SPORT QUOTES
”
If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?
Vince Lombardi (coach)
[expand title=”⊻ More Quotes …” id=”seo” expanded=”true”]
”
The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.
Ernie Banks #14
”
Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.
Yogi Berra #8
”
My greatest gift that I have in life is basketball.
Isaiah Thomas #4
”
If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?
Joe Namath #12
”
I wanted to be a hockey player. Where I grew up, the basketball courts were rarely used. I was terrible in school and actually said, ‘I’m going to be a hockey player.’
Denis Leary (entertainer)
”
If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.
Carl Lewis #915
”
During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.
Mickey Mantle #7
”
You have to do something in your life that is honorable and not cowardly if you are to live in peace with yourself.
Larry Brown #43
”
I am building a fire, and everyday I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.
Mia Hamm #9
”
One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something.
Nolan Ryan #34
”
Leadership, like coaching, is fighting for the hearts and souls of men and getting them to believe in you.
Eddie Robinson (coach)
”
There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either IN or you’re OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between.
Pat Riley (coach)
”
The Black Mamba collection of watches is me: It is my alter ego, so to speak. As I mentioned before, it is sharp, cutting edge and sleek which are characteristics I try to apply when I’m out there on the basketball court.
Kobe Bryant #24
”
When you take a year off from football, you come back for all the enjoyable moments. When you’re not playing, you miss out on all the highs, but you also miss these disappointments. But I would rather be in the arena to be excited or be disappointed than not have a chance at all. That’s football. That’s why everybody plays it.
Peyton Manning #18
”
Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.
Ross Perot (billionaire)
”
Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it’s business or baseball, or the theater, or any field. If you don’t love what you’re doing and you can’t give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You’ll be an old man before you know it.
Al Lopez #10
”
When I was younger, I had some close friends who always loved European football, and Real Madrid at that time were the dominant force. I remember family holidays when we used to go to Spain, and we’d bring back replica shirts of Real Madrid and pretend to be the players when we played in the park.
Gareth Bale #11
”
Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.
Marv Levy (coach)
”
You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.
Michael Phelps (swimmer)
”
Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.
William James (psychologist)
”
The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.
Steve Young #8
”
People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.
Rogers Hornsby #4
”
I think the thing you always got to keep in mind, you know, hockey is a game of one-on-one battles.
Mark Messier #11
”
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan #23
”
I don’t know how tall I am or how much I weigh. Because I don’t want anybody to know my identity. I’m like a superhero. Call me Basketball Man.
LeBron James #23
”
What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.
Dean Smith (coach)
”
Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.
Babe Ruth #3
”
Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.
Babe Ruth #3
”
You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.
Michael Phelps (swimmer)
”
Baseball is a team game but, at the same time, it’s a very lonely game: unlike in soccer or basketball, where players roam around, in baseball everyone has their little plot of the field to tend. When the action comes to you, the spotlight is on you but no one can help you.
Chad Harbach (author)
”
An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.
Emil Zatopek #903
”
It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.
Vince Lombardi (coach)
”
Michael Jordon may have been the best basketball player in history, but he couldn’t have won six NBA titles without a team.
Mark E. Hyman #11
”
Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical.
Yogi Berra #8
”
Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.
Bill Gates (billionaire)
”
Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
Frank Gifford #16
”
BRACE yourself!
CG
”
Give me golf clubs, fresh air and a beautiful partner, and you can keep the clubs and the fresh air.
Jack Benny (actor)
”
It takes a tremendous amount of skill to be a football player. And some of these guys have enough skills to do other sports. Soccer could be one. Basketball could be another. Things where you need incredible hand-eye coordination are always options. I think a football player would be able to adapt to a lot of sports.
Troy Polamalu #43
”
My father made me who I am. He gave me a basketball and told me to play with the ball, sleep with the ball, dream with the ball. Just don’t take it to school. I used it as a pillow, and it never gave me a stiff neck.
