Michael Ritchie is an underappreciated director (or just unknown to most). He's hit-and-miss, but check out this awesome 1-2-3 punch he made in the early seventies:
Prime Cut (1972)
The Candidate (1972)
Smile (1975)
To make those three amazing, wildly different films back-to-back-to-back is quite a feat. (Consider them all recommended.)
You totally left out probably one of the best sports movies ever the original The Bad News Bears
Has anyone seen Downhill Racer? It's a 1969 Ritchie skiing drama starring Redford and Hackman, so I suspect it's one the best films ever made. As far as I know it's never been released on DVD.
It's on my wanted list! Sounds great, doesn't it?
EDIT: It's actually out on R2 DVD!

A friend of mine forwarded this e-mail from Criterion Key-O and Janus Films Managing Director Jonathan Turell :
>On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 8:41 AM, Jonathan Turell wrote:
> Hi Cronos -
>
> Sorry, I found this note buried in my inbox. Yes, Downhill Racer should be
> released in 2009 but can't promise.
>
> Best wishes for the holidays,
>
> Jonathan