George Orwell: The Sporting Spirit George Orwell The Sporting Spirit Now that the brief visit of the Dynamo football team has come to an end, it is possible to say publicly what many thinking people were saying privately before the Dynamos ever arrived. That is, that sport is an unfailing cause of ill-will, and that if such a visit as this had any effect at all on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them slightly worse than before. Even the newspapers have been unable to conceal the fact that at least two of the four matches played led to much bad feeling. At the Arsenal match, I am told by someone who was there, a British and a Russian player came to blows and the crowd booed the referee. The Glasgow match, someone else informs me, was simply a free-for-all from the start. And then there was the controversy, typical of our nationalistic age, about the composition of the Arsenal team. Was it really an all-England team, as claimed by the Russians, or merely a league team, as claimed by the British? And did the Dynamos end their tour abruptly in order to avoid playing an all-England team? As usual, everyone answers these questions according to his political predilections.

Not quite everyone, however. I noted with interest, as an instance of the vicious passions that football provokes, that the sporting correspondent of the russophile News Chronicle took the anti-Russian line and maintained that Arsenal was not an all-England team. No doubt the controversy will continue to echo for years in the footnotes of history books. Meanwhile the result of the Dynamos' tour, in so far as it has had any result, will have been to create fresh animosity on both sides. And how could it be otherwise? I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations, and that if only the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield. Even if one didn't know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympic Games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principles. Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and the game has little meaning unless you do your utmost to win. On the village green, where you pick up sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved.

it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise: but as soon as the question of prestige arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, the most savage combative instincts are aroused. Anyone who has played even in a school football match knows this. At the international level sport is frankly mimic warfare. But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the players but the attitude of the spectators: and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests, and seriously believe — at any rate for short periods — that running, jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue. Even a leisurely game like cricket, demanding grace rather than strength, can cause much ill-will, as we saw in the controversy over body-line bowling and over the rough tactics of the Australian team that visited England in 1921. Football, a game in which everyone gets hurt and every nation has its own style of play which seems unfair to foreigners, is far worse. Worst of all is boxing. One of the most horrible sights in the world is a fight between white and coloured boxers before a mixed audience.

But a boxing audience is always disgusting, and the behaviour of the women, in particular, is such that the army, I believe, does not allow them to attend its contests. At any rate, two or three years ago, when Home Guards and regular troops were holding a boxing tournament, I was placed on guard at the door of the hall, with orders to keep the women out. In England, the obsession with sport is bad enough, but even fiercer passions are aroused in young countries where games playing and nationalism are both recent developments. In countries like India or Burma, it is necessary at football matches to have strong cordons of police to keep the crowd from invading the field. In Burma, I have seen the supporters of one side break through the police and disable the goalkeeper of the opposing side at a critical moment. The first big football match that was played in Spain about fifteen years ago led to an uncontrollable riot. As soon as strong feelings of rivalry are aroused, the notion of playing the game according to the rules always vanishes. People want to see one side on top and the other side humiliated, and they forget that victory gained through cheating or through the intervention of the crowd is meaningless.

Even when the spectators don't intervene physically they try to influence the game by cheering their own side and “rattling” opposing players with boos and insults. Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting. Instead of blah-blahing about the clean, healthy rivalry of the football field and the great part played by the Olympic Games in bringing the nations together, it is more useful to inquire how and why this modern cult of sport arose. Most of the games we now play are of ancient origin, but sport does not seem to have been taken very seriously between Roman times and the nineteenth century. Even in the English public schools the games cult did not start till the later part of the last century. Dr Arnold, generally regarded as the founder of the modern public school, looked on games as simply a waste of time. Then, chiefly in England and the United States, games were built up into a heavily-financed activity, capable of attracting vast crowds and rousing savage passions, and the infection spread from country to country.

