General

Motivational Moments in Sports: A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Jan 18, 2010, 8:55 PM UTC

â†µThere is no doubt that Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the greatest in the history of our country – as famed, and possibly as important, as the Gettysburg Address, JFK’s Inauguration speech and FDR’s ‘date that will live in infamy’ speech after Pearl Harbor. â†µ

â†µâ†µOn this day to remember MLK, we wanted to remember some of the greatest speeches in sports history. â†µ

â†µâ†µNow, there are a few simple rules to this thoroughly incomplete list. First, no movies quotes. No “five feet nothin’, a hundred and nothin’.“ No end of Rocky IV ”everybody can change” lines. Nothing from Al Pacino’s rant in Any Given Sunday or Goldie Hawn’s tour-de-force speech in Wildcats. Real speeches – here we go.â†µ

â†µâ†µJimmy V
â†µThis speech isn’t just a great sports moment, but helped raise millions upon millions of dollars for cancer research. For my money, there is no better speech in the history of sports. â†µ

â†µ

â†µVince Lombardi
â†µThere's a lot to quote from the most respected coach in the history of the NFL (not named Belichick, of course). But this was 'you play to win the game' long before a Herm Edwards press conference:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that’s first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don’t ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.“â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µPardon me while I go strangle my neighbor with his hose, that quote has me so jacked up. What’s that – my neighbor isn’t home? Loser.â†µâ†µKnute Rockne – Better than the Gipper
â†µHave you ever watched the scene in Knute Rockne All-American where an old, chair-bound Rock tells the Notre Dame team to go “win one for the Gipper” before quietly getting wheeled out of the locker room? It’s so unbelievably depressing. The team just stands there in horror before someone yells, “well what are we waiting for” in reminder they have a big football game to win and not a funeral to attend. â†µ

â†µâ†µBut this speech, by Rockne, is motivational if there’s ever been a motivational speech. “And when we get ‘em on the run, boys, we’re gonna keep ‘em on the run!” â†µ

â†µ

â†µâ†µLou Gehrig – The Luckiest Man
â†µ

â†µ

â†µâ†µThe full Gehrig speech is longer, and part of why Gehrig considered himself lucky, if you read the whole thing, was because of the relationships with his teammates and family. But this speech has been remembered, for generations, as a farewell by an athlete who was grateful for the time he had to play a game for a living. We could always use more of that kind of perspective and humility. â†µ

â†µâ†µHerb Brooks - Miracle
â†µWith the Winter Olympics coming up, we’d be remiss not to include this speech. There is no taped version of the speech by Herb Brooks to the U.S. Hockey team before they defeated the Soviets in the semifinals of the 1980 Olympics. The speech Brooks famously jotted down on the back of an envelope was re-enacted by Kurt Russell in the movie Miracle, but since we said no movies, here’s a different version. â†µ

â†µ

â†µâ†µThe General
â†µThere is no way I’m embedding this clip as it’s entirely NSFW, but there’s no way you can have a list of motivational speeches without Bobby Knight. This one might be the best of the bunch. â†µ

â†µâ†µAs always, add your thoughts as well in the comments.â†µ

â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

See More: