The World's Greatest Athlete

When Coach John Amos and his assistant Tim Conway go looking for athletic talent for Merryvale College, they say they'll travel anywhere. And in The World's Greatest Athlete they go to East Africa in search of a legendary jungle boy raised in the wild whose athletic prowess is beyond belief.

The subject of their search is Jan-Michael Vincent who plays the young Tarzan like man and he's every inch the athlete that former Tarzans like Johnny Weissmuller, Glenn Morris, and Buster Crabbe were. They have to use a little trickery to get him out of the jungle and away from his foster father, witch doctor Roscoe Lee Browne. Browne knows all the jungle remedies, but he's lived in the world outside the Kenyan veld and he's up to its challenges.

But he's still got concern for his foster son who ain't used to civilization and all the things that entails. Among which include women in the person of shapely Dayle Haddon who covers him on the academic end of things at college. Talk about remedial education though, this is really stretching it.

She's also got a jealous suitor in Danny Goldman. Goldman's a little ferret of a schemer, the would be Iago sends for Browne from Kenya to work his voodoo magic to get Vincent back to the woodland wilds and a clear path for Goldman back to Haddon. If that means him losing the big NCAA track meet where Vincent is going to represent Maryvale in all events like Jim Thorpe did years ago for Carlisle, so be it.

Jan-Michael Vincent looks just fabulous in a loin cloth. I'm surprised he never was cast in a straight out Tarzan film. He actually did appear in one years later when he was much older and the bad guy in that one. Of course he just had to utter "Me Nanu.......You Jane" to Haddon whose character name of course was Jane.

Vincent and Haddon get great support from the whole cast, especially Tim Conway who has to deal with being shrunk to three inches in height by Browne in a bar. Conway gets a nice fifteen minute sequence trying to deal with his unfamiliar surroundings. Nancy Walker has a fine bit as a Mrs. Magoo landlady who can't recognize a tiger that Vincent has brought from Africa as a pet. He must have gotten him from the zoo in Mombasa because as most kids know, tigers aren't native to Africa.

This was the final feature film appearance of Billy DeWolfe who plays the dean of the college and Goldman's uncle. I suspect he would have had more of a role had health permitted it.

The World's Greatest Athlete is one of Disney's better screen comedies for the Seventies. And as we learn in the end, Jan-Michael Vincent might not just be The World's Greatest Athlete.

I was lucky enough to be able to see part of "Athlete" being made at my college in Stockton, California in 1972.I also got to meet Jan-Michael Vincent, John Amos and Tim Conway.I also had a confrontation with the tiger. Those memories will be something I won't forget. To top it off, John Amos and Tim Conway also made a surprise visit to my parents, cousin, and Aunt's restaurant also located in Stockton, California. It was called "Al Funzo's.It was a great evening for me, and my family, and the Restaurant patrons that came in that night.As for the movie, The World's Greatest Athlete" was and still is excellent, and ranks high in my list of favorite movies.

After a few decades of knowing about this '70s Disney comedy, I finally took my borrowed DVD and watched The World's Greatest Athlete. In this one, Coach John Amos and his assistant Tim Conway have been on the losing end of various sports endeavors for so long that dean Billy De Wolfe (in a too-brief role)-who's accompanied by his son Danny Goldman-remind them of just one more year on their contract. Amos tears it up and goes to Africa with Conway to get away from it all. There they find Jan-Michael Vincent who outruns a tiger. The only way they can get him, though, is if he saves one of them...I'll stop there and just say that this is one of those silly family comedies that was the House of Mickey's bread-and-butter during the decade that the other major studios were making big box office and winning Oscars with more mature fare. With the Tarzan-inspired story and many well-established special effects, there are quite a few chuckles here-and even a big laugh concerning a wheelchair-bound old man who can "suddenly" walk-that I admit to doing while watching. And it's fun seeing Conway either putting his head where it sometimes doesn't belong or getting moved by a voodoo doll once owned by a witch doctor played by Roscoe Lee Browne. But the stuff involving Nancy Walker as a near-sighted landlady and Goldman as the dean's interloping son I could do without. And stunning Dayle Haddon as Vincent's girlfriend (called Jane, of course) is just window dressing. Still, this is harmless fare that should provide enough enjoyable distraction for 90 minutes especially as you watch such real-life announcers like Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell join in on the fun. P.S. I just found out, via the IMDb site, that Mr. Goldman was the voice of Brainy Smurf on the "Smurfs" TV cartoon show.

If you are a fan of Jan Michael Vincent and would like to see him with very little threads on, this is the film for you! Yes, there's also a cute plot about a black football/baseball/basketball coach (John Amos) who travels to Africa on safari with his hopelessly stupid assistant (Tim Conway). While in Africa, they discover Nanu (Jan Michael Vincent)a young white African boy who possesses amazing athletic abilities. Nanu travels to the USA with the coach to excel in sports. Of course his witch-doctor adoptive father disapproves, and all sorts of goofy 70's effects ensue. JMV wouldn't be remembered for his acting in this movie, but his physique certainly got attention! He's slim and muscular, with long blond hair, and he looks perfect in the skimpy Tarzan outfits. But really, the star of this film is the TIGER! You never see this in movies today - a real, live, full-size tiger wrestling with the leading actor! With his teeth around JMV's neck, no less!! Can you imagine? One false move, and CRUNCH! Dead actor! Wow. I was amazed. JMV cuddles and rolls around with this Tiger throughout the movie. It's awesome. Move on over Russell Crowe - Jan Michael Vincent takes on real tigers, not CGI ones!!!

Silly? You bet - and don't we love silly. A fish out of water? Most certainly - and aren't we all, at one time or another, a fish out of water. Loads of fun? Most definitely. The story line comes from the fertile imagination of someone impacted by Tarzan, but Tarzan was never this much fun. From Africa to America, covering a whole bunch of different types of people, including a tiger and a near-sighted landlady, The World's Greatest Athlete provides humor and a wonderful chance to relax. It gives you a happy chance to laugh at yourself and everyone else. The whole family will enjoy it. Our family found it a favorite when it first came out - and now that I am retired I still enjoy having a laugh at it now and then.