Top 100 Leadership Sports Quotes
#1. You have to find that love within yourself. If you love yourself, you feel good about yourself, and sports help you feel good about yourself.
Gail Devers
#2. I've prided myself on being in excellent condition-as good as any man in my profession. Now this doesn't come from sitting around on your rear end. This comes from hard, hard work.
Wilt Chamberlain
#3. I needed to do my current job well, keep preparing, and wait on God's timing. I needed to trust His leadership rather than try to force an outcome I wanted.
Tony Dungy
#5. I learned a long time ago that one way to maximize potential for performance is to be calm in my mind. What I try to achieve during the season is a relaxed state of concentration. I simply try to cleanse my mind of the pressures that people are trying to heap on me.
Brian Sipe
#6. I sought the advice and cooperation from all those around me- but not permission.
Muhammad Ali
#9. I've swum for my country, I've swum for my coaches and my schools and my teams. I decided this time I was going to swim for myself.
Janet Evans
#10. In a team sport like basketball, every time you help somebody else, you help yourself.
Pete Carril
#11. Winners bring reality up to their vision. Losers bring their vision down to reality.
Chuck Knox
#12. The four Cs of making dreams come true: Curiosity, Courage, Consistency, Confidence.
Walt Disney
#13. The most important thing in a person's life is his faith and how he translates his faith into practical deeds.
Hakeem Olajuwon
#14. People ask me what makes a great skier. It takes the gift; but besides the gift it takes all the availability of mind which permit total control of all the elements that lead to victory. - total composure.
Jean-Claude Killy
#15. Teachers who are not actively involved in the learning process themselves, force their students to drink from stagnant water
Jean-Baptiste De La Salle
#16. Never tell 'em how many lettermen you've got coming back. Tell 'em how many you lost.
Knute Rockne
#17. It is ok to err, but it is not ok to stop playing; it is ok to lose, but it is not ok to give up.
John Kessel
#18. Disability is a characteristic like hair color; it's not a defining principle.
Jean Driscoll
#19. None of us really pushes hard enough. People always talk about playing over your head when you are up against someone really good. Maybe you don't play over your head at all. Maybe it's just potential you never knew you had.
Fran Tarkenton
#20. There is no mat space for malcontents or dissenters. One must neither celebrate insanely when he wins, nor sulk when he loses. He accepts victory professionally, humbly; he hates defeat, but makes no poor display of it.
Dan Gable
#21. It's a game of habit, or repetition. You can't play one way in practice and another way in a game. It's a reflex. The game is so quick you don't have time to think.
Bill Sharman
#22. If I do not practice one day; I know it. If I do not practice the next, the orchestra knows it; if I do not practice the third day, the whole world knows it.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
#23. Good sportsmanship we hail, we sing, It's always pleasant when you spot it. There's only one unhappy thing: You have to lose to prove that you've got it.
Richard Armour
#24. We've gotten so much as a result of the changes. Part of our responsibility is to give something back to the game and the girls who are just starting to play.
Carla Overbeck
#25. I have no idea what I did. I heard people talk about dead leg, shake, change of pace and all that, but I did things without thinking about them.
Gale Sayers
#26. Life is a game - sometimes serious, sometimes fun - but a game that must be played with true team spirit.
Shelagh Delaney
#27. I once said coaching a first-year team was a religious experience. You do a lot of praying - but most of the time the answer is NO.
Bill Fitch
#28. I think that in any group activity - whether it be business, sports, or family - there has to be leadership or it won't be successful.
John Wooden
#29. Players need you to care, especially when they do not deserve it.
John Kessel
#31. An expert is an ordinary fella away from home.
Bum Phillips
#32. I don't understand these new coaches who don't drink. What do they do when they get beat?
Abe Lemons
#33. I wish I had played team sports. I think every kid should. Teamwork builds character - teaches people about leadership and cooperation.
Mo Rocca
#34. The film looks suspiciously like the game itself!
