Before the University of Connecticut Huskies and the Lady
Vols of Tennessee, there was another women’s basketball dynasty in the college
ranks.
The Mighty Macs of suburban Philadelphia’s Immaculata
University garnered worldwide attention in 1972 when the team won the women’s
college basketball championship. Now that story is being made into an
inspirational film set to hit theaters Oct. 21.
Starring David Boreanz (Fox TV’s Bones) and Academy
Award winner Ellen Burstyn, The Mighty Macs tells the story of head
basketball coach Cathy Rush, played by Carla Gugino (Spy Kids, Night at the
Museum).
Rush, a Baptist, took the position at the all-girls Catholic
school at a time when few women had careers and worked outside the home. The
movie tells how Rush overcame gender obstacles and, with the help of nuns, took
the scrappy group of girls to the women’s national championship.
“Every good sports movie is a metaphor for something else,”
according to the film’s director Tim Chambers. “Just as the movie Miracle
was set against the backdrop of the Cold War and Remember the Titans
tackled race relations, The Mighty Macs is about the equality of dreams.
About not letting ‘who you are’ get in the way of what you can achieve.”
The movie is Chamber’s feature-film directing debut and was
originally titled Our Lady of Victory.
Atlanta-based communications agency Maximus Group is
marketing the film. The firm specializes in marketing inspirational,
Christian-themed movies. Previous hits have included The Passion of the
Christ, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Nativity Story and Fireproof.
