Many different people have made notable statements on the topic of sports, and it can be difficult to select just a few famous sports quotes. The list that follows identifies a few famous speakers from across a couple of different domains. Writers and poets make up the first grouping. These people typically make their comments from outside the realm of direct play or personal involvement, and as such often have more of an onlooker’s or spectator’s view. Then come some famous sports quotes from sportswriters and analysts. These people typically spend a lot of time studying athletics, and their comments often reflect that viewpoint. Coaches and trainers also typically have a lot to say on the subject, and of course no list would be complete without at least some quotes from athletes themselves. This list is predominantly focused on sports in the United States, but could be applied more universally, too.
Literary Voices
Golf is a good walk spoiled.
–Mark Twain, American fiction writer
Basketball, a game which won’t be fit for people until they set the basket umbilicus-high and return the giraffes to the zoo.
–Ogden Nash, American poet
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, French philosopher
Commentators and Sportswriters
Professionalism in tennis … only resulted in making billionaires out of rude children, producing an onslaught of moody defectors, and a lot of guys with hair that looks as if bats slept in it … Meanwhile, my head swims with the thought that I have watched tennis progress from Don Budge and Alice Marble to Farrah Fawcett becoming John McEnroe’s mother-in-law.
–Dan Jenkins, American author and sportswriter
The two most important jobs in America are held by foreigners — room service and goal-kicking.
–Beano Cook, American television sportscaster
When Mike Tyson gets mad, you don’t need a referee, you need a priest.
–Jim Murray, American newspaper sports columnist
Coaches and Trainers
When you say you’re a Padre, people ask when did you become a parent. When you say you’re a Cardinal, they tell you to work hard because the next step is pope. But when you say you’re a Dodger, everybody knows you’re in the Major Leagues.
–Tommy LaSorda, American major league baseball manager
I was young and fearless in those days, but always enjoyed riding at Cartmel. They used to call me ‘Cartmellor’, probably because I kept coming back on a stretcher.
Stan Mellor, American jockey and trainer
If you want to know what you’ll look like in ten years, look in the mirror after you’ve run a marathon.
–Jeff Scaff, American cardiologist and proponent of running for exercise
There’s three things you can do in a baseball game – you can win, you can lose, or it can rain.
–Charles ‘Casey’ Stengel, American major league baseball manager
From the Athletes Themselves
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
You win some, you lose some, you wreck some.
–Dale Earnhardt Sr., American race car driver
An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.
— Emil Zatopek, Czech runner
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
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, American runner