Quote of your career...

As I sit back and read the thread, "Most inappropriate questions ever asked at a press conference" - I was wondering what was the greatest quote you have ever taken down? Coach, player, AD, anybody...

All of you have excellent stories from your career, I can only imagine the greatest quote you have received...

 

He'd already used this before he spoke with me, but Howard Schnellenberger's speech about the evolution of the Florida Atlantic football program is priceless only because he used the word "foreplay" to discuss the talks with prospective donors and boosters.

 

Hmm... the quotes that stick out the most in my mind from my stories are as follows:

"I accept that responsibility." I and another writer who was familiar with the office in question did a story about the then-director of my community college's financial aid office being accused of extorting work study students. She essentially admitted to the charges. She was fired a few weeks later.

"I don't need to talk about it, you guys talk about it all the time." -- Then-Columbus Crew coach Tom Fitzgerald, in response to a question I asked about what was the Crew's 12-game losing streak at RFK Stadium. After United beat them the 13th straight time, he immediately addressed it at the next presser.

One I didn't use that stuck in my mind: I asked Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen about his team's inability to run the ball against Georgia Tech in a game the Terps won in 2007. His response: "You try running the ball against them?" I thought he would Belichick me when he started answering the next question by a reporter, but in mid-answer, he turned back toward me and said, "they average 1.5 yards per carry against."

 

"It was horrible. It sucked. ... That was completely the opposite of what I was trying to do."

Tony Stewart, in a perfect deadpan, when asked (by some small-town radio guy) a month after winning the Brickyard race in '07 what it was like to win at his hometown track. It was a three-person "press conference" with said radio guy, a local columnist and myself. Columnist and I both doubled over trying not to laugh out loud. Others in the room (PR folks, etc.) couldn't contain themselves.

And IJAG wonders why I love that man(-child)...

 

Tim Marcum, the coach for the AFL's Tampa Bay Storm after a kick returner fumbled the kick, scooped it up and returned it for a TD:

"That's the great thing about arena football -- you can go from oh s--- to attaboy that quickly"

 

...is still yet to come.

 

Yeah, it's great when he insults someone else's question. Even better if it's a one-and-done.

But when you deal with it week in and week out and he'll eventually waste YOUR time, it's much less funny.

 

furious coach after poor effort from his team

"I'd kick 'em in the balls. If they had any."

 

Scene: Texas Golden Gloves, circa 1989, Fort Worth. A fighter from Dallas and a fighter from Fort Worth are paired up. Fort Worth crowd lustily boos the guy from the city to the east. Dallas fighter wins in a knockout.

Me: "Did the boos motivate you?"

Dallas fighter: "Nah, man, I don't drink."

 

Had a high school coach call in his score ... they lost. He said, "We played really well, except we couldn't shoot.
"If basketball didn't involve shooting, we would have won."

 

Had a college field hockey player describe her most embarrassing moment playing the game: "I brought my stick down and I heard her ankle go crrr-ack. I wish I could say it was an accident."

 

I remember it well. I covered the Sugar Bowl the year Pat Dye went for the field goal and the tie instead of the win against Syracuse. I was in Auburn's locker room interviewing Jeff Burger, the Auburn QB, and I asked him, "They say a tie is like kissing your sister. So how does your sister look tonight?"

He gave me the biggest shit-eating grin I've ever seen on a player, and answered, "She looks pretty damn good."