Sports quotes

Academe, n.: An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught. Academy, n.: A modern school where football is taught.
Ambrose Bierce

Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.
William Arthur Ward

All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity.
Gordie Howe

All sports for all people.
Pierre de Coubertin

Any time Detroit scores more than 100 points and holds the other team below 100 points they almost always win.
Doug Collins

Approach the game with no preset agendas and you'll probably come away surprised at your overall efforts.
Phil Jackson

As athletes, we're used to reacting quickly. Here, it's 'come, stop, come, stop.' There's a lot of downtime. That's the toughest part of the day.
Michael Jordan

Baseball happens to be a game of cumulative tension but football, basketball and hockey are played with hand grenades and machine guns.
John Leonard

Trying to sneak a fastball past Hank Aaron is like trying to sneak the sunrise past a rooster.
Joe Adcock

What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive.
Arnold Palmer

What's a good tournament for him? Winning it. He's good enough.
Greg Norman

What's unfortunate about buying a pitcher for $12 million is that he carries no warranty.
Bob Verdi

When I was 40, my doctor advised me that a man in his 40s shouldn't play tennis. I heeded his advice carefully and could hardly wait until I reached 50 to start again.
Hugo Black

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Hunter S. Thompson

Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
Vince Lombardi

I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.
Shaquille O'Neal

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

If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death.
Sam Snead

If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead.
Erma Bombeck

If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing you grandmother with her teeth out.
George Brett

If I weren't earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming.
Charles Barkley

If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?
Vince Lombardi

To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other. ~Jack Handey


Prize fighters can sometimes read and write when they start - but they can't when they finish. ~Martin H. Fischer


October is not only a beautiful month but marks the precious yet fleeting overlap of hockey, baseball, basketball, and football. ~Jason Love


I would have thought that the knowledge that you are going to be leapt upon by half-a-dozen congratulatory, but sweaty team-mates would be inducement not to score a goal. ~Arthur Marshall

As a manager, you always have a gun to your head. It's a question of whether there is a bullet in the barrel. ~Kevin Keegan, 1995


The breakfast of champions is not cereal, it's the opposition. ~Nick Seitz


We are inclined that if we watch a football game or baseball game, we have taken part in it. ~John F. Kennedy, 1961


Most people are in a factory from nine till five. Their job may be to turn out 263 little circles. At the end of the week they're three short and somebody has a go at them. On Saturday afternoons they deserve something to go and shout about. ~Rodney Marsh, 1969


I don't think the discus will ever attract any interest until they let us start throwing them at one another. ~Al Oerter