Southerners are proud of
their football heritage, their schools, and their
teams. And they share a deep pride
that goes with being from the South.
George Mooney
The game of football is beginning to gain
a foothold in Knoxville.
Knoxville Journal, November 20, 1891
Atlanta will be the scene Saturday afternoon
of the first interstate intercollegiate
football game. Both teams have been
practicing for weeks.
Atlanta Journal, February 17, 1892
Alabama Polytechnic and Mechanical School at Auburn
defeated the University of Georgia 10 - 0
In six days, we defeated Texas A&M,
Tulane, and Mississippi. Our best asset
was a marvelous spirit generated
by stamina and fiber.
Henry Seibels, 1899
Seibels captained the University of the South's squad
that traveled 2,000 miles and defeated five teams in six days.
Southern football is not recognized or
respected. Boys, here's your chance
to change that forever.
Wallace Wade's pre-game remarks prior to Alabama's
20 - 19 victory over Washington in the 1926 Rose Bowl.
I'm from Ohio, but if I'd known when I was two what it was
like down South, I would have
crawled here on my hands and knees.
Frank Sinkwich, University of Georgia
Someone once said that in the South
there are three seasons:
football season
recruiting season and
spring pracice.
Bob Bell
Always Remember that Goliath was
a 40-point favorite over little David.
Shug Jordan
Gentlemen, it is better to have died
as a young boy than to fumble this football.
John Heisman
My advice to defensive players:
Take the shortest route to the ball
and arrive in a bad humor.
Bowden Wyatt
Football changes and so do people.
The successful coach is the one who sets the
trend, not the one who follows it.
Bear Bryant
The worst thing a coach can do is stand pat and
think the things that worked yesterday
will win tomorrow. Intelligent changes must be made.
Johnny Vaught
I'm not too proud to change.
I like to win too much.
Bobby Bowden
I don't believe in miracles.
I beleive in character.
Pat Dye
Don't wait to be a great man.
Be a great boy.
Shug Jordan
I want players to think as positively as the
85-year-old man who married a 25-year-old woman
and bought a five-bedroom house next to
the elementary school.
Charlie Pell
You can't be aggressive and
confused at the same time.
Darrell Royal
I can reach a kid who doesn't have
any ability as long as he doesn't know it.
Bear Bryant
Spectacular achievements are always
preceded by unspectacular preparation.
Roger Staubach
Proper conditioning is that fleeting moment
between getting ready and going stale.
Frank Thomas
First we will be best, then we will be first.
Lou Holtz
I'd rather face the lions in the coliseum
than the Tigers in Baton Rogue.
Bobby Dodd
Tennessee sophomores don't deserve citizenship
papers until they have survived an Alabama game.
General Robert Neyland
At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat.
That costs money and we don't have any.
Erk Russell
I had a lot of offers to go to other schools,
but I turned them all down. Clemson was the only place
I could bum chewing tobacco from the professors.
Frank Howard
I'd rather be on probation
then get beat by Furman.
Clemson Bumper Sticker
The definition of an atheist in Alabama is
someone who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant.
Wally Butts
Close only counts in horseshoes
and hand grenades.
Frank Howard
Almost all games are lost by the losers,
not won by the winners.
General Robert Neyland
When they look back at that 9 - 1 season,
they don't ask who the nine were.
General Robert Neyland
FROM THE BEAR
I don't hire anyone not brighter than I am.
If they're not smarter than me, I don't need them.
I don't have any ideas; my coaches have them.
I just pass the ideas on and referee the arguments.
Every time a player goes out there,
at least 20 people have some amount of
influence on him. His mother has more
influence than anyone, I know because
I played, and I loved my mama.
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.
In life, you'll have your back up against the
wall many times. You might as well get used to it.
The first time you quit, its hard. The second
time, it gets easier. The third time,
you don't even have to think about it.
I'm known as a recruiter. Well, you've got to
have chicken to make chicken salad.
Bear's three rules for coaching:
1. Surround yourself with people
who can't live without football.
2. Rocognize winners. They come
in all forms.
3. Have a plan for everything.
The first thing a football coach needs when
he's starting out is a wife who's willing to
put up with a lot of neglect.
The second thing is a five-year contract.
The alumni are starting to grumble, and
I'm the one starting it.
There ought to be a special place
in Heaven for coaches' wives.
When we have a good team, I know
it's because we have boys who
come from good mammas and poppas.
On game day, I'm as nervous
as a pig in a packing plant.
Darrell Royal
Football coaching is hard work.
It drains heavily on the physical, particularly
on the nerves. I believe that one should cease
this arduous service while still in good health.
Dan McGugin
When in doubt, Punt!
John Heisman
MORE ...
#1. 'Football is only a game. Spiritual things are eternal. Nevertheless, Beat Texas ' - Seen on a church sign in Arkansas prior to the 1969 game.
#2. 'After you retire, there's only one big event left... and I ain't ready for that.' - Bobby Bowden / Florida State
#3. 'The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.' - Lou Holtz / Arkansas
#4. 'When you win, nothing hurts.' - Joe Namath / Alabama
#5. 'Motivation is simple.. You eliminate those who are not motivated.' - Lou Holtz / Arkansas
#6. 'If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, 'Roll, tide, roll!' - Bear Bryant / Alabama
#7. 'A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.' - Frank Leahy / Notre Dame
#8. 'There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.' - Woody Hayes / Ohio State
#9. 'I don't expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation.' - Bob Devaney / Nebraska
#10. 'In Alabama , an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant.' - Wally Butts / Georgia
#11. 'You can learn more character on the two-yard line than anywhere else in life.' - Paul Dietzel / LSU
#12. 'It's kind of hard to rally around a math class.' - Bear Bryant / Alabama
#13. When asked if Fayetteville was the end of the world. 'No, but you can see it from here.' - Lou Holtz / Arkansas ....
#14. 'I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.' - Bear Bryant / Alabama
#15. 'There's one sure way to stop us from scoring-give us the ball near the goal line.' - Matty Bell / SMU
#16. 'Lads, you're not to miss practice unless your parents died or you died.' - Frank Leahy / Notre Dame
#17. 'I never graduated from Iowa , but I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's.' - Alex Karras / Iowa
#18. 'My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor.' - Bowden Wyatt / Tennessee
#19. 'I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades.' - Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State
#20. 'Always remember... Goliath was a 40 point favorite over David.' - Shug Jordan / Auburn
#21. 'They cut us up like boarding house pie. And that's real small pieces.' - Darrell Royal / Texas
#22. 'Show me a good and gracious loser, and I'll show you a failure.' - Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
#23. 'They whipped us like a tied up goat.' - Spike Dykes / Texas Tech
#24. 'I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn't recruit me and he said: 'Well, Walt, we took a look at you and you weren't any good.' - Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State
#25. 'Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel.' - Bobby Bowden / Florida State
#26. 'Football is not a contact sport - it is a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.' - Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State
#27. After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his postgame message to his team: 'All those who need showers, take them.' - John McKay / USC
#28. 'If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education.' - Murray Warmath / Minnesota
#29. 'The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb.' - Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
#30. 'Oh, we played about like three tons of buzzard puke this afternoon.' - Spike Dykes / Texas Tech
#31. 'It isn't necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it.' - Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
#32. 'We live one day at a time and scratch where it itches.' - Darrell Royal / Texas
#33. 'We didn't tackle well today but we made up for it by not blocking.' - Wilson Matthews / Little Rock Central High School
#34. 'Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad.' - Darrell Royal / University of Texas
#35. 'I've found that prayers work best when you have big players.' - Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
#36. 'Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football.' - John Heisman
