Abe Lemons
Overview
 
Abe Lemons was one of the most successful head basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 coaches in Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 history.

Lemons grew up in the town of Walters, Oklahoma
Walters, Oklahoma
Walters is a city in Cotton County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,657 at the 2000 census. The city, nestled in between twin creeks, is the county seat of Cotton County...

. He served in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 in the Pacific and often referred to the pressures of his war experience to put sports pressures into perspective. He joined Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma City University, often referred to as OCU, is a coeducational, urban, private university historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church...

 (OCU) as a student in 1947.

At OCU, Lemons excelled as a player and coach in basketball for more than 40 years.
Quotations

That's one more rebound than a dead guy.

After his center grabbbed only one rebound in the first half of a game.

You may be big in New York, but in Walters, Oklahoma, you're nobody.

to broadcaster Howard Cosell

If you had come with me, you could be the principal of a high school by now.

to Johnny Bench, whom he tried to recruit while at Oklahoma City University.

Damn referees. I'll miss them less than anybody.

after losing his final game by one point, in a bid for victory No. 600

You mean in the state?

When asked if he felt his 1976 University of Texas basketball team should be ranked in the top twenty that season

Finish last in your league and they call you "Idiot". Finish last in medical school and they call you "Doctor".

I never substitute just to substitute. I play my regulars. The only way a guy gets off the floor is if he dies.

One day of practice is like one day of clean living. It doesn't do you any good.

I don't jog. If I die I want to be sick.

Doctors bury their mistakes, mine are still on scholarship.

 
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