Shaquille O’Neal #34
”
My dad was very much a John Wayne kind of guy, but he was also a great guy, great sense of humor, a real dedicated dad. I don’t think he ever missed a hockey game I was in.
Denis Leary (entertainer)
”
The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.
Joe Paterno (coach)
”
Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.
Yogi Berra #8
”
Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.
George Halas #7
”
I didn’t believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on the field and be prepared to play a good game.
Tom Landry #49
”
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Hunter S. Thompson (author)
”
Hockey is a tough game.
Bobby Orr #4
”
Baseball happens to be a game of cumulative tension but football, basketball and hockey are played with hand grenades and machine guns.
John Leonard (curling player)
”
One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar #33
”
I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan #23
”
It’s not the will to win that matters everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.
Paul Bear Bryant (coach)
”
People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.
Rogers Hornsby #4
”
Do not let what you can not do interfere with what you can do.
John Wooden (coach)
”
When you’re riding, only the race in which you’re riding is important.
Bill Shoemaker (jockey)
”
Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing!
Vince Lombardi (coach)
”
If at first you don’t succeed, you are running about average.
M.H. Alderson
”
To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them.
Picabo Street (athlete/actress)
”
Whether somebody is really competent – whether he has a good hockey mind, whether he’s a good person to lead a hockey club – is something determined over a long period of time, not one tournament.
Steve Yzerman #19
”
My uncle played rugby, and my dad played football, and they used to argue which game was the roughest – and everybody agreed rugby was. It’s a great team sport, and to be successful, every person has to play in the same level.
Clint Eastwood (actor)
”
There’s a tipping point that happens with soccer in which you just kinda get it. I was drawn to it because the best soccer teams play similarly to my favorite basketball teams – like the eighties Lakers or eighties Celtics – teams that emphasized teamwork over individualism and relied on passing as their biggest ongoing edge.
Bill Simmons (journalist)
”
Listen, everything I have in my life is because of the NHL and because of hockey, and I love the game and I loved every minute of being a player, I loved coaching, I loved being involved in the NHL.
Wayne Gretzky #99
”
The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.
Pele #10
”
I treated it like every day was my last day with a basketball.
LeBron James #23
”
It’s good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling.
Mark Twain (author)
”
My dad had this thing – everyone in Canada wants to play hockey; that’s all they want to do. So when I was a kid, whenever we skated my dad would not let us on the ice without hockey sticks, because of this insane fear we would become figure skaters!
Norm MacDonald (actor)
”
You’re never a loser until you quit trying.
Mike Ditka #89
”
I knew at a young age, whether I was playing baseball or hockey or lacrosse, that my teammates were counting on me, whether it be to strike the last batter out in a baseball game or score a big goal in a hockey game.
Wayne Gretzky #99
”
I don’t like my hockey sticks touching other sticks, and I don’t like them crossing one another, and I kind of have them hidden in the corner. I put baby powder on the ends. I think it’s essentially a matter of taking care of what takes care of you.
Wayne Gretzky #99
”
There are three types of baseball players: Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what happens.
Tommy Lasorda #2
”
In college, you had to worry about that math class or this exam that’s coming up on Tuesday, but not in the professionals. You eat, sleep, and do everything related to your craft – and your craft is football. You can be at it from sunup to sundown.
Cam Newton #1
”
That’s one of the great things about Thanksgiving: Football’s on!
Michael Strahan #92
”
Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
Michael Jordan #23
”
The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.
Jackie Robinson #42
”
Faith is the most important thing in the world to me. It’s the greatest strength I’ve had. It’s helped me get through the hard times. You’re not going to win every one of your football games. I’ve always said I’m not going to make football my god. A lot of coaches put so much into coaching football games that they have nothing left.
Bobby Bowden #1
”
Stubbornness usually is considered a negative; but I think that trait has been a positive for me.