Bum Phillips
#35. Do not use compulsion, but let early education be rather a sort of amusement.
Plato
#37. I know I am only one, but I am one, and just because I'm one should not stop me from
Edward Everett Hale
#38. From 143rd Street in Harlem to the center court at Wimbledon is about as far as one can travel.
Althea Gibson
#39. We finally got Nebraska where we want them ... off the schedule.
Cal Stoll
#42. Think of yourself as an athlete. I guarantee you it will change the way you walk, the way you work, and the decisions you make about leadership, teamwork, and success.
Mariah Burton Nelson
#43. In the name of all competitors, I promise that we will take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by all the rules which govern them in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams.
Pierre De Coubertin
#44. Every popular zillion dollar sport has its share of personal scandals around the sport and its leadership.
Rachel Maddow
#45. If there is something a coach might wish to see changed in a player or team, the first place to check and see if it could not be done better is in yourself.
John Kessel
#46. A few mistakes don't worry me; what worries me is when you make the mistakes and then forget your role on the team and start to worry about your ego.
Digger Phelps
#47. A serious athlete to me is one who is committed to excellence at any level, at any age, in any endeavor and in either sex. This commitment begins with a dream and a sense of talent and skill and determination to make that dream come true.
Carol Mann
#48. The most important thing that a young athlete must do it pick the right sport. Not one that they like just a little bit, but one that they love. Because,if they don't really love their sport, they won't work as hard as they should. Me? I loved to hit.
Babe Ruth
#49. I have often been asked whether I am a women or an athlete. The question is absurd. Men are not asked that. I am an athlete. I am a women.
Billie Jean King
#50. There's no disgrace in failure, the disgrace is not to try.
Cathy Rigby
#51. Sports provide girls with the opportunity to develop a better relationship with their bodies. They can be aggressive on the court, be strong and still be feminine.
Gabrielle Reece
#52. Make sure your daughter's goal is her goal, not your goal.
Tracy Austin
#53. There is no fun equal to the satisfaction of doing one's best. The things that are most worthwhile in life are really those within the reach of almost every normal human being who cares to seek them out.
B.C. Forbes
#54. I don't pick on anybody who has a number above 30.
Mike Ditka
#55. First and foremost I am a teacher, I care. Caring is helping the players to develop
Lou Holtz
#56. Healthy body, healthy mind and healthy spirit. A Votre Sante.
Kathy Smith
#57. I try to help my athletes visualize their full potential, and then get out of the way as they achieve it.
Pat Roberts
#58. Don't just stand back and play the way you're coached. A great player must rise to the occasion and turn the game around on his own.
Joe Paterno
#59. We need people who influence their peers and who cannot be detoured from their convictions by peers who do not have the courage to have any convictions.
Joe Paterno
#60. You can only make so much money in life and only enjoy so many creature comforts. The important thing is to do something meaningful-to leave something behind.
Roone Arledge
#61. As a player, remember that the bench is not a prison, but an extension of the first group. Concentrate on the quality of your play when you do get into the game. If you play 20 minutes, play the best 20 you can possibly play.
Stan Albeck
#62. We're in a leadership position in sports. People look up to the National Football League.
Roger Goodell
#63. Inner peace is not found in things like baseball and world championships. As long as I feel I've done the best job I possibly could, I'm satisfied.
Sparky Anderson
#64. Girls playing sports is not about winning gold medals. It's about self-esteem, learning to compete and learning how hard you have to work in order to achieve your goals.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
#65. The person, the student, the athlete, all are considered equal.
Pat Summitt
#66. We are going to have to do something about all this violence, or people are going to keep buying tickets.
Conn Smythe
#68. The only reason these kids keep score in these games is for the parents and coaches satisfaction. Who cares? They're 10 years old.
Peter Jacobsen
#69. Leadership can be defined in one word - honesty. You must be honest with the players and honest with yourself.
Earl Weaver
#70. Winning isn't enough. The acme of all skill is to defeat your enemy before taking the field.
