The World's Greatest Athlete
The World's Greatest Athlete is a 1973 American film directed by Robert Scheerer and starring John Amos, Roscoe Lee Browne, Tim Conway, Dayle Haddon, and Jan-Michael Vincent. Released by Walt Disney Productions, it is one of the few wide-release Hollywood sports films to look at the world of track and field, as the "World's Greatest Athlete", Nanu, played by Vincent, tries to make history by winning every event at the NCAA Track & Field Championship. The screenplay was by Dee Caruso and Gerald Gardner who also did a novelisation of the film.
Plot
Sam Archer and his assistant Milo Jackson are coaches at Merrivale College. They have lost every game in every sport which they have coached, raising the concerns of the head of the Alumni Association. With only one year left on his contract, Archer decides that he is in need of a vacation. Together, Archer and Jackson head to Zambia in Southern Africa.
More details
| author | Gerald Gardner |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | Zambia |
| director | Robert Scheerer |
| genre | adventure |
| keywords | abc-tv american broadcasting company cheetah coach college athletics framing device howard cosell love interest machiavellian merrivale college niccolò machiavelli scheme tarzan their way |
| musicBy | Marvin Hamlisch |
| producer | Bill Walsh |
| productionCompany | Walt Disney Pictures |
| publisher | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
| theme | animals slapstick sports |