Al McGuire Quotes & Sayings

Our guys took Shop and Advanced Shop. Shop is when you make a chair. Advanced Shop is when you paint it. — Al McGuire

I tell the players that they can't relive any day in their lives and that they can't relive the minutes of a game, so they should make a great effort, a Mount Everest type effort, to live up to their potential. Success is a communal type thing, and if we win, then everyone can be considered successful and we can move uptown together. — Al McGuire

The next time I will cry is when I die. My life has been that beautiful. — Al McGuire

Keep it simple, when you get too complex you forget the obvious. — Al McGuire

I'm an Einstein of the streets and an Oxford scholar of common sense. — Al McGuire

I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated. — Al McGuire

If you're straight with your players, they'll be straight with you. — Al McGuire

It bothers me that the average fan, the average sportswriter for that matter, pays so much attention to what's in a box score. A box score does not properly represent the most important thing - team play. It shows some guy scoring 27 points, but it doesn't show that my 27-point man let his guy score 30. — Al McGuire

A team should be an extension of a coach's personality. My teams are arrogant and obnoxious. — Al McGuire

Live every day as if it were Saturday night. — Al McGuire

When I was losing, they called me nuts. When I was winning they called me eccentric. — Al McGuire

Life is what you allow yourself not to see. — Al McGuire

When a guy takes off his coat, he's not going to fight. When a guy takes off his wristwatch, watch out! — Al McGuire

I don't discuss basketball. I dictate basketball. I'm not interested in philosophy classes. — Al McGuire

Make your life exciting. Do what you have to do as long as you don't hurt people. — Al McGuire

They call me eccentric. They used to call me nuts. I haven't changed. The only difference between being eccentric and being nuts is the number of security boxes you own. — Al McGuire

All love affairs end. Eventually the girl is gonna put curlers in her hair. — Al McGuire

I want my team to have my personality: surly, obnoxious, and arrogant. — Al McGuire

I just can't recruit where there's grass around. You gotta have a concrete lawn before I feel comfortable enough to go in and talk to you parents. — Al McGuire

Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war. — Al McGuire

Remember, half the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their class. — Al McGuire

I come from New York where, if you fall down, someone will pick you up by your wallet. — Al McGuire

You can always tell the Catholic schools by the length of the cheerleaders' skirts. — Al McGuire

We rush for the stars as we crawl toward our graves. — Al McGuire

If winning weren't important nobody would keep score. — Al McGuire

My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house. That's not my world. My world has a cracked sidewalk. — Al McGuire

I went into a restaurant one night and ordered lobster, and the waiter brought me one with a claw missing. I called him over and told him about it. He told me that in the back there's a tank they keep the lobsters in and while they're in there, they fight and sometimes one loses a claw. I told him 'then bring me a winner.' — Al McGuire

Can't win without talent, you know. — Al McGuire

The nicest thing about coaching is that one day you feel like you can play handball against a curb, and on other days you feel like you can fly to the moon. — Al McGuire

The world is run by C students — Al McGuire

I don't think any decent human being enjoys recruiting. — Al McGuire

It's a profession in which, the longer you stay, the closer you are to being fired. — Al McGuire

That's it. Curtains. Off to the races. Treetops. Seashells and balloons. — Al McGuire

Live in the moment that you are in. — Al McGuire

I don't believe in looking past anybody - I wouldn't look past the Little Sisters of the Poor after they stayed up all night. — Al McGuire

If a player leaves Marquette and doesn't have some of my blood in him, then I don't think I've done a good job. — Al McGuire

I don't know why people question the academic training of an athlete. Fifty percent of the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their classes. — Al McGuire

I had my moment on the stage. The trick in life is to know when to leave. — Al McGuire

Don't be just another guy going down the street and going nowhere. — Al McGuire

Don't call me son unless you're going to include me in your will. (When Adolph Rupp called him, "Son.") — Al McGuire

Help one kid at a time. He'll maybe go back and help a few more. — Al McGuire

There's no one who's dropped on top of the mountain. You've got to work your way to the top. — Al McGuire

The people who know basketball, their elevators don't go to the top. — Al McGuire

I'm not saying that they were Einsteins; they were marginal students. But every ballplayer whoever touched me has moved up his station in life. And the players moved up my station. — Al McGuire

You measure a player from the head up. — Al McGuire

When I'm losing, they call me nuts. When I'm winning, they call me eccentric. — Al McGuire

Every obnoxious fan has a wife at home that dominates him. — Al McGuire

You better have great practices. — Al McGuire

Butch, you come from DeWitt Clinton. There are five thousand brothers in that school. You're the best there. You've been all-city two years in a row. How bad can you be? You come with me and we'll make nice music. — Al McGuire

Winning is only important in war and surgery. — Al McGuire

The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores. — Al McGuire

The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets. — Al McGuire

On how to make the game more exciting - Eliminate the referees, raise the basket four feet, double the size of the basketball, limit the height of the players to 5 feet 9 inches, bring back the centre jump, allow taxi drivers in for free and allow the players to carry guns. — Al McGuire

It's so ridiculous to see a golfer with a one foot putt and everybody is saying "Shhh" and not moving a muscle. Then we allow nineteen year-old kids to face a game-deciding free throw with seventeen thousand people yelling. — Al McGuire

God didn't miss any of us. — Al McGuire

I let ballplayers yell back at me because I wasn't trying to prove I'm boss. I know I'm boss. — Al McGuire

I think the world is run by 'C' students. — Al McGuire

Dean Meminger was quicker than 11:15 Mass at a seaside resort. — Al McGuire

I believe in a business boarding up early. If you make a mistake, you put the boards in the window of the store and say, "Hey, I made a mistake." Let me take two shots in the arm and a punch on the nose and let me get on to the next thing. I don't believe in worrying over failures. I worry about successes. This is opposite from most people. Most people zero in on their failures. I try to keep all my attention on a pyramid type philosophy rather than the averaging-down philosophy. — Al McGuire

If the waitress has dirty ankles, the chili is good. — Al McGuire