Sun Tzu
#71. Even though he lived on the beach in college, he didn't have a tan. Now that's a serious player!
Bill Fitch
#72. It was a great game if you don't care who won. I cared.
Lou Holtz
#73. We're looking forward to a great season at the University of California - if we find a way to put cleats on their sandals.
Ronald Reagan
#75. Humility is always one play away.
Tim Foley
#76. Concerning the limits and limitations of the women's game - why should we believe there are any?
Helen Wills
#77. Practice the game the way you're going to play the game. Practice hard and play hard. Run hard and above all else, hustle every moment you're on the field where you are practicing or playing in a game.
Pete Rose
#78. I don't know, but I stepped on a scale that gives fortunes and the card read Come back in 15 minutes alone.
Frank Layden
#79. When you travel with the team and you eat with the team - you eat what the team eats.
Vince Lombardi
#80. Leadership is the challenge to be something more than average.
Jim Rohn
#81. The most costly disease is boredom costly for both individual and society.
Norman Cousins
#82. In many U.S. schools, sports instilled leadership and persistence in one group of kids while draining focus and resources from academics for everyone. The lesson wasn't that sports couldn't coexist with education; it was that sports had nothing to do with education.
Amanda Ripley
#83. As far as self-discipline goes, it's still ultimately up to me how well I can push myself. Only I can do that. I just have to keep on going, keep on working, keep on improving.
Sheryl Swoopes
#84. My job is to teach them to believe they could perform better than they realize. Great coaches teach athletes to go beyond the barriers.
John Roderick
#85. Girls should go on thinking that there is a world out there and that it is theirs for the taking.
Anne Bancroft
#86. Positioning yourself and effective branding should not be left to sports and movie stars. Your need a personal coach, manager or mentor otherwise your expertise, skills or talent will not go far. You might have what it takes but sometimes you lack strategy and some finer elements.
Archibald Marwizi
#87. So much of what you do physically happens because you've thought about it and mentally prepared for it.
Dan Fouts
#88. If you're a good experienced player, you wknow what it takes to do. If you're in trouble, you know how to change. One hundred percent of my game is instinct. I never stop and think I'm going to hit a ball crosscourt or down the line. I just do it.
Bjorn Borg
#89. Is it or is it not a matter of importance that a young man starts out in life with an ability to shut his jaw hard and say "I will," or "I will not," and mean it?
John William Heisman
#90. When asked if he was a basketball player he replied No I clean giraffe ears.
Elvin Hayes
#91. Don't quote me on this, but if they ever manage to ban beer advertising in baseball you can kiss the national pastime goodbye.
Roger Maris
#93. Persistence is important in every endeavor. Whether it's finishing your homework, completing school, working late to finish a project, or "finishing the drill" in sports, winners persist to the point of sacrifice in order to achieve their goals.
Lee Ellis
#94. We play with enthusiasm and recklessness. We aren't afraid to lose. If we win, great; but win or lose, it is the competition that gives us pleasure.
Joe Paterno
#95. When I was in the batter's box, I felt sorry for the pitcher.
Rogers Hornsby
#96. My responsibility is leadership, and the minute I get negative, that is going to have an influence on my team.
Don Shula
#97. I was fortunate enough to have baseball to teach me the values relative to success. The sport gifted me with leadership and team building skills that translate in a relatable way in the world.
Willie Wilson
#98. It was always fun for me, I loved baseball so darn much. By the hours I practiced, you'd have to say I was working a lot of hours, but it was pretty near tireless fun for me. I'd rather swing a bat than do anything else in the world.
Ted Williams
#99. I have a bumper sticker that Bowen created that says Regardless of my kids grades, they have an 'A' in my book'. Without play the child that still lives in all of us will always be incomplete. And not only physically, but creatively, intellectually, and spiritually as well.
George A. Sheehan
#100. We will use some kind of option and we will throw the football. I hope it will be at our people.
Lou Holtz
