Failure is only permanent if you "Quit". _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wisdom From Charlie Brown Coach Wooden would have loved this!

Good Grief, I Learned A Lot, Charlie Brown! For 50 years the daily comic strip 'Peanuts' entertained millions of readers. Every day, the adventures of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and the whole gang provided many

laugh-out-loud moments while at the same time offering a daily inspiration and lessons on life.

With the recent death of 'Peanuts' creator Charles Schulz, I reflect on how much I enjoyed sharing the adventures of the 'Peanuts' gang and I remember the many lessons

they taught me...

It's okay to be afraid... just don't let your fears control you. Charlie Brown often sat in bed and spoke of his fears, but no matter how scared he was, he always did the things he wanted to do.

Persistence wins out. Charlie Brown often lost, failed at much, but he never gave up. Even though he knew Lucy was going to pull the football away before he could kick it....Even though he knew the tree was going to eat his kite... Even though he knew his team would lose the ball game, he kept on trying.

It's what you think of yourself that counts. Linus carried a security blanket for years and his friends laughed at him. They also laughed at him because he believed in the "Great Pumpkin." Pigpen was a walking cloud of dust and dirt and was often regarded unkindly. Both characters, however, were always proud of themselves and believed they were as good as anybody else -- and they were right.

Sometimes you need to talk. One thing the 'Peanuts' gang understood was the importance of talking things out. Whether leaning up against Schroeder's piano or atop the brick wall, they always had someplace to discuss what was of concern to them.

Sometimes you need to listen. Even crabby, self-indulged Lucy knew the importance of listening. She started the famous 'Psychiatry Booth' where any and all could come and be heard.

Do what you love to do. Through all their adventures, Schroeder remained constant in his appreciation of Beethoven and his love of playing the piano. He loved to play piano and that's what he did, regardless of the circumstances. Charlie Brown flew his kite, played baseball and football, not just to win (he knew he wouldn't), but because he loved to do those things.

It's important to have friends that care. The 'Peanuts' gang was made up of individual characters, each with their own foibles and talents, but through it all they were always there for each other.

Big dreams lead to big things. Snoopy was the biggest dreamer of them all, but his wild imagination often led to even wilder, more fantastic adventures in real life. Snoopy knew that you must have a big dream if you are going to lead a big life.

Action creates reality. As Charlie Brown was reminded time and again after prodding from Linus: it takes action to bring about change. Though he often failed, Chuck took action quite regularly... and every now and again things would go his way.

Laugh every day! While the kids themselves may not have seen the humor in the things they did, Schulz made sure that we did. Life is only as serious or as humorous as YOU make it.

Lighten up. Go play softball. Fly a kite. Dance with your dog. Smile... It makes people

wonder what you're up to. ~By Jim Allen~ _________________________________________________________________________

“Lack of willpower and drive cause more failures

than lack of intelligence and ability.” ______________________________________________________________________________

"We know what a person thinks not when he tells

us what he thinks, but by his actions." -- Isaac Bashevis Singer

______________________________________________________________________________

John Wooden’s Greatest Accomplishment: His Impact

Transcended Coaching

As a graduate assistant at Washington State in 1973, I unabashedly used to tell my friends what an honor it was for me to sit on the opposing team’s bench while John

Wooden’s UCLA teams used to trounce us. Back then, no one in the then Pac-8 ever used to talk about actually beating the Bruins but, rather, how close the game was

before they put you away. During the postgame handshake, it would definitely occur to me that I was touching greatness. While this type of attitude could be considered as

self-defeating, you first must realize that as a GA, I had no impact on the game’s outcome anyway.

It was just observing how meticulous his team performed, from their pregame routine (they would warm up in front of our bench prior to the game) to their marvelous

execution throughout the contest, I’d understand that, regardless of the amount of talent they had, that this precision was what I’d aspire to if I ever got a chance to lead my own

program.

