The Mighty Macs is "Official Film" at JP2 Film Festival

The Mighty Macs movie will be known as the “official film” for the 2009 John Paul II International Film Festival.

The movie received two awards: the Reel Rose Award for Best Feature Film and the People’s Festival Award which is based on the audience’s response to the nominated films and was rated on a scale from 1-5 by each viewer. Therefore, by receiving the People’s Festival Award, The Mighty Macs movie will be known as the “official film” for the 2009 John Paul II International Film Festival. READ MORE>>

The Mighty Macs on CBS 3 News

Channel 3 report on the filming of the movie "The Mighty Macs" (formerly "Our Lady Of Victory") at the Hill School in Pottstown PA in June 2007. READ MORE>>

Kathy Rush Speaks

Nabaté Isles conducts interviews from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame's Enshrinement Weekend. The 2008 Class included: Adrian Dantley, William Davidson, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, Pat Riley, Cathy Rush, and Dick Vitale.

This segment features 2008 Inductee, Cathy Rush. Starting with parts of her press conference speech and a SMTA interview.

Coach Rush led the Immaculata Mighty Macs to 6 consecutive AIAW Final Fours (1972-77) and 3 consecutives AIAW championships (1972-74). She coached the 1st nationally televised women's college basketball game in 1975. Her extraordinary career record was 149-15 in 6 seasons. READ MORE>>

THE MIGHTY MACS OFFICIAL TRAILER

The Mighty Mac's is a 2010 film by director Tim Chambers. It stars Carla Gugino in the lead role of Cathy Rush, a real life women's basketball coach. Set in 1972, the film tells the true story of Cathy Rush, a 23-year-old former tomboy. On the brink of giving up on herself, she takes one final shot at her dream and becomes the head basketball coach at Immaculata University located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, near West Chester, Pennsylvania. With the help of nuns, she finds the courage and faith to lead her team along a brave journey at winning a national championship in women's basketball. READ MORE>>

MIGHTY MACS ON ESPN

This video was filmed by ESPN at the Immaculata University campus highlighting the success of the university's basketball program through the years. READ MORE>>

MIGHTY MACS - SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

The Beat

Quick: Which school won the first three women's college basketball championships? Hint: It's not UConn or Tennessee. If you still don't know, get thee to see 'The Mighty Macs' when it comes out later this year.

Carla Gugino (Entourage) will star as the coach of the Immaculata (Pa.) Mighty Macs, an all-girl Catholic school that won the AIAW tournament (the precursor to the women's NCAA tourney) every year from 1972 to '74, an era when most teams wore skirts and were adapting to rew rules allowing more than three dribbles at a time.

"[These girls had been taught to be humble, that girls are the lesser sex," says Gugino (above). "I think this story has a lot to say about something I think is very important- the equality of dreams."
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GUGINO, BOREANAZ STARRING IN BASKETBALL MOVIE

EW.com

Carla Gugino (Night at the Museum, HBO's Entourage) and David Boreanaz (Fox's Bones) will star in The Mighty Macs, a basketball drama directed by Tim Chambers. The movie, set during the 1972 feminist movement, tells the true story of newlywed Cathy Rush (Gugino), who becomes the head basketball coach at a small, all-girls Catholic college.

She eventually leads the team to the first national championship in women's basketball, while the school's nuns fight to keep the owners from selling the institution and its land to developers. Boreanaz is playing Rush's husband.

Marley Shelton (Grindhouse) will play a nun, and Ellen Burstyn (The Wicker Man, Requiem for a Dream) will play the mother superior. Whitney Springer is producing along with Burstyn and Shelton, and former Philadelphia 76ers owner Pat Croce will executive produce.

Production begins this week.
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BOREANAZ, GUGINO SHOOT FOR 'VICTORY'

By Borys Kit
Hollywood Reporter

Carla Gugino and David Boreanaz are starring in "The Mighty Macs," a basketball drama directed by Tim Chambers. Whitney Springer is producing the movie, which is being executive produced by former Philadelphia 76ers owner Pat Croce. Marley Shelton, Ellen Burstyn, James Rebhorn and Phyllis Somerville also are on the team.