Cal Ripken Jr. #8
”
If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.
Herschel Walker #34
”
Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.
Ted Williams #9
”
Just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it.
Ted Williams #9
”
I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability.
Bruce Jenner #935
”
The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.
Tommy Lasorda #2
”
Baseball is a lot like life. It’s a day-to-day existence, full of ups and downs. You make the most of your opportunities in baseball as you do in life.
Ernie Harwell #42
”
Every day is a great day for hockey.
Mario Lemieux #66
”
A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.
Jack Dempsey (boxer)
”
Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.
Mike Singletary #50
”
The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.
Babe Ruth #3
”
Make each day your masterpiece.
John Wooden (coach)
”
If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.
Ben Hogan (golfer)
”
Basketball is a simple game. Your goal is penetration, get the ball close to the basket, and there are three ways to do that. Pass, dribble and offensive rebound.
Phil Jackson #18
”
EmBRACE your number!
CG
”
Most talented players don’t always succeed. Some don’t even make the team. It’s more what’s inside.
Brett Favre #4
”
I have always maintained that in basketball the importance of the mental to the physical is about four to one.
Bobby Knight #1
”
I have to tell you, I’m proudest of my life off the court. There will always be great basketball players who bounce that little round ball, but my proudest moments are affecting people’s lives, effecting change, being a role model in the community.
Magic Johnson #32
”
The hardest skill to acquire in this sport is the one where you compete all out, give it all you have, and you are still getting beat no matter what you do. When you have the killer instinct to fight through that, it is very special.
Eddie Reese (coach)
”
We can have no progress without change, whether it be basketball or anything else.
John Wooden (coach)
”
What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.
Andre Agassi (tennis player)
”
Champions keep playing until they get it right.
Billie Jean King (tennis player)
”
I want to rip out his heart and feed it to Lennox Lewis. I want to kill people. I want to rip their stomachs out and eat their children.
Mike Tyson (boxer)
”
I’m not playing for other people; if I start thinking in those terms I would put too much pressure on myself. I play basketball because that is what I love to do.
Jeremy Lin #7
”
Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.
Bobby Unser #6
”
There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.
Derek Jeter #2
”
Hockey seems completely lawless and, therefore, inexplicably sexy.
Rachel Nichols (actress)
”
It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.
Vince Lombardi (coach)
”
Just be patient. Let the game come to you. Don’t rush. Be quick, but don’t hurry.
Earl Monroe #10
”
Basketball is my passion, I love it. But my family and friends mean everything to me. That’s what’s important. I need my phone so I can keep in contact with them at all times.
LeBron James #23
”
A lot of late nights in the gym, a lot of early mornings, especially when your friends are going out, you’re going to the gym, those are the sacrifices that you have to make if you want to be an NBA basketball player.
Jason Kidd #5
”
Number one is just to gain a passion for running. To love the morning, to love the trail, to love the pace on the track. And if some kid gets really good at it, that’s cool too.
Pat Tyson (author)
”
The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.
Wayne Gretzky #99
”
Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.
Arnold Palmer (golfer)
”
I love hockey, and I don’t love it for any other reason than when I get out there and play, I enjoy it.
Brendan Fehr (actor)
”
The truth is the Super Bowl long ago became more than just a football game. It’s part of our culture like turkey at Thanksgiving and lights at Christmas, and like those holidays beyond their meaning, a factor in our economy.
Bob Schieffer (journalist)
”
I never left the field saying I could have done more to get ready and that gives me piece of mind.
Peyton Manning #18
”
Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.
Dan Gable (wrestler)
”
Every memory I had growing up was involving a basketball. I didn’t go to the prom and stuff like that. It was always basketball for me.
Kevin Durant #35
”
Free agency screws everybody’s allegiances up. Whether it be football, baseball, hockey, basketball, whatever it may be. It’s really hard.
Bill Goldberg #95
”
If you’re a basketball player, you’ve got to shoot.
