Karras, Alex

Defensive lineman

 I never graduated from Iowa. I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's.

 If medicine has made so much progress in the last 30 years, how come I felt better 30 years ago?

 I had a license to kill for 60 minutes a week. It was like going totally insane.

Katz, George

Sonny Liston's manager

 Liston has a lot of good qualities. It's his bad qualities that are not so good.

Kaye, Danny

Comedian and baseball owner

 I look at ball players the same as I do restaurants. I adore the expensive ones and I despise the overpriced ones.

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Keeler, Willie

Major league player

 Keep your eye clear and hit 'em where they ain't.

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Keino, Kip

Olympic runner

 When you stand on the victory stand, you must be able to ask yourself: "Did I win this medal?"
[urging young athletes to avoid performance-enhancing drugs]

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Kelly, James

College football coach

 About all that losing gracefully can teach a boy is how to lose.

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Kelly, John B. Jr.

Olympic rower and AAU president

 Most of us are aware that as many as two-thirds of the athletes signing the Olympic oath are committing perjury.

 If every illegal sex act were policed properly, 75 percent of the population would have been in jail. The same goes for amateur athletes. There are few world class amateurs left in any sport.

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Kelly, Mike "King"

Major league player

 There are two classes of people whose wealth is always exaggerated by the great public. They are actors and ballplayers.

 I think, me lads, this is me last slide.
(reputedly his last words)

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Kelly, Red

Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman

 The only gracious way to accept an insult is to ignore it. If you can't ignore it, you try to top it. If you can't do that, you laugh at it. And if you can't laugh at it, it's probably deserved.

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Kemp, Jeff

NFL quarterback

 Rapport? You mean like, "You run as fast as you can, and I'll throw it as far as I can"?
[asked about his rapport with wide receiver Jerry Rice]

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Kennedy, John F.

U. S. President

 There is nothing, I think, more unfortunate than to have soft, chubby, fat-looking children who go to watch their school play basketball every Saturday and regard that as their week's exercise.

 Last year, more Americans went to symphonies than went to baseball games. This may be viewed as an alarming statistic, but I think that both baseball and the country will endure.

 Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. The relationship between the soundness of the body and the activities of the mind is subtle and complex. Much is not yet understood. But we do know what the Greeks knew: that intelligence and skill can only function at the peak of their capacity when the body is healthy and strong; that hardy spirits and tough minds usually inhabit sound bodies.

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Keon, Dave

NHL player

 The weak teams are Boston and New York. The strong ones are Toronto, Chicago, Montreal, and Gordie Howe.

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Kerr, Johnny

NBA player and coach

 If a coach starts listening to the fans, he ends up sitting next to them.

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Kilbane, Johnny

Champion featherweight boxer

 Anybody who can be hit can be whipped.

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Killy, Jean-Claude

Champion skier

 The best and fastest way to learn a sport is to watch and imitate a champion.

 When I ski, I ski. I am all alone with the mountain.

 I will always be someone who wants to do better than others. I love competition.

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Kilmer, Billy

NFL quarterback

 I really had the crowd on a string. It was yay, boo, yay, boo. But if I let that bother me, I'd have to go back to pressing pants with my old man.

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Kilroy, Bucko

NFL lineman

 In the 1950s, the players were tougher because they came out of World War II. We had a different mentality. We were raised to love your God, respect your elders, and fear no son-of-a-bitch that walks. It was survival of the fittest.

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Kiner, Ralph

Pittsburgh Pirates slugger and broadcaster

 Singles hitters drive Fords, home run hitters drive Cadillacs.

 Some quiet guys are inwardly outgoing.
[Referring to New York Mets' manager Bud Harrelson]

 You have really solidified the Mets' centerfield problem.
[During an interview with outfielder Daryl Boston]

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King, Billie Jean

Tennis champion

 We should encourage fans to scream or boo if they like, just like in baseball and football. This sport has too much stuffiness and protocol. It needs more pizzazz.

 Tennis is the ultimate in violent activity played against a tranquil backdrop.

 I'm not really a believer in the well-rounded individual. It often means that a person has no particular distinction.

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King, Dolly

Basketball referee

 Officiating is the only occupation in the world where the highest accolade is silence.