Set against the backdrop of the 1972 feminist movement, "The Mighty Macs" tells the true story of sassy newlywed Cathy Rush (Gugino), who becomes the head basketball coach at a tiny, all-girls Catholic college, a team with no gym and no uniforms. She eventually leads the team to the first national championship in women's basketball, while the school's nuns fight to keep the owners from selling the institution and its land to developers.

Chambers, who got the rights to the Rushes and the nuns, wrote the screenplay. Boreanaz is playing Rush's husband. Shelton will be a nun, and Burstyn will portray the mother superior.

"The Mighty Macs," which begins production this week in Philadelphia, is the first movie out of the door for Croce and his Philly-based Quaker Media.

"There was pressure to do this elsewhere, like in North Carolina, but it's a Philly story and so all production is taking place here," said Springer, who described the movie as "Hoosiers" meets "Sister Act."

Boreanaz stars on the Fox crime drama "Bones," which recently was picked up for a third season. He next stars opposite Anne Heche in Alan Cumming's independent black comedy "Suffering Man's Charity."

In June, Boreanaz will guest star in the off-Broadway production of "Spalding Gray: Stories to Tell." He is repped by CAA and Visionary Entertainment.

Gugino is coming off a well-received stint on HBO's "Entourage," where she played Adrian Grenier's ball-busting agent. She recently was seen in "Night at the Museum" and next appears in Ridley Scott's "American Gangster."

Gugino is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment.
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BURSTYN, GUGINO TASTE 'VICTORY'

Boreanaz to co-star in women's hoops drama

By Peter Gilstrap
Variety

Ellen Burstyn, Carla Gugino and David Boreanaz will co-star in independent sports drama "The Mighty Macs."

Tells the story of the Immaculata College women's basketball team, which rose from loser status to victory in the National Women's Collegiate Championship in 1972. Script was penned by helmer Tim Chambers, with Pat Croce producing. Lensing begins today.

Gugino portrays the coach, Boreanaz her husband. Gugino recently starred on HBO's "Entourage." Her film credits include "Night at the Museum" and "The Lookout." Burstyn's credits include "The Fountain" and "The Wicker Man."

Boreanaz stars in the Fox drama "Bones," recently picked up for a third season. In his next feature, he stars in indie black comedy "Suffering Man's Charity."

This month Boreanaz will guest star in the Off Broadway production of "Spalding Gray: Stories to Tell."
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FILM RECALLS TEAM THAT GOT BALL ROLLING

Philly Daily News
By Mari A. Schaefer Inquirer Staff Writer
Jonathan Wilson / Inquirer Staff Photographer

Cathy Rush, who guided Immaculata to the first women's national basketball championship, on the set of a film based on that season.

When the movie about Immaculata College's improbable rise to the national women's collegiate basketball title opens next spring, you might want to look for Sue Forsyth O'Grady in the crowd scenes. She stands 5-foot-2, wears a 1970s-style polyester green pantsuit with neon-red roses in the print, and is just behind the game announcer. If you look closer, you will see she is wearing the championship ring from 1972. "I was a senior," O'Grady said. "We did it for the fun. That's why we played. I just loved playing basketball."

O'Grady was among some 1,400 crew and cast members and volunteer extras who crowded into Hollinger Field House at West Chester University yesterday for a 12-hour filming for The Mighty Macs.

The movie details how tiny Immaculata College and coach Cathy Rush amazingly won that championship in 1972.

The team went on to win the next two championships. The film, which stars Carla Gugino as Cathy Rush and Ellen Burstyn as the mother superior, started filming in late May around Philadelphia's western suburbs. The independent film has a budget of $6.5 million - small by Hollywood standards. Director and screenwriter Tim Chambers, a Cardinal O'Hara High and University of Pennsylvania graduate, secured the rights to the story from Rush, the college, and the Immaculate Heart sisters.

For the original players and families, the film was just another reason to get together. The group has stayed close over the years, and as they caught sight of one another in the crowd, the old friends exchanged hugs.Most have cameo roles in the film, O'Grady said. She also played a nun in a scene filmed earlier at St. Colman Roman Catholic Church in Ardmore."It didn't sink in for years," O'Grady said about the importance of being on the first women's national championship team.

"It was just a whole big exciting moment in their lives," said Anne Daley, 82, whose daughter Pat Opila played on the 1972 team. Daley, of Springfield, Delaware County, and other family members sat in as extras at yesterday's filming. Her daughter, who became Pat Penater when she married, died of cancer at age 29.

