Monthly Archive: July 2022

COACHES HOT SEAT > 2022 > July

Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Sunday, July 31, 2022 – Woody Hayes

July 30, 2022

“I’ve had smarter people around me all my life, but I haven’t run into one yet that can outwork me. And if they can’t outwork you, then smarts aren’t going to do them much good. That’s just the way it is. And if you believe that and live by it, you’d be surprised at how much fun you can have.”

And

“Without winners, there wouldn’t even be any civilization.”

And

“There’s nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.”

And

“The height of human desire is what wins, whether it’s on Normandy Beach or in Ohio Stadium.”

And

“I’m not coming here looking for security. I came here for the opportunity.” Upon accepting Ohio State head coaching job

And

“Paralyze resistance with persistence.”

And

“I don’t live in the past. I’m a student of the past, and I try to learn from the past, although some people will say, ‘You haven’t done a very good job of it.’ But for me to live in the past? Hell, no.'”

And

“A man is always better than he thinks.”

And

“I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying.”

And

“The time you give a man something he doesn’t earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect.”

And

“Success – it ‘s what you do with what you’ve got.”

And

“Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their players heads and motivate them.”

And

“I’m not trying to win a popularity poll. I’m trying to win football games. I don’t like nice people. I like tough, honest people.”

And

“I don’t apologize for anything. When I make a mistake, I take the blame and go on from there. I just despise to lose, and that has taken a man of mediocre ability and made a pretty good coach out of him.”

And

“Just remember one thing. I can do your job, but you can’t do mine.” – to an OSU professor

And

“I love football. I think it is most wonderful game in world and I despise to lose.”

Wikipedia:  Woody Hayes

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Saturday, July 30, 2022 – Bo Schembechler

July 30, 2022

“When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing.”

And

“Those who stay will be champions”

And

“If I make a mistake, I’m going to make a mistake aggressively and I’m going to make it quickly. I don’t believe in sleeping on a decision.”

And

“A Michigan man will coach Michigan.”

And

“We want the Big 10 championship. And we’re going to win it as a TEAM. They can throw out all those great backs and great quarterbacks and great defensive players throughout the country and in this conference. But there’s going to be one team that is going play solely as a team. No man is more important than the team. No coach is more important than the team. THE TEAM! THE TEAM! THE TEAM! And if we think that way, all of us, everything that you do you take into consideration what effect does it have on my team? Because you can go into professional football, you can go anywhere you want to play after you leave here, you will never play for a team again. You’ll play for a contract. You’ll play for this. You’ll play for that. You’ll play for everything except the team. And think what a great thing it is to be a part of something that is THE TEAM! We’re going to win it. We’re going to win the championship again because we’re going to play as a team better than anyone else in the conference. We’re going to play together as a TEAM. We’re going to believe in each other. We’re not going to criticize each other. We’re not going to talk about each other. We’re going to encourage each other! And when we play as a team, when the old season is over, you and I know it’s going to be Michigan again. Michigan!”

And

Book Review: Bo’s Lasting Lessons, Three Star Leadership Blog – (Amazon.com Bo’s Lasting Lessons)

“Successful sports coaches seem to think that it’s part of their game plan to write books. After all, they’re celebrities of a sort and they know something about “winning” which is a popular topic with readers of all kinds.

Bo Schembechler is one of the most successful coaches in the history of college football. He coached Michigan football for twenty years, compiling a record of 234-65-8. During that time his teams won or tied for the Big Ten championship 13 times. He never had a losing season.

That’s why it’s somewhat amazing that it took so long for Bo’s Lasting Lessons to appear. But Bo Schembechler always did things his own way.

There are three big lessons in this book: values matter, keep the rules simple, and enforce them no matter what.

Values mattered for Schembechler. Honesty was the big one. He was going to be honest no matter what and he expected the same from his coaches, his players, and everyone else. The idea was simple: always do the right thing.

He kept the rules simple. He also made sure everyone who worked for him understood the rules. They included how players were to sit in team meetings and how they were expected to dress on road trips.

He enforced the rules he had. If anyone broke Bo’s rules there were consequences. And those consequences were as inevitable as nature.

Those are the big lessons, but there are lots of lessons and bits of wisdom scattered through the book. Here are some of my favorites.

If you’re the boss you have to accept the fact that you’re the bad cop and your assistants will be the good cops.

Don’t hire smart people and then not listen to their opinions.

Seek mentors, not money, especially in the early stages of your career.

Whatever your philosophy, whatever your standards, whatever your expectations, you establish those on day one. Don’t waste a second!

Recruit for character.

Develop leaders underneath you.

