Jack Ramsay Quotes

"Teams that play together beat those teams with superior players who play more as individuals."

"At Mass General in January 2007, Dr. Loeffler's team attached a ring-shaped metal frame to my head with four pins. Then I went to the radiation center, where they strapped me to the treatment table and secured the head frame so that I couldn't move."

"Just as an athlete must exercise his body to be a winner, a leader must exercise his position of authority. If he doesn't, he loses that authority."

"I don't think there's ever been a team that ever scored more layups than that Blazers team."

"I've been blessed. I've had a great life and am continuing to have one."

"My favorite moment was in Game 6 when Bill Walton tapped a missed Sixers shot toward the backcourt and Johnny Davis ran it down as the clock expired. We were NBA champions!"

"There was great comraderie among players and coaches. We enjoyed the time we were together... road trips were fun. I don't know that there was one moment that stood out among all the good times we had."

"I'm very fortunate to have gotten past the cancer problem."

"It made the most sense for us to select Sam Bowie. It was almost a no-brainer."

"I was playing sports all the time, and my parents, Anne and John, encouraged me to play in grade school and high school."

"My mother was very strong on me to go to college. No one had ever been to college, including my parents."

"I got interested in coaching while I played at St. Joseph's. Because we played a national schedule, we played teams coached by Nat Holman, Joe Lapchick, Hank Iba, and others. I could see the impact the coach had on their teams, and I thought, 'That's a pretty good thing to do.'"

"I wanted to become a college coach. I got game films of all the good college coaches - Pete Newell at California, Eddie Donovan with St. Bonaventure, Ken Loeffler at LaSalle."

"I want to stay alive. Yeah, I want to stay alive. I think that's the main thing. If there's a chance I can live longer, I want to do it."

"I learned how important physical conditioning is. I learned how to focus on an objective in spite of all kinds of hazards. I learned how to deal with stress, too."

"The Big Five is a competition played in the University of Pennsylvania's Palestra among five Philadelphia-area Division I schools: Saint Joseph's, La Salle, Penn, Temple, and Villanova. 'The Big Five' was immensely popular, and rivalries quickly grew to intense proportions."

"During my 11-year coaching tenure, Saint Joseph's won or tied for the Big Five championship seven times, went to 10 postseason tournaments - including seven NCAA appearances - and reached the Final Four in 1961."

"Saint Joseph's still is among the smaller-enrollment institutions with a big-time basketball program. The Jesuits still offer the same high-quality education. St. Joe's students and alumni are as supportive as ever, and their spirit is unquenchable."

"Cancer is the ugliest, scariest, most dreaded word in the English language. My credentials for saying so? Head-to-head, firsthand close encounters with different versions of the fiendish devil."

"The best players I have seen and known have confidence in their teammates. They know that basketball's not a one-man game. That confidence brings out the best in everybody, because it's contagious."

"You didn't hear anything about 'Celtic Pride' when they had Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe and they were only winning 32 games a year."

"I will miss the association with the players and coaches. It has been a great ride."