Find out what is fact and fiction when it comes to the story about an Ivy League rowing team in Heart of Champions.
Initially released in 2021 and directed by Michael Mailer, Heart of Champions gave viewers a heartstring-tugging experience that featured Michael Shannon's Coach Murphy (a retired Army veteran) taking over a rowing team that has been losing a lot. However, Coach Murphy changes everything when he approaches things more militaristic.
Sports drama movies usually tend to be based on true stories. Now that Heart of Champions is streaming on Netflix and has become more popular, many wonder if this one is as well.
Is Heart of Champions a True Story?
Many inspiring sports dramas are based on true stories. For example, Remember the Titans, Glory Road, Moneyball, and Coach Carter were all rooted in entirely true events.
So, many will be shocked that Heart of Champions isn't one of those and is instead completely fictional. However, that doesn't mean some details weren't inspired by real events, people, etc.
While the story didn't happen, Heart of Champions writer and producer Vojin Gjaja was on a college rowing team at Columbia University. He also served in the United States Military in the Army branch as an officer, so his experiences directly influenced Coach Murphy's character in the movie.
Michael Shannon's (who recently appeared in A Different Man, which viewers can read more about here) character was a Vietnam Veteran who became the rowing coach at Beeston University.
So, it is clear that Gjaja likely took many of his personal experiences and inserted them into the script, particularly when writing Coach Murphy's dialogue and character arc.
Speaking of Beeston University, it is important to note that it is not a real school. In the film, it is described as an Ivy League school. There are only eight Ivy League universities in the United States, all located in the northeastern part of the country.
The eight Ivy League schools—Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Brown, and Cornell—are known for their academic excellence and prestigious history.
So, Beeston University is not only a fake Ivy League school but a fake school in general, as it does not exist in any capacity. However, a real college known as Louisiana State University (better known as simply LSU) was used to film the scenes that take place there.
Heart of Champions was filmed at LSU due to the school's illustrious architecture. According to producer Lucas Jarach in an interview with LSU student news site Reveille, LSU's "beautiful campus [was] the ideal setting for [the] story:"
"Even though the story does not take place at LSU, the traditional architecture of this beautiful campus is the ideal setting for our story."
Heart of Champions is not the only sports drama that has made viewers question its authenticity, as You Gotta Believe recently came into the spotlight and made many wonder what was real and what was made up.
Heart of Champions is streaming on Netflix.
