I am looking for source of quote which starts "a little competition
never hurt..." next in the phrase may be (anyone, no one, anybody).
Suspect it may have come from the sports world, could also be "public
domain" i.e, something floating around for years with out a clue to
where it came from...

I could not find any definitive source for this quote. I suspect that
it's just one of those sayings that has been passed around for so long
that nobody knows who first said it.