Howard Cosell quotes

I'm one helluva communicator. (Howard Cosell)
There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning.
Howard Cosell
He is working Duran effectively.... and Duran must resolve from pulling in...and he does...WHAT?! DURAN HAS QUIT?! ROBERTO DURAN HAS QUIT!!! There can be no other explanation. Pandemonium in the ring, and Roberto Duran has quit!
Howard Cosell
[T]hey wanted... another Joe Louis. A white man's black man... Didn't these idiots realize that Cassius Clay was the name of a slave owner? ... Had I been black and my name Cassius Clay, I damned well would have changed it!
Howard Cosell
The Rooneys are the finest people, the people I most respect in American sports ownership. I've always felt that way. And there's no reason to change. They are people of integrity and character... I have a whole transcendental feeling for the Steelers and the Rooneys and Pittsburgh.
Howard Cosell
He's going to go all-the-way. (often quoted by Cosell during the "Halftime Highlights" segment of ABC's Monday Night Football games to announce touchdowns scored in games on Sunday a day earlier. Adopted as a tribute, and modified to include a hesitating voice cadence by Chris Berman of ESPN as He could... go... all... the ... way!)
Howard Cosell
That little monkey gets loose, doesn't he?
Howard Cosell
The ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give.
Howard Cosell
Then there is a still higher type of courage - the courage to brave pain, to live with it, to never let others know of it and to still find joy in life; to wake up in the morning with an enthusiasm for the day ahead.
Howard Cosell
The importance that our society attaches to sport is incredible. After all, is football a game or a religion? The people of this country have allowed sports to get completely out of hand.
Howard Cosell
I was right to back Muhammad Ali, but it caused me major enmity in many areas of this nation. (Howard Cosell)
Look at that little monkey run!
Howard Cosell
This, we have to say it, remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead ... on ... arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that newsflash, which in duty bound, we had to take.
Howard Cosell
I was infected with my desire, my resolve, to make it in broadcasting. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and how.
Howard Cosell
Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Sonny Liston's not coming out! Sonny Liston's not coming out! He's out! The winner and new heavyweight champion of the world is Cassius Clay!
Howard Cosell
That little monkey. The theorem was that he was too small to play in the NFL.
Howard Cosell
This is Howard Cosell telling it like it is.
Howard Cosell
Crowd screaming chanting ALI! ALI! Legends die hard and Ali is learning that even he can not be forever young.
Howard Cosell
What's right isn't always popular. What's popular isn't always right.
Howard Cosell
After all, is football a game or a religion?
Howard Cosell
Sports is the toy department of human life. (Howard Cosell)
Sports is human life in microcosm.
Howard Cosell
Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, persecuting, distasteful, verbose, a show off. There's no question that I'm all of those things.
Howard Cosell