It is the most violently combative sports, football and boxing, that have spread the widest. There cannot be much doubt that the whole thing is bound up with the rise of nationalism — that is, with the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige. Also, organised games are more likely to flourish in urban communities where the average human being lives a sedentary or at least a confined life, and does not get much opportunity for creative labour. In a rustic community a boy or young man works off a good deal of his surplus energy by walking, swimming, snowballing, climbing trees, riding horses, and by various sports involving cruelty to animals, such as fishing, cock-fighting and ferreting for rats. In a big town one must indulge in group activities if one wants an outlet for one's physical strength or for one's sadistic impulses. Games are taken seriously in London and New York, and they were taken seriously in Rome and Byzantium: in the Middle Ages they were played, and probably played with much physical brutality, but they were not mixed up with politics nor a cause of group hatreds.

If you wanted to add to the vast fund of ill-will existing in the world at this moment, you could hardly do it better than by a series of football matches between Jews and Arabs, Germans and Czechs, Indians and British, Russians and Poles, and Italians and Jugoslavs, each match to be watched by a mixed audience of 100,000 spectators. I do not, of course, suggest that sport is one of the main causes of international rivalry; big-scale sport is itself, I think, merely another effect of the causes that have produced nationalism. Still, you do make things worse by sending forth a team of eleven men, labelled as national champions, to do battle against some rival team, and allowing it to be felt on all sides that whichever nation is defeated will “lose face”. I hope, therefore, that we shan't follow up the visit of the Dynamos by sending a British team to the USSR. If we must do so, then let us send a second-rate team which is sure to be beaten and cannot be claimed to represent Britain as a whole.

There are quite enough real causes of trouble already, and we need not add to them by encouraging young men to kick each other on the shins amid the roars of infuriated spectators. 1945 Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all... Died: January 21, 1950 (aged 46) Nationality: British Occupation: Author, novelist Bio: Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist and journalist. His work is marked by clarity, intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and belief in democratic socialism. Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard .. - Quote Conversation A bit about George Orwell ... Eric Arthur Blair (June 25, 1903January 21, 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was a British author and journalist.

Noted as a political and cultural commentator, as well as an accomplished novelist, Orwell is among the most widely-admired English-language essayists of the 20th century. He is best known for two novels written towards the end of his life: Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. These people bookmarked this quote: How to Paraphrase Fairly | Grounds for Argument How to Paraphrase Fairly When you paraphrase , you restate the information in a source in your own words, including not only the source’s main ideas but most of its details as well. In most cases, your paraphrase will be about the same length as the original passage. But it must always sound more like you than like your source. If you find that you want to use the same words as your source because the original says it best, then you should quote rather than paraphrase. NOTE: When you paraphrase, you must use your own words. Readers will think your paraphrase is too much like a quotation if you repeat most of the words in the original or if you change the words in the original one-by-one but nothing else.

Also, you must always cite the source of every paraphrase, both in your text and in your bibliography or works cited. If you fail to do so, even by accident, you open yourself to a charge of plagiarism . How to Construct a Paraphrase Read the passage in your source. Identify its main idea and list the details most relevant to your argument . Then read the passage again. Turn away from the page or screen and state what you remember from the passage as though you were explaining it to a classmate. If you stumble, reread the passage and try again. When you are happy with your oral version, write it out. Then compare it to the original to be sure that you have indeed said it in your own words. Original: Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words: it is war minus the shooting. Source: George Orwell, “The Sporting Spirit,” The London Tribune, December, 1945, reprinted: George Orwell. Shooting an Elephant, and Other Essays. (Secker and Warburg, 1950), 194.

Paraphrase: In his essay, “The Sporting Spirit,” George Orwell argues that sport can be just as violent as war. The idea of fair play, he says, is for serious athletes only a myth. They feel the same hateful and violent feelings as do soldiers in combat (194). This paraphrase conveys Orwell’s ideas, including the key details, but it reflects not Orwell’s distinctive words and sentence structure, but the writer’s. Readers will object, however, if your paraphrase is only a quotation in disguise, like this one: Too Close Paraphrase: In his essay, “The Sporting Spirit,” George Orwell claims that sport has little to do with fair play. He says that sport leads to the same feelings of hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, and sadistic pleasure that comes from witnessing violence. Sport is combat without weapons (194). In this paraphrase, the writer follows Orwell’s original almost word-for-word, changing a few words and cutting out others. The paraphrase is not identical to the original, but it is too much like a quotation to count as a fair paraphrase.

Use too many paraphrases this close to the original, and readers may think you have plagiarized, even though you cited the source. How to Introduce a Paraphrase You can introduce a paraphrase with a phrase, clause, or sentence (underlined): In George Orwell’s view, sport can be just as violent as war. The idea of fair play is, for serious athletes, only a myth. They feel the same hateful and violent feelings as do soldiers in combat (194). In his essay, “The Sporting Spirit,” George Orwell argues that sport can be just as violent as war. The idea of fair play is, for serious athletes, only a myth. They feel the same hateful and violent feelings as do soldiers in combat (194). George Orwell understood the intensity of the professional athlete better than most. Sport can be just as violent as war. The idea of fair play is, for serious athletes, only a myth. They feel the same hateful and violent feelings as do soldiers in combat (194). That introduction usually names the author of the source, but it does not have to: The essay, “The Sporting Spirit,” shows that sport can be just as violent as war.

The idea of fair play is, for serious athletes, only a myth. They feel the same hateful and violent feelings as do soldiers in combat (Orwell 194). You can also identify the author of a source at the middle or end of a paraphrase, although that makes it hard for readers to know when the paraphrase began. Sport can be just as violent as war. The idea of fair play, says George Orwell, is only a myth for serious athletes. They feel the same hateful and violent feelings as do soldiers in combat (194). Sport can be just as violent as war. The idea of fair play is, for serious athletes, only a myth. They feel the same hateful and violent feelings as do soldiers in combat, according to George Orwell (194). When you introduce a paraphrase, you can help readers know how to judge the quality of its information in three ways: Mention the credentials or reputation of the author.

George Orwell, the famed author of 1984 and Animal Farm, has suggested that … According to General James Mattis, commander of the United States Central command, … In the words of a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, … Mention the publication information of the source. In a pamphlet intended for anti-government Militia groups, Norman E. Olson argues that … According to a report from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), … An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that … Use a verb that reflects your judgment of the source. You can use no verb or a neutral one that express no value judgment: According to Posner, … vs. Posner argues that … Your words matter when you introduce a paraphrase. So think carefully about how you introduce them and you will help readers know how to judge the information you present. How to Mix Quotation with Paraphrase Although you have to treat paraphrase and quotation very differently, you can incorporate quotations into a paraphrase if you do not want to lose the most original language in a source. In his essay, “The Sporting Spirit,” George Orwell argues that sport can be just as violent as war.

The idea of fair play, he says, is only a myth where serious athletes are concerned. They feel the same hateful and violent feelings as do soldiers in combat. Sport, according to Orwell, is “war minus the shooting” (194). Whenever you weave elements of a quotation into your own sentences, those sentences almost always include some paraphrase (underlined): George Orwell understood the intensity of the professional athlete better than most. We say we value sportsmanship, but for serious athletes “sport has nothing to do with fair play.” They are caught up in the same “hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure” experienced by those engaged in violence. For Orwell, sport is combat without the weapons (194). When you add a few quotations to your paraphrase you give readers an idea of your source without quoting so much that your paper seems a cut-and-paste job. If you have pages that are mostly summary Sports Quotes and Sayings Related Quotes Baseball Basketball Football Golf Hockey Tennis Since the dawn of time, there has been one truth about men: if they can toss it, pass it, dribble it, or throw it — they will.

~The Middle, "The Sinkhole" (season 6, episode 6, original airdate 2014 November 12th), written by Katy Ballard, spoken by the character Frankie Heck I always turn to the sports section first. The sports page records people's accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man's failures. ~Earl Warren Every sport pretends to a literature, but people don't believe it of any other sport but their own. ~Alistair Cooke If only Hitler and Mussolini could have a good game of bowls once a week at Geneva, I feel that Europe would not be as troubled as it is. ~R.G. Briscow The difference between the old ballplayer and the new ballplayer is the jersey. The old ballplayer cared about the name on the front. The new ballplayer cares about the name on the back. ~Steve Garvey Sports is human life in microcosm. ~Howard Cosell Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him.

~Blaise Pascal The fewer rules a coach has, the fewer rules there are for players to break. ~John Madden I don't believe professional athletes should be role models. I believe parents should be role models.... It's not like it was when I was growing up. My mom and my grandmother told me how it was going to be. If I didn't like it, they said, "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out." Parents have to take better control. ~Charles Barkley I think my favorite sport in the Olympics is the one in which you make your way through the snow, you stop, you shoot a gun, and then you continue on. In most of the world, it is known as the biathlon, except in New York City, where it is known as winter. ~Michael Ventre, L.A. Daily News We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time. ~Vince Lombardi The trouble with referees is that they just don't care which side wins. ~Tom Canterbury When we played, World Series checks meant something. Now all they do is screw up your taxes.

~Don Drysdale, 1978 With the money I'm making, I should be playing two positions. ~Pete Rose, 1977 Men forget everything; women remember everything. That's why men need instant replays in sports. They've already forgotten what happened. ~Rita Rudner Andre Dawson has a bruised knee and is listed as day-to-day. Aren't we all? ~Vin Scully I don't know. I never smoked AstroTurf. ~Tug McGraw, when asked if he preferred grass or AstroTurf, April 1974 To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other. ~Jack Handey 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 A player who conjugates a verb in the first person singular cannot be part of the squad, he has to conjugate the verb in the first person plural. We. We want to conquer. We are going to conquer. Using the word "I" when you're in a group makes things complicated. ~Wanderley Luxemburgo, 1999 One day of practice is like one day of clean living. It doesn't do you any good. ~Abe Lemmons The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle. ~Author Unknown I wanted to have a career in sports when I was young, but I had to give it up. I'm only six feet tall, so I couldn't play basketball. I'm only 190 pounds, so I couldn't play football. And I have 20-20 vision, so I couldn't be a referee. ~Jay Leno To think of playing cricket for hard cash! Money and gentility would ruin any pastime under the sun. ~Mary Russell Mitford, 1823 It is all very well to say that a man should play for the pure love of the game.

Perhaps he ought, but to the working man it is impossible. ~J.J. Bentley I know we're meant to be these hard-headed, money-obsessed professionals but we're still little boys at heart. Just ask our wives. ~Rob Lee, 1998 Radio football is football reduced to its lowest common denominator. Shorn of the game's aesthetic pleasures, or the comfort of a crowd that feels the same way as you, or the sense of security that you get when you see that your defenders and goalkeeper are more or less where they should be, all that is left is naked fear. ~Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch, 1992 Playing polo is like trying to play golf during an earthquake. ~Sylvester Stallone, 1990 Professional wrestling's most mysterious hold is on its audience. ~Luke Neely, 1953 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 The umpire... is like the geyser in the bathroom; we cannot do without it, yet we notice it only when it is out of order. ~Neville Cardus Most games are lost, not won. ~Casey Stengel It is a noteworthy fact that kicking and beating have played so considerable a part in the habits which necessity has imposed on mankind in past ages that the only way of preventing civilized men from beating and kicking their wives is to organize games in which they can kick and beat balls.

