Posted by
Bill Crawford on Saturday, June 05, 2010 10:28:20 PM
What a life! The man was an old fogey in the '60's, for gosh sakes. He must have been nearly a century old by this point.
His players could tell you a myriad of stories, all of them laced with a remarkable similarity. They would say that a 1970 player could walk into a 1960 practice and fit right in. He had the most organized practices and pre-game drills anybody ever saw. The UCLA players would watch their opponents warm up and wonder how they had a chance in hell of beating the Bruins.
And through it all, they would tell you that Wooden never, ever spoke of winning or losing. It was all about how you carried yourself, how you followed the rules, how you added to the team and the mental path you approached life with.
There are many coaches out there that have copies of his life pyramid and use them for their own purposes. I've met three of them in my life that use it exactly as Wooden did. The man was a lighthouse in a foggy world.
In the NCAA Hall Of Fame, Wooden and his Bruin dynasty have a whole wing dedicated to them. I think about them every time I watch an NBA game where somebody stares at the arc of his jump shot, watches it bounce off the rim and can't seem to make it back down the court in time to play defense.
The man left a trail of constant success, and his acolytes all over the countyr will continue to follow it. Success in life as well as on the court. If a few of their students manage to make it to the NBA, and one less player is looking out first for a spot on the ESPN highlight reel, his life will have had that much more impact.
Rest in Peace, John Wooden.