Bear Bryant famous quotes

It's awfully important to win with humility. It's also important to lose. I hate to lose worse than anyone, but if you never lose you won't know how to act. If you lose with humility, then you can come back.
-- Bear Bryant

#Hate #Believe #Humility

Don't give up at half time. Concentrate on winning the second half.
-- Bear Bryant

#Inspirational #Sports #Football

Losing doesn't make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Fighting #Want

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.
-- Bear Bryant

#Teamwork #Player #Order

It's not the will to win that matters-everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters.
-- Bear Bryant

#Athlete #Winning #Matter

Sure, I'd love to beat Notre Dame, don't get me wrong. But nothing matters more than beating that cow college on the other side of the state!
-- Bear Bryant

#College #Dames #Cows

Baton Rouge happens to be the worst place in the world for a visiting team. It's like being inside a drum.
-- Bear Bryant

#Team #World #Visiting

I ain't never been nothin but a winner.
-- Bear Bryant

#Winner

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

#Horse #Adversity #Hook

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

#Inspirational #Motivational #Success

There's a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success.
-- Bear Bryant

#Motivational #Leadership #Basketball

I plan on staying at Alabama for the rest of my career. I guarantee that I'll be here for you through it all, regardless of what happens.
-- Bear Bryant

#Sports #Stay Strong #Careers

There is a big difference in wanting to and willing to.
-- Bear Bryant

#Differences #Bigs #Willing

The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards.
-- Bear Bryant

#Victory #Rewards

You're still going to win with preparation and dedication and plain old desire. If you don't have genuine desire, you won't be dedicated enough to prepare properly.
-- Bear Bryant

#Winning #Dedication #Preparation

Mama wanted me to be a preacher. I told her coachin' and preachin' were a lot alike.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Mama #Preacher

The old lessons (work, self-discipline, sacrifice, teamwork, fighting to achieve) aren't being taught by many people other than football coaches these days. The football coach has a captive audience and can teach these lessons because the communication lines between himself and his players are more wide open than between kids and parents. We better teach these lessons or else the country's future population will be made up of a majority of crooks, drug addicts, or people on relief.
-- Bear Bryant

#Teamwork #Country #Football

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.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Thinking #Firsts

There's no substitute for guts.
-- Bear Bryant

#Volleyball #Substitutes #Guts

If wanting to win is a fault, as some of my critics seem to insist, then I plead guilty. I like to win. I know no other way. It's in my blood.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Winning #Blood

A good, quick, small team can beat a big, slow team any time.
-- Bear Bryant

#Team #Believe #Beats

Little things make the difference. Everyone is well prepared in the big things, but only the winners perfect the little things.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Differences #Perfect

I didn't have a thing to do with picking a coach, and didn't want to. But I didn't think they'd pick one I didn't like.
-- Bear Bryant

#Sports #Thinking #Want

Georgia Tech beat us and Mississippi Southern tied us last year, and Texas beat us after we had the game won. We only played about five games the way we were capable of playing and lost one of those.
-- Bear Bryant

#Technology #Texas #Years

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.
-- Bear Bryant

#Football #Believe #Home

You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some men up, calm others down, until finally they've got one heartbeat. Then you've got yourself a team.
-- Bear Bryant

#Team #Believe #Men

If there is one thing that has helped me as a coach, it's my ability to recognize winners, or good people who can become winners by paying the price.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #People #Winner

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.
-- Bear Bryant

#Inspirational #Motivational #Sports

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

#Champion #Hell #Ends

I can reach a kid who doesn't have any ability as long as he doesn't know it.
-- Bear Bryant

#Kids #Long #Ability

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.
-- Bear Bryant

#Inspirational #Strength #Success

I know what it takes to win. If I can sell them on what it takes to win, then we are not going to lose too many football games.
-- Bear Bryant

#Football #Believe #Winning

Don't talk too much or too soon.
-- Bear Bryant

#Too Much

No coach has ever won a game by what he knows; it's what his players know that counts.
-- Bear Bryant

#Player #Games #Coaching

Set goals - high goals for you and your organization. When your organization has a goal to shoot for, you create teamwork, people working for a common good.
-- Bear Bryant

#Teamwork #Believe #Organization

A champion pays an extra price to be better than anyone else.
-- Bear Bryant

#Motivational #Champion #Pay

Don't worry about making friends; don't worry about making enemies. Worry about winning, because if you win, your enemies can't hurt you, and if you lose, your friends can't stand you.
-- Bear Bryant

#Hurt #Winning #Worry

We can't have two standards, one set for the dedicated young men who want to do something ambitious and one set for those who don't.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Men #Two

Find your own picture, your own self in anything that goes bad. It's awfully easy to mouth off at your staff or chew out players, but if it's bad, and your the head coach, you're responsible. If we have an intercepted pass, I threw it. I'm the head coach. If we get a punt blocked, I caused it. A bad practice, a bad game, it's up to the head coach to assume his responsibility.
-- Bear Bryant

#Wrestling #Responsibility #Player

That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you.
-- Bear Bryant

#Football #Winning #Games

When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: 1. Admit it. 2. Learn from it, and 3. Don't repeat it.
-- Bear Bryant

#Inspirational #Mistake #Believe

Don't ever give up on ability. Don't give up on a player who has it.
-- Bear Bryant

#Giving Up #Believe

But it's still a coach's game. Make no mistake. You start at the top. If you don't have a good one at the top, you don't have a cut dog's chance. If you do, the rest falls into place. You have to have good assistants, and a lot of things, but first you have to have the chairman of the board.
-- Bear Bryant

