Top 100 Championship Quotes
#1. And he made a home run, and his team won the state championship. The greatest thing about this story is that every time my dad tells it, it never changes. He's not one to exaggerate.
Stephen Chbosky
#2. People don't own teams to lose money. If you ask any owner whether they would rather make $20 million and come in last place or lose $20 million and win a World Series, there's only one guy who honestly would take that championship: George Steinbrenner. Nobody else.
Bronson Arroyo
#3. Of course, success is a relative term. It can be something completely different from winning the German championship eight times or making millions.
Oliver Kahn
#4. I don't feel as though I am under any pressure to return to Australia, given I won the PGA Championship, and I am just hoping everyone back home will understand my situation. I just want to make sure I am there for Ellie and that she has my support when she has our second child.
Jason Day
#5. I never paid, or intended to pay, $10,000, or any amount of money, to any player for knocking Kurt Warner, Brett Favre or any other player out of the 2009 Divisional playoff game, 2010 NFC Championship Game or any other game.
Jonathan Vilma
#6. I've won a championship on every level except the NBA. It's frustrating to have not gotten that in the first two years.
Steve Blake
#7. Playing black, I put great stake in the Ruy Lopez: I liked it, feel it, and understand it; in matches with Hjartarson and Timman it served me well. - on preparing for World Championship versus Garry Kasparov
Anatoly Karpov
#8. My goal is to play hard and give the city a chance for a championship.
Rafael Soriano
#9. I Came away from the U.S. Memory Championship eager to find out how Ed and Lukas did it. Were these just extraordinary individuals, pridigies from the long tail of humanity's bell curve, or was there something we could all learn from their talents?
Joshua Foer
#10. I want that fifth championship. If that does not present itself, then I'm closer to retirement.
Juan Manuel Marquez
#12. In 1981, when I went down to visit Georgia Tech, I watched Michael Jordan play and literally get ridiculed for taking a jump shot in the championship game that went off the backboard, and they won. People are forgetting that Michael was just one of the players when they went to the Dream Team.
John Salley
#13. If you've ever won a championship, then that's all you're interested in doing.
Bill Parcells
#14. A championship contender in the early twentieth century needed charisma and a knack for cultivating sponsorship, and Rubinstein was the epitome of the shy and unsocial chess player. Now matter how great his chess skills, he lacked the people skills to be a self-promoter and fund-raiser.
Garry Kasparov
#15. When hired three years ago, I willingly accepted the challenge of leading the Bulls back to the type of team this city richly deserves. I'm proud of the fact that each year the team has taken another step toward an NBA championship, and played with intense pride and determination.
Doug Collins
#16. I think the players win the championship, and the organization has something to do with it, don't get me wrong. But don't try to put the organization above the players.
Michael Jordan
#17. A team doesn't win the championship if its players are working from different agendas.
John C. Maxwell
#18. When your are playing for the national championship, it's not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.
Duffy Daugherty
#19. That's the one regret I have in all the years that I've played professional sports, that I didn't win a championship in the N.F.L. And that's why you play on any level of team sports: you want to win a championship as part of a team.
Warren Moon
#20. A team championship doesn't happen because three people score 10s, it happens because all the guys score well. In my opinion, everyone deserved 10s, we're all 10s on this team.
Mitch Gaylord
#21. The World Championship gold was a surprise and took a lot of pressure off in terms of qualifying for Rio, but I still need more points, and winning in Manchester would be massive for me.
Bianca Walkden
#22. Everything about my life is about winning a national championship
Kyle Dake
#23. The first time I managed to pick up a basketball I knew I was destined to lead the UK to another National championship ... Even now, so many years later, I still believe Kentucky will go undefeated in March & win everything.
Hunter S. Thompson
#24. To win the Championship in the first year will be hard. We need time to become competitive and win races.
Valentino Rossi
#25. 17 seconds from Game 7, or from Championship number 6,Jordan, open, Chicago with the lead. Time out Utah, 5.2 seconds left, Michael Jordan running on fumes with 45 points.
