THE FRONT ROW BY ERIC PLUMMER: Jan. 4, 2015: 2015: A Sports Odyssey

As a youth many moons ago, the year 2015 was the type of number used in futuristic science fiction. Surely by then, the thinking went, we'll all be living in space, something akin to the Jetsons.

Yet here we are, driving the same gas-powered cars we were decades ago, and the number 2015 doesn't seem so strange sounding now.

With the turning of another calendar year, it seems like as good a time as ever to wax nostalgic about sports, and appreciate the beauty of the games.

I'm a sucker for a great sports quote. Whether humorous, deep, happy or sad, a great quote can really get you thinking. Below are a few of my all-time favorites, touching on as many sports as this column space allows.

It being hoops season, here's a gem from Al McGuire, who coached Marquette to a national championship in 1977 in basketball:

"It's so ridiculous to see a golfer with a one-foot putt and everybody say, 'shhh, and not moving a muscle.' Then we allow a 19 year-old kid to face a game-deciding free throw with 17,000 people yelling."

So true. Luckily for the Zags, Kevin Pangos is about as automatic as it gets from the stripe, a luxurious weapon when March rolls around and crunch time begins. Ditto for the Sandpoint girls and scoring machine Madi Schoening, who recently made an astonishing 19 of 19 attempts from the line in a win over Clarkston. A lot of great players can't do that in an empty gym, ever, let alone in a game.

There are so many great football quotes, it's tough to choose just one, but former NFL coach Bum Phillips, the cowboy-hat-and-boot-wearing Texan known for his colorful, down-home football parlance, takes the cake with this beauty:

"A good coach can take his'n and beat your'n, and take your'n and beat his'n."

This quote sums up Satini Puailoa, now in his second stint at Sandpoint and looking to build his second state championship team, having won one in 1997, when one Mark Nelke was covering the Bulldogs before heading south to take his current gig in Coeur d'Alene.

Boasting tons of charisma, energy and passion for football, I've never seen a coach get players to buy into the all-for-one concept like Puailoa. In three years he's taken a program that was clearly down and built it into one of the best in the panhandle.

He coached alongside Dick Butkus in the ESPN show Bound for Glory between his stints at Sandpoint, and was head coach for MMA legend Chuck "The Ice Man" Liddell while the future brawler was a high school student in Santa Barbara.

There are a lot of great coaches in the panhandle. I coached on the Coeur d'Alene staff with Shawn Amos for four years before he won any state titles, and have enjoyed seeing him rack them up lately, knowing full well he paid his coaching dues. Sean Dorris, whom I coached with and also covered while he stewarded Sandpoint, knows defensive football as well as many college coaches.

And how about those Seahawks, rounding into the form that led them to a Super Bowl title last season? Russell Wilson, a modern day Doug Flutie clone, has opened up quarterback competitions on teams across the country, what with sub-six footers now thinking they too can start and succeed. He may not put up the gaudy fantasy stats of some of his peers, but for my money, Wilson is the best quarterback in football, bar none.

Segueing to wrestling, since it's currently in season, here is a quote by legendary wrestler and coach Dan Gable that every wrestler can relate to:

"I shoot, I score. He shoots, I score."

Full disclosure: I'd never seen a live wrestling match before I started working at the Daily Bee in Sandpoint. Since then I've covered a handful of district wrestling tournaments, and even trekked to Pocatello to cover the state tournament for all North Idaho schools once, an unbelievably arduous task.

The Gable quote speaks to a mindset that every wrestler must take to the mat. Alone, at that. It's one thing to get whipped on a football or basketball field, where you've got teammates to lean on and share the defeat with. It's another thing to get whipped all by your lonesome. That fear alone leads to the type of training only a wrestler knows.

And last but not least, one of my favorite quotes, uttered by football coaching legend Knute Rockne, he of the 'win one for the Gipper' fame.

"One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it."

I love great sportsmanship almost as much as I love the games.

I love seeing the loudest ovation reserved for the final runner during a cross country race, with runners from every team, many of whom finished 20 minutes or more earlier, cheering hard for last place.

I love the post-game handshake. Win or lose, you can learn a lot about a person by watching them navigate that line.

My favorite moment of the 2014 prep sports season happened last fall in the Sandpoint West Athletic Club pool during a swim meet. Sandpoint swimmer Ben Reich had long since finished his distance race when a lone Lakeland swimmer was beginning his final lap. On the final stretch, Reich began screaming and clapping until his competitor finally touched the wall.

Hopefully that kind of spirit will still be going strong in 2045.

Eric Plummer is the sports editor of the Daily Bee in Sandpoint. For comments, suggestions or story ideas, he can be reached at "eplummer@bonnercountydailybee.com."