~George Bernard Shaw It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf. ~H.L. Mencken The more I practice, the luckier I get. ~Jerry Barber, about golf Baseball and football are very different games. In a way, both of them are easy. Football is easy if you're crazy as hell. Baseball is easy if you've got patience. They'd both be easier for me if I were a little more crazy — and a little more patient. ~Bo Jackson There isn't a single professional sports season now that doesn't go on at least a month too long. Baseball starts in football weather, and football in baseball weather, and basketball overlaps them both. ~James Reston Sport is where an entire life can be compressed into a few hours, where the emotions of a lifetime can be felt on an acre or two of ground, where a person can suffer and die and rise again on six miles of trails through a New York City park. Sport is a theater where sinner can turn saint and a common man become an uncommon hero, where the past and the future can fuse with the present.

Sport is singularly able to give us peak experiences where we feel completely one with the world and transcend all conflicts as we finally become our own potential. ~George A. Sheehan I figure practice puts your brains in your muscles. ~Sam Snead, about golf There's nothing wrong with the Little League World Series that locking out the adults couldn't cure. ~Mike Penner, Los Angeles Times If you make every game a life-and-death thing, you're going to have problems. You'll be dead a lot. ~Dean Smith I watched the Indy 500, and I was thinking that if they left earlier they wouldn't have to go so fast. ~Steven Wright Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war. ~Al McGuire I think you enjoy the game more if you don't know the rules. Anyway you're on the same wavelength as the referees. ~Jonathan Davies, 1995 If the Bible has taught us nothing else, and it hasn't, it's that girls should stick to girls' sports, such as hot oil wrestling, foxy boxing, and such and such.

~Homer Simpson, The Simpsons If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out. ~George Brett, 1986 Losing is the great American sin. ~Jerome Holtzman The essence of sports is that while you're doing it, nothing else matters, but after you stop, there is a place, generally not very important, where you would put it. ~Roger Bannister If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score? ~Vince Lombardi An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head. ~Emil Zatopek It's like going into a nuclear war with bows and arrows. ~Joe Kinnear, comparing finances and resources in high-dollar and low-dollar sports teams I thought lacrosse was what you find in la church. ~Robin Williams, 1982 Officials are the only guys who can rob you and then get a police escort out of the stadium. ~Ron Bolton If you screw things up in tennis, it's 15-love. If you screw up in boxing, it's your ass.

~Randall "Tex" Cobb I was called "Rembrandt" Hope in my boxing days, because I spent so much time on the canvas. ~Bob Hope To dope the racer is as criminal, as sacrilegious, as trying to imitate God; it is stealing from God the privilege of the spark. ~Roland Barthes Losing streaks are funny. If you lose at the beginning, you get off to a bad start. If you lose in the middle of the season, you're in a slump. If you lose at the end, you're choking. ~Gene Mauch He has turned defensive boxing into a poetic art. Trouble is, nobody ever knocked anybody out with a poem. ~Eddie Shaw, referring to Herol "Bomber" Graham It may be that all games are silly. But then, so are humans. ~Robert Lynd In play there are two pleasures for your choosing - The one is winning, and the other losing. ~Lord Byron People understand contests. You take a bunch of kids throwing rocks at random and people look askance, but if you go and hold a rock-throwing contest — people understand that. ~Don Murray All sports are games of inches.

~Dick Ritger Sport strips away personality, letting the white bone of character shine through. Sport gives players an opportunity to know and test themselves. ~Rita Mae Brown When it comes to sports I am not particularly interested. Generally speaking, I look upon them as dangerous and tiring activities performed by people with whom I share nothing except the right to trial by jury. ~Fran Lebowitz I cannot for the life of me see why the umpires, the only two people on a cricket field who are not going to get grass stains on their knees, are the only two people allowed to wear dark trousers. ~Katharine Whitehorn Many continentals think life is a game; the English think cricket is a game. ~George Mikes, How to Be an Alien, 1946 Cricket — a game which the English, not being a spiritual people, have invented in order to give themselves some conception of eternity. ~Lord Mancroft Oh God, if there be cricket in heaven, let there also be rain. ~Alec Douglas Home Cricket is baseball on valium. ~Robin Williams Life is simply a cricket match, with temptation as the bowler. ~Author Unknown If horses can't eat it, I won't play on it.