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King, Don

Boxing promoter

 Every ethnic group takes pride in their heroes. We have no heroes. Our heroes die. White heroes never die. They live infinitely. You know, the John Waynes. But Marvin Gaye, one of the super heroes, you don't hear about him.

 Mike Tyson is our hero, our knight in shining armor. When he strikes a blow, he strikes a blow for all those who are discriminated against, all those who are downtrodden, underprivileged and denied. He fights like a gladiator, like our white brothers can appreciate.

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Kinsella, W. P.

Author

 Growing up is a ritual--more deadly than religion, more complicated than baseball, for there seemed to be no rules. Everything is experienced for the first time. But baseball can soothe even those pains, for it is stable and permanent, steady as grandfather dozing in a wicker chair on a verandah.

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Kipke, Harry

Michigan football coach

 "A punt, a pass and a prayer." Michigan opponents have hurled these veiled charges at the Western Conference champions for many years. . . Our homely, homemade "punt, pass and prayer" method isn't a bit humiliating, for this unusual trinity constitutes the basis of Michigan's attack. These ingredients, backed by a great defense, are the bulwarks of the Michigan plan.

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Kitt, A. J.

Skier

 You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do.

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Klein, Gene

NFL Owner

 It's different from any other business. It's a disease. You've got to be a little crazy to get into it. There's a great deal of ego involved.

 Football is a game of refined violence. And it gets more violent every year - and more refined.

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Klem, Bill

Major league umpire

 Gentlemen, he was out, because I said he was out.

 I never called one wrong.

 They ain't nothing till I call them.

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Kluszewski, Ted

Major league player

 How hard is hitting? You ever walk into a pitch-black room full of furniture that you've never been in before and try to walk through it without bumping into anything? Well, it's harder than that.

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Knight, Bobby

College basketball coach

 Absolute silence: that's the one thing a sportswriter can quote accurately.

 The ability to prepare to win is as important as the will to win.

 If you want to look like you want to look, dress like you want to dress, act like you want to act, play like you want to play, shoot like you want to shoot, do your own thing, I say "Great." But you're sure as hell not coming to Indiana to play basketball. At Indiana, we're going to do my thing.

 You can win and still not succeed, still not achieve what you should. And you can lose without really failing at all.

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Knight, Ray

Major league player and manager

 Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary.

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Knox, Chuck

NFL coach

 Always have a plan and believe in it. I tell my coaches not to compromise. Nothing good happens by accident.

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Korbut, Olga

Gymnast

 I am not interested in medals or titles. I don't need them. I need the love of the public, and I fight for it.

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Koufax, Sandy

Hall of Fame pitcher

 The game has a cleanness. If you do a good job, the numbers say so. You don't have to ask anyone or play politics. You don't have to wait for the reviews.

 A guy who throws what he intends to throw: That's the definition of a good pitcher.

 People who write about spring training not being necessary have never tried to throw a baseball.

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Kramer, Jerry

Green Bay Packer guard and author

 We could say good-bye to each other at the end of the season, lead separate lives for six or seven months, pursue different interests, age and change and on rare occasions even mature, and yet the next season, as soon as we saw each other, the old feelings returned, of warmth and affection, respect and admiration. We were like the lovers in the play "Same Time Next Year." Our was an affair that endured, a bond stronger, in so many ways, than marriage.

 He [Vince Lombardi] united us, initially, in our fear of him, our hatred for him. He was, deliberately, the common enemy, the focus of all our frustrations. If our muscles ached, it was Lombardi's fault. If our nerves were frayed, it was Lombardi's fault. If our mind reeled, it was Lombardi's fault. The fierceness of Lombardi, combined with the smallness of the city in which we played, forced upon us camaraderie and a closeness that, nurtured by victory, grew into love.

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Krich, John

Author

 Love America and hate baseball? Hate America and love baseball? Neither is possible, except in the abstract.

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Kruk, John

Major league player

 I'm not an athlete. I'm a professional baseball player.

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Kuhn, Bowie

Commissioner of baseball

 I believe in the Rip Van Winkle Theory: that a man from 1910 must be able to wake up after being asleep for seventy years, walk into a ballpark and understand baseball perfectly.

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Kulwicki, Alan

NASCAR driver

 It's basically the same, just darker.
[asked to compare night racing to daytime racing]

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