Knute Rockne? Red Auerbach? Robert Zuppke? Fred Taylor? Richard Nixon? Jimmy Carter? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Any participant in competitive sports must eventually experience defeat. The value of good sportsmanship has been emphasized by many mentors. Different terms have been employed to contrast the divergent reactions to defeat: “gracious loser”, “good loser”, “poor loser”, “angry loser”, and “sore loser”.
A controversial adage emerged from sports coaches in the twentieth century which suggested that a loss should make a person unhappy and should provide a strong impetus for future improvement:
Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.
This saying has been attributed to U.S. football coach Knute Rockne, U.S. basketball coach Red Auerbach, U.S. football coach Vince Lombardi, and many others. I have not seen any solid citations. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The saying evolved over time, and there are many variants which makes it difficult to trace. The earliest exact match known to QI appeared in 1962 when it was spoken by Gus Doerner who was a U.S. basketball player and coach. Yet, QI believes the expression was already in circulation. The creator remains anonymous.
Below is an overview of the evolution with dates and attributions:
1904 Jul: If I may not win, make me a good loser (Anonymous)
1907 Jun: The “good loser” is blamed seldom any old kind of a winner (Jim Nasium)
1924 Nov: A good loser is no good (Robert Zuppke)
1938 Jun: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a man without guts (Anonymous)
1940 Oct: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a streak of yellow (Anonymous)
1943 Aug: Show me a good loser, and I will show you a failure (Attributed to Knute Rockne by George Strickler)
1946 Jan: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a guy without an ounce of competitive spirit in his makeup (Lee Dunbar)
1948 Dec: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a failure (Attributed to Knute Rockne by John Mooney)
1952 Mar: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a consistent loser (John Mooney)
1956 Jan: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you an idiot (Attributed to Paul Gilbert by Bennett Cerf)
1957 Sep: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you an unsuccessful man (Attributed to Knute Rockne by Paul Steiner)
1959 Mar: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you someone who never wins (Fred Taylor)
1960 Apr: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a guy who is going to lose most of the time (Carl Rees)
1960 Jun: Good losers get lots of practice (Benny Marshall)
1962 Apr: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Gus Doerner)
1963 Jun: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Frankie Albert)
1965 Apr: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Red Auerbach)
1975 Jul: Show me a good loser in professional sports, and I’ll show you an idiot. (Leo Durocher)
1975: You show me a good loser and I will show you a loser (Credited to Anonymous by Jimmy Carter)
1978: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Attributed to Wallace Newman by Richard Nixon)
1982 May: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Credited to Anonymous by Paul Newman)
2010: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Attributed to Vince Lombardi by John Marlowe)
Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.
In 1904 a newspaper in Oakland, California printed an article titled “A Modern Prayer” which suggested that being a “good loser” was the appropriate reaction to losing. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Help me to win, If I win may: but—and this, O Powers! especially—if I may not win, make me a good loser.
In 1907 a piece in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania newspaper by Jim Nasium (probably a pseudonym) depicted a good loser negatively. The piece suggested that a good loser was seldom a winner:2
You often hear a guy say of another, “Well, anyway, he’s a good loser.” But if you look up his record you’ll find that the “good loser” is blamed seldom any old kind of a winner.
In 1924 a California newspaper reprinted a quotation from “Liberty” magazine in which the University of Illinois football coach Robert Zuppke presented a harshly negative judgement about good losers:3
“When I say that a good loser is no good I am merely making a statement that every American, whether in sport or in business, knows is true if he will stop and think.”
In 1937 Harold E. “Red” Grange published a biography titled “Zuppke of Illinois”. The statement by Zuppke was repeated and explained:4
“A good loser is no good!” Zup once remarked and recently I reminded him of the epigram, hoping that it might touch him off on one of his favorite subjects, the psychology of football.
“That statement has to be qualified,” Zup said. “A boy who is basically a good loser, is satisfied to lose and won’t fight hard to win. The boy I value on my squad is the one who hates to lose, prepares not to lose, and burns up inside when he does lose. Note that I said he burns up inside. Externally, he should lose gracefully enough, congratulate the opponent if necessary, but all the time he should feel deep down in his bones that if the contest were to be repeated, he’d win.
A separate Quote Investigator article about the Zuppke quotation is available here.