Goals can’t come from the top down. They’ve got to come from the people responsible for achieving them. Your job is to help them get there, and remind them every day what their goals are, and what they have to do to make their dreams come true.

Scuttle the star system. Give everyone a role and make it important.

Emphasize execution, not innovation.

There are lots more but you can find them for yourself when you read the book. I’ve got lots of things underlined, and Post-It notes dangle off lots of pages.

There are some things to watch for. First off, some of Bo’s recommendations don’t translate well to any environment other than an athletic team. Be prepared to modify them to suit.

And some things that Bo did back in the Sixties and Seventies aren’t things you can do today. Some of that involves privacy laws. Some of that is the way the world has changed. Be prepared to adapt that material, too.

Over the years, I’ve read lots of books by athletic coaches about how to achieve personal and business success. I’m almost always disappointed, but not this time.

This is an enjoyable and helpful book, in part because co-author John Bacon lets us see what I’m sure is the authentic Bo Schembechler. And Bo was a wise man and clear speaker.”

Wikipedia: Bo Schembechler

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Friday, July 29, 2022 – John Updike

July 29, 2022

“A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership in the world.”

And

‘Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.”

And

‘Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.”

And

“Golf appeals to the idiot in us and the child. Just how childlike golf players become is proven by their frequent inability to count past five.”

And

“If men do not keep on speaking terms with children, they cease to be men, and become merely machines for eating and for earning money.”

And

“Sex is like money; only too much is enough.”

And

“We are most alive when we’re in love.”

And

“When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas.”

And

“I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.”

And

“We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable.”

And

“I secretly understood: the primitive appeal of the hearth. Television is — its irresistible charm — a fire.”

And

‘Four years was enough of Harvard. I still had a lot to learn, but had been given the liberating notion that now I could teach myself.”

And

“It was true of my generation, that the movies were terribly vivid and instructive. There were all kinds of things you learned. Like the 19th century novels, you saw how other social classes lived — especially the upper classes. So in a funny way, they taught you manners almost. But also moral manners. The gallantry of a Gary Cooper or an Errol Flynn or Jimmy Stewart. It was ethical instruction of a sort that the church purported to be giving you, but in a much less digestible form. Instead of these remote, crabbed biblical verses, you had contemporary people acting out moral dilemmas. Just the grace, the grace of those stars — not just the dancing stars, but the way they all moved with a certain grace. All that sank deep into my head, and my soul.”

And

“In the old movies, yes, there always was the happy ending and order was restored. As it is in Shakespeare’s plays. It’s no disgrace to, in the end, restore order. And punish the wicked and, in some way, reward the righteous.”

And

“Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.”

And

“The essential support and encouragement comes from within, arising out of the mad notion that your society needs to know what only you can tell it.”

And

“America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.”

And

“Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.”

And

“Being naked approaches being revolutionary; going barefoot is mere populism.”

Wikipedia Page:  John Updike

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Thursday, July 28, 2022 – Amos Alonzo Stagg

July 28, 2022

“I pray not for victory, but to do my best.”

And

“To me, the coaching profession is one of the noblest and most far-reaching in building manhood. No man is too good to be the athletic coach for youth”

And

“All football comes from Stagg.” Knute Rockne

And

“Winning isn’t worthwhile unless one has something finer and nobler behind it.”

Wikipedia: Amos Alonzo Stagg

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Wednesday, July 27, 2022 – Knute Rockne

July 26, 2022

“A coach’s greatest asset is his sense of responsibility – the reliance placed on him by his players.”

And

“Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.”

And

“Drink the first. Sip the second slowly. Skip the third.”

And

“Four years of football are calculated to breed in the average man more of the ingredients of success in life than almost any academic course he takes.”

And

“It isn’t necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it.”

And

“The essence of football is blocking, tackling, and execution based on timing, rhythm and deception.”

And

“The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven.”

And

“We count on winning. And if we lose, don’t beef. And the best way to prevent beefing is – don’t lose.”

And

“Show me a good and gracious loser and I’ll show you a failure.”

And

“One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than fifty preaching it.”

And

“The best thing I ever learned in life was that things have to be worked for. A lot of people seem to think there is some sort of magic in making a winning football team. There isn’t, but there’s plenty of work.”

And

“I’ve found that prayers work best when you have big players.”

And

“Win or lose, do it fairly.”

And

“Football is a game played with arms, legs and shoulders but mostly from the neck up”

And

“No star playing, just football.”

And

“Tell the public about the boys. They’re the ones that do the work and they should get the credit. The people are interested in them, not me.”

And

“Most men, when they think they are thinking, are merely rearranging their prejudices.”

