It’s hard to imagine a football coach starting off with less than real-life hero Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson) does when he arrives at Fort Worth’s Masonic Home in “12 Mighty Orphans”: No shoes for his team, no field for his team and no team.
Nothing but potential, you might say, and that’s just enough for an optimist to work with.A veteran of World War I and an orphan in his own right, Russell took those shortcomings and revolutionized the game.
He motivated just enough players to form a team and then innovated the so-called spread offense to take on bigger squads from stronger schools.
The “Mighty Mites,” as they came to be known, embody practically everything that underdog sports movies are made of, and director Ty Roberts’ treatment (derived from Jim Dent’s fact-based book) hits nearly all the feel-good notes we’ve come to expect from the genre,
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