Bob Costas
#26. We're trying to be that franchise that year-in and year-out is competing for a championship.
Drew Brees
#27. October 1976 was the penultimate performance of Bench's Hall of Fame career. All the early success and awards and accolades thrown in his direction had prepared him for this moment - when the Big Red Machine became a dynasty by defending it's World Championship from the season before.
Tucker Elliot
#28. A lot of guys go through their whole careers and don't win a championship, but are still great coaches.
Chuck Daly
#29. Every championship, by definition, is historic.
George Vecsey
#30. Winning teams at the NBA level, the college level, and the high school level all play team basketball. Championship teams have five players on the same page at all times.
Hubie Brown
#31. My goal had been to win a championship, work toward the Hall of Fame, have my jersey retired by the team and I'd go in as a lifelong New York Giant, but I'm now resigned to the fact that this won't happen.
Michael Strahan
#32. It crosses your mind every once in a while that it's the AFC championship, but it's not any different. It's that whole thing that pressure's a perception, not a reality. It's what you allow to be put on yourself.
Jason Elam
#33. I've had a couple of years where injuries have not let me develop in the way I wanted. When I was 21, after the European Championship, I had more injuries. Everything has been less continuous and it has cost me more progress. Continuity is what got me where I am.
Cesc Fabregas
#34. I dream about winning a championship, where everybody is hooting and hollering for you. The whole world is drawn to the NBA Finals.
Ray Allen
#35. Allen Iverson is a ball hog. You will never win a championship with him on your team.
Carmelo Anthony
#36. Well, I think any national championship is an extremely important championship to play in.
Greg Norman
#37. From my first dunk at 14 years old to my second NCAA Championship at the University of Tennessee, my intense training with my dad was always to credit.
Candace Parker
#38. If you go 72-11 and don't win (the championship), it doesn't mean anything. Actually it does. It means you've cheated and played an extra regular-season game.
Shaquille O'Neal
#39. I'm not chasing championships. Championship's chasing us. I'm not doing that. I want my players to be better people once they leave campus because this is a life lesson. This is more than basketball. This is life lessons that we're trying to teach.
Kevin Ollie
#40. My biggest frustration with the Heisman is it's become the MVP of the national champion, or a team going to the National Championship game. That's what it's turned into. If you're not undefeated, you're out of the running.
Doug Flutie
#41. Even championship-winning teams don't play well all the time.
Teddy Sheringham
#42. I knew nothing about martial arts. The coach told me I was talented with learning martial arts, and put me in a school. Three years later I got my first championship in China.
Jet Li
#43. I want to win a championship. I can't come on this team and demand to be a starter.
LaDainian Tomlinson
#44. 'Moonwalking with Einstein' refers to a memory device I used when I memorized a deck of playing cards at the U.S. Memory Championship. When I competed in 2006, I set a new U.S. record by memorizing a deck of cards in one minute and 40 seconds. That record has since fallen.
Joshua Foer
#45. After winning the European Championship with Spain, I know exactly how it feels to win a major trophy, and I know that, if we can win at Liverpool, it will feel the same or even better than it did with Spain.
Fernando Torres
#46. Well, I mean, to me, I think my ultimate - my ultimate goal is winning championships and - and I understand that me going down as one of the greats will not happen until I, you know, win a championship.
LeBron James
#47. The reason I went to an all-boys Catholic school was because they had the best football team. We won the state championship my junior year. It was super-competitive. We lost in the semifinals my senior year, and it still haunts me.
Theo Rossi
#48. I've been very fortunate to be involved in all the Super Bowls, to see some World Series, to cover heavyweight championship fights; I've been to the Olympics and seen every sporting event there is.
Will McDonough
#49. Give me about 10 years, I'm going to run for President. If I can squeeze in an NBA championship before that, I'll do it.
Will Smith
#50. Championship teams are built on being prepared, playing unselfishly and being held accountable
Jason Kidd
#51. I don't build championship teams, I build championship boys.