Oscar Robertson #14
”
It ain’t over till it’s over.
Yogi Berra #8
”
I have a huge interest in hockey because I grew up in Canada, where it’s kind of the law that you love hockey.
Matthew Perry (politician)
”
Sometimes it just feels like the only thing you do is play hockey and eat.
Henrik Lundqvist #30
”
If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough.
Mario Andretti (racer)
”
I prefer to win titles with the team ahead of individual awards or scoring more goals than anyone else. I’m more worried about being a good person than being the best football player in the world. When all this is over, what are you left with? When I retire, I hope I am remembered for being a decent guy.
Lionel Messi #10
”
You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
Michael Jordan #23
”
Cricket is basically baseball on valium.
Robin Williams (actor)
”
You find that you have peace of mind and can enjoy yourself, get more sleep, and rest when you know that it was a one hundred percent effort that you gave win or lose.
Gordie Howe (hockey-legend)
”
Affirmative action is a little like the professional football draft. The NFL awards its No. 1 draft choices to the lowest-ranked team in the league. It doesn’t do this out of compassion or guilt. It’s done for mutual survival. They understand that a league can only be as strong as its weakest team.
J. C. Watts #99
”
What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle, and giving 110 percent all the time.
Don Zimmer (coach)
”
Growing up, if I hadn’t had sports, I don’t know where I’d be. God only knows what street corners I’d have been standing on and God only knows what I’d have been doing, but instead I played hockey and went to school and stayed out of trouble.
Bobby Orr #4
”
Champions keep playing until they get it right.
Billie Jean King (tennis player)
”
I tried all kinds of sports when I was a kid, like soccer and tennis and golf, and, in fact, started skating to be able to play hockey.
Patrick Chan (figure skater)
”
I won’t predict anything historic. But nothing is impossible.
Michael Phelps (swimmer)
”
Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.
Bill Shankly (coach)
”
My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.
Hank Aaron #44
”
I wasn’t naturally gifted in terms of size and speed; everything I did in hockey I worked for, and that’s the way I’ll be as a coach.
Wayne Gretzky #99
”
It’s something you dream about as a kid. Like when you play all those NCAA video games as a kid and you create your own player and win the Heisman with a bunch of crazy numbers. It’s the biggest, most prestigious award in college football, so it’d definitely be a dream come true.
Johnny Manziel #2
”
There are only two seasons – winter and Baseball.
Bill Veeck (promotor)
”
You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.
Wayne Gretzky #99
”
When I was a kid, I remember playing hockey outside and whenever you did, you thought about playing for Finland vs. Sweden. That’s just the way it was.
Teemu Selanne #8
”
Continuous effort not strength or intelligence is the key to unlocking our potential.
Liane Cardes
”
For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a professional hockey player.
Mario Lemieux #66
”
I always had a philosophy which I got from my father. He used to say, ‘Listen. God gave to you the gift to play football. This is your gift from God. If you take care of your health, if you are in good shape all the time, with your gift from God no one will stop you, but you must be prepared.’
Pele #10
”
It ain’t over ’til it’s over.
Yogi Berra #8
”
When I go out there, I have no pity on my brother. I am out there to win.
Joe Frazier (boxer)
”
Basketball is in my blood. It is my obligation to try.
Hakeem Olajuwon #34
”
Without football, my life is worth nothing.
Cristiano Ronaldo #7
”
I had all the usual ambition growing up. I wanted to be a writer, a musician, a hockey player. I wanted to do something that wasn’t nine to five. Acting was the first thing I tried that clicked.
Michael J. Fox (actor)
”
My parents were kind of over protective people. Me and my sister had to play in the backyard all the time. They bought us bikes for Christmas but wouldn’t let us ride in the street, we had to ride in the backyard. Another Christmas, my dad got me a basketball hoop and put it in the middle of the lawn! You can’t dribble on grass.