But beyond that, it was the genuine respect Coach Wooden would give me when I’d see him in the hallway prior to the game or in the lobby at the Coaches’

Convention. Even when I saw him walking with his wife, Nell (at the Final Four, they were constantly together), he’d always have a moment to greet me - by name - which always both astounded and thrilled me. I can’t think of ever meeting, or even hearing of, someone occupying such a lofty position in his business who was so remarkable.

Even twenty years later, when our USC teams would leave the court at Pauley Pavilion after pregame warm ups and head into the visitors’ locker room, we’d pass by Coach

Wooden’s seat. I always made it a point to stop by and reintroduce myself to the Coach. Each of the four years this meeting took place, he’d say to me, “Oh, I remember you, Jack” as if there were no need to remind him of my name. Believe me, I was never under the impression that he remembered me because I was special; he remembered

me because he was. Nor did I think I had made such an indelible mark on him that he’d never forget me. I just knew he never forgot anybody.

Even listening to him in his 90s, his mind was as sharp as ever - even when reciting poetry, he never stumbled on a passage nor did he ever lose his train of thought as

often happens to people decades younger (present company included). Until the end (which occurred yesterday), those who were with him remarked his thoughts

were lucid. After nearly a century, it was his body that simply gave out.

It is simply incredible to me how much of an impact one person could have on humanity whose job was to lead a bunch of players during a basketball season. Several years ago, I had the honor of emceeing an event in which he was the featured

speaker. My introduction was brief, concluding with the remark:

“John Wooden was a man who taught coaches how to coach and people how to live.” Shared by Jack Fertig

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"There is nothing you know that you haven't

learned from someone else." Every day we should

teach & be taught. -- John Wooden

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Make excuses, you cannot properly evaluate

yourself. Without proper evaluation, failure is

inevitable." -- John Wooden

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Success is never final,

failure is never fatal. Its courage that counts."

-- Coach John Wooden.

______________________________________________________________________________

Thoughts from Pat Croce & Lead or Get Off the Pot! (This sounds like Coach Wooden at a Coaching clinic!)

The "Triple-A" of building a passionate team:

- Attitude - It is contagious! - Assets - Provide the necessary tools needed to maximize individual assets while

removing the obstacles that would minimize them. - Ambition - The belief that there is something personal at stake.

Be aware of the goals, roles, and tolls that affect each staff member.

Always look for moments to recognize staff members PUBLICLY!

3 Rules of Praise:

- Personal - Punctual

- Public

The Dirty Dozen of Team Building:

1 - Praise in public, criticize in private 2 - Be more curious and less critical

3 - Pull and don't push 4 - Check integrity

5 - Foster positive emotions 6 - Strive to understand others 7 - Show confidence in people

8 - Promote charity 9 - Celebrate diversity 10 - Unleash potential

11 - Set the tone 12 - C.A.R.E. (Compromise Apologize Recognize Empathize)

Six C's of Communication:

1. Clear 2. Concise

3. Consistent 4. Credible

5. Courteous 6. Current

**Life has no dress rehearsals and each of us has a responsibility to celebrate the

journey.** Shared by Matt Grahn

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Coach Wooden on Leadership Coach Wooden Shares His Insights on Leadership

Here are some snippets from Coach Wooden's excellent book called Wooden on Leadership.

LEADERS MUST CONTINUOUSLY LEARN I believe leadership itself is largely learned. Certainly not everyone can lead nor is every

leader destined for glory, but most of us have a potential far beyond what we think possible.

Those who aspire to be leaders can do it; those who wish to become much better leaders can also do it. I know, because this has been true in my own life. Whatever

coaching and leadership skills I possess were learned through listening, observation, study, and then trial and error along the way.

In my opinion, this is how most leaders improve and progress. For me, the process of learning leadership continued for 40 years until the day I walked off the court for the last time as head coach - March 31, 1975 - following UCLA's tenth national championship.

In truth, my learning continued even after that. (Pages 4-5)

PARENTING IS THE BEST MODEL OF LEADERSHIP At some point, later than I'd care to admit, it became clear to me that the most

productive model for good leadership is a good parent. A coach, teacher, and leader, in my view, are all basic variations of being a parent. And while parenting is the most important job in the world, leadership isn't far behind. I revere the opportunity and

obligation it confers, namely, the power to change lives and make a difference. For me, leadership is a sacred trust.