Larry Gelwix
#52. To win at Augusta and to win The Open Championship at St. Andrews, it's hard to put it into words as a golfer, as an athlete, as a guy - I'm not rich in history, I can tell you that. I'm not a great historian.
Zach Johnson
#53. I won player of the year and players' player, two cups and two championship medals, had a great time.
Paul Gascoigne
#54. The MVP award was very satisfying in terms of personal accomplishments, but the championship was the most important thing of all.
Bob Cousy
#55. My time in the World Rally Championship has been a useful stage in my career, but I can't deny the fact that my hunger for F1 has recently become overwhelming.
Kimi Raikkonen
#56. If you learn to sell, it's worth more than a degree. It's worth more than the heavyweight championship of the world. It's even more important than having a million dollars in the bank. Learn to sell, and you'll never starve.
George Foreman
#57. The Booker 2011 is of no more interest to me than the world heavyweight championship, which I'm not going to win either. It's irrelevant.
Edward St. Aubyn
#58. I'm 31 years old and I want to be part of a championship team before my career is over.
Mats Sundin
#59. I started to really believe in myself, and my abilities, when I won the World Under-10 championship in Doral, Florida. I was nine and saw for the first time that I was amongst the best players in the world for my age. This was a massive confidence-builder for me.
Rory McIlroy
#60. Eric Boocock had been England's No.1 for a spell in the late 60s and early 70s. He reached three world finals and in 1974 put the town on the map by winning the British Championship in front of a 10,000 crowd and ITV's World of Sport cameras. Everybody
Tony McDonald
#61. If somebody asks me whether I'd rather sink the winning putt in the Ryder Cup or win a major, it's the major every day. World championship or Ryder Cup? Win a world championship. At the end of the day you're going to be remembered for what you achieve in an individual sport.
Rory McIlroy
#62. There would be nothing more thrilling than to win a championship.
Stan Kroenke
#63. I guess it's good in a sense that it stops any of it from happening, but now you're telling me if it's Game 7 of the NBA Finals and a guy has a chance to make a play he's going to be like, 'Well, do I want this $10,000 or do I want a championship?'
Blake Griffin
#64. My first and foremost goal when I joined the Yankees was to win the world championship. Certainly, it's been a long road and very difficult journey. But I'm just happy that after all these years we were able to win and reach the goal that I had come here for.
Hideki Matsui
#65. In the marathon a crazy athlete can just keep pushing from the beginning, at a championship you don't need a time just to win the race.
Haile Gebrselassie
#66. The heartbeat of a football team is the quarterback position and I think everyone who has any intelligence about the game understands you must have consistency at that position to be a championship team.
Ron Jaworski
#67. When you win a championship, it is a great feeling, and you really don't want that feeling to go away.
Paul Pierce
#68. As you get older, every chance to win a championship is more crucial, because you are going to have less and less of them.
Jerry West
#69. But put my body through a lot, you know, but it's the price for your body feeling this way for winning. Did I win? I didn't win a championship, but I've done a lot of good things in this first year back, and hopefully I can continue it.
LeBron James
#70. Everyone said, 'Emil, you are a fool!'
But when I first won the European Championship, they said: 'Emil, you are a genius!'
Emil Zatopek
#71. Parents would rather have their son get all-state than his team win the state championship.
Don Meyer
#72. Definitely the road to the championship gets much easier when those type of guys are eliminated early.
Denny Hamlin
#73. Until you announce me as the #1 contender for the WWE Championship, I suggest you watch me make snow angels.
CM Punk
#74. It wasn't until '79 I won my first amateur championship, and then, by '81, I was 14, and I won my first world championship, which was amazing to me, and in a very real sense, that was the first real victory I had.
Rodney Mullen
#75. This season is my most special and most cherished. All my focus is on getting that championship back here.
Lorrie Fair
#76. I wish I could say it's easy, but honestly, to get ready for a big championship is not as easy as it seems.
Oksana Baiul
#77. For us to be the team that got him that historic 10th championship is special for us.