"This is a surreal experience," said Denise Conway Crawford, 55, of Havertown, who played on all three championship teams. "I wish we knew back then what an impact this had on women's basketball, and maybe we would have paid attention to the details." Rush, only a few years older than her players, still plays the coach in the group. She enlisted her friends to help unload supplies from her car for a forthcoming summer camp she runs at the college.

Now living in Sarasota, Fla., Rush breezed through the crowd, stopping to give autographs to young girls and chat with people who recognized her.

"It is really pretty overwhelming," she said. "Every time someone says the word movie, my stomach turns. It's exciting." Rush said it was "divine providence" that brought an exceptional group of female athletes together at the right time.

"The story is unbelievable, except it happened," Rush said.

Contact staff writer Mari A. Schaefer at 610-892-9149 or mschaefer@phillynews.com.
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HOW SOME DELCO FOLKS PUT IMMACULATA, AND WOMEN'S HOOPS, ON THE MAP

By Timothy Logue

A new movie will capture the magic of the Immaculata women's basketball team.

With a ceiling scarcely high enough to accommodate a Moses Malone free throw and a floor that dips and rises like a hardwood mogul run, the basketball court in the cellar of St. Colman Church in Ardmore is about as inadequate as they come.

Complementing the stale air, flaking key lime paint and backboards made of plywood are ten cement columns which frame the court just beyond the sidelines - most likely constructed to support the masses above and, perhaps, America's first generation of personal injury lawyers.

"It's perfect," Newtown Square native Tim Chambers said last week during a break in the shooting of "The Mighty Macs."

For Chambers, who went spelunking through several old gymnasiums in search of a backdrop for the practice scenes in his movie about the improbable national title run made by the 1972 Immaculata College women's basketball team, St. Colman's was a godsend - his mini Palestra.

"We could have spent a lot of money trying to recreate something like this," said Chambers, a former Cardinal O'Hara and UPenn football standout who is making his directorial debut.

The same could be said of the story he is hoping will land in theaters next spring.

The Mighty Macs fairytale rise to the summit of women's college hoops was so surreal and unexpected, the team did not even know there was a championship to be won when the 1971-72 season began. And the program was so cash starved, the school could only afford to fly eight of the team's eleven players to Illinois for the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics Women (AIAW) Tournament, the precursor to today's NCAA Tournament.

"Everyone chipped in to get us there - alumni, the board of directors, the student body," said Cathy Rush, who led the tiny Malvern school to back-to-back-to-back championships from 1972-74. "We flew standby to Chicago and then piled into rental cars for the drive to Normal, Ill."

Outfitted in canvas sneakers and Goodwill-worthy tunics accented with plaid sashes, her team appeared dwarfed in every way when they arrived to Illinois State University for the 16-team tournament and sized up the opposition.

"The schools we faced were much bigger than ours," said Rush, whose team bested her alma mater, West Chester, 54-48 in the final. "They had 15 kids traveling, assistant coaches, trainers, managers. They all walked in en masse … We didn't have any of that. It was just me and the girls."

Unsure how her team would measure up against players from schools with 10 and 20 times the enrollment of Immaculata, Rush entered the tournament with modest expectations.

"So many people back home were supporting us, I was thinking 'Please Lord, let us win won game.'

"I assumed we would get creamed."

Wealth of talent

The 1972 Mighty Macs roster was chock full of Delaware County kids, many of whom looked at basketball like any other activity.

"I remember seeing the team and thinking we were pretty good, but there was never a feeling that basketball was more important than anything else," said Judy (Marra) Martelli, wife of St. Joseph College men's basketball coach Phil Martelli. "No one came across as a superstar and nobody worried about standings, or even looked at them.

"It was a small Catholic women's college where you went to school for school."

Even so, Rush's team, filled with Catholic League players who had performed before thousands of fans, had a quiet confidence about them.

"They were never nervous and nothing intimidated them," Rush said. "This was the era before scholarships and there was no recruiting, per se, at that time. Whoever showed up, that's who you had, so I was fortunate to have so many players who loved to compete."

Among them were two future Division 1 coaching greats, Theresa (Shank) Grentz and Rene (Muth) Portland.

