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Message: [QUOTE="OldSchooler, post: 4279350, member: 11804"] In America, and probably elsewhere, we tend to glorify victory. Vince Lombardi used to say, "Winning isn't everything; it's the ONLY thing." And Red Auerbach was famous for his "Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser." But I think Baron Pierre de Coubertin summed it up best: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." That belongs up on the wall with Teddy's words. I realize this is little comfort to a team that came so close to its goal, despite overwhelming challenges this year. But it should soothe their fans. When I was in Montreal for the 1976 Olympics, there was a magnificent wall-sized photo mural, in many of the Metro stations, of Finland's legendary distance runner, Lasse Viren, on the final turn to the home stretch. (Viren would win both the 5000 and 10,000 meter runs at those Games.) The words beneath the mural, in French (I hope I'm spelling this correctly), were "[I]Je hate" [/I]("I strive"). This UConn team may have lost the big one, but they took us farther than we've been in 6 years. They were not losers. They were strivers. [/QUOTE]