Father Was a Fullback (1949)

Football coach George Cooper has as many problems managing his football team as he has at home dealing with his daughters, Ellen and Connie.

Director:

John M. Stahl

Writers:

Clifford Goldsmith (story), Aleen Leslie (screenplay),

Stars:

Fred MacMurray, Maureen O'Hara, Betty Lynn

Cast

Cast overview:
Fred MacMurray	...	George Cooper
Maureen O'Hara	...	Elizabeth Cooper
Betty Lynn	...	Connie Cooper
Rudy Vallee	...	Mr. Jessup
Thelma Ritter	...	Geraldine
Natalie Wood	...	Ellen Cooper
Jim Backus	...	Professor Sullivan (as James G. Backus)
Richard Tyler	...	Joe Birch
Buddy Martin	...	Cheerleader
Frank Mills	...	Assistant Football Coach
Mickey McCardle	...	Jones
John McKee	...	Cy
Louise Lorimer	...	Mrs. Jones
Ruth Clifford	...	Neighbor

Storyline

Coach George Copper's college football team is losing game after game, much to the dismay of stiff-and-stuffy but influential alumni Roger Jessup, and also having trouble at home with his oldest daughter, Connie. The team keeps losing and Coach Cooper is about to lose his job as his efforts to win the last game of the season, against the team's Big Rival, end in disaster. But, unknown to he and his wife, Elizabeth, Connie has sold an article, called "I Was a Bubble Dancer" to a 'True-Confession" magazine, and the girl-who-couldn't-get-a-date becomes suddenly popular and, because of her, the high-school football star from another town decides to play his college-ball for Coach Cooper. Jessup is forced to keep Cooper on as the school's football coach.

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Plot Keywords:

losing | football coach | true confession | bubble dancer | alumni | 

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Taglines:

I wanted to live DANGEROUSLY so I married a football coach (who lost every game)

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Genres:

Comedy | Sport

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 December 1949 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Papai Era Um Craque

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A month after the film's release, 'Natalie Wood (I)' received the child of the year award in celebration of Children's Day.

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Quotes

Elizabeth Cooper: Not going, he a professor, teaches English literature
Ellen Cooper: No, I mean going
George 'Coop' Cooper: Helen, That's ridiculous, go and get clean up
Ellen Cooper: Daphne heard him gurgling on the phone like a worn out wolf about being a freshman in college
Elizabeth Cooper: Oh What an Idea
[looks at George, stunned]
Elizabeth Cooper: George Cooper!
Ellen Cooper: And he was pitching woos to a girl, Daphne thinks maybe she ought to tell her mother
Elizabeth Cooper: George you didn't
George 'Coop' Cooper: Father little helper
[...]

User Reviews

Another hilarious vehicle featuring Fred MacMurray and a young Natalie Wood!

George Cooper(Fred MacMurray)is the losingest coach State U has ever known. A well meaning square fresh from Elm Tree High, his team has potential but is yet to win a game in this his first season, which will make or break him. Comic relief comes in the form of his family's maid who knows to always bet against his team, and two daughters: Natalie Wood as a scruffy tomboy spouting poetic slang in which I must say is her best role, and Betty Lynn(who in real life is actually only eight years younger than Maureen O'Hara)as an angst-ridden hormonal teen with no writers block nor lack of pubescent imagination when she secretly sends in a unique offing to "True Romance" magazine. Her true calling apparently does not help matters any, except when it turns out that Joe Burch, the ploy her parents use to bring her out of her shell, turns out to be a high school football hero all the colleges have been bartering for. He had been intending to go to the leading team school, but in the end decided State U, "to be near Connie...she's the first thing I liked more than a football...." Hurrah! The team now has an official starting star for next season, and George's coaching contract will be renewed. A Happy End.