Anonymous. (1933). Making the most of adversity. In Anonymous, The voice of experience (pp. 85-91). New York, NY, US: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/13329-013
We Americans pride ourselves on our good sportsmanship. What does this mean? It means that we are not interested solely in winning our games. We want a good opponent and we enjoy a good battle, keen competition, courage and sportsmanship in our opponent. We lose gracefully when we are beaten, and we try to win gracefully, not exulting too much in the defeat of our competitor. But above all, we are not afraid to risk our reputation in the fight, and we are justly proud of the title "a good sport," or the title of "a good loser." Now, there are a great many people who can cheerfully lose a golf match or a set of tennis or a baseball game, people who consider themselves "good sports" on the athletic field, who cannot take defeat anywhere else. It is as if these people used athletics for the sole purpose of keeping themselves from finding out what bad sports they are in life. They cannot take defeat or adversity. They are fair-weather friends. They cannot lose gracefully when more than a poker game is at stake. But it is obvious that if a man or woman cannot be a good sport in their daily contact and conduct with their fellow men, they are not good sports at all. You cannot judge a man's character until you test it. And the best possible test is adversity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)