Quotes & Sayings About Sportsmanship

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

True sportsmanship is excellence in motion! — Lorii Myers

One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it. — Knute Rockne

It's considered good sportsmanship not to pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling. — Mark Twain

Competition is great for everyone. Sports can teach you so much at an early age, including camaraderie and sportsmanship. Competition aspect is something I've always been big on - I always wanted to compete in something. It was swimming for many years, then I moved on to basketball. I had to find a way to channel my competitive energy, so I'm lucky that basketball worked out for me. — Tim Duncan

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

Golf is a great way for someone to learn discipline, responsibility and sportsmanship.? — Tiger Woods

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

Good sportsmanship means treating others with respect. I consider myself a pretty good sport. — Tommy Hilfiger

Persons like you say, 'I'm an individual, therefore I oppose any power over me.' That right there does not follow. How about 'I'm an individual, therefore I notice and understand my place in the grand scheme of things'? I've heard of persons who don't feel small in the vastness of Nature or intimidated by its challenges, and that strikes me as a lack of perspective. If all you can see is yourself, you're not seeing very far. How about, 'I'm an individual, therefore I notice and understand that my success depends on others' success, because we're all interconnected'? That does not negate my individuality or threaten my freedom. We support each other on a team. Your problem is you don't know we're all on the same team, because you're too busy holding the ball, saying, 'Mine!', and not playing the game with good sportsmanship. Yeah, good sportsmanship. Ever heard of that? — Robert Peate

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

When champions fail, they get back up and try again. They don't let failure discourage them. — Mary Ellen Clark

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

Third, there is value in any experience that exercises those ethical restraints collectively called 'sportsmanship'. Our tools for the pursuit of wildlife improve faster than we do, and sportsmanship is the voluntary limitation in the use of these armaments. It is aimed to augment the role of skill and shrink the role of Gadgets in the pursuit of wild things. — Aldo Leopold

Most of my ribbons were for good sportsmanship, a backhanded compliment if ever there was one. — David Sedaris

On Chris Evert: Before I even met her, she stood for everything I admired in this country: poise, ability, sportsmanship, money, style. — Martina Navratilova

Sportsmanship" had been stretched too far. Like "relativity," it had migrated far afield from its original meaning. It used to refer to the kind of behavior that Lance Armstrong showed Jan Ullrich. But over time the term was stretched to include unimpressive, nonchivalrous behavior, like losing without whining too much or making it through an entire game without assaulting a referee. — Chip Heath

What I admire most in any man is a serene spirit, a steady freedom from moral indignation, and all-embracing tolerance
in brief,what is commonly called sportsmanship. — H.L. Mencken

I think it's safe to say that 'manliness' was a common theme in my upbringing. It was an assumed status, but - and here's the important bit - it was the Rudyard Kipling kind. The emphasis was on gentlemanly conduct, sportsmanship, fairness and stoicism. — Ian Watson

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

The Boys and Girls Club taught me a lot about sportsmanship, humility, self-respect. — Junior Seau

Sportsmanship isn't about criticizing the "ONE" who didn't win on "That ONE"day... it's about appreciating and supporting their hard work amidst failures!!! — Akansh Malik

It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up. — Vince Lombardi

I'm thinking that I shouldn't have filed my nails last night. — Dara Torres

Dan really came into his own pitching last year (during Legion play). He received the sportsmanship award during the regional tournament. — Wade Clark Mackey

After I hit a home run I had a habit of running the bases with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases. — Mickey Mantle

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

If you spend a lot of time on sportsmanship, you're going to spend a lot of time losing. — Glenn Dobbs

I've always seen the Olympics as a place where you could act out your differences on the athletic field with a sense of sportsmanship and fairness and mutual respect. — Andrew Young

Tactics, fitness, stroke ability, adaptability, experience, and sportsmanship are all necessary for winning. — Fred Perry

A decayed body is not made the least more aesthetic by a brilliant mind, indeed the highest intellectual training could not be justified if its bearers were at the same time physically degenerate and crippled, weak-minded, wavering and cowardly individuals. What make the Greek ideal of beauty a model is the wonderful combination of the most magnificent physical beauty with brilliant mind and noblest soul. — Adolf Hitler

When in a fight for your life, you never, ever fight fairly. Honor and sportsmanship are wonderful in games that don't matter, but it's the honorable guys who always die in real battles. "When there's blood involved," I'd told her, "you always use every advantage you have to make sure it's theirs that spills and not yours. If you want to feel guilty about taking unfair advantage afterward, you go ahead and feel that shit. But live to feel it." In — Kevin Hearne

