Coaches' corner.

JOHN MCKAY, the relaxed and ready wit of both the college and pro football games: "I always made my players feel that they could come to me for sympathy about anything. What I never let them know was that I always yearned to be a total tyrant like Lombardi."

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JOHN WOODEN: "A lot of idealists refuse to understand that if the world were perfect, it wouldn't be."

PAT RILEY, on the ultimate failure of Howard Cosell: "Howard was a mental giant but he never realized in always telling it like it is, he never made anything better."

RILEY, the dean of discipline in the NBA: "I always made it a point to learn what my people stood for and to let them know what I wouldn't stand for."

DON SHULA, on winning: "Great coaches have the vision to see, the faith to believe, the courage to do, and three great special teams."

LEE TREVINO, the immortal golfer: "If it wasn't for golf, I'd be a caddie today."

ERNIE BANKS, the all-time icon of Wrigley Field: "Everyone in the park loved me: the 2% who collected automobiles; the 6% who collected guns; and the 92% who collected unemployment."

WOODY HAYES, on why he never over-praised the opponents: "With my reputation for veracity, they'd believe me and that could make them dangerous."

JACK NICKLAUS, on his No. I tip to beginning golfers: "If you have to throw a club, throw it on the fairway where you can pick it up, not into the woods where you could use up all your energy looking for it."

SI BURICK, an aging sportswriter on the day that the great thoroughbred, Secretariat, was retired: "I'm so envious. He's young, he's beautiful, has lots of hair, is fast, has a large bank account, and has his entire sex life before him."

ANONYMOUS: "Old quarterbacks die a thousand deaths. They just keep dropping back and passing away."

LOU GROZA, on why placekickers are like slumping financial advisors: "They keep missing the point until they are fired."

ANDRE AGASSI, on what it's like being married to Steffi Graf: "When Steffi was a player, she killed herself making all kinds of money and socking it away. Since she got married, she relaxed, began enjoying life, and socking away all the money I make."

DOUG FLUTIE'S WIFE, after Doug put the NFL into shock at age 41 by completing 21 of 29 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns, and running for two more touchdowns: "You can't get him to believe that he isn't a growing boy."

JOE GARAGIOLA, watching Ernie Pujols develop into a .360 hitter with power: "That guy could hit .300 with a fountain pen."

LARRY MERCHANT, HBO's boxing specialist, on Mike Tyson: "He grew up in a neighborhood that was so tough that he played Peter Pan in the school play."

WALT GARRISON, on whether he ever saw Tom Landry smile when he played for him: "No, but I'm the wrong person to ask. I only played for him nine years."

SPARKY ANDERSON, on the weirdest baseball fans he ever saw: "It was in an old D league in New Hampshire. The fans would rise for the national anthem and stay on their feet until the seventh inning. Why sit down when you're just going to have to get to your feet again in the seventh inning?"

BERT BLYLEVEN, on the year he got famous for throwing so many home run pitches: "It got real embarrassing when my family began sitting in the left-centerfield bleachers."