'Sinners' director Ryan Coogler played football in high school and college

The critically-acclaimed filmmaker played football, basketball, and ran track at St. Mary's College High School in Berkeley, California.

Ryan Coogler arrives at Variety's Creative Impact Awards and 10 Directors to Watch during the Palm Springs International Film Festival at the Parker Palm Springs on Friday, January 4, 2019. Psiffcreativeimpactawards5064 / Taya Gray, Special to The Desert Sun

The new vampire horror film Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan in dual roles, hits movie theaters this weekend and is already receiving critical acclaim--with a strong 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.

One fun fact you should know about the film is that the director/writer, Ryan Coogler, was a standout athlete in his youth. He played football as a wide receiver, defensive back, and kick returner, and also excelled at track and basketball, at St. Mary's College High School in Berkeley, California. Coogler even got to face future NFL star Marshawn Lynch in high school.

Coogler was also a standout student who, by his senior year in 2003, had been recruited by schools such as Harvard, Princeton, and Penn. He originally had dreams of studying chemistry and going to medical school if professional football didn't work out.

Coogler attended St. Mary's College of California on a football scholarship as a redshirt wide receiver his college freshman year. However, after St. Mary's dropped its football program in March 2004, he transferred to Sacramento State, where registered 112 receptions for 1,213 yards and six touchdowns during his four years there.

Coogler took many film classes at Sacramento State, which led him to the three-year master's program at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he made a series of short films.
Since then, Coogler has gone on to direct five feature films--all of which star Jordan and are scored by his USC roommate and two-time Academy Award-winning composer Ludwig Goransson.

Coogler's first film was the 2013 indie hit Fruitvale Station, which was about Oscar Grant, a young Oakland man who was killed on New Year's Eve in 2009 by a Bay Area Rapid Transit Officer. It premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize.

Then, Coogler revived the Rocky franchise with the 2015 sports drama Creed, which focused on Adonis Creed (Jordan), the son of Rocky Balboa's former rival turned friend, Apollo Creed. It was a critical and commercial success, garnering a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone at the Oscars, and spawning two sequels.

Coogler then ventured into blockbuster territory with the 2018 superhero film Black Panther. This entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) starred late actor Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa, aka Black Panther, and Jordan as villain Erik Killmonger. The film was an even bigger success as it grossed $1.35 billion at the worldwide box office, and was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning three.

Coogler followed that up with the 2022 MCU sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which focused on Letitia Wright's character Shuri as the lead, taking over for Boseman. The film was another critical and commercial success, grossing $859.2 million worldwide. It also received five Oscar nominations, winning for Costume Design.