In 1938 “The Caledonian-Record” of St. Johnsbury, Vermont published a column about golf which included a pertinent expression with an anonymous attribution:5
Somebody has said, “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a man without guts.” A golfer doesn’t like to lose any better than anybody else …
In 1940 “The Caledonian-Record” printed another pertinent expression with an anonymous attribution:6
Who was it, however, who said, “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a streak of yellow.”
In 1943 “The Washington Post” published a letter from George Strickler who was the publicity director of the National Professional Football League. Strickler credited football coach Knute Rockne with a statement that matched semantically with the saying under examination:7
. . . these fellows are strictly Rockne men and Rockne despised good losers.
“Show me a good loser,” he used to say, “and I will show you a failure.”
In 1946 sports journalist Lee Dunbar of the “Oakland Tribune” in California employed a variant statement:8
Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a guy without an ounce of competitive spirit in his makeup. And a man without competitive spirit has no place in athletics.
In 1948 sports journalist John Mooney credited Knute Rockne with the statement that also occurred in the 1946 citation:9
Lambeau, who played under Rockne at Notre Dame, plays strictly under Rock’s tenet, “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a failure.”
In 1952 sports columnist John Mooney wrote a statement that partially matched the saying under exploration:10
It would have been better had I said, “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a consistent loser.”
In 1956 publisher and syndicated columnist Bennett Cerf printed a shared a variant with his readers:11
“Show me a good loser,” challenges Paul Gilbert, “and I’ll show you an idiot.”
In 1957 “The New York Times” published a collection of quotations which included a saying credited to Rockne:12
“Show me a good loser and I’ll show you an unsuccessful man.”—Knute Rockne.
In 1959 Fred Taylor, the head basketball coach at Ohio State University, delivered a speech containing a semantic match:13
He reminded the squad to be a “humble winner” but added “don’t be too good of a loser, for you show me a good loser and I’ll show you someone who never wins.”
In April 1960 coach Carl Rees of the University of Pittsburgh employed a semantic match:14
“Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a guy who is going to lose most of the time,” he volunteered.
In 1960 columnist Benny Marshall published a humorous variant:15
Good losers get lots of practice.
In 1962 basketball player and coach Gus Doerner used the expression under examination. This was the earliest exact match known to QI:16
Doerner also confessed that “I’ve never been a good loser. A gracious loser, but not a good loser. Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser,” he said.
In 1963 “LIFE” magazine printed an instance spoken by football player Frankie Albert:17
“Hell,” he says, “in football we were out to kill the opponent. Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.”
In 1965 basketball coach Red Auerbach received credit for the saying in a UPI article:18
This wasn’t quite as lasting a remark as the one expressed elsewhere by Boston Celtic Coach Red Auerbach—“show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser”—but it did the job.
In 1975 baseball coach Leo Durocher published this autobiography titled “Nice Guys Finish Last” which contained the following passage:19
When you’re playing for money, winning is the only thing that matters. Show me a good loser in professional sports, and I’ll show you an idiot. Show me a sportsman, and I’ll show you a player I’m looking to trade …
Also, in 1975 Jimmy Carter who would soon become the U.S. President published the memoir “Why Not the Best?” which contained the following passage:20
I waited about one month and then began campaigning again for governor. I remembered the admonition, “You show me a good loser and I will show you a loser.” I did not intend to lose again.
In 1978 “RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon” was published, and the former U.S. President attributed the saying to Whittier College football coach Wallace Newman:21
He believed in always playing cleanly, but he also believed that there is a great difference between winning and losing. He used to say, “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.” He also said, “When you lose, get mad—but get mad at yourself, not at your opponent.”
In 1982 movie star Paul Newman who was a race car enthusiast was asked to compare acting versus racing:22
Asked which was the top priority in his life, Newman pondered the question a moment and answered quietly, “Acting is not designed to be competitive, whereas racing is.”
He quoted a line delivered by Ed Begley in an old movie: “There’s an old slogan that says winning isn’t everything, it’s just all there is. Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
In 2010 the compilation “It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over: The World’s Greatest Collection of Sports Quotes!” included the following entry:23
‘Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.’
VINCE LOMBARDI, NFL COACH
In summary, this article presents a snapshot of current knowledge. The creator of this adage is anonymous. The date of creation is uncertain because the saying evolved over time. An interesting semantic match occurred in August 1943 when Knute Rockne received credit for stating: “Show me a good loser, and I will show you a failure”. An exact match occurred in 1962 when Gus Doerner said “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.”
