Coach Norman Dale My practices aren't designed for your enjoyment.
Played by Gene Hackman 
Hoosiers (1986) · 32 quotes
Hoosiers (1986) · 32 quotes
Most-quoted character in Hoosiers (1986): in 20 of its 32 quotes
Most scenes with: Myra Fleener (5)
Stick with your man. Think of him as chewing gum. By the end of the game, I want you to know what flavor he is.
More lines from Coach Norman Dale
12 quotes Coach Norman Dale Coach Norman Dale Welcome to Indiana basketball.
Coach Norman Dale I've seen you guys can shoot but there's more to the game than shooting. There's fundamentals and defense.
Coach Norman Dale [to player who is praying]
Strap, God wants you on the floor.
Coach Norman Dale If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book we're gonna be winners.
Coach Norman Dale There's a, um tradition in tournament play- not talk about the next step until you've climbed the one in front of you. I'm sure going to the state finals is beyond your wildest dreams, so let's just keep it right there.
Coach Norman Dale [to Jimmy Chitwood]
You know, in the ten years that I coached, I never met anybody who wanted to win as badly as I did. I'd do anything I had to do to increase my advantage. Anybody who tried to block the pursuit of that advantage, I'd just push 'em out of the way. Didn't matter who they were, or what they were doing. But that was then. You have special talent, a gift. Not the school's, not the townspeople, not the team's, not Myra Fleener's, not mine. It's yours, to do with what you choose. Because that's what I believe, I can tell you this: I don't care if you play on the team or not.
Coach Norman Dale [a player complains about the training]
You are in the Army. You're in my Army. Everyday between three and five.
Coach Norman Dale Five players on the floor functioning as one single unit: team, team, team - no one more important that the other.
Coach Norman Dale My team is on the floor.
Coach Norman Dale I love you guys.
Coach Norman Dale I would hope you would support who we are. Not, who we are not. These six individuals have made a choice to work, a choice to sacrifice, to put themselves on the line 23 nights for the next 4 months, to represent you, this high school. That kind of commitment and effort deserves and demands your respect. This is your team.
Scenes with Coach Norman Dale
7 scenes
Leave him alone, alright? He's a real special kid and, and I have high hopes for him and... I think if he works really hard, he can get an academic scholarship to Wabash College and can get out of this place.
Coach Norman Dale Why, do you have something against this place?
A man your age comes to a place like this, either he's running away from something or he has nowhere else to go.
Coach Norman Dale What I'm doing here has nothing to do with you.
Just stay away from Jimmy. I don't want him coaching in Hickory when he's fifty.
Coach Norman Dale First of all, let's be real friendly here, okay? My name is Norm. Secondly, your coaching days are over.
George Look, mister, there's... two kinds of dumb, uh... guy that gets naked and runs out in the snow and barks at the moon, and, uh, guy who does the same thing in my living room. First one don't matter, the second one you're kinda forced to deal with.
Coach Norman Dale Translate. That some sort of threat?
George I don't know why Cletus drug your tired old bones in here, he musta owed you somethin' fierce. Fact is, mister, you start screwin' up this team, I'll personally hide-strap your ass to a pine rail and send you up the Monon Line!
Coach Norman Dale [George angrily turns and storms out of the gym]
Leave the ball, will you, George? [to himself] OK, let's see what kind of hand I've been dealt.
Coach Norman Dale You know, if everyone is as nice as you, country hospitality is gonna get an awful name.
What a pleasant thing to say.
Coach Norman Dale [Strap is continuing his prayer as the team gets ready to leave the locker room]
Strap?
Coach Norman Dale [to another player]
How long is he going to go on like this?
Rade I don't know. He'll come when he's ready, not before.
Coach Norman Dale Hopefully that'll be sometime before tip-off.
[about Jimmy Chitwood]
You know, a basketball hero around here is treated like a god, er, uh, how can he ever find out what he can really do? I don't want this to be the high point of his life. I've seen them, the real sad ones. They sit around the rest of their lives talking about the glory days when they were seventeen years old.
Coach Norman Dale You know, most people would kill... to be treated like a god, just for a few moments.
[about Jimmy]
Leave him alone, all right? He's a real special kid and, and I have high hopes for him and... I think if he works really hard, he can get an academic scholarship to Wabash College and can get out of this place.
Coach Dale Why, do you have something against this place?
A man your age comes to a place like this, either he's running away from something or he has nowhere else to go.
Coach Dale What I'm doing here has nothing to do with you.
Just stay away from Jimmy. I don't want him coaching in Hickory when he's fifty.
Other characters in Hoosiers
More Gene Hackman characters
Royal Tenenbaum
Captain Frank Ramsey
Lex Luthor
Coach Jimmy McGinty
Lex Luthor
Harry Caul
Harry Moseby
General Mandible