~Dick Allen Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever. ~Vince McKewin, from the movie The Replacements Pain is nothing compared to what it feels like to quit. ~Author Unknown Losers quit when they're tired. Winners quit when they've won. ~Author Unknown You're playing worse every day and right now you're playing like the middle of next week. The ball is man's most disastrous invention, not excluding the wheel. ~Robert Morley, 1965 Every day you guys look worse and worse. And today you played like tomorrow. ~John Mariucci The Russians have a weapon that can wipe out two hundred eighty thousand Americans. That puts them exactly ten years behind Howard Cosell. ~Red Smith Motor racing's less of a sport these days than a commercial break doing 150 mph. ~Peter Dunne, 1992 Sport is a preserver of health. ~Hippocrates It is not how big you are, it's how big you play. ~Author Unknown A tough day at the office is even tougher when your office contains spectator seating. ~Nik Posa The key is not the "will to win" — everybody has that.

It is the will to prepare to win that is important. ~Bobby Knight You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go. Don't ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body. ~Kareem Abdul-Jabbar All a manager has to do is keep eleven players happy — the eleven in the reserves. The first team are happy because they are in the first team. ~Rodney Marsh, 1979 The Rock knew his wrestling career was over when he looked across the ring and saw his opponent... THE PAPER. ~Jerry Thomas Unlike any other business in the United States, sports must preserve an illusion of perfect innocence. The mounting of this illusion defines the purpose and accounts for the immense wealth of American sports. It is the ceremony of innocence that the fans pay to see — not the game or the match or the bout, but the ritual portrayal of a world in which time stops and all hope remains plausible, in which everybody present can recover the blameless expectations of a child, where the forces of light always triumph over the powers of darkness. ~Lewis H.

Lapham, Money and Class in America, 1988 One of the advantages bowling has over golf is that you seldom lose a bowling ball. ~Don Carter The bowling alley is the poor man's country club. ~Sanford Hansell [T]he finish line is sometimes merely the symbol of victory. All sorts of personal triumphs take place before that point, and the outcome of the race may actually be decided long before the end. ~Laurence Malone It's not whether you win or lose — but whether I win or lose. ~Sandy Lyle There's more to boxing than hitting. There's not getting hit, for instance. ~George Foreman I'm fanatical about sport: there seems to me something almost religious about the fact that human beings can organise play, the spirit of play. ~Simon Gray, 1995 Squash is boxing with racquets. ~Jonah Barrington Crystallizing my feelings about the game, I find that squash is less frustrating than golf, less fickle than tennis. It is easier than badminton, cheaper than polo. It is better exercise than bowls, quicker than cricket, less boring than jogging, drier than swimming, safer than hang gliding.

~John Hopkins, Squash: A Joyful Game, 1980 My only feeling about superstition is that it's unlucky to be behind at the end of the game. ~Duffy Daugherty If I lose at play, I blaspheme; if my fellow loses, he blasphemes. So, God is always the loser. ~John Donne, 1623 American professional athletes are bilingual; they speak English and profanity. ~Gordie Howe, 1975 Prize fighters can sometimes read and write when they start — but they can't when they finish. ~Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962) We have forty-four defenses for him, but he has forty-five ways to score. ~Al Attles, on Nate Archibald Sports are too much with us. Late and soon, sitting and watching — mostly watching on television — we lay waste our powers of identification and enthusiasm and, in time, attention as more and more closing rallies and crucial putts and late field goals and final playoffs and sudden deaths and world records and world championships unreel themselves ceaselessly before our half-lidded eyes. ~Roger Angell Fans are the only ones who really care.

