Beam Me Up Scotty / Sports

• Former NHL coach Jim Schoenfeld is often quoted as saying in a confrontation with referee Don Koharski, "Have another doughnut, you fat pig!" The actual quote is "Good, because you fell, you fat pig! Have another doughnut! Have another doughnut!", as Koharski had slipped on the floor during the confrontation but believed Schoenfeld had pushed him (he hadn't, hence the quote).
• The definitive rallying cry among African Americans during The Vietnam War protesting the draft was "No VC [Viet Cong] ever called me "nigger"!" made famous by Muhammad Ali. He did not say that exact phrase. Here is the quote:
  My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother or some darker people, some poor, hungry people in the mud, for big, powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger. They never lynched me. They didn’t put no dogs on me. They didn’t rob me of my nationality and rape and kill my mother and father. Why would I want to—shoot them for what? I got to go shoot them, those little poor little black people, little babies and children, women. How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.
• Eric Cantona's post-kung fu kick statement was "When the seagulls follow trawler [sic], it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you very much." Very often misquoted with "fish" in place of "sardines"
• "Football isn't a matter of life or death, it's much more important than that." wasn't said by Bill Shankly, although the actual quote isn't too far off: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."
• "On any given Sunday, any one team can beat any other team" is commonly attributed to longtime NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. However, it actually originates with Rozelle's predecessor, Bert Bell.
• Howard Cosell is often quoted as saying "Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning" in reaction to an aerial shot of a five alarm fire in the Bronx during Game 2 of the 1977 World Series. The supposed quote was further popularized by its use as the title of a book and subsequent ESPN miniseries. However, while Cosell did comment on the fire during ABC's telecast of the game, saying that no one was injured as a result, he never actually said "The Bronx is burning".
• Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi never said, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing". The quote was actually from UCLA Bruins football coach Red Sanders. What Lombardi actually said was "Winning isn't everything. The will to win is the only thing." He often claimed he was misquoted.
• The phrase "The frozen tundra of Lambeau Field" was never spoken by NFL Films narrator John Facenda; it comes from ESPN commentator Chris Berman's imitation of him.
• Football announcer Andrés Cantor is mostly associated with his "¡GOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLL!" shout, but it actually originated from Ángel Fernández and Cantor just imitates it.
• Though he's forever remembered for the quote "nice guys finish last" (even using it as the title of his autobiography), Leo Durocher apparently didn't use those exact words during the incident where it reputedly originated. As manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers he commented to reporters in 1946 that the archrival New York Giants were "the nicest guys in the world! And where are they? In seventh place!" (which was actually second-to-last in the league that year). Later accounts changed this to the punchier "nice guys don't win pennants", which then evolved into the familiar form. A later book about misquotes was called Nice Guys Finish Seventh.^note Incidentally, the Giants did in fact finish the 1946 season in last place.
• "Say It Ain't So, Joe": Baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson denied that anyone said this to him during or after the Black Sox Scandal.^note Baseball essayist Roger Angell called this an "engraved Insta-Sob punchline" in his review of Eight Men Out. According to a contemporary newspaper account, the real words were "It ain't true, is it, Joe?" to which Jackson replied "Yes, kid, I'm afraid it is." Newspapers being what they were in those days, the whole incident may have been made up.
• The classic quote "Things look dark on Cameroon's bench", allegedly said by Swedish commentator Arne Hegerfors during the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup 1990, is most certainly made up. A lot of effort has been put into finding this quote by users on the Flashback forums, but nothing have come of it so far. It was likely made up by a journalist in 1995.
• Similarly, former Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams was never asked how long he had been a black quarterback.
• On November 23, 1968, the #1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes closed out their football season with a game against #4 ranked Michigan. Expected to be an outstanding game between the unfeteated Buckeyes and 8-1 Wolverines, it turned into a complete blowout, with Ohio State winning 50-14. One notable thing is that on Ohio State's final touchdown of the game, which happened late in the fourth quarter, the team decided to go for the 2-point conversion instead of the extra point, which failed. When asked why his team went for 2 with the game already out of reach, OSU coach Woody Hayes supposedly replied "Because I couldn't go for 3." While this was cited to symbolize the intense rivalry between the two schools and Hayes' determination to humiliate Michigan as much as possible, it is likely this quote is myth. There is no official record or transcript of him ever saying this, and journalists who interviewed Hayes on that day reported he told them he went for two because of injuries on his special teams unit. Whatever the case, Ohio State won and went on to become 1968's National Champions, but Michigan got their revenge the following season when they upset the undefeated Buckeyes 24-12 and ruined their chance at a second consective national title.

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