Sportsmanship Quotes

"The answers to these questions will determine your success or failure. 1) Can people trust me to do what's right? 2) Am I committed to doing my best? 3) Do I care about other people and show it? If the answers to these questions are yes, there is no way you can fail."
- Lou Holtz

"Simply trying to define sportsmanship, I think most folks would agree, responsibility and self respect, qualities that today seem in short supply at times. If character is what you do when no one is watching, then perhaps sportsmanship is that conduct with everybody watching. Frankly, the sports industry would probably survive without sportsmanship. It's so large and so well financed, but it would be refreshing if more parents and coaches, more administrators and more journalists, and especially more players realized there is room to win with flare and style and even get rich and still keep the values that first brought us here to the games."
- Bob Ley

"Nobody will think you're somebody if you don't think so yourself."
- African-American proverb

"Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to produce uncommon results."
- Unknown

"Do not throw in the towel; use it for wiping the sweat off your face."
- Unknown

"I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."
- Michael Jordan

"Football is a great deal like life in that it teaches that work, sacrifice, perseverance, competitive drive, selflessness, and respect for authority are the price each and every one of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile."
- Vince Lombardi

"In the end, it's extra effort that separates a winner from second place. But winning takes a lot more than that, too. It starts with complete command of the fundamentals. Then it takes desire, determination, discipline, and self-sacrifice. And finally, it takes a great deal of love, fairness and respect for your fellow man. Put all these together, and even if you don't win, how can you lose?"
- Jesse Owens

"To me, True sport means athletic competition at its finest with all the athletes involved keeping the integrity of the sport intact."
- Derek Arneaud

"It's not up to anyone else to make me give my best. "
- Hakeem Olajuwon

"I can't play being mad. I go out there and have fun. It's a game, and that's how I am going to treat it."
- Ken Griffey, Jr.

"The most important lesson I've learned from sports is how to be not only a gracious winner, but a good loser as well. Not everyone wins all the time, as a matter of fact, no one wins all the time. Winning is the easy part, losing is really tough. But, you learn more from one loss than you do from a million wins. You learn a lot about sportsmanship. I mean, it's really tough to shake the hand of someone who just beat you, and it's even harder to do it with a smile. If you can learn to do this and push through that pain, you will remember what that moment is like the next time you win and have a better sense of how those competitors around you feel. This experience will teach you a lot on and off the field!"
- Amy Van Dyken

"I have always tried to be true to myself, to pick those battles I felt were important. My ultimate responsibility is to myself. I could never be anything else."
- Arthur Ashe

"Never give up, never give in, and when the upper hand is ours, may we have the ability to handle the win with the dignity that we absorbed the loss."
- Doug Williams