id":7891,"date":"2011-10-17T10:39:39","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T14:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/?p=7891"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:36:16","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:36:16","slug":"cheering-for-the-underdogs-making-the-mighty-macs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/cheering-for-the-underdogs-making-the-mighty-macs\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheering for the underdogs: making "The Mighty Macs""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The movie about the fabled basketball team opens this Friday \u2014 did you know the original title was \u201cOur Lady of Victory\u201d? \u2014 but it took a long time to happen.<\/p>\n

The AP has the scoop: <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Here\u2019s a sports fairy tale that never gets old: Underdog team with few resources but a lot of heart beats the odds and comes out on top.<\/p>\n

That is what actually happened to the 1971-72 women\u2019s basketball squad at tiny\u00a0Immaculata College.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also what happened to \u201cThe Mighty Macs,\u201d a small-budget movie about the team\u2019s improbable national championship that overcame its own obstacles to make it to Hollywood.<\/p>\n

The film starring\u00a0Carla Gugino,\u00a0Marley Shelton,\u00a0David Boreanaz\u00a0and Ellen Burstyn hits theaters Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really needed to be patient and believe in the story and the right distribution platform for the story,\u201d said\u00a0Tim Chambers, who wrote and directed the film. \u201c\u2026 It was definitely worth the wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

The true story of the Mighty Macs has always read like a movie script.<\/p>\n

It starts in 1971 with a 23-year-old named\u00a0Cathy Rush. The former high school basketball star was coaching the ragtag team at Immaculata, a struggling Catholic school for women near Philadelphia. She was barely older than her players.<\/p>\n

The Macs, who had no home court because their field house had burned down, practiced at local gyms and played all their games on the road. When they earned the 15th seed in the first-ever women\u2019s U.S. collegiate championship tournament in 1972, players held raffles and sold toothbrushes to raise money for the trip.<\/p>\n

Immaculata upset three teams to reach the finals. There, the scrappy Macs faced off against nemesis West Chester in a nail-biting rematch \u2014 and won. Cue the confetti.<\/p>\n

In the following years, Rush was approached many times about making the Macs\u2019 Cinderella story into a movie. But every would-be production turned into a pumpkin.<\/p>\n

So Rush was understandably wary when Chambers came to her around 2004. But she was won over by his strong backing \u2014 former Philadelphia 76ers president Pat Croce is an executive producer \u2014 and personal connections to the story.<\/p>\n

Chambers had grown up in the area and, as a child, saw Rush and the Mighty Macs practice at his Catholic grade school\u2019s gym. And he was taught by the same nuns who run Immaculata \u2014 the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more I was around him, the more I was convinced that if anyone could do this, he could do it,\u201d Rush said.<\/p>\n

Filming for \u201cOur Lady of Victory\u201d \u2014 the movie\u2019s original title \u2014 began in 2007 at Immaculata and, ironically, in the gym of nearby West Chester University. Chambers cast Katie Hayek, a former University of Miami shooting guard and theater major, as star player Trish Sharkey.<\/p>\n

But Hayek was diagnosed with cancer as cameras were set to roll. A wig, tenacious work ethic and rearranged shooting schedule helped mask the effects of chemotherapy, which Hayek said successfully treated her Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma.<\/p>\n

Then, just as the $7.5 million production wrapped in 2008, the recession hit. Chambers couldn\u2019t find a distributor.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Find out what happened next. <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The movie about the fabled basketball team opens this Friday \u2014 did you know the original title was \u201cOur Lady of Victory\u201d? \u2014 but it took a long time to happen. The AP has the scoop: Here\u2019s a sports fairy tale that never gets old: Underdog team with few resources but a lot of heart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,31],"tags":[11184,957],"class_list":["post-7891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-movies","tag-movies","tag-the-mighty-macs"],"yoast_head":"\nCheering for the underdogs: making "The Mighty Macs"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The movie about the fabled basketball team opens this Friday -- did you know the original title was "Our Lady of Victory"? -- but it took a long time to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/cheering-for-the-underdogs-making-the-mighty-macs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cheering for the underdogs: making "The Mighty Macs"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The movie about the fabled basketball team opens this Friday -- did you know the original title was "Our Lady of Victory"? 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