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Posted 12.31.13 — "I wish to hell I'd never said the damn thing. I meant the effort. ... I meant having a goal. I sure as hell didn't mean for people to crush human values and morality." — Vince Lombardi, football coach, on his famous quote: "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.30.13 — "Boxing has been infested with corruption and gangsterism since the day it began, yet it engages our basis emotions like no other athletic activity." — Howard Cosell, broadcaster [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.29.13 — "In all my years of watching football, I can honestly say that I have never once confused football with ballet." — Joan Tisch, wife of NFL team owner Bob Tisch [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.28.13 — "Professional athletes should not be role models. Hell, I know drug dealers who can dunk. Can drug dealers be role models?" — Charles Barkley, basketball player [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.27.13 — "When we win, I have no idea why we win. When we lose, I have no idea why we lose. I'm totally confused." — George Karl, basketball coach [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.26.13 — "It's good for them. It embarrasses a little, but relieves them a lot. Makes them part of the group." — Vince Lombardi, football coach, on rookie hazing in professional football [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.25.13 — "If someone wants to get an edge on me, they'll have to search for the cracks themselves. They will have to find that advantage themselves. I'm not going to give it to them." — Chuck Knox, football coach [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.24.13 — "Some kids dream of joining the circus, others of becoming a major league baseball player. I have been doubly blessed. As a member of the New York Yankees, I have gotten to do both." — Graig Nettles, baseball player [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.23.13 — "The difference between sports and ballet is that in sports you root for somebody. Nobody yells at one of the ballerinas, 'Break a bleepin' leg, ya bum.' " — Mike Littwin, sportswriter [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.22.13 — "Baseball is so ingrained in Cuba that it has thrived as the 'national sport' through 40 years of bitterly anti-American revolution." — Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria, writer [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.21.13 — "Is it normal to wake up in the morning in a cold sweat because you can't wait to beat another human's guts out?" — Joe Kapp, football player [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.20.13 — "There are two things that made golf appealing to the average man... Arnold Palmer and the invention of the mulligan." — Bob Hope, actor, comedian and golfer [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.19.13 — "You're blind! You're a crook! You're robbing me!" — Walter Matthau, actor, to the different umpires and referees who appeared on as many as 15 televisions in his home during his many gambling binges [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.18.13 — "No matter how long you have been playing, you still get butterflies before the big ones." — Pee Wee Reese, baseball player [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.17.13 — "What does it take to be a good referee? Beats the hell out of me. No one thinks any referee is good." — Richie Powers, basketball official [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.16.13 — "Even though I think I'm mature on the football field, I'm still a kid. If there's a good play, I'll jump up and down on the sidelines." — Gary Parris, professional football player [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.15.13 — "I have got to make it here. I just can't go back to Louisiana and Arkansas. I've been there and I know what's there." — Lou Brock, baseball player, on making the major leagues [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.14.13 — "There is only a half step difference between the champions and those who finish on the bottom. And much of that half step is mental." — Tom Landry, football coach [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.13.13 — "Probably a professor of English." — Jimmy Cannon, sportswriter, after being told that fellow sportswriter Gene Ward's house had been burned down, attributable to arson [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.12.13 — "Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control." — Tom Landry, football coach [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.11.13 — "I believe in rules. Sure I do. If there weren't any rules, how could you break them?" — Leo Durocher, baseball player and manager [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.10.13 — "It's in the mindset of players and managers to cheat whenever they get a chance. They believe it is the equivalent of their First Amendment right in baseball to cheat." — Durwood Merrill, umpire [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.09.13 — "Baseball is an 1890 game. It's a peaceful afternoon in the country. What baseball needs to compete is more violence." — Bill Veeck, baseball team owner and racetrack operator [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.08.13 — "Sometimes people ask, 'Are hockey fights for real?' And I say, 'If they weren't, I'd get in more of them.' " — Wayne Gretzky, hockey player [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.07.13 — "Take away the hot dog and all its attendant comestibles, such as peanuts, popcorn, Cracker Jacks and egg salad sandwiches, and you'd have a different country." — Wells Twombly, sportswriter [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.06.13 — "The first thing you learn is never to learn their names until the last cut is made. 'Cause you feel bad when they get cut." — Eddie LeBaron, football player, on NFL rookies in training camp [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.05.13 — "As a traveling sportswriter, Death has been a constant companion on the road. This can be vexing, especially when Death gets the aisle seat on airplanes." — Steve Rushin, sportswriter [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.04.13 — "After eight years in the NFL, I'm convinced that the only thing that separates chumps from champions is the individual's competitive drive." — Joe Montana, football player [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.03.13 — "We didn't care if the team moved here from Hartford, we don't care if they win or lose while they're here, and we don't care when or where they'll go if they pack up and leave." — Dennis Rogers, North Carolina newspaper columnist, about the NHL Hurricanes playing in Raleigh after they moved from Hartford [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.02.13 — "Recruiting is like shaving. Do it every day or you will look like a bum." — Anonymous [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]

Posted 12.01.13 — "College football would be more interesting if the faculty played instead of the students — there would be a great increase in broken arms, legs and necks." — H.L. Mencken, humorist and author [The Ultimate Dictionary of Sports Quotations]