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Was 'Blue Chips' a semi-sequel to 'One on One?'

posted 18 years ago by jjtoday2001
2 replies | jump to latest

1. In "One on One," the college is called "Western State," in "BC," it's "Western University." (See Memphis State ---> U. Memphis).

2. The colors of the school in both films are blue and gold. In 1977, "Western State" plays in a "college gym"-type arena (maybe 6-8,000 capacity); in 1995, "Western U." plays in a brand-new coliseum/arena (15,000+ capacity).

3. In both films, the school has big-shot alumni who throw money around for players in violation of NCAA rules.

4. In both films the school has a famous coach, based on a then-current superstar coach (G.D. Spradlin based on John Wooden in One on One, Nolte on Bobby Knight in "BC"), who decides to bend the rules to win.

5. In both films, the 'star player'(Robby Benson in "OoO", Shaq in "BC",) after a few sessions with the cute tutor, finds out he is actually a much better student than anyone thought.

6. Nolte even resembles one of the characters in "One on One," the thick-necked assistant coach whom Spradlin deputizes to have his gorilla-goon players beat the crap out of Benson, get him to quit the team. It's not hard to imagine this assistant would get the head coaching job when Spradlin retired, and Pete Bell was actually the same guy, 18 years later.

7. In both films, the team wins a big game right at the end of the movie, but the main character (Benson in "OoO", Nolte in "BC"), decides he is sick of the hypocrisy of the program, delivers a speech where he tells the bad guys to shove it, and decides to chuck his future at Western.

8. In almost precisely-identical ending scenes, immediately after deciding to quit the Western team, both main characters come upon a bunch of kids playing basketball in the playground, decides to stop by, and rediscovers the fact that just playing basketball is fun.

You could say that both movies are kind of cliched in places and it's just a coincidence they were so similar, but I can't believe somebody among the writers and directors of "Blue Chips" hadn't seen "One on One" 18 years earlier.

[–] jaystarstar 14 years ago

"One on One" was not a HUGE hit but it did OK box office for a teenage-jock movie in the 1970s, and it was played pretty heavily on cable throughout the 1980s (until "Hoosiers" came along and knocked it out of the box as the de-facto 'basketball movie'). Pretty much anybody who gave a hoot about basketball between 1977-1990 would have seen it at some point.

[–] jeffyoung1 10 years ago

I could have sworn that ONE ON ONE was a big hit when it came out in early 1977. The critics loved it. In some ways, the action and love drama was an indictment of the alleged, backroom, under-the-table dealings of big-money in college basketball. Back in the mid to late 1970s, college basketball surged to a level of popularity equal to college football in the news and on television. It didn't last long, though, although college basketball remains popular.