A leader in sports, business, or any other field of endeavor should possess and provide the same qualities inherent in a good parent: character, consistency, dependability,

accountability, knowledge, good judgment, selflessness, respect, courage, discipline, fairness, and structure.

And while all these will make you a good leader, they will not make you a great leader. For that one additional quality - perhaps the most important of all - is necessary. Although it may sound out of place in the rough-and-tumble context of sports or

corporate competition, I believe you must have love in your heart for the people under your leadership. I did. (80)

LEADERS DEMAND ATTENTION TO DETAILS There was no single big thing that made our UCLA basketball teams effective, not the

press or the fast break, not size, not condition - no single big thing. Instead, it was hundreds of small things done the right way, and done consistently.

A leader must identify each of the many details that are most pivotal to team success and then establish, and teach, a high standard of behavior or performance in executing

those details. How you - the leader - define "average" is how your team will define it.

Some leaders define average as average; some define average as being significantly above average.

It is easy to be lazy when it comes to details. Laziness is a euphemism for sloppiness, and sloppiness precludes any organization from achieving competitive greatness and

success. Your ability as leader to set and achieve high standards in the domain or details - to insist that average will be well above average - is one of the accurate

predictors of how effective you will be as a leader, and how productive those under your supervision will be as a team.

Once you recognize the connection between sweat socks and success, you have acquired one of the most valuable assets for effective leadership, namely, that little

things, done well, make big things happen for you and your organization. (147)

LEADERSHIP IS GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR AVAILABLE TALENT You need talent on your team to prevail in the competitive arena. However, many

leaders don't know how to win even when they have great talent in their organization. Furthermore, leaders are frequently forced to compete when the talent matchup isn't in

their favor. What do you do then?

While a book can't replace talent, it can provide productive insights on how to get the most out of the talent you have available. And this, in my opinion, is the first goal of

leadership - namely, getting the very best out of the people in your organization, whether they have talent to spare or are spare on talent.

Your ability to bring forth - maximize - the potential and abilities of those under your leadership marks you as a great competitor and leader. Some years, the teams I taught were blessed with significant talent. Other years, this was not the case. But in all years - with all levels of talent - my goal was the same, namely, to get the most out of what we

had. (289-290) Shared by Jeff Janssen

______________________________________________________________________

"Talent is God given. Be humble.

Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."

-- John Wooden _____________________________________________________________

The real winners in life are the people

who look at every situation with an expectation that they can make it work

or make it better

Before eternity takes me, My fondest hope is but to see

And know that something I have done Has made for some a brighter sun.

-- John Wooden, written and signed on Sept. 18, 1939 ____________________________________________________________

Wooden’s influence spread beyond sports

He was the greatest Hoosier who ever lived, a schoolboy in Martinsville, a

college student in West Lafayette, a coach in Terre Haute.

Through the years, John Wooden became known for his feats of basketball

greatness in Los Angeles, on the Westwood campus of UCLA, but at his core,

in his heart, he was always a Hoosier son.

He was Indiana, possessing all the best qualities of this state and its

people.

He was humble. He was industrious. He was generous. He was strong-

willed. And he left a footprint on this world — not just the sporting

world, but the wider world — that few men (or women) will ever leave.

We spoke only a few times over the years. I wish we had spoken more. But

every time I was lucky enough to be in his presence, it was like having an

audience with a secular saint. His was such a calm, reassuring presence; it

was like listening to the Dalai Lama.

I remember sitting in a Denver hotel room talking about college basketball;

it was like talking to my grandfather, and it was like talking to a Mandela, a

Gandhi, a Mother Teresa. His was such a calm, reassuring presence. He had

an extraordinary sense of peace about him, a centeredness that is hard to

describe. I was in awe, and yet, I was completely comfortable.