Jimmy Fallon (comedian)
”
Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps.
Tiger Woods (golfer)
”
Soccer is a matter of life and death, except more important.
Bill Shankly (soccer legend)
”
It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters.
Evander Holyfield (boxer)
”
To me, football is so much about mental toughness, it’s digging deep, it’s doing whatever you need to do to help a team win and that comes in a lot of shapes and forms.
Tom Brady #12
”
Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps.
Tiger Woods (golfer)
”
I still play hockey every now and then, and I still golf. But my biggest exercise is walking my big dog in the park every day.
Michael J. Fox (actor)
”
I don’t train for football; I train more for a lifestyle.
Ray Lewis #52
”
You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.
Jerry West #44
”
Winners never quit and quitters never win.
Vince Lombardi (coach)
”
I’ve never been a fan of individual awards because football is such a team sport. There’s so many things that goes into making plays. It’s about teammates trusting one another and working together.
Troy Polamalu #43
”
You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.
Herb Brooks #80
”
Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee (athlete)
”
I’m a basketball player. That’s what I do and what I love but that’s just not all who I am. I’m talented in a lot of different areas.
Kevin Durant #35
”
You could be a kid for as long as you want when you play baseball.
Cal Ripken, Jr. #8
”
I used to practice at the hockey ground on synthetic surface while I was in the sports hostel, so Test cricket is certainly going to be a challenge for me.
Suresh Raina #3
”
I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.
Sandy Koufax #32
”
Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.
Lou Holtz (coach)
”
My days shouldn’t be hard because I’m doing what I’m doing and that’s playing basketball.
Derrick Rosem #25
”
To me, it doesn’t matter how good you are. Sport is all about playing and competing. Whatever you do in cricket and in sport, enjoy it, be positive and try to win.
Ian Botham (cricket player)
”
When you win, say nothing, when you lose, say less.
Paul Brown (coach)
”
Whether you’re trying to learn in hockey or trying to learn in life, I’ve always tried to be observant and tried to learn more, tried to evolve, whether it’s as a hockey player or as a person. With each year, I try to do that.
Sidney Crosby #87
”
The road to Easy Street goes through the sewer.
John Maddenb #11
”
Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back play for her.
Mia Hamm #9
”
One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it.
Knute Rockne (coach)
”
You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward. But both those methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self motivation.
Homer Rice (coach)
”
Don’t walk through life just playing football. Don’t walk through life just being an athlete. Athletics will fade. Character and integrity and really making an impact on someone’s life, that’s the ultimate vision, that’s the ultimate goal – bottom line.
Ray Lewis #52
”
I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.
Tom Landry #49
”
In college I never realized the opportunities available to a pro athlete. I’ve been given the chance to meet all kinds of people, to travel and expand my financial capabilities, to get ideas and learn about life, to create a world apart from basketball.
Michael Jordan #23
”
When I step on that basketball court, I’m thinking about basketball, I’m thinking about winning – but there’s so much that goes into thought about how I’m going to open this game up to others. It’s so much more than just basketball.
Carmelo Anthony #7
”
As long as you put on a jersey, no matter what kind of jersey it is, as long as you’re supporting the game of basketball, I enjoy it.
Dwyane Wade #3
”
Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
Babe Ruth #3
”
Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.
George Orwell (author)
”
If you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail.
Mark Spitz (swimmer)
”
There were high school coaches such as Charles Boston that took me under his wing and taught me the fundamentals of football. And when I went to college there was Robert Hill who took me there and he showed me what hard work and determination would do if you put forth the effort and you take a little time.
Walter Payton #34
”
As a kid in New Zealand, you play cricket in summer and rugby in winter. I played cricket and hockey. Not rugby. I wasn’t brawny enough for it. Or silly enough, perhaps.
