Al McGuire Quotations

Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war.

When I was losing, they called me nuts. When I was winning they called me eccentric.

I don't know why people question the academic training of an athlete. Fifty percent of the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their classes.

The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.

I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated.

Remember, half the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their class.

I think the world is run by 'C' students.

When a guy takes off his coat, he's not going to fight. When a guy takes off his wristwatch, watch out!

Help one kid at a time. He'll maybe go back and help a few more.

I went into a restaurant one night and ordered lobster, and the waiter brought me one with a claw missing. I called him over and told him about it. He told me that in the back there's a tank they keep the lobsters in and while they're in there, they fight and sometimes one loses a claw. I told him 'then bring me a winner.'

I tell the players that they can't relive any day in their lives and that they can't relive the minutes of a game, so they should make a great effort, a Mount Everest type effort, to live up to their potential. Success is a communal type thing, and if we win, then everyone can be considered successful and we can move uptown together.

It's so ridiculous to see a golfer with a one foot putt and everybody is saying "Shhh" and not moving a muscle. Then we allow nineteen year-old kids to face a game-deciding free throw with seventeen thousand people yelling.

I'm not saying that they were Einsteins; they were marginal students. But every ballplayer whoever touched me has moved up his station in life. And the players moved up my station.

There's no one who's dropped on top of the mountain. You've got to work your way to the top.

The world is run by C students

You can always tell the Catholic schools by the length of the cheerleaders' skirts.

Don't call me son unless you're going to include me in your will. (When Adolph Rupp called him, "Son.")

I believe in a business boarding up early. If you make a mistake, you put the boards in the window of the store and say, "Hey, I made a mistake." Let me take two shots in the arm and a punch on the nose and let me get on to the next thing. I don't believe in worrying over failures. I worry about successes. This is opposite from most people. Most people zero in on their failures. I try to keep all my attention on a pyramid type philosophy rather than the averaging-down philosophy.

The nicest thing about coaching is that one day you feel like you can play handball against a curb, and on other days you feel like you can fly to the moon.

Keep it simple, when you get too complex you forget the obvious.

A team should be an extension of a coach's personality. My teams are arrogant and obnoxious.

On how to make the game more exciting - Eliminate the referees, raise the basket four feet, double the size of the basketball, limit the height of the players to 5 feet 9 inches, bring back the centre jump, allow taxi drivers in for free and allow the players to carry guns.

It's a profession in which, the longer you stay, the closer you are to being fired.

Life is what you allow yourself not to see.

My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house. That's not my world. My world has a cracked sidewalk.

It bothers me that the average fan, the average sportswriter for that matter, pays so much attention to what's in a box score. A box score does not properly represent the most important thing - team play. It shows some guy scoring 27 points, but it doesn't show that my 27-point man let his guy score 30.

All love affairs end. Eventually the girl is gonna put curlers in her hair.

I don't discuss basketball. I dictate basketball. I'm not interested in philosophy classes.

Our guys took Shop and Advanced Shop. Shop is when you make a chair. Advanced Shop is when you paint it.

God didn't miss any of us.

I just can't recruit where there's grass around. You gotta have a concrete lawn before I feel comfortable enough to go in and talk to you parents.

The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores.

That's it. Curtains. Off to the races. Treetops. Seashells and balloons.

Winning is only important in war and surgery.

I'm an Einstein of the streets and an Oxford scholar of common sense.

If a player leaves Marquette and doesn't have some of my blood in him, then I don't think I've done a good job.

Live every day as if it were Saturday night.

Don't be just another guy going down the street and going nowhere.

If the waitress has dirty ankles, the chili is good.

Make your life exciting. Do what you have to do as long as you don't hurt people.

You measure a player from the head up.

Every obnoxious fan has a wife at home that dominates him.

Butch, you come from DeWitt Clinton. There are five thousand brothers in that school. You're the best there. You've been all-city two years in a row. How bad can you be? You come with me and we'll make nice music.

If winning weren't important nobody would keep score.

We rush for the stars as we crawl toward our graves.

The people who know basketball, their elevators don't go to the top.

I let ballplayers yell back at me because I wasn't trying to prove I'm boss. I know I'm boss.

I don't believe in looking past anybody - I wouldn't look past the Little Sisters of the Poor after they stayed up all night.

I had my moment on the stage. The trick in life is to know when to leave.

When I'm losing, they call me nuts. When I'm winning, they call me eccentric.

I come from New York where, if you fall down, someone will pick you up by your wallet.

The next time I will cry is when I die. My life has been that beautiful.

You better have great practices.

Dean Meminger was quicker than 11:15 Mass at a seaside resort.

Can't win without talent, you know.

If you're straight with your players, they'll be straight with you.

They call me eccentric. They used to call me nuts. I haven't changed. The only difference between being eccentric and being nuts is the number of security boxes you own.

I want my team to have my personality: surly, obnoxious, and arrogant.

I don't think any decent human being enjoys recruiting.

Live in the moment that you are in.

If the waitress has dirty ankles, the chili should be good.

All I could think of was, why me? After all the years of odors in the locker room, the socks and jocks. All the fights in the gyms. Just the wildness of it all. And to have it end like this. It's been a great run. Normally, alley fighters, street fighters like me, don't end up in lace.