Image Notes: Illustration of a trophy for the winner of a contest. The image has been resized.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to the many researchers who have explored this topic and located valuable citations including: Barry Popik, Jonathan Lighter, Fred Shapiro, Bill Mullins, Charles Doyle, Peter Reitan, Stephen Goranson, Nigel Rees, and Ralph Keyes.
- 1904 July 7, Oakland Tribune, A Modern Prayer, Quote Page 6, Column 4, Oakland, California. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1907 June 23, The Pittsburg Press, Letters From An Old Sport To His Son At College by Jim Nasium, Quote Page 37, Column 4, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1924 November 6, Santa Ana Register, Section 3: Sporting News, West Winds: Here and There in Local Sports by Eddie West, Quote Page 17, Column 3, Santa Ana, California. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1937, Zuppke of Illinois by Harold E. (Red) Grange, Chapter 6: The Psychology of Football, Quote Page 47, A. L. Glaser, Chicago, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1938 June 10, The Caledonian-Record, Off the Tee, Quote Page 7, Column 3, St. Johnsbury, Vermont. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1940 October 12, The Caledonian-Record, Spanning the Sports by “Deak” Morse, Quote Page 7, Column 5, St. Johnsbury, Vermont. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1943 August 15, The Washington Post, National Pro League Looks Like Notre Dame Roster; Old ‘Rock’ Would Smile to See Bergman in New Berth, (Letter from George Strickler, Publicity Director of the National Professional Football League), Quote Page R2, Column 5, Washington, D.C. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1946 January 31, Oakland Tribune, On The Level by Lee Dunbar (Tribune Sports Editor), Quote Page 16, Column 1, Oakland, California. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1948 December 13, Salt Lake Telegram, Sports Mirror by John Mooney (Telegram Sports Editor), Quote Page 22, Column 2, Salt Lake City, Utah. (The word “tenet’ was misspelled as “tennet”) (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1952 March 2, The Salt Lake Tribune, John Mooney’s Sports Mirror, Start Page S1, Quote Page S2, Column 1, Salt Lake City, Utah. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1956 January 26, North Star, Well-Intended But Not What He Wanted to Say by Bennett Cerf, Quote Page 2, Column 8, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1957 September 22, New York Times, Section: The New York Times Magazine, Football to the Fore, Compiled by Paul Steiner, Quote Page 86, Column 2, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1959 March 31, East Liverpool Review, 90 At Fete Honoring Potter Basketball Squad by Bob Duffy (Review Sports Editor), Quote Page 8, Column 5, East Liverpool, Ohio. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1960 April 17, The Pittsburgh Press, Och Tires of Losing, Shot Records Suffer by Roy McHugh, Section 3, Quote Page 3, Column 5, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1960 June 8, The Birmingham News, Benny Marshall Says, Quote Page 35, Column 1, Birmingham, Alabama. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1962 April 6, Carmi Times, “Give It All You Have Or Quit,” Speaker Insists, Quote Page 4, Column 7, Carmi, Illinois. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1963 June 21, LIFE, Volume 54, Number 25, She’s our smasher for Wimbledon, Quote Page 87, Time Inc., New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1965 April 6, The Evening Republican, A Great Night for Hollywood by Rick Du Brow (UPI), Quote Page 16, Column 3, Columbus, Indiana. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1975 July 9, The Idaho Statesman, Durocher: When Playing for Money, Only Winning Counts by Leo Durocher (Excerpt from Leo Durocher’s “Nice Guys Finish Last”), Quote Page C1, Column 1, Boise, Idaho. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1976 (1975 Copyright), Why Not the Best? by Jimmy Carter, Chapter 9: Running for Governor, Quote Page 112, Bantam Books, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1978, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon by Richard M. Nixon, Chapter: Early Years 1913-1946, Quote Page 19 and 20, Grosset & Dunlap, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1982 May 16, Boston Globe, I Must Be a Racer in Summer – Newman by Gary Kale (UPI), Quote Page 1, Boston, Massachusetts. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 2010, It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over: The World’s Greatest Collection of Sports Quotes!, Compiled by John Marlowe, Chapter: Losers and Losing, Quote Page 108, Arcturus Publishing, London (Verified with scans) ↩︎