Glenn Turner (cricket player)
”
I’m not going out and hitting a 95-mph fastball where I can’t see the stitches. I’m not on a professional football team looking to tackle a fullback who is built like solid wood. I’m a thinking person, and I’ve been blessed with the ability to see some things and talk about them in a way that registers in a humorous and funny way.
Bill Cosby (comedian)
”
A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.
Mary Lou Retton (artistic gymnas)
”
The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (former President of the USA)
”
All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity.
Gordie Howe #9
”
The game of life is a lot like football. You have to tackle your problems, block your fears, and score your points when you get the opportunity.
Lewis Grizzard (author)
”
Normal people have an incredible lack of empathy. They have good emotional empathy, but they don’t have much empathy for the autistic kid who is screaming at the baseball game because he can’t stand the sensory overload. Or the autistic kid having a meltdown in the school cafeteria because there’s too much stimulation.
Temple Grandin
”
The skill set for hockey is so specific to skating and if you haven’t been skating as a kid it’s impossible to play – and I wasn’t a skater.
Liev Schreiber (author)
”
We all know that the great memories of our childhood are the little triumphs – it doesn’t really matter whether that was in writing, art, on the hockey field or on the football field. It’s something that makes you feel – ‘I can do this stuff.’
Michael Morpurgo (author)
”
If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.
Ronnie Lott #42
”
Never give up, never give in, and when the upper hand is ours, may we have the ability to handle the win with the dignity that we absorbed the loss.
Doug Williams #17
”
Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.
Larry Bird #33
”
A lot of things look good on an academic’s blackboard in terms of the actions that need to be taken. It’s almost like a football coach, when you draw the X’s and O’s: Every play that is chalked on that board goes for a touchdown. Well, there are a lot of yards to be made between the line of scrimmage and the touchdown.
John O. Brennan (politician)
”
For me, baseball is more comparable to chess than it is to hockey.
Jeff Garlin (actor)
”
Football is football and talent is talent. But the mindset of your team makes all the difference.
Robert Griffin III #10
”
Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.
Michael Jordan #23
”
You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar #33
”
It’s a heavy duty to try to do everything and please everybody. My job was to go out there and play the game of basketball as best I can and provide entertainment for everyone who wanted to watch basketball. Obviously, people may not agree with that; again, I can’t live with what everyone’s impression of what I should or what I shouldn’t do.
Michael Jordan #23
”
Look at a football field. It looks like a big movie screen. This is theatre. Football combines the strategy of chess. It’s part ballet. It’s part battleground, part playground. We clarify, amplify and glorify the game with our footage, the narration and that music, and in the end create an inspirational piece of footage.
Steve Sabol (filmmaker)
”
There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don’t believe there is only one greatest player either.
Michael Jordan #23
”
A lot of my friends growing up were hunters, but I spent all my time on the ice hurting actual humans playing hockey. I never had the chance to run through the woods and shoot at a moose or deer. I was shooting pucks at goaltender’s heads.
Kevin Durant #35
”
A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.
Wayne Gretzky #99
”
What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.
John Wooden (coach)
”
Probably the biggest thing that surprises people is that I am obsessed with hockey. I grew up in the Boston area so I am obsessed with hockey since I was a little kid.
Rob Zombie (filmmaker)
”
I see great things in baseball. It’s our game – the American game.
Walt Whitman (poet)
”
I am sure that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place.
James Naismith (inventor of basketball)
”
Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.
Ted Williams #9
”
Win If You Can, Lose If You Must, But NEVER QUIT!
Cameron Trammell
”
There’s two times of year for me: Football season, and waiting for football season.
Darius Rucker (singer)
”
When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.
Terry Bradshaw #12
”
Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be.
Mario Lemieux #66
”
Baseball is a team game but, at the same time, it’s a very lonely game: unlike in soccer or basketball, where players roam around, in baseball everyone has their little plot of the field to tend. When the action comes to you, the spotlight is on you but no one can help you.
