Great Throughts Treasury

"It’s not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference."

"A good, quick, small team can beat a big, slow team any time."

"Football changes and so do people. "

"Bear Bryant's Three Rules for coaching: 1) Surround yourself with people who can't live without football. 2) Recognize winners. They come in all forms. 3) Have a plan for everything. "

"Every time a player goes out there, at least twenty people have some amount of influence on him. His mother has more influence than anyone. I know because I played, I loved my mama. "

"Don't give up at half time. Concentrate on winning the second half."

"Hell no! A tie is like kissing your sister. "

"I can reach a kid who doesn’t have any ability as long as he doesn’t know it. "

"I ain't nothing but a winner. "

"I feel blessed. I have put a lot of hard work into basketball. When you work hard and believe, something positive will come out in the end. "

"I’m just a simple plowhand from Arkansas, but I have learned over the years how to hold a team together. How to lift some men up, how to calm others down, until finally they’re got one heartbeat, together, a team. "

"I don’t care how much talent a team has - if the boys don’t think tough, practice tough, and live tough, how can they play tough on Saturday’s?"

"In a crisis, don’t hide behind anything or anybody. They’re going to find you anyway. "

"In life, you’ll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to it. "

"I’m known as a recruiter. Well, you’ve got to have chicken to make chicken salad. "

"I'll put you through hell, but at the end of it all we'll be champions."

"If you whoop and holler all the time, the players just get used to it."

"If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride - and never quit - you’ll be a winner. The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards."

"If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes real good, you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games. "

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog "

"Never be too proud to get down on your knees and pray."

"Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don't quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don't quit until you reach it. Never quit. "

"One man doesn’t make a team. It takes eleven. "

"Our game plan is first year, a .500 season. Second year, a conference championship. Third year, undefeated. Fourth, a national championship. And by the fifth year, we'll be on probation, of course."

"In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first -- ahead of personal glory. "

"Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boy’s don’t forget them when they leave. "

"No coach has ever won a game by what he knows; it’s what his players know that counts. "

"Players can be divided, roughly, into four types. Those who have ability and know it, those who have it and don't know it, those who don't have it and know it, and those who don't have it but don't know it."

"Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself. "

"The first time you quit, it’s hard. The second time, it gets easier. The third time, you don’t even have to think about it. "

"The first thing a football coach needs when he’s starting out is a wife who’s willing to put up with a whole lot of neglect. The second thing is a five-year contract. "

"The fun never goes out, but it changes with the years, with winning and losing. "

"There is not a person alive who isn't going to have some awfully bad days in their lives. I tell my players that what I mean by fighting is when your house burns down, and your wife runs off with the drummer, and you've lost your job and all the odds are against you. What are you going to do? Most people just lay down and quit. Well, I want my people to fight back. "

"There's a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success."

"There's no substitute for guts. "

"When you get in the end zone act like you've been there before. "

"When we have a good team, I know it’s because we have boys that come from good mamas and papas. "

"When you make a mistake, admit it; learn from it and don’t repeat it. "

"When you win, there’s glory enough for everybody. When you lose, there’s glory for none. "

"Winning isn't everything, but it beats anything that comes in second."

"Winning isn’t imperative, but getting tougher in the fourth quarter is. "

"You have to be willing to out-condition your opponents. "

"I think the most important thing of all for any team is a winning attitude. The coaches must have it. The players must have it. The student body must have it. If you have dedicated players who believe in themselves, you don't need a lot of talent."

"You never know how a horse will pull until you hook him to a heavy load. "

"What are you doing here? Tell me why you are here. If you are not here to win a national championship, you're in the wrong place. You boys are special. I don't want my players to be like other students. I want special people. You can learn a lot on the football field that isn't taught in the home, the church, or the classroom. There are going to be days when you think you've got no more to give and then you're going to give plenty more. You are going to have pride and class. You are going to be very special. You are going to win the national championship for Alabama."