And

“Let’s win one for the Gipper.”

Wikipedia:  Knute Rockne

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Tuesday, July 26, 2022 – Joe Louis

July 26, 2022

“Every man’s got to figure to get beat sometime.”

And

“Once that bell rings you’re on your own. It’s just you and the other guy.”

And

“I made the most of my ability and I did my best with my title.”

And

“I hope they’re still making women like my momma. She always told me to do the right thing. She always told me to have pride in myself; she said a good name is better than money.”

And

“He can run, but he can’t hide.”

And

“There is no such thing as a natural boxer. A natural dancer has to practice hard. A natural painter has to paint all the time. Even a natural fool has to work at it.”

And

“Your job helps your family, and your family is forever.”

And

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

And

“Yeah, I’m scared. I’m scared I might kill Schmeling.”

And

“I just give lip service to being the greatest. He was the greatest.” – Muhammad Ali

And

“(I define fear as) standing across the ring from Joe Louis and knowing he wants to go home early.” – Max Baer

And

“As soon as the bell rang, they folded like tulips.” – Ray Arcel, on Louis’ opponents

And

“He’s a credit to his race—the human race.” – Jimmy Cannon

And

“Louis is to good to be true and he is absolutely true.” – Ernest Hemingway

Wikipedia:  Joe Louis

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Monday, July 25, 2022 – Hayden Fry

July 25, 2022

“I learned a great many things in the Marines that helped me as a football coach.  The Marines train men hard and to do things the right way, just as a football team must train.”

And

“In football, like in life, you must learn to play within the rules of the game.”

And

“We probably spend more time talking about individual players in our coaching sessions than anything else.”

And

“You can’t control people.  You must understand them.  You have to know where they’re coming from, their beliefs and values, what turns them off, what they’re against.”

And

“I’ve felt sorry for young people who didn’t have an opportunity to play football, because I know what the game can offer.”

Wikipedia Page:  Hayden Fry

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Sunday, July 24, 2022 – Louis L’Amour

July 24, 2022

“A good beginning makes a good end.” 

And

“A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat.”

And

“All loose things seem to drift down to the sea, and so did I.”

And

“Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before – it takes something from him.” 

And

“For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.”

And

“He might never really do what he said, but at least he had it in mind. He had somewhere to go.”

And

“Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.” 

And

“No memory is ever alone; it’s at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations.”

And

“No one can get an education, for of necessity education is a continuing process.”

And

“Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content.”

And

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. Yet that will be the beginning.”

And

“To disbelieve is easy; to scoff is simple; to have faith is harder.”

And

“To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”

And

“Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen.”

And

“Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.”

And

“One day I was speeding along at the typewriter, and my daughter – who was a child at the time – asked me, “Daddy, why are you writing so fast?” And I replied, “Because I want to see how the story turns out!”

Wikipedia:  Louis L’Amour

www.louislamour.com

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Saturday, July 23, 2022 – Jack London

July 23, 2022

“I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself.”

And

“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.”

And

“The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances.”

And

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

And

“Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.”

And

“There are things greater than our wisdom, beyond our justice. The right and wrong of this we cannot say, and it is not for us to judge.”

And

“He lacked the wisdom, and the only way for him to get it was to buy it with his youth; and when wisdom was his, youth would have been spent buying it”

And

“San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories.”

And

“If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.”

And

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

And

“Fiction pays best of all and when it is of fair quality is more easily sold. A good joke will sell quicker than a good poem, and, measured in sweat and blood, will bring better remuneration. Avoid the unhappy ending, the harsh, the brutal, the tragic, the horrible – if you care to see in print things you write. (In this connection don’t do as I do, but do as I say.) Humour is the hardest to write, easiest to sell, and best rewarded… Don’t write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story, rather than dissipate it over a dozen. Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.”

And

“A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.”

And

“Affluence means influence.”

And

“Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?”

Wikipedia: Jack London

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Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Friday, July 22, 2022 – Johnny Carson

July 22, 2022

“Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place.”

And

“Happiness is your dentist telling you it won’t hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill.”

And

“I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself.”

And

“I know you’ve been married to the same woman for 69 years. That is marvelous. It must be very inexpensive.”

And

“I was so naive as a kid I used to sneak behind the barn and do nothing.”

And

“My success just evolved from working hard at the business at hand each day.”

And

“Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself, you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.”

And

“Talent alone won’t make you a success. Neither will being in the right place at the right time, unless you are ready. The most important question is: “Are your ready?””

And

“The only thing money gives you is the freedom of not worrying about money”

Wikipedia: Johnny Carson

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