Some of the most famous Knute Rockne quotes can motivate and inspire you to succeed.
Knute Rockne is regarded as one of the greatest college football coaches in history but was also prominent as a player in his generation.
He is fondly remembered for staging the Notre Dame Fighting Irish amongst the best college football teams in the 20th century and is widely recognized amongst those that promoted the forward pass.
Knute Rockne sadly died in a plane crash in Kansas on March 31, 1931, while journeying to participate in the production of “The Spirit of Notre Dame” film.
Nevertheless, Rockne’s words and legacies have lived on, inspiring people to succeed.
Famous Knute Rockne Quotes That Can Inspire You
1. “Leaders are like eagles… they don’t flock. You’ll find them one at a time.”
2. “At home, we’re the hosts, and I never liked the idea of being embarrassed in front of our friends.”
3. “I don’t like to lose, and that isn’t so much because it is just a football game, but because defeat means the failure to reach your objective.”
4. “If the coach insists upon hard play, but clean play, the team will do likewise.”
5. “We can all be geniuses because one definition of genius is the infinite capacity for taking pains.”
6. “Never tell them how many lettermen you’ve got coming back. Tell them how many you lost.”
7. “I’m getting sick and tired of doing anything halfway.”
8. “Let’s win one for the Gipper.”
9. “The best thing I ever learned in life was that things have to be worked for. Many people seem to think there is some sort of magic in making a winning football team. There isn’t, but there’s plenty of work.”
10. “I don’t like to lose, and that isn’t so much because it is just a football game, but because defeat means the failure to reach your objective. I don’t want a football player who doesn’t take defeat to heart, who laughs it off with the thought, “Oh, well, there’s another Saturday.” The trouble in American life today, in business and sports, is that too many people are afraid of competition. The result is that in some circles, people have come to sneer at success if it costs hard work and training and sacrifice.”
#11 of Quotes by Knute Rockne
“Courage means being afraid to do something, but still doing it.”
—Knute Rockne
12. “All the world loves a winner and has no time for a loser.”
13. “An automobile goes nowhere efficiently unless it has a quick, hot spark to ignite things, to set the cogs of the machine in motion. So I try to make every player on my team feel he’s the spark keeping our machine in motion.”
14. “One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it.”
15. “Make the present good, and the past will take care of itself.”
16. “Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.”
17. “The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven.”
18. “Show me a gracious loser, and I’ll show you a failure.”
19. “I’ve found that prayers work best when you have big players.”
20. “Four years of football are calculated to breed in the average man more of the ingredients of success in life than almost any academic course he takes.”
21. “On the road, we’re somebody else’s guests – and we play in a way that they’re not going to forget we visited them.”
22. “It isn’t necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it.”
23. “Football is a game played with arms, legs, and shoulders but mostly from the neck up.”
24. “On the road, we’re somebody else’s guests – and we play in a way that they’re not going to forget we visited them.”
#25 Knute Rockne Quotes
“A coach’s greatest asset is his sense of responsibility – the reliance placed on him by his players.”
26. “Win or lose, do it fairly.”
27. “I have to get the most energy out of a man and have discovered that it cannot be done if he hates another man. Hate blocks his energy, and he isn’t up to par until he eliminates it and develops a friendly feeling. (towards all his teammates.)”
28. “I enjoy talking to my football men and my chemistry classes, and I feel sure that they are quite interested in what I have to say.”
29. “I enjoy talking to my football men and my chemistry classes, and I feel sure that they are quite interested in what I have to say.”
30. “The essence of football was blocking, tackling, and execution based on timing, rhythm, and deception.”
31. “No stat is playing, just football.”
32. “If I flop, let them pan me.”
33. “The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb.”
34. “If winning isn’t everything, why bother to keep the score?”
#35 of Rockne’s Quotes
“Yes, I know that you feel you are not strong enough. That’s what the enemy thinks, too. But we’re going to fool them.”
36. “Drink the first. Sip the second slowly. Skip the third.”
37. “Generalities don’t count and won’t help you in football.”
38. “One loss is good for the soul; too many losses is not good for the coach.”
39. “We count on winning. And if we lose, don’t beef. And the best way to prevent beefing is – don’t lose.”
40. “There is no need for me to continue unless I’m able to improve.”
41. “When you were riding on the crest of a wave, you were most likely to be missing out on something.”
42. “Play like you’re positive on the victory, even though they’re leading big now.”
43. “Most men, when they think they are thinking, are merely rearranging their prejudices.”
44. “Winning too often is as disastrous as losing too often. Both get the same results, the falling off of the public’s enthusiasm.”
45. “There is no economy in getting cheap service or equipment. Buy the best and cry only once.”
To Wrap Up
Hopefully, you enjoyed this great compilation of famous quotes by Knute Rockne, one of the greatest college football players and coaches ever.
Have any of his best quotes you think we missed out? We’ll add it.