Chad Harbach (author)
”
Skating is big in Chicago. There’s a lot of hockey a lot of the boys play hockey. And figure skating is big.
Joan Cusack (actor)
”
It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.
Babe Ruth #3
”
Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.
Pat Riley (manager)
”
Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he’s losing; nobody wants you to quit when you’re ahead.
Jackie Robinson #42
”
Football teaches you hard work. It takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to have spectacular results in both business and football.
Roger Staubach #12
”
Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.
Gary Lineker #10
”
Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.
Leroy Satchel Paige #29
”
One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it.
Knute Rockne (coach)
”
Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.
Vince Lombardi (coach)
”
Adversity causes some men to break others to break records.
William Arthur Ward (author)
”
How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.
Lou Holtz #88
”
March is a month without mercy for rabid basketball fans. There is no such thing as a ‘gentleman gambler’ when the Big Dance rolls around. All sheep will be fleeced, all fools will be punished severely… There are no Rules when the deal goes down in the final weeks of March. Even your good friends will turn into monsters.
Hunter S. Thompson (entertainer)
”
You don’t play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.
Bobby Knight #1
”
I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.
Larry Bird #33
”
If you think it’s hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.
Jack Lemmon (actor)
”
First impressions matter more in basketball than in any other sport, and they can be savored only in person. Players can’t hide behind pads or helmets, so we can stare at them, evaluate every move they make: running, jumping, walking, even ogling the cheerleaders. We can see every ripple and tattoo. If they’re lazy, we can tell.
Bill Simmons (journalist)
”
You have to give 100 percent in the first half of the game. If that isn’t enough, in the second half, you have to give what’s left.
Yogi Berra #8
”
It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.
Muhammad Ali (boxer)
”
People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.
Rogers Hornsby #4
”
When I was young, I had to learn the fundamentals of basketball. You can have all the physical ability in the world, but you still have to know the fundamentals.
Michael Jordan #23
”
In an individual sport, yes, you have to win titles. Baseball’s different. But basketball, hockey? One person can control the tempo of a game, can completely alter the momentum of a series. There’s a lot of great individual talent.
Kobe Bryant #24
”
I always thought I wanted to play professionally, and I always knew that to do that I’d have to make a lot of sacrifices. I made sacrifices by leaving Argentina, leaving my family to start a new life. I changed my friends, my people. Everything. But everything I did, I did for football, to achieve my dream.
Lionel Messi #10
”
If you only ever give 90% in training then you will only ever give 90% when it matters.
Michael Owen #10
”
And people who know me would tell you that away from hockey I’m really not that competitive.
Wayne Gretzky #99
”
Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.
Matt Biondi (swimmer)
”
You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.
Arthur Ashe (tennis player)
”
A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That’s how I want you to play.
Mike Krzyzewski (coach)
”
The game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I’ve always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It’s been the site of intense pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It’s a relationship that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the game.
Michael Jordan #23
”
Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible.
Frank L. Gaines (coach)
”
You see a hockey player, you’d never know he’s a professional athlete. But you put the skates on him, and he becomes a beast.
Junior Seau #55
”
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
Henry David Thoreau (author)
”
I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow. I just know for sure I’m going to keep playing basketball.
Kevin Durant #35
”
Football is football and talent is talent. But the mindset of your team makes all the difference.
Robert Griffin III #10
”
Some people say I have attitude maybe I do but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does that makes you a winner right there.
Venus Williams (tennis player)
”
My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.
Hank Aaron #44
”
When I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it’s time for me to move away from the game.
Michael Jordan #23
”
Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time.
Lou Brock #20
”
Adversity cause some men to break; others to break records.
William A. Ward (author)
”
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan #23
”
I’m not a role model… Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.
Charles Barkley #34
”
Baseball and American football and hockey are all ahead because they have a history. The MLS is kind of new. So hopefully, in time, and with players coming and trying to develop the game, and the U.S. team also doing well – at the last World Cup, they finished above England and created some buzz.