Kobe Bryant
#78. We won the European Championship last September and now the world title. That is some year for French beach soccer! Now comes the hard part. We have to keep improving and that's difficult because it's tough to do better than winning a world title.
Eric Cantona
#79. Ferrari's only objective is to be at the top, in other words, to compete for the World Championship. That's our right. Winning is another matter. It wouldn't be a disgrace to come in second after a tough fight.
Michael Schumacher
#80. It will be a hard game if you think about winning a championship. We need to think about our own game at the moment and focus on getting good results especially over the Christmas period.
Dennis Bergkamp
#81. I can't be No. 1 with an MVP trophy. I could be No. 1 with the championship ring and the championship trophy on my fireplace.
Jeff Kent
#82. A half marathon is a good way to have a bit of fun and race against those girls and learn a bit more about them. The world half marathon is a world championship at the end of the day and it's important. I've win it twice and it's a quality event.
Paula Radcliffe
#83. Some anthems are great for sports. You've got the Russian national anthem ... 'O Canada,' how wonderful is that for hockey ... but I chose the Italian national song because at my first World Cup, I saw the Italians play four times, and they won all four times - they won the championship.
George Vecsey
#84. His passion was the Galaxy. In retrospect, it's fitting that we won a championship for him this last year because I think he was so passionate about this team and loved every single player and the organization.
Steve Sampson
#85. I want to be remembered as a championship football player.
Brian Urlacher
#86. I play basketball to win a championship. That championship is everything to me. And that's what gets people to buy in to your brand - being a winner.
Chris Paul
#87. It is my thought that clean living and a strict observance of the golden rule of true sportsmanship are foundation stones without which a championship structure cannot be built.
Major Taylor
#89. But I'm good to go through my contract with Childress, and my determination is to win races and try to win that other championship.
Dale Earnhardt
#90. Losing Michael Jackson is a handicap. It's the Lakers trying to win a championship without Kobe Bryant.
Tito Jackson
#91. It's torturous what my siblings put me through. I can take any Olympic final, I can fight in a world championship and fall behind and win in sudden death, but when it comes to my siblings, it's out of my control. There's not much I can do.
Steven Lopez
#92. A man is seldom more manly than when he is what you call unmanned,
the source of his emotion is championship, pity, and courage; the instinctive desire to cherish those who are innocent and unhappy, and defend those who are tender and weak.
William Makepeace Thackeray
#93. Somebody asked me - you know, how come it took you so long to win a national championship? And I said, 'I'm a slow learner; but you notice when I learn something, I have it down pretty good.'
John Wooden
#94. I want to win a championship and to win the Indy 500 makes me want it so much more.
Scott Dixon
#95. When I saw that Wrestlemania had broken an indoor attendance record, I just walked into a wrestling office, Championship Wrestling in Florida, during the offseason, and they introduced me to Hiro Matsuda, who became my mentor ... and the rest is history!
Lex Luger
#96. Once you start worrying about a national football championship, then you begin to worry about getting the quality of athlete, and the numbers needed, to win a national championship. And that worry leads to pressure to compromise academic standards to admit those athletes.
Derek Bok
#97. I have a special feeling for Blue Hills CC, where I won perhaps the most important tournament of my life when I was 14 - the Kansas City Match Play Championship. It gave me a dream of becoming a professional golfer.
Tom Watson
#98. Winning an NBA championship is the biggest thing that can happen professionally because it's the top. But representing your country-with more than 30 million people cheering for you and then seeing you up there on the podium-it's hard to find any more words to put on that.
Manu Ginobili
#99. Peter Wagner, my son, just won the Bel-Air Junior Club Championship. Parred the last three holes. One-putts, up and down. Us Wagners don't hit greens. We chip and putt.
Jack Wagner
#100. Before broadcasting for 50-some years, I did TV, played 10 years in the big leagues, won a world championship - and played a big part in that, too, letting the Cardinals inject me with hepatitis. Takes a big man to do that.
Bob Uecker
