Invincible!

Since it was raining today on my day off I headed down to the local theater to see the film, "Invincible". The movie is about the Eagles in 1976 when Dick Vermile took over as coach. Apparently the Eagles stank and to shake things up, Dick Vermile held open try outs. One 30 year old man from south Philly who had never even played college ball made the team. It is a good story where a man who was down on his luck took a chance and beat the odds.

It was nice to "be back in Philly" for a couple of hours even if I had to be transported back in time to 1976. It made me smile to see how they accurately played the Philadelphia sports fans as the actress who played Vermile's wife reminded him that "they even through ice balls at Santa" when he was making a risky decision.

There were also many good shots of south Philadelphia and I am assuming graphically created images of the old no longer standing Vetrans stadium.

Another fun thing was to see Yuengling Beer featured in the film. Being from Pottsville the home of America's oldest brewery - I felt a bit of home town pride seeing it up there on the big screen. However being from Pottsville and between having toured the brewery and my Dad being an acquaintance of Dick Yuengling - it occured to me as I was watching the movie that it may indeed be historically inaccurate. In fact after checking the website - it was clear that the Lager was only re-introduced after decades of not producing it - in 1985 when Dick Yuengling took over the brewery from his Dad. Also before that Yuengling was not marketed in the Philadelphia area.

Although the ending of the movie was triumphant - I have to say that I was a bit sad and homesick when it ended. :o(