[Ads-l] Modern Proverb: A good loser is no good (Robert Zuppke Nov 6, 1924) (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Of interest:

1969 _Springfield_ [Mass.] _Union_ (May 7) 12: Clue to Student Anger: 'A
Good Loser is a Loser' ... The [student] sign [at Princeton] said, 'Show me
a Good Loser and I'll Show You a Loser.'

1977 _Dallas Morning News_ (Oct. 8) 11: "A good loser is just a loser,"
[West Point quarterback Leamon] Hall says grimly. ... "I'm a bad loser."

1980 _Boston Globe_ (Aug. 29) 49: [Oakland A's manager Billy] Martin's
theorem: A good loser is still a loser ... "Show me a good loser," Bill
Martin says in summation, "and I'll show you a loser."

1983 _Los Angeles Times_ (May 22) S12: Leo Durocher: "Show me a good loser,
and I'll show you an idiot."

JL

On Fri, Jun 28, 2019 at 3:42 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks Bill. I updated the article to include the citation you found
> and added an acknowledgement:
>
> [Begin acknowledgement]
> Special thanks to Bill Mullins who located the May 8, 1911 citation.
> [End acknowledgement]
>
> Changes on the website sometimes take a few hours to propagate.
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/06/27/good-loser/
>
> I also added a 1911 citation expressing a distinct viewpoint:
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> There is a natural tension between being a "good loser" and a "hard
> loser". Yet, the writer Robert Haven Schauffler believed that the two
> types of losers could be combined as indicated in his article titled
> "What Is Sportsmanship?" in "The Outlook" in November 1911:
>
> [Begin nested quotation]
> Though the sportsman is a good loser, however, he is a precious hard
> loser. He battles till the last trench. He never says die.
> [End nested quotation]
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Fri, Jun 28, 2019 at 2:09 PM MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY
> CCDC AVMC (USA) <0000099bab68be9a-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
> >
> >
> >
> > CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
> >
> >
> >
> > _Cincinnati Post_ 8 May 1911 p 6 col 3
> >
> >
> >
> > ""[Cincinnati Reds manager Clark] Griffith is a prince among managers,"
> said Harry Gaspar while playing hearts after breakfast this morning.  "I
> have never worked for a better manager, and never want to.  He is a hard
> loser, and that is one reason I admire him.  Show me a good loser and I
> will show you a darn fool." "
> >
> >
> >
> > There are interviews with Griffith in the 4/21/1907 Washington DC
> Evening Star and the 1/30/1909 Denver Post where he talks about being a
> hard loser, and that being a good loser is not necessarily a good thing,
> but they don't have the thought expressed pithily.  So I suspect that
> Gaspar is indirectly quoting Griffith above.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> >
> > > ----
> >
> > >
> >
> > > Back in February 2015 I sent a message to this mailing list about the
> quotation
> >
> > > in the subject line. Now the Quote Investigator® website has an entry
> on the
> >
> > > topic:
> >
> > >
> >
> > > https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/06/27/good-loser/
> >
> > >
> >
> > > [Begin acknowledgement]
> >
> > > Thanks to researchers Charles Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder, and Fred R.
> >
> > > Shapiro who wrote about this family of sayings in “The Dictionary of
> Modern
> >
> > > Proverbs” from Yale University Press. Thanks also to researcher Barry
> Popik
> >
> > > who explored this topic on his website. Additional thanks to
> discussants
> >
> > > Jonathan Lighter and Dan Goncharoff.
> >
> > > [End acknowledgement]
> >
> > >
> >
> > > Garson
> >
> > >
> >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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