Al Mcguire Quotes

#1. My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house. That's not my world. My world has a cracked sidewalk.

Al McGuire

#2. Live every day as if it were Saturday night.

Al McGuire

#3. The people who know basketball, their elevators don't go to the top.

Al McGuire

#4. When I'm losing, they call me nuts. When I'm winning, they call me eccentric.

Al McGuire

#5. You can always tell the Catholic schools by the length of the cheerleaders' skirts.

Al McGuire

#6. The world is run by C students

Al McGuire

#7. Life is what you allow yourself not to see.

Al McGuire

#8. Can't win without talent, you know.

Al McGuire

#9. If a player leaves Marquette and doesn't have some of my blood in him, then I don't think I've done a good job.

Al McGuire

#10. A team should be an extension of a coach's personality. My teams are arrogant and obnoxious.

Al McGuire

#11. When I was losing, they called me nuts. When I was winning they called me eccentric.

Al McGuire

#12. Make your life exciting. Do what you have to do as long as you don't hurt people.

Al McGuire

#13. I don't believe in looking past anybody - I wouldn't look past the Little Sisters of the Poor after they stayed up all night.

Al McGuire

#14. I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated.

Al McGuire

#15. If the waitress has dirty ankles, the chili is good.

Al McGuire

#16. When a guy takes off his coat, he's not going to fight. When a guy takes off his wristwatch, watch out!

Al McGuire

#17. Don't be just another guy going down the street and going nowhere.

Al McGuire

#18. All love affairs end. Eventually the girl is gonna put curlers in her hair.

Al McGuire

#19. Dean Meminger was quicker than 11:15 Mass at a seaside resort.

Al McGuire

#20. I don't discuss basketball. I dictate basketball. I'm not interested in philosophy classes.

Al McGuire

#21. I'm an Einstein of the streets and an Oxford scholar of common sense.

Al McGuire

#22. I just can't recruit where there's grass around. You gotta have a concrete lawn before I feel comfortable enough to go in and talk to you parents.

Al McGuire

#23. I think the world is run by 'C' students.

Al McGuire

#24. It's so ridiculous to see a golfer with a one foot putt and everybody is saying "Shhh" and not moving a muscle. Then we allow nineteen year-old kids to face a game-deciding free throw with seventeen thousand people yelling.

Al McGuire

#25. I want my team to have my personality: surly, obnoxious, and arrogant.

Al McGuire

#26. Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war.

Al McGuire

#27. We rush for the stars as we crawl toward our graves.

Al McGuire

#28. I let ballplayers yell back at me because I wasn't trying to prove I'm boss. I know I'm boss.

Al McGuire

#29. If you're straight with your players, they'll be straight with you.

Al McGuire

#30. There's no one who's dropped on top of the mountain. You've got to work your way to the top.

Al McGuire

#31. The next time I will cry is when I die. My life has been that beautiful.

Al McGuire

#32. Live in the moment that you are in.

Al McGuire

#33. I'm not saying that they were Einsteins; they were marginal students. But every ballplayer whoever touched me has moved up his station in life. And the players moved up my station.

Al McGuire

#34. The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.

Al McGuire

#35. On how to make the game more exciting - Eliminate the referees, raise the basket four feet, double the size of the basketball, limit the height of the players to 5 feet 9 inches, bring back the centre jump, allow taxi drivers in for free and allow the players to carry guns.

Al McGuire

#36. Help one kid at a time. He'll maybe go back and help a few more.

Al McGuire

#37. Remember, half the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their class.

Al McGuire

#38. Don't call me son unless you're going to include me in your will. (When Adolph Rupp called him, "Son.")

Al McGuire

#39. The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores.

Al McGuire

#40. Every obnoxious fan has a wife at home that dominates him.

Al McGuire

#41. Winning is only important in war and surgery.

Al McGuire

#42. If winning weren't important nobody would keep score.

Al McGuire

#43. That's it. Curtains. Off to the races. Treetops. Seashells and balloons.

Al McGuire

#44. I come from New York where, if you fall down, someone will pick you up by your wallet.

Al McGuire

#45. I don't know why people question the academic training of an athlete. Fifty percent of the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their classes.

Al McGuire

#46. It's a profession in which, the longer you stay, the closer you are to being fired.

Al McGuire

#47. I don't think any decent human being enjoys recruiting.

Al McGuire

#48. They call me eccentric. They used to call me nuts. I haven't changed. The only difference between being eccentric and being nuts is the number of security boxes you own.

Al McGuire

#49. You better have great practices.

Al McGuire

#50. God didn't miss any of us.

Al McGuire

#51. Keep it simple, when you get too complex you forget the obvious.

Al McGuire

#52. Our guys took Shop and Advanced Shop. Shop is when you make a chair. Advanced Shop is when you paint it.

Al McGuire

#53. The nicest thing about coaching is that one day you feel like you can play handball against a curb, and on other days you feel like you can fly to the moon.

Al McGuire

#54. You measure a player from the head up.

Al McGuire

#55. I had my moment on the stage. The trick in life is to know when to leave.

Al McGuire

#56. Butch, you come from DeWitt Clinton. There are five thousand brothers in that school. You're the best there. You've been all-city two years in a row. How bad can you be? You come with me and we'll make nice music.

Al McGuire