Thierry Henry #14
”
Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.
Mike Singletary #50
”
You’ve got to take the initiative and play your game. In a decisive set, confidence is the difference.
Chris Evert (tennis player)
”
I think probably one of the coolest things was when I went to play basketball at Rucker Park in Harlem. First of all, who would think that Larry the Cable Guy would go to Harlem to play basketball? And I was received like a rock star. It was amazing! There were people everywhere. There were guys walking by yelling, ‘Git ‘r done!’
Larry the Cable Guy (entertainer)
”
Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.
Bo Jackson #34
”
Sports do not build character. They reveal it.
Heywood Broun (journalist)
”
There’s no point in making predictions. It’s not worth speculating because nothing is set in stone and things change all the time in football. Today there are opportunities that no one knows if they will come round again in the future.
Cristiano Ronaldo #7
”
Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.
Satchel Paige #29
”
You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out, but you gotta suit up for them all.
J. Askenberg
”
Your biggest opponent isn’t the other guy. It’s human nature.
Bobby Knight #1
”
As the Olympic torch neared Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980, signaling the opening of that year’s Winter Olympics, newspapers and magazines throughout the world offered predictions on who would win medals in the major sports. Not a single publication gave the American men’s hockey team a chance against the world powers.
Don Yaeger (motivation coach)
”
Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence.
George F. Will (journalist)
”
Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is.
Bob Feller #19
”
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.
Arnold Schwarzenegger (actor)
”
Since the beginning, I always loved the game. When you grow up in Montreal, one day you want to be a professional hockey player. When I was six or seven, I knew that was what I wanted.
Mario Lemieux #66
”
People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.
Vince Lombardi (coach)
”
Ninety percent of hockey is mental and the other half is physical.
Wayne Gretzky #99
”
Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.
Dan Gable (wrestler)
”
That’s another thing, we made up games. We didn’t have equipment. When it snowed, we would play slow motion tackle football. We would play hockey, but we wouldn’t skate. We just made things up. I loved doing that.
Mike Krzyzewski (coach)
”
I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out.
Rodney Dangerfield (comedian)
”
I see great things in baseball. It’s our game – the American game.
Walt Whitman (surfer)
”
I hated every minute of training, but I said, Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.
Muhammad Ali (boxer)
”
There may be people that have more talent than you, but theres no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.
Derek Jeter #2
”
Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.
Laird Hamilton (surfer)
”
Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.
Babe Ruth #3
”
I am constantly being asked about individuals. The only way to win is as a team. Football is not about one or two or three star players.
Pele #10
”
I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you’re doing. You have to be a salesman, and you have to get your players, particularly your leaders, to believe in what you’re trying to accomplish on the basketball floor.
Phil Jackson #18
”
Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.
Mike Singletary #50
”
Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.
Phil Jackson #18
”
If Colleen Howe had been a hockey player, she would have been a centremen. I can see her as a centreman because you can do what you want and go wherever you want to go.
Gordie Howe #9
”
Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding.
Jim Valvano (coach)
”
Figure skaters have awful perceptions of hockey players.
Kristi Yamaguchi (figure skater)
”
The invention of basketball was not an accident. It was developed to meet a need. Those boys simply would not play ‘Drop the Handkerchief.’
James Naismith (inventor of basektball)
”
Good is not good when better is expected.
Vin Scully #17
”
I’ve never lost a game I just ran out of time.
Michael Jordan, For the Love of the Game.#23
”
The five S’s of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit.
Ken Doherty (snooker player)
”
I never looked at hockey as work. Now that I’d finished playing, I had to go to work.
Bobby Orr #4
”
Hockey is the original extreme sport.
Tom Ward (actor)
”
That’s the awesome part. Little girls now have a chance to look up and see women playing soccer, basketball, softball and now hockey – and know they can win a gold medal, too.
Angela Ruggiero #4
[/expand]