After teaching and coaching junior high basketball in the Springfield and Great Valley school district, Rush heard about the coaching vacancy at Immaculata in 1970 and decided to interview.

After a sit down with the school president, Sister Mary of Lourdes McDevitt, she was hired at a starting salary of $450. "I didn't really care at that point," said Rush. "I was 22-year-old and wasn't thinking about the long term. I figured I could coach for a few years and then settle down and start a family."

A fire had burned down the Mighty Mac's gymnasium a few years earlier, leaving Rush and her players without a home court during the 1970-71 season. Practices were held in the novitiate, the building where girls studied to become nuns.

"We had about 50 girls come out for tryouts and I was surprised to see how athletic they were," she said. "Some of the kids could flat out shoot it. I remember going home to tell (then-husband) Ed about this wealth of talent. I said, 'I think we've got some kids who can really play.'"

The Mighty Macs went 10-2 in Rush's first year and then ripped off 24 straight wins in 1971-72 before getting hammered 70-38 in the regional final of the AIAW tournament by West Chester.

Since the top two teams from the region advanced to Illinois, West Chester and Immaculata both received invites to the first-ever women's national tournament. The Mighty Macs were seeded 15th in the 16-team field.

Passing resemblance

Like the rest of her teammates from the 1972 team, Judy (Marra) Martelli read a draft of the "The Mighty Macs" script about a year ago. And while she recognized the overarching themes of empowerment and overcoming odds, many of the characters were strangers. "We all know when we watch a movie that it's made up to a certain degree," Martelli said. "I think we all wanted to see something pretty close to real life; I mean, why change anything?

"But when you think about it, we were all Catholic school girls who came from the same type of homes. It would be kind of boring to watch a movie with no conflicts to resolve."

WIP radio host Anthony Gargano, who did extensive research on the Immaculata story and worked on the screenplay with Chambers, laughed when asked what the players thought of the characters.

"There is a lot of embellishment because it's Hollywood and you have to keep people captivated," Gargano said. "When we gave the players the first draft, everyone thought their character was based on them.

"Judy's a perfect example. We made her a South Philly girl, which, if you know Judy, is not her at all."

Denise (Conway) Crawford, an Archbishop Prendergast graduate and one of eight players from Prendie or Cardinal O'Hara on the Might Mac's roster, said her character, who is upset after splitting with her boyfriend, is pure Hollywood as well.

"The true parts of the movie are that Cathy coached and we won," said Crawford, a real estate agent and longtime CYO basketball coach. "Everything in between is fiction, which is totally understandable."

Crawford views her Immaculata experience and the movie as two separate stories, and she likes them both.

"Tim Chambers has been absolutely wonderful throughout the whole process while dealing with a lot of masters," she said. "He's trying to keep the sisters happy, the college happy and the players happy while making a movie for Hollywood that will sell.

"He is doing an excellent job."

Catholic overtones

A former All-Delco football player at Cardinal O'Hara and three-time All-Ivy selection at Penn, the 44-year-old Chambers flirted with the idea of selling the script. Despite a lucrative offer, he passed when Disney told him they envisioned the movie to be "much more 'Sister Act' than female 'Hoosiers.'"

"Scripts like 'Invincible' and others in that genre are selling for $1 million," said Chambers, a West Chester resident who helped produce the movie "Miracle" and has spent nearly 20 years working in the television and movie industries. "Walking away (from the money) wasn't difficult. It was extremely important to maintain the integrity of the story.

"This is ultimately a story about faith and commitment and believing in yourself. It's about a human being who comes into an environment and changes a group of people forever."

After months of searching, Chambers tapped Carla Gugino of HBO's "Entourage" to play Rush and Academy Award-winner Ellen Burstyn as the mother superior. David Boreanaz ("Bones" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") plays Cathy's (now former) husband, retired NBA official Ed Rush, and Marley Shelton ("Sin City" and "Grindhouse") is an Immaculate Heart of Mary nun and assistant coach.

Chambers credits former Sixers President Pat Croce, who has drummed up more than $7 million to finance the film, for making the project possible. "Quite frankly, he is the one who made this happen and allowed me to live the dream," Chambers said. "He gave me the power to walk away from the table - something that doesn't come naturally to someone who grew up in a family with 12 children."

