Dick Schaap Quotes

• Today, it’s money. There’s no question about that. Unless you endorse a grill that cooks hamburgers and steaks, where else can you make the kind of money that you can make in the ring if you’re good?

  Dick Schaap

• Sugar Ray Robinson was at the top of the boxing world during the 1950’s when it seemed that he would either win or lose the championship about every three or four months.

  Dick Schaap

• Sugar Ray Leonard was as close as anyone came after Ali to being Ali, but he wasn’t Ali.

  Dick Schaap

• Sugar Ray and talked about doing some articles together or writing a book together but dealing with Sugar Ray was a lot like fighting him. He would fake you in and then he’d drop you.

  Dick Schaap

• Sportswriters have changed more than sportswriting.

  Dick Schaap

• Some people who love boxing might love Mike Tyson, but people outside of the sport are generally repulsed by him and therefore, repulsed by the sport.

  Dick Schaap

• My writing improved the more I wrote – and the more I read good writing, from Shakespeare on down.

  Dick Schaap

• My top three were Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain and Bo Jackson.

  Dick Schaap

• It’s kind of ironic that the two sports with the greatest characters, boxing and horse racing, have both been on the decline. In both cases it’s for the lack of a suitable hero.

  Dick Schaap

• In fifty years of covering the sport, of course Muhammad Ali is by far the dominant figure.

  Dick Schaap

• If I got paid, it was no more than five dollars a column, and I still think I was overpaid.

  Dick Schaap

• I worked with Rocky Graziano and Rocky was certainly a character.

  Dick Schaap

• I was also in love with the English language.

  Dick Schaap

• I wanted to be a sportswriter because I loved sports and I could not hit the curve ball, the jump shot, or the opposing ball carrier.

  Dick Schaap

• I think on balance, Don King has been bad for boxing. I think he’s done some very good things and I think he did a heck of a job of promoting Ali but I think I could have promoted Ali.

  Dick Schaap

• I think my mistakes were kind of common – leaning on cliches and adjectives in the place of clear, vivid writing. But at least I knew how to spell, which seems to be a rarity these days.

  Dick Schaap

• I just can’t believe all the things I did that decade

  Dick Schaap

• I got to know Sugar Ray but I certainly would not say we were good friends.

  Dick Schaap

• I did not choose necessarily on the basis of significance. If you have a vote for the most significant athlete, then you have Ali, then you have Babe Ruth, then you have Michael Jordan.

  Dick Schaap

• I came up with new leads for game stories by being observant and clever, by using the many gifts of the English language to intrigue and hook a reader.

  Dick Schaap

Dick Schaap (24)

Birth:	27th September, 1934
Death:	21st December, 2001
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Journalist, Newsreader, Writer

About

Dick Schaap was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was an American  sportswriter, newscaster, and TV journalist. His TV career blossomed when he became a correspondent for 20/20 and World News Tonight in the 1980s. He profiled a broad range of personalities and earned three Emmy Awards. In 1990, Schaap joined ESPN as host of The Sports Reporters, a Sunday morning talk show. After graduating from Cornell University in 1955, Schaap earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

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Today's Anniversary - 21st January

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