Sportsmanship ... what a load of crap, don't preach your morality to me. Steve Austin doesn't have any mercy ... you want mercy? Take your *ss to church! — Stone Cold Steve Austin

Be fair. Play hard. — Dan Venezia

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

Swords. That is no faenorn ; that is slaughter."
The Grand Seneschal shrugged. "The Master did not protest. And, indeed, what weapon could he have suggested that would suit him any better?"
"Fire," she said.
"He would not," said the Seneschal. "You know he would not. — Robin McKinley

If you win through bad sportsmanship that's no real victory. — Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Writing has nothing to do with pretty manners, and less to do with sportsmanship or restraint [...]
Every writer begins as a subversive, if in nothing more than the antisocial means by which he earns his keep. Finally, every fantasist who cannibalizes himself knows that misfortune is his friend, that grief feeds and sharpens his fancy, that hatred is as sufficient a spur to creation as love (and a world more common) and that without an instinct for lunacy he will come to nothing. — Geoffrey Wolff

Sometimes I think sportsmanship is a little bit forgotten in place of the individual attention. — Cal Ripken Jr.

Perhaps this is how racism feels no matter the context - randomly the rules everyone else gets to play by no longer apply to you, and to call this out by calling out "I swear to God!" is to be called insane, crass, crazy. Bad sportsmanship. — Claudia Rankine

In any case, it is difficult not to think that if Serena lost context by abandoning all rules of civility, it could be because her body, trapped in a racial imaginary, trapped in disbelief - code for being black in America - is being governed not by the tennis match she is participating in but by a collapsed relationship that had promised to play by the rules. Perhaps this is how racism feels no matter the context - randomly the rules everyone else gets to play by no longer apply to you, and to call this out by calling out "I swear to God!" is to be called insane, crass, crazy. Bad sportsmanship. Two — Claudia Rankine

I would advise all youths aspiring to athletic fame or a professional career to practice clean living, fair play and good sportsmanship. — Major Taylor

Professionalism is not sportsmanship. If you don't succeed, you won't be in your profession for long. In our society, it's not about good or bad. It's about who's on top. — Chili Davis

Aside from being bad sportsmanship - Romney basically said Obama won by cheating - he was displaying the same obtuseness about the wants and needs of ordinary people that did more to torpedo his campaign than any goodies Obama might have had to dole out. — John Podhoretz

I would rather win than have good sportsmanship. — Allen Iverson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If character is what you do when no one is watching, then sportsmanship is that conduct with everybody watching. — Bob Ley

Life is a game like any other; we just don't take it as seriously. — Babe Ruth

Have I done more for some today ? Than some have done for me ? If a person can answer yes at the end of a day, then that person has had a good day. — Kevin Wall

Sportsmanship is the ethical and moral dimension of sports. It is demonstrated by a number of attributes and attitudes such as fair play, respect for the rules and traditions of the sport and various traits of good character including integrity (abiding by the letter and spirit of the rules and concepts of honor); demonstrated respect for others including teammates, opponents, officials and spectators; accountability, self-control, and graciousness in victory and defeat. — Michael Josephson

Someone who doesn't make the (Olympic) team might weep and collapse. In my day no one fell on the track and cried like a baby. We lost gracefully. And when someone won, he didn't act like he'd just become king of the world, either. Athletes in my day were simply humble in our victory.
I believe we were more mature then ... Maybe it's because the media puts so much pressure on athletes; maybe it's also the money. In my day we competed for the love of the sport ... In my day we patted the guy who beat us on the back, wished him well, and that was it. — Louis Zamperini

Good sportsmanship we hail, we sing, It's always pleasant when you spot it. There's only one unhappy thing: You have to lose to prove that you've got it. — Richard Armour

I SEND YOU MY HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS UPON BEGINNING THE THIRTIETH YEAR OF YOUR GREAT CAREER AS MANAGER OF THE NEW YORK GIANTS, IN WHICH YOU HAVE DONE SO MUCH TO UPHOLD THE TRADITIONS OF CLEAN SPORTSMANSHIP IN THE MOST BELOVED NATIONAL GAME. — Herbert Hoover

She's learned to listen more and improve different aspects of her game. I'm most proud that she's improved her sportsmanship, her demeanor on the field. She's still working on leadership and that's improving. — Elaine Jones

I was pleased with both games. Our sportsmanship was outstanding. — Wade Clark Mackey

Golf is game of respect and sportsmanship; we have to respect its traditions and its rules. — Jack Nicklaus

...(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

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

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

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

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

I like to give opinions, not suggestions — John Wooden

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

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