There are no free-agent fans. ~Dick Young When cerebral processes enter into sports, you start screwing up. It's like the Constitution, which says separate church and state. You have to separate mind and body. ~Bill Lee These are my new shoes. They're good shoes. They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me. They'll only make you have shoes like me. That's it. ~From a Charles Barkley commercial for basketball shoes, 1993 Just give me 25 guys on the last year of their contracts; I'll win a pennant every year. ~Sparky Anderson Finish last in your league and they call you Idiot. Finish last in medical school and they call you Doctor. ~Abe Lemons I will not permit thirty men to travel four hundred miles to agitate a bag of wind. ~Andrew Dickson White Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words, it is war minus the shooting...

there are quite enough real causes of trouble already, and we need not add to them by encouraging young men to kick each other on the shins amid the roars of infuriated spectators. ~George Orwell We can't win at home and we can't win on the road. My problem as general manager is I can't think of another place to play. ~Pat Williams Page Information: Sports Quotes, Famous Sports Quotes, Sports Sayings Quotations Topic: Sports Quotes - Famous Sports Quotes, Quotations, Sayings Related Quotes: Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -- a desire, a dream, a vision. Muhammad Ali American Boxer and three times World Heavyweight Champion. Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead. Roger Bannister After becoming first person to break four-minute mile, 1952. When I step onto the court, I don't have to think about anything.

If I have a problem off the court, I find that after I play, my mind is clearer and I can come up with a better solution. It's like therapy. It relaxes me and allows me to solve problems. Michael Jordan American basketball player. My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win....Channel your energy. Focus. Carl Lewis American athlete and winner 9 Olympic gold medals. My dad has always taught me these words: care and share. That's why we put on clinics. The only thing I can do is try to give back. If it works, it works. Tiger Woods American golfer, one of most successful of all time. Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that. Bill Shankly Whoever said, 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts,' probably lost. Martina Navratilova American tennis player. Football is like life -- it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.

Vince Lombardi Champions keep playing until they get it right. Billy Jean King American tennis player. I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures. Earl Warren Chief Justice of the United States. Football is all very well a good game for rough girls, but not for delicate boys. Oscar Wilde I'll let the racket do the talking. John McEnroe Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Roy Keane Irish soccer player and English football club manager. When I go out on the ice, I just think about my skating. I forget it is a competition. Katarina Witt German figure skater. It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up. Muhammad Ali American boxer. Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele. I have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a soccer player, but how to be like a man. Pele Brazilian soccer player, considered possibly world's greatest. Golf is a good walk spoiled.

Mark Twain Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose. Winston Churchill If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play it, it's recreation. If you work at it, it's golf. Bob Hope Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Muhammad Ali American boxer. The English are not very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity. George Bernard Shaw I never play cricket. It requires one to assume such indecent postures. Oscar Wilde I am a winner. I just didn't win today. Greg Norman People don't win because they're physically stronger. It's because they're stronger between the ears. Alex Shaffer American alpine skier. You work your whole life to try to be the best you can, even if it's for only one day or one week. Lindsay Davenport American tennis champion. I never ran 1000 miles. I could never have done that. I ran one mile 1000 times. Stu Mittleman If a team wants to intimidate you physically and you let them, they've won.

Mia Hamm American World Cup Soccer champion. Football is a mistake. It combines two of the worst things about American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings. George Will American journalist and author. Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal. Vincent Lombardi American NFL football coach. 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 American basketball player. The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime. Babe Ruth American baseball great. Men forget everything; women remember everything. That's why men need instant replays in sports. They've already forgotten what happened. Rita Rudner To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.

Jack Handey It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog! Archie Griffin American football player and two time Heisman Trophy winner. Perhaps the single most important element in mastering the techniques and tactics of racing is experience. But once you have the fundamentals, acquiring the experience is a matter of time. Greg LeMond American champion cyclist and three times winner of Tour de France. If the Bible has taught us nothing else, and it hasn't, it's that girls should stick to girls' sports, such as hot oil wrestling, foxy boxing, and such and such. Homer Simpson You need to play with supreme confidence, or else you'll lose again, and then losing becomes a habit. Joe Paterno American football coach. If you set a goal for yourself and are able to achieve it, you have won your race. Your goal can be to come in first, to improve your performance, or just finish the race it's up to you. Dave Scott American tri-athlete and six-time Ironman World Champion. There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either IN or you're OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between. Pat Riley Cricket is basically baseball on valium.