#Dog #Mistake #Fall

It's kind of hard to rally around a math class.
-- Bear Bryant

#Football #Math #College

Here's a twenty, bury two.
-- Bear Bryant

#Football #College #Two

I don't hire anybody not brighter than I am. If they're not brighter than I am, I don't need them.
-- Bear Bryant

#Football #College #Needs

When I was a young coach I used to say, "Treat everybody alike." That's bull. Treat everybody fairly.
-- Bear Bryant

#Coaching #Bulls #Used

Don't overwork your squad. If you're going to make a mistake, under-work them.
-- Bear Bryant

#Mistake #Wrestling #Squad

I honestly believe that if you are willing to out-condition the opponent, have confidence in your ability, be more aggressive than your opponent and have a genuine desire for team victory, you will become the national champions. If you have all the above, you will acquire confidence and poise, and you will have those intangibles that win the close ones.
-- Bear Bryant

#Team #Believe #Winning

Scout yourself. Have a buddy who coaches scout you.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Coaches #Buddy

The idea of molding men means a lot to me.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Mean #Men

In life, you'll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to it.
-- Bear Bryant

#Wall #Believe #Might

Don't talk too much. Don't pop off. Don't talk after the game until you cool off.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Games #Too Much

I'll never give up on a player regardless of his ability as long as he never gives up on himself. In time he will develop.
-- Bear Bryant

#Giving Up #Believe #Player

Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don't forget them when they leave.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Sacrifice #Boys

Get the winners into the game.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Games #Winner

If a man is a quitter, I'd rather find out in practice than in a game. I ask for all a player has so I'll know later what I can expect.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Player #Men

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.
-- Bear Bryant

#Attitude #Team #Believe

I'm no miracle man. I guarantee nothing but hard work.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Hard Work #Men

The biggest mistake coaches make is taking borderline cases and trying to save them. I'm not talking about grades now, I'm talking about character. I want to know before a boy enrolls about his home life, and what his parents want him to be.
-- Bear Bryant

#Mistake #Believe #Home

If you want to coach you have three rules to follow to win. One, surround yourself with people who can't live without football. I've had a lot of them. Two, be able to recognize winners. They come in all forms. And, three, have a plan for everything. A plan for practice, a plan for the game. A plan for being ahead, and a plan for being behind 20-0 at half, with your quarterback hurt and the phones dead, with it raining cats and dogs and no rain gear because the equipment man left it at home.
-- Bear Bryant

#Football #Dog #Hurt

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

#Believe #Player #Used

My approach to the game has been the same at all the places I've been. Vanilla. The sure way. That means, first of all, to win physically. If you got eleven on a field, and they beat the other eleven physically, they'll win. They will start forcing mistakes. They'll win in the fourth quarter.
-- Bear Bryant

#Mistake #Believe #Mean

You take those little rascals, talk to them good, pat them on the back, let them think they are good, and they will go out and beat the biguns.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Thinking #Littles

Be aware of "yes" men. Generally, they are losers. Surround yourself with winners. Never forget - people win.
-- Bear Bryant

#Believe #Winning #Men

There is no sin in not liking to play; it's a mistake for a boy to be there if he doesn't want to.
-- Bear Bryant

#Mistake #Believe #Boys

You try to make your team do something they're not capable of and you get murdered.
-- Bear Bryant

#Team #Trying #Capable

Back 12 years ago, when Dr. Mathews was president here, we had a plan that when I got ready to quit, we'd bring a certain guy in and he'd take over that day and I'd leave. But as time wore on, I realized that wouldn't have been good at all.
-- Bear Bryant

#Sports #Years #Guy

I hope to get out before they start football next year.
-- Bear Bryant

#Football #Years #Next Year

I want to make sure I don't interfere with the success of that team next year. I don't see any way I could go to practice like most of 'em do, and not hurt the team. I'd go nuts if I tried doing that.
-- Bear Bryant

#Sports #Hurt #Team

Nearly every coach I've talked with tells me that the attention you get from media and other people is the thing you miss most. I don't know if that's right.
-- Bear Bryant

#Missing You #Media #People

It's been years since I've had a real input in the game anyway. For this game, I've just tried to keep all the other stuff away from the players and coaches.
-- Bear Bryant

#Sports #Real #Player

Most coaches study the films when they lose. I study them when we win -to see if I can figure out what I did right
-- Bear Bryant

#Sports #Winning #Study

I have had players who are good, and who know they are good; I have had players who are bad and know they are bad; I have had players who are good, but who don't know they are good; I have had players who are bad, but who don't know they are bad. It is this last group that has won more games for me than the first three groups combined.
-- Bear Bryant

#Sports #Player #Games

I ain't won but one. My team won the rest in spite of me.
-- Bear Bryant

#Sports #Team #Spite

It really doesn't cost anything to be nice, and the rewards can be unimaginable
-- Bear Bryant

#Nice #Cost #Rewards

All I know is, I don't want to stop coaching, and I don't want to stop winning, so we're gonna break the record unless I die.
-- Bear Bryant

#Sports #Winning #Coaching

A few minutes ago, I had a hard time getting through the lobby because of all the people. After today, that won't be happening.
-- Bear Bryant

#Sports #Hard Times #Winning

At Alabama, our players don't win Heisman Trophies. Our teams win National Championships.
-- Bear Bryant

#Team #Winning #Player

Being inside Tiger Stadium is like being on the inside of a drum.
-- Bear Bryant

#Lsu #Stadiums #Tigers