On Thursday, Chambers shot a cameo scene in the pews of St. Colman with Crawford, Grentz, Martelli and four of their teammates from the first championship team. "It went great and we had a lot of fun," said Crawford, whose daughters Lisa and Christie have bit parts in the film as players.

A three-time All-American at Immaculata and member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, Grentz said the clocks roll back whenever the girls get together.

"It's always the same routine," said Grentz, who recently stepped down as coach of the women's team at the University of Illinois. "We ask how the husbands and kids are doing and then we fall back into the way were as players and students. The fact that we all ended up at Immaculata together has always been a providential thing to me - part of God's plan."

A native of Glenolden, Grentz was preparing to attend Mount St. Mary's College on a full academic scholarship when her family's house burned down. "That's when I made the decision that I needed to be with my family and decided to go to Immaculata," she said. "More than anything, it taught me that when you're dealt a couple of bad cards in life, you should play them. You need to have some hope; have some trust that things will work out."

Gargano said faith is a big part of the movie and the identity of Immaculata's sixth man is never in doubt.

"There are heavy Catholic overtones in the story, which is not surprising given the subject and the fact that Tim and I are both products of Catholic schools," he said. "Our upbringing played an integral part of our lives in a positive way. It was the same thing with these girls."

While he didn't take on the project to promote the Catholic Church, Chambers said that "if the byproduct of telling the story is showing the church in a positive light, than so be it. There is certainly a faith-based element to it but there are also universal themes that are still relevant today."

Rush is convinced she and her players converged at Immaculata for a reason. "The nuns were a huge part of our support system and we all believed it was divine intervention that we were there at the same time," she said.

Croce, who partnered with Chambers to form a production company called Quaker Media, spoke in similar terms about the way the everything has fallen into place for the film.

"To make this movie with Tim directing and all these incredible actors together at once is beyond anything I could have imagined," said Croce, a Lansdowne native who made his inaugural appearance as a judge on the ABC show "American Inventor" last week. "I think the same thing that happened to Cathy Rush and her girls, the way the stars aligned, is happening to us as we make this movie."

In addition to Ardmore, the movie is being shot in West Chester, Phoenixville, Pottstown and on the Immaculata campus in Malvern.

Filming for "The Mighty Macs" will continue through the end of the month and Gargano is optimistic Croce and Chambers will find a distributor for the film. Disney is a possibility, as is Walden Media, the company which produced the cinema version of the "Chronicles of Narnia," a series of fantasy novels for kids.

"As long as we produce a nice film, I don't think it will be a problem," Gargano said. "I thought 'Invincible' would be a nice, cute little movie and then it exploded. I was shocked by how well it did.

"It just shows you how people have a hunger for a good story, whether it's Vince's journey to the NFL or Cathy taking her girls to a championship.

"I think we would all love to see it out there by March Madness."

With the advent of the female scholarship athlete in 1976, Rush said she "could see the writing on the wall" when she retired from Immaculata in 1977 after just seven seasons with a record of 149-15.

"I wanted them to offer scholarships and Immaculata said no," she recalled. "It was another time when I was wrong and they were right. There was no way we were going to compete on a national level against the powerhouse programs."

Before she left Immaculata and started the very successful Future Stars basketball camp, Rush made two more appearances in the national championship game and a trip to the semifinals. Her team played in front of 12,000 fans at Madison Square Garden and participated in the first nationally televised women's basketball game.

"I'm still a huge fan and I think the game is fabulous," said Rush, who made $1,200 her last season at Immaculata. "When you compare it to men's college or pro, it doesn't look as good on TV, but I think it's great game in person."

And what about the big screen?

"You could have asked the same question about 'A League of Their Own,' and a lot less people watched women's baseball than basketball," she said. "And this is a better story."

While it takes a while in the movie for the nuns to warm up to Rush's character, Sister Marian William Hoben, 84, President Emerita of Immaculata, said the whole college was pulling for the Mighty Macs and their pioneering coach.

"I always enjoyed watching the team but it wasn't until this gang came along that anyone else took notice," she said. "The players would go over to Camilla Hall, the retirement home here, and ask the sisters to pray for them."

Hoben said the Mighty Macs' success took everyone by surprise.

"I remember the day one of the girls came in and said 'Sisters, we're going to the regionals!' I smiled sweetly and said, 'That's wonderful!' even though we had no idea what she was talking about."
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