He had that way with people. Coach Wooden never sought to place himself

on a pedestal, never tried to intimidate or overwhelm. He drew the best out

of people. And he seemed to have that effect on just about everyone lucky

enough to have crossed his path.

Too often anymore, greatness is not allied with gentleness. We especially

see this in modern coaches, who seem to think the louder and more

profanely they scream, the more they accomplish. We see coaches who

believe that stomping along the sidelines and berating players and officials

somehow justifies their existence.

That’s not to say Wooden was pure as the driven snow or didn’t utter an

occasional negative word through that rolled-up program of his, but he

showed you could win not only by getting the best players, but by treating

athletes like students in a classroom.

In the end, he touched many lives, directly and indirectly.

―I’ve taken a good look at a lot of his information and his philosophies, and

his seven-point creed, I think a lot of coaches have used that,‖ Colts head

coach Jim Caldwell said Friday. ―A couple of them, „Be yourself,‟ that’s one

I’ve always thought was important. „Drink deeply from good books,‟ and

one of his favorites was the Bible, as it is mine. … What a great coach,

a great mind. What a great example he set for all of us in this profession.‖

Now, it’s impossible to mention Wooden without bringing up the specter of

Sam Gilbert, who turned into the UCLA program’s unofficial sugar daddy.

Many years ago, the Los Angeles Times did an eye-opening multipart series

on Gilbert, who took boosterism to a new level and helped Wooden procure

the best basketball players in the country.

Wooden always professed no knowledge of Gilbert’s role with the program,

and all these years later, it’s impossible for someone in my position to say

whether that was true or a case of convenient amnesia.

If it is any kind of taint on his legacy, it is ultimately a minor one. Wooden

still had to get the talent. Wooden still had to coach the talent.

Wooden still had to bring those great players together and teach

them to win, unlike any program ever won or ever will win.

When the multitudes ultimately gather to pay homage to the Wizard — and

they might need the Los Angeles Coliseum to accommodate all of his fans

and admirers — they will speak of him not only as a man who coached

basketball, but as a man who coached life skills.

He was a teacher above all else, a man who was mentored by the likes of

Purdue’s Piggy Lambert and in turn mentored thousands of players and

coaches and everyday people. A life well lived is a life that touches and

helps others. Wooden left enormous footprints on so many other lives,

never slowing even as he reached his 80s and then his 90s.

Wooden spoke and wrote of eternal truths, both regarding basketball and

life. His ―Pyramid of Success‖ resonates as loudly now as it did decades ago.

All over this country, coaches have that pyramid tacked to a wall in their

offices. So, too, do corporate executives.

He was the ultimate Hoosier: grounded, resilient, self-reliant and

smart. Somewhere, you imagine, he has a rolled-up program in his hands,

and he’s telling the angels the proper way to tie their shoes.

In nearly a century of blessed living, the young man from Martinsville

became a legend without spending a spare moment contemplating about

growing his legend. He was a great man who never viewed himself that way.

-- Bob Kravitz, Indianapolis Star _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Action is the best remedy for discouragement. When you are

discouraged, you don't know where to go, whom to call, etc. Take action on your dreams by doing something, almost anything, just get

started on something. Get other people involved in your dream, so they can give you advice on what to do, where to go etc. Don't let

discouragement stop you from taking some sort of action, as that is the key to moving yourself out of the depression and moving you

back towards your goals. -- Edward W. Smith

__________________________________________________________________________________________

John Wooden Quotations

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing

resentment. John Wooden

Ability is a poor man's wealth. John Wooden

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

John Wooden

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation

is merely what others think you are. John Wooden

Be prepared and be honest. John Wooden

Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.

John Wooden

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. John Wooden

Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. John Wooden

Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.

John Wooden

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be. John Wooden

I'd rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.

John Wooden

--

If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it

over? John Wooden

If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.

John Wooden

It isn't what you do, but how you do it. John Wooden

It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it. John Wooden

It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.

John Wooden

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. John Wooden

Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are

meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters.

John Wooden

Never mistake activity for achievement. John Wooden

Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.

John Wooden

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way

things turn out."

"Never mistake activity for achievement."

"Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then."

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation

is merely what others think you are."

"Be prepared and be honest."

"Be quick, but don't hurry."

"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get

caught up in either one."

"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone

who will never be able to repay you."

"What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player."

"Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character."

"A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment."

"I'd rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent."

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do

it over?"

"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm

positive that a doer makes mistakes."

"It isn't what you do, but how you do it."

"Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be."

"Consider the rights of others before your own feelings and the

feelings of others before your own rights."

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by

what you should have accomplished with your ability."

"It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it."

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."

"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things

happen."

"Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful.

Conceit is self-given. Be careful."

"The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team."

"Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."

"Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts."

____________________________________________________________________________________

A DAY WITH THE COACH WOODEN

Many years ago I wrote a book titled "The Art of Being An Assistant

Coach" in which I created a survey and sent to the top head coaches around the nation including Coach Wooden. One of the greatest thrills of

my coaching career was having Coach Dale Brown arrange for me to spend a day with him in his apartment in Inglewood, California.

My time with Coach Wooden was so incredible that I wrote an entire chapter in my book based on some of our conversations. Here is just a brief excerpt:

It was one of the most educational times in my coaching life as well as one

of the most thrilling. The date was October 15, 1993, and I was in a rental car heading down the Los Angeles freeway system to spend an afternoon

with Coach John Wooden. To some degree it was somewhat of a pilgrimage; having the opportunity to

fly cross country to speak with not just an outstanding basketball coach, but very much a wise man in a great number of areas, especially life. The trip

was annual in some form for the LSU basketball staff. Annually Coach Brown made the trip and from time to time he would take a member of his staff.

During the early days of October, Coach Brown had me over to his house

one evening to watch a video tape he had on Coach Wooden speaking at a clinic and talking about his basic coaching philosophy. When I casually

mentioned what a thrill it would be to meet Coach Wooden and actually sit down and talk some basketball, Coach Brown got up, went to his office,

wrote down Coach Wooden’s phone number on a piece of paper and handed

it to me.

“We don’t start practice this year until November 1,” explained Coach Brown. “Why don’t you call John up and make a date before the season.”

I was almost in disbelief. Why would Coach Wooden agree to spend an

afternoon with me? After my phone call, I soon found out that Coach

Wooden was a gracious as he was wise, and I was soon bound for California.

I spend almost two entire days studying for my trip. I glanced through Coach Wooden’s book Practical Modern Basketball. I sat down and wrote

out all the questions in advance that I thought would be the best to get his answers. I then loaded up a tape recorder and some cassettes and I was

ready to go. During the session I asked him his opinion on several things from the following areas: philosophy, strategy then and now, practice

organization, conditioning, offensive philosophies and fundamentals, the UCLA pressing system, academic philosophy, discipline, avoiding

complacency, leadership and captains, scouting, tournament preparation, and how to keep the saw sharpened.

I also found out very quickly that LSU was not the only program that went

out to gather information from this coaching legend. The day before I had

arrived, he had spent the entire day with Jim Harrick’s staff on the UCLA campus. The day before that he had been with George Raveling at the

University of Southern California. Above all, I was highly interested in what he thought were important

qualities for a top notch assistant coach. After all, he had accomplished things in college basketball as a coach that had never been done before and

will never again be done. He also had some tremendous assistants pass through under him naming Denny Crum and Gary Cunningham as a near

perfect staff. His players also went on to outstanding coaching careers including Crum, Cunningham, Jerry Norman, Larry Farmer,

and Walt Hazzard.

It was fascinating that on the survey that I sent to Coach Wooden that he did not rank them in any order. He simply wrote, “They are all extremely

important. But we should remember that it is more important to

have character than characteristics.” POSTED BY BOB STARKEY, LSU WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

_____________________________________________________________

The Legendary John Wooden Passes

When I think of Coach Wooden, I think of Integrity and Greatness. Instead of sadness, we should celebrate the 99 years of wisdom that Coach has

given us not just in basketball but in being better human beings. I have several books from Wooden and I stare at his Pyramid of Success every day

in front of my computer,

To the man they call "Coach", Well Done, Well Done indeed, Coach...

