Best Sportsmanship Quotes & Sayings

Pride makes us do things well. But it is love that makes us do them to perfection. — H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Sportsmanship and easygoing methods are all right, but it is the prospect of a hot fight that brings out the crowds. — John McGraw

We want to put sportsmanship back in the equation. — Eric Hyman

That wasn't good, that wasn't sportsmanship. I was amazed he took that shot. — Tristan Blackwood

We can talk about the value of sportsmanship on one hand, and on the other hand, the leading shots, highlights ... you see every night are the outrageous and unsportsmanlike, so I think there is a double standard here. On the one hand, we complain about it, on the other hand it's the first thing you see every night. — Joe Dumars

Sportsmanship is making sure you have respect for the guy you're playing across from. — Warren Moon

I suppose settling an argument with tear gas is poor sportsmanship — Jim Bernheimer

We old athletes carry the disfigurements and markings of contests remembered only by us and no one else. Nothing is more lost than a forgotten game. — Pat Conroy

I like to give opinions, not suggestions — John Wooden

It is my thought that clean living and a strict observance of the golden rule of true sportsmanship are foundation stones without which a championship structure cannot be built. — Major Taylor

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. — Michael Jordan

Sportsmanship to me is going out and playing as hard as you can within the rules. — Bobby Bowden

Orwell clung with a kind of wry, grim pride to the old ways of the last class that had ruled the old order. He must sometimes have wondered how it came about that he should be praising sportsmanship and gentlemanliness and dutifulness and physical courage. He seems to have thought, and very likely he was right, that they might come in handy as revolutionary virtues. — Lionel Trilling

I've always claimed that success in writing - provided of course one had what it takes to make a writer - is like success in marriage, largely a question of good sportsmanship, of keeping on keeping on, of giving one's best and trying, everlastingly trying to make that best, better. — Emilie Loring

It's because you absolutely love the sport. — Nastia Liukin

Good sportsmanship goes beyond the game; it starts with respect. — Tommy Hilfiger

If it's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game, why keep score? — Ron Brackin

Sports is a moral undertaking because it requires of participants, and it schools spectators in the appreciation of, noble things - courage, grace under pressure, sportsmanship. — George Will

...(he) had his own set of rules: "ride clean and ride fair." Asked by reporters how he managed to keep calm despite the attacks by other cyclists, Marshall answered, "I simply ride away. — Lesa Cline-Ransome

Tennis taught me to take chances, to take life as it comes. To hit every ball that comes to me no matter how hard it looks, to give it my best shot. — Thisuri Wanniarachchi

Hockey historians say the handshake dates to English settlers in Canada, who preached an upper-class version of sportsmanship in the 19th century. Soon, tough kids in urban and prairie rinks began imitating imagined dukes and earls of the old country. — George Vecsey

For what I get paid to get into the ring, I owe it to my fans to uphold the institution of sportsmanship. — Mike Tyson

Merlyn always said that sportsmanship was the curse of the world, and so it is. — T.H. White

There is no such thing as sportsmanship. — Terrell Davis

Contrary to the royal and uptight image of polo, I want to bring it to a younger generation. This is a great sport that can have a larger audience and appeal to more people. Sportsmanship is lacking in many other sports that I don't want to name. — Randeep Hooda

Golf is the only game in which a precise knowledge of the rules can earn one a reputation for bad sportsmanship. — Patrick Campbell, 3rd Baron Glenavy

In the name of all competitors, I promise that we will take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by all the rules which govern them in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams. — Pierre De Coubertin

If the Olympic Games ever served a true altruistic purpose, they have long since outlived it. Yeah, the pursuit of athletic excellence, sportsmanship and international goodwill is plenty noble. But the modern Olympics are at best a vehicle for agitprop; at worst, a scandal magnet. — John Ridley

I think sportsmanship is knowing that it is a game, that we are only as a good as our opponents, and whether you win or lose, to always give 100 percent. — Sue Wicks

Sportsmanship, next to the Church, is the greatest teacher of morals. — Herbert Hoover

In sports, I win because your better. You win because your better. That's it I don't accept excuses. — Kenneth De Guzman

Golfers should not fail to realize that it is a game of great traditions, of high ideals of sportsmanship, one in which a strict adherence to the rules is essential. — Francis Ouimet

I am thankful that in my current role I can mentor other coaches. I interact directly with seventeen coaches on my staff but I'm also trying to be an example to others outside the organization. I want to prove that it's possible to win or lose while maintaining a calm dignity and respect toward your players, officials, and the opposition. My hope is that my profession can have an impact on countless youth who are looking to their coaches for guidance on sportsmanship, how effort pays off, and the other life lessons that come from competing. — Tony Dungy

Sportsmanship is that quality of honor that desires always to be courteous, fair, and respectful, and it is interpreted in the conduct of players, spectators, coaches, and school authorities. — Fielding H. Yost

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

People focus on role models; it is more effective to find antimodels - people you don't want to resemble when you grow up — Nassim Nicholas Taleb