Some quotes to chew on today…
I’ve said it a hundred times, a great library is the heart of a great university, and if we want to remain a big league university, we’ve got to have a big league library.
Throughout my life, I have always had the ability to concentrate on what has to be done and not worry about things I can’t do anything about. If I can do something about it, I go after it and try to get it done by giving my best shot. If I succeed, fine, but if I fail I put it behind me.
The players who have been most important to the success of [our] teams have just naturally kept their priorities straight: football a high second, but academics an undisputed first.
What are coaches? Number one, we’re teachers and we’re educators. We have the same obligations as all teachers at our institutions, except we probably have more influence over our young people than anyone other than their families.
…we’re dealing with emotions; we’re dealing with commitment; we’re dealing with discipline, and loyalty, and pride. The things that make a difference in a person’s life — pride, loyalty and commitment — are the things that make a difference in this country. We’re teaching them (student-athletes) the realities of the competitive life.
Just winning is a silly reason to be serious about a game. For a kid still in school, devotion to winning football games at nearly any cost may cripple his mind for life. Institutions of higher learning don’t have the moral right to exploit and mislead inexperienced kids that way.
The purpose of college football is to serve education, not the other way around. I hound my players to get involved. Ten years from now I want them to look back on college as a wonderful time of expanding themselves — not just four years of playing football.
I don’t think our uniforms look that bad. I think they say something to kids about team-oriented play and an austere approach to life.
Money alone will not make you happy. Success without honor is an unseasoned dish. It will satisfy your hunger, but it won’t taste good.
Not too shabby stuff for a guy who majored in English Literature at an Ivy League school, and who sits up half the night, as he did for years, doing ‘x’s’ and ‘o’s’ for the next day’s practice or next Saturday’s game, listening to opera.
