Catalyst Quotes

“True Sportsmanship is Always Taking the High Road”

In the past few days, a video has gone viral about two high school football players in San Antonio, Texas, who allegedly targeted a football referee during the game and knocked him down with a hard hit and then ‘speared’ him while on the ground.  The actions of the football players are troubling for many people in and out of sports but more so for the citizens of San Antonio, where I live.  Please do not judge the citizens of this great city by the action of a couple of football players.  In light of this incident, I’d like to share the following quotes.  Even though some of the quotes are not related to football, the quotes fit in with the spirit of sportsmanship.  (Alex Pena)

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“Games give you a chance to excel, and if you’re playing in good company you don’t even mind if you lose because you had the enjoyment of the company during the course of the game.”   (Gary Gygax)

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“True sportsmanship is…

• Knowing that you need your opponent because without him or her, there is no game.
• Acknowledging that your opponent holds the same deep-rooted aspirations and expectations as you.
• Knowing that, win or lose, you will walk off the course with pride.
• Always taking the high road.
• And always, always, always being a good sport.”  (Lorii Myers, No Excuses, The Fit Mind-Fit Body Strategy Book)

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“It is all fun and games until a sore loser loses or someone accuses someone of cheating.”   (R. K. Cowles)

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“In Brohier’s eyes, violence was not merely the last refuge of the incompetent.  It was the gloating revenge of the sore loser.”    (Arthur C. Clarke, The Trigger)

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“A lot of young players don’t really know much about the history of the game and a lot of them are missing out on what the game is all about, especially the whole concept of sportsmanship and teamwork.”   (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)

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“Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation.  Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think of you.”   (John Wooden)

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“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”   (Epictetus)

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“Let Us Prepare / Put On Your Socks / Let’s Do the Undoable”

“John Wooden was arguably ‘the’ greatest coach of all time in any sport. The guy won 10 championships in 12 years at UCLA and had an 88-game undefeated streak that ran nearly 3 years.

Wooden was all about consistency on the fundamentals and had an awesome way of kicking off each season.  Imagine the greatest young basketball players in the US showing up for the first day of practice.  Guess what Coach would start with…

He’d show them how to put on their socks.

Why?  Because if they couldn’t put their socks on just right, they might get a blister.  Get a blister and they might miss practice time.  Miss practice time and their game-time performance would suffer.

The equation was simple:  Blister = No championship. 

Amazing.

Kinda begs the question:  Any ‘blisters’ slowing you down?

If so, you might wanna look at how you’re putting on your socks.

Fact is, when we don’t pay attention to the little things, we’re gonna get blisters.   (Brian Johnson, Chief Philosopher, ‘A Philosopher’s Notes’)

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“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”   (Benjamin Franklin)

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“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”   (Seneca)

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“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”   (Abraham Lincoln)

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“Never try to be better than someone else.  Learn from others, and try to be the best you can be.  Success is the by-product of that preparation.”   (John Wooden)

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“Let’s think the unthinkable, let’s do the undoable.  Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not ‘eff’ it after all.”   (Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency)

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