Entry in progress—B.P.
“Ninety percent of this game is half mental” is a saying that was popular in baseball in the 1970s.
Wikipedia: Jim McKenny
James Claude “Howie” McKenny (born December 1, 1946 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a retired NHL defenceman and a retired Citytv sports reporter. He played 604 games between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Minnesota North Stars, and was known by the nickname of ‘Howie’ due to his resemblance to Howie Young. McKenny once said that “Half the game is mental. The other half is being mental”.
20 November 1980, The Star and Times (Swan River, Manitoba), “Recreation Report” by Bob Genoway, pg. 15, col. 2:
“The game of hockey is fast and rugged but half of it is mental, the other half is being mental!”
(The quote in unattributed.—ed.)
Google News Archive
20 January 1981, The Blade (Toledo, (OH), “Defenseman Writing Book: Diggers’ Dugan Tells All About Life In The IHL” by Dave Woolford, pg. 20, col. 1:
You’ll share in some of the great quotations by famous IHL players, such as, “When it’s pouring it’s raining,” and “half the game is mental and the other half is being mental.”
Google Books
Hockey Stories On and Off the Ice
By Dan Diamond, James Duplacey and Eric Zweig
Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Pub.
2001
Pg. 35:
Half the game is mental, the other half is being mental.
Former Maple Leafs defenseman turned broadcaster Jim McKenney
Google Books
Blood & Ice:
Tales of 32 Years in the Crease
By Mike Haszto
Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse
2010
Pg. VII:
Some of my favorite hockey quotes:
Jim McKenny said “Half the game is mental; the other half is being mental.”
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
Recent entries:
•“I read old books because I would rather learn from those who built civilization than those who tore it down” (4/18)
•“I study old buildings because I would rather learn from those who built civilization than those who tore it down” (4/18)
•“Due to personal reasons, I’m still going to be fluffy this summer” (4/18)
•“Do not honk at me. My life is worthless. I will kill us both” (bumper sticker) (4/18)
•Entry in progress—BP16 (4/18)
More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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