[Ads-l] leave it all on the field

[Ben Zimmer]

Meant to say: Thanks, Peter!

On Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 12:56 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Bill. It's interesting how most of these early cites (including
> the one from 1961 that Barry found) focus on the exhausted aftermath of the
> game, when players are utterly spent from their efforts on the field, while
> later cites are more exhortatory or congratulatory.
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 12:50 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> With respect to Bill Mullins' 1918 example of "giving one's all" on the
>> battlefield, "giving one's all" and "leaving it all" seem different to me,
>> even if they are similar or perhaps ultimately related.
>>
>>
>> Here are some other early examples of leaving everything on the football
>> field (or basketball court):
>>
>>
>> Basketball - 1944
>> The Tomahawks must have left everything they had out at Stockwell on
>> Friday eve, for they certainly didn’t bring much into Jeff gym on Saturday
>> night when they played West Side – That game was rather humiliating to our
>> supposed-to-be rural prestige.
>> Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Indiana), January 18, 1944, page 11.
>>
>> Football - 1948
>> Tate Shines in Bitter Defeat. Golden Warriors Get 13 First Downs to Six
>> for Reds. (Matoon’s Green Wave versus Decatur Reds). About 15 minutes after
>> the game Tate was still dazed in the Mattoon locker room and looked
>> something like Tony Zale after his last fight.  He left everything he had
>> on the field – including plenty of fighting heart.
>> Journal Gazette (Mattoon, Illinois), September 25, 1948.
>>
>> Football - 1957.  A more nuanced explication of the "winning is
>> everything" coaching-mantra.
>> Coach Evashevski: Winning – Winning is important because it’s the only
>> criterion we have for measuring anything. . . .  You’ve got to play to
>> win.  There’s a very tricky shading of meaning here.  When the game is
>> over, it’s not important whether you won.  But during the game, it’s
>> vitally important that you win.  Not to look good, but to win!  And then if
>> you’ve left your guts on the football field and you can say to yourself, ‘I
>> left everything I had out there, and if I had it to do tomorrow I couldn’t
>> do it any better’ then there’s no disgrace in losing.
>> Des Moines Register (Iowa), September 19, 1957, page 11.
>>
>> Same quote two years later, with “guts” replaced by “your all”.
>> Coach Evashevski of Iowa University sums it up this way: “You have got to
>> play to win.  There’s a very tricky shade of meaning here.  When the game
>> is over, it’s not important whether you won.  But during the game it’s
>> vitally important that you win.  Not to look good, but to win!  And then if
>> you’ve left your all on the football field and you can say to yourself, ‘I
>> left everything I had out there, and if I had to do tomorrow I couldn’t do
>> it any better,’ then there’s no disgrace in losing.” The Humboldt
>> Independent (Humboldt, Iowa), January 31, 1959, page 2.
>>
>>
>>

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