I remember one time I wrote something very, very critical about Wilt Chamberlain. The next time I saw him - and Wilt was not a man, as huge as he was - he was not a man of confrontation. And we were in the Lakers locker room. And he sent Jerry West over, and he said, 'Frank, Wilt would like you to leave.'

Frank Deford

You can tell all you need to about a society from how it treats animals and beaches.

Frank Deford

society animal beach

To see the glory in sport, where somebody comes from behind and does something, sinks a shot in the last second or throws a touchdown pass or hits a home run, there is a beauty in that, and at the end of the day, that's why we love sports more than anything else.

Frank Deford

home running sports

I believe that professional wrestling is clean and everything else in the world is fixed.

Frank Deford

wrestling believe world

She glances at the photo, and the pilot light of memory flickers in her eyes.

Frank Deford

eye photography memories

I never wanted to be an editor. I never wanted to be a boss. I just wanted to write, and it didn't make any difference whether it was fiction or nonfiction or short stories or whatever. I just - that's what I was destined to do.

Frank Deford

editors differences writing

I grew up in Baltimore and that's why I root for the Orioles. I'm very suspicious of people who move and take on a new team. You should stick with the team of your youth all the way to your grave. That shows a sense of loyalty and devotion.

Frank Deford

team loyalty moving

I think at its best, sport does bring us together.

Frank Deford

together sports thinking

I think one of the most immoral things is college football and basketball, where everybody is making money except the players.

Frank Deford

basketball player football

Hockey is the only place where a guy can go nowadays and watch two white guys fight.

Frank Deford

nhl hockey fighting

I was a much better writer than I was an athlete. My college coach told me flat out, he said, "Deford, you write basketball better than you play it."

Frank Deford

basketball athlete writing

If you're a white kid growing up and you see a Black player and he's got the name of your college or your town across his chest, that means something.

Frank Deford

growing-up mean kids

In Hollywood, writers are considered only the first draft of human beings.

Frank Deford

hollywood humans firsts

The joy sometimes is in the simple beauty.

Frank Deford

simple joy sometimes

So much of life, so much of work, is luck.

Frank Deford

luck

The sport [football] is simply more and more identified with violence, both in its inherent nature and in its savage personnel... [The National Football League] now needs a guardian, not a CEO.

Frank Deford

league football sports

I don't understand blogs. People used to write to make money, no? You didn't give it away. I have nothing against blogs. I don't have a problem with them. But it's like, 'What are you doing? Why aren't you working?

Frank Deford

writing giving people

I think there are white alumni out there who wouldn't mind having an African American president of their school, but would be reluctant to have an African American coach, because he represents the school so. I think it's just sheer backward racism.

Frank Deford

white school thinking

If the players aren't getting paid, there's something terribly, terribly wrong, and that's true only in the United States. Everywhere else, where money is involved with sport, the players get paid. But these poor kids in college, they're doing it for free, and that's just disgraceful.

Frank Deford

player sports kids

I don't think you can explain why all these other sports and college basketball have a fair representation of African American coaches, but college football doesn't. You can dig and scramble and scratch, but at the end of the day I think it's just pure, old-fashioned racism.

Frank Deford

basketball football sports

Usually when an athlete gets a reputation it sticks with him, even when he's an old man.

Frank Deford

sticks athlete men