Robin Williams It ain't over 'til it's over. Yogi Berra I'll always be Number 1 to myself! Moses Malone Sport is a preserver of health. Hippocrates Greek 'father of medicine'. The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will. Vince Lombardi This is really a lovely horse, I once rode her mother. Ted Walsh Irish horse racing commentator. You have to have the mentality of executing your game when you don't feel like there's a lot of hope. I think the best feeling is when somebody pushes you to the limit and you dig down a little bit extra. By the same token, you also need a little luck. Sometimes they come together. Andre Agassi American tennis champion. You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That's the mark of a true professional. Joe Paterno If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it. Ronnie Lott Golf and sex are the only things you can enjoy without being good at them! Jimmy Demaret American golfer. Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates. Magic Johnson American NBA basketball star.

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words, it is war minus the shooting... there are quite enough real causes of trouble already, and we need not add to them by encouraging young men to kick each other on the shins amid the roars of infuriated spectators. George Orwell The Sporting Spirit. 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 American football player and coach. Football doesn't build character, it reveals character! Marv Levy If you train hard, you'll not only be hard, you'll be hard to beat. Herschel Walker Sometimes you're the pigeon, and sometimes you're the statue. Bernie Bickerstaff American NBA basketball coach. To succeed...You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you. Tony Dorsett American NFL football player. I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off everything like golf.

I have never been depressed enough to take up the game, but they say you get so sore at yourself you forget to hate your enemies. Will Rogers American actor. The difference between the old ballplayer and the new ballplayer is the jersey. The old ballplayer cared about the name on the front. The new ballplayer cares about the name on the back. Steve Garvey The fewer rules a coach has, the fewer rules there are for players to break. John Madden American broadcaster, football coach and analyst. We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time. Vince Lombardi American football coach. One day of practice is like one day of clean living. It doesn't do you any good. Abe Lemons Most games are lost, not won! Casey Stengel American baseball player and manager. It's not whether you win or lose - but whether I win or lose! Sandy Lyle A lifetime of training for just ten seconds! Jesse Owens American Olympic sprinting gold medalist. I figure practice puts your brains in your muscles. Sam Snead American golfer. An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.

Emil Zatopek Czechoslovakian runner and winner four Olympic gold medals. If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score? Vince Lombardi Football's a difficult business and aren't they prima donnas. But it's a wonderful game. Queen Elizabeth II To English soccer's Premier League Chairman David Richards. Every single day I wake up and commit to myself to becoming a better player. Mia Hamm My mind is my biggest asset. I expect to win every tournament I play. Tiger Woods American golf champion. It is almost impossible to remember how tragic a place the world is when one is playing golf. Robert Lynd The more I practice, the luckier I get. Gary Player South African golfer, generally regarded as one of the greatest players. If you don't do what's best for your body, you're the one who comes up on the short end. Julius Erving American basketball player. So you wish to conquer in the Olympic games, my friend? And I too, by the Gods, and a fine thing it would be. But first mark the conditions and the consequences, and then set to work.

You will have to put yourself under discipline; to eat by rule, to avoid cakes and sweetmeats; to take exercise at the appointed hour whether you like it or no, in cold and heat; to abstain from cold drinks and from wine at your will; in a word, to give yourself over to the trainer as to a physician. Then in the conflict itself you are likely enough to dislocate your wrist or twist your ankle, to swallow a great deal of dust, or to be severely thrashed, and, after all these things, to be defeated. Epictetus Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being sooner ended. George Bernard Shaw

Question: Which English author said ‘Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play……..it is war minus the shooting’?
Answer: George Orwell