They Said It

Tommy Bolt, announcing metamorphosis into Tame-Tempered Tommy after a first-round 71 in the U.S. Open that he went on to win (see page 34): "Before, when I missed a shot, I wanted to kill myself. Now I try to forget it. I didn't get religious or anything like that. Just gave myself a good talking to. See what a sweet thing I've become?"

Harold Carter, poetry-reading heavyweight, asked—after he had won a unanimous decision over Willi Besmanoff—if he had any poetic thoughts during the fight: "I ran over a few lines, 'If you can keep your head, while all around you men are losing theirs.' "

Percy Cerutty, coach of the sub-4-minute miler Herb Elliott, lamenting the small financial rewards of the amateur athlete: "A guy like Elliott tears his insides out and what does he get? A wristwatch when he's already got two."

TY COBB: "I regret to this day that I never went to college. I feel that I should have been a doctor."