“Butch, you come from DeWitt Clinton. There are five thousand brothers in that school.”

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

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

So they should make a great effort, a Mount Everest type effort, to live up to their potential. Success is a communal type thing.

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

I just can’t recruit where there’s grass around.

They call me eccentric. They used to call me nuts. I haven’t changed.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I don’t know why people question the academic training of an athlete.

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.

My rule was I wouldn’t recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.

Live every day as if it were Saturday night.