SCHABARUM QUOTABLES

On his motivations, 1981: “I’m a competitor. I always have been. I don’t like to lose. I hate losing. I think you have to be that way, to play pro football. . . .”

On environmentalists, 1981: “A lot of them are living out there, in nice rural areas, and they don’t want to be disturbed. I don’t blame them. Why should they give a damn about the guy next door, sitting on acres of undeveloped property that’s doing nothing for him? They don’t care what’s fair. But I do.”

Responding to rumors that he might win an appointment as secretary of transportation, 1982: “Thank you for your flattering assumptions, all of which are incorrect.”

On immigration, refugees and illegal aliens, 1985: “My own grandparents were examples of the American immigrant dream. My grandfather, a German engineer, migrated to Mexico where he met and married my Mexican grandmother. They eventually immigrated legally to California with their children and became U.S. citizens. There were no welfare programs then, and they and all the other immigrants worked hard to pay for food, clothing and shelter.”

After flattening a 135-pound, 50-year old grandmother playing catcher during a softball game, 1986: “That’s baseball.”

Regarding a possible backlash against people with AIDS, 1989: “If you were to poll the man in the street, I think you would find the vast majority of the public really has no interest in the subject of AIDS, and certainly could care less about the public financing the needed programs that you’ve articulated.”

On the prospect of running in a largely Latino district, 1989: Schabarum said such a race would pose no problems, “being a Hispanic such as I am anyway.” (He said his paternal grandmother was Mexican.)