Quotes by Bear Bryant

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

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

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

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

If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you.

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

It's nice to have the opportunity to play for so much money, but it's nicer to win it.

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

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

There's no substitute for guts.

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

There's no use fussing on a boy who doesn't have any ability.

I ain't nothing but a winner.

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

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

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.

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

I don't have any ideas, my coaches have them. I just pass the ideas on and referee the arguments.

If you are going to be a successful duck hunter, you must go where the ducks are.

There is no substitute for guts.

I tell young players who want to be coaches, who think they can put up with all the headaches and heartaches, can you live without it? If you can live without it, don't get in it.

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

Expect the unexpected.

First there are those who are winners, and know they are winners. Then there are the losers who know they are losers. Then there are those who are not winners, but don't know it. They're the ones for me. They never quit trying. They're the soul of our game.

If you don't learn anything but self discipline, then athletics is worthwhile.

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.

Here's a twenty, bury two.

I told them my system was based on the ant plan, that I'd gotten the idea watching a colony of ants in Africa during the war. A whole bunch of ants working toward a common goal.

I'm not much of a golfer, I don't have any friends and all I like to do is go home and be alone, and not worry about ways not to lose.

One man doesn't make a team. It takes eleven.

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

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

I ain't never been nothin but a winner.

I don't care how much talent a team has -- if the boys don't think tough, practice tough, and live tough, how they play tough on Saturday.

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

I didn't care if we ever quit practicing. I loved it. The only other guy I ever knew who loved it as much was Jerry Duncan. He would beg to practice even when he was hurt. I've actually seen him cry because the trainer told him he couldn't scrimmage.

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.

I'm no genius, but I'm a damn good football coach.

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

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

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.

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

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.

If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, Roll, Tide, Roll!

Recruiting is the one thing I hate. I won't do it unless my coaches tell me I've just got to. The whole process is kind of undignified for me and the young man.

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.

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.

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.

If they don't have a winning attitude, I don't want them.

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.

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.

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.

I'm no innovator. If anything I'm a stealer, or borrower. I've stolen or borrowed from more people than you can shake a stick at.

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

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

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.

I'd like for people to remember me as a winner, because I ain't never been nothin but a winner.

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

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

I ain't never had much fun. I ain't never been two inches away from a football. Here guys go fishing on the day of the game, hunting, golfing, and all I want to do is be alone, studying how not to lose.

Everybody's got pretty good players now, more players than there've ever been. If you play poorly, you're going to get beat.

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.

Hell, no! A tie is like kissing your sister!

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

The summer day is closed, the sun is set: Well they have done their office, those bright hours, The latest of whose train goes softly out In the red west.

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

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

If we'd beaten 'em, I wouldn't be going out.

I think I'm telling the truth. I sat by Ray Perkins at the Hall of Fame dinner in New York, and at that time he didn't know he was our coach and I didn't either.

I've had many a player tell me all through high school and right up until signing day that they were coming to Alabama, then they signed with somebody else.

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.

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.

I can remember loving to recruit. I knew I was going to do my best. But traveling and recruiting doesn't appeal to me any more. It's not as much fun as it used to be.

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

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.