From the X's and O's of Basketball _____________________________________________________________

John Wooden dies at 99; UCLA basketball coach won 10 national titles

Wooden's accomplishments during his 27-season tenure with the

Bruins made him one of the greatest coaches in sports history. He also created the 'Pyramid of Success' motivational program.

John Wooden, the UCLA basketball coach who became an icon of American sports while guiding the Bruins to an unprecedented 10 national

championships in the 1960s and '70s and remained in the spotlight during

retirement with his "Pyramid of Success" motivational program, has died.

He was 99.

Wooden died Friday evening of natural causes at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the university announced. He had been hospitalized since

last week for dehydration.

Though the stern, dignified Midwesterner's fame extended beyond the sports world, it was Wooden's achievements during 27 seasons at UCLA that put

him in the company of such legendary coaches as the Green Bay Packers' Vince Lombardi and Notre Dame's Knute Rockne.

His string of championships began with back-to-back victories in

1964 and '65. Starting in 1967, his team ran off seven consecutive NCAA titles — going 38 tournament games without a loss — a feat

unmatched before or since in men's college basketball.

The Bruins won with dominant players such as Walt Hazzard, Kareem Abdul-

Jabbar and Bill Walton. They also won with teams — such as Wooden's last

squad in 1974-75 — that had no marquee stars.

That team defeated Kentucky, 92-85, in the national championship game to give Wooden his 10th and final title. (Mike Krzyzewski of Duke won his

fourth national title this spring, matching the total won by the late Adolph Rupp of Kentucky.)

In 40 years of coaching high school and college, Wooden had only one losing season — his first. He finished with 885 wins and 203

losses, and his UCLA teams still hold an NCAA record for winning 88 consecutive games from 1971 through 1974.

The Bruins attained greatness during a golden age in Los Angeles sports.

The Dodgers had Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale on the mound at newly built Dodger Stadium. The Lakers, with Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and

Elgin Baylor, battled annually for the National Basketball Assn.

championship. The USC football team, coached by John McKay, won several national titles.

But for all the success that local teams enjoyed, none could match UCLA for

the sheer number of championships.

Wooden built his dynasty on simple precepts. He insisted that his squad be meticulously prepared and in top

physical condition. No detail was overlooked. The first practice of each season, the coach would remind his players

about pulling on socks smoothly and carefully lacing sneakers — there would be no excuse for debilitating blisters.

His workouts were so grueling that former players said they often

were relieved to play in games.

In the 2005 book "Wooden on Leadership," guard Gail Goodrich recalled, "He believed that winning is a result of process, and he was a

master of the process, of getting us to focus on what we were doing rather than the final score. One drill he had was to run a play over

and over at full speed, but he wouldn't let us shoot the ball. He made us concentrate on what happened before the shot was taken, what

happened to make it possible. He made us focus on execution. He built teams that knew how to execute."

Walton, in his book "Nothing but Net," wrote: "John Wooden was so

intense during those practices. He never stopped moving, never stopped chattering away. Up and down the court he would pace,

always barking out his pet little phrases."

Stressed teamwork

Those phrases reflected another facet of Wooden's coaching style: He demanded crisp fundamentals and teamwork predicated on passing and

cutting to the basket. He wanted his players to be smart, both on the court and in their lives away from the game.

Among Wooden's pithy maxims:

"Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."

"Flexibility is the key to stability."

"Be quick, but don't hurry."

This approach produced immediate results. Upon arriving in Westwood in 1948, Wooden inherited an underachieving team picked to finish last in the

conference. Instead, the Bruins wound up with a 22-7 record. The next season, they won the conference championship.

Yet UCLA did not win a national title until Wooden's 16th season. To

accomplish this, he had to do something that many coaches can't manage: He had to change. At the urging of assistant Jerry Norman, a

former player added to the coaching staff in 1957,

Wooden focused on defense and instituted a zone press that he had

used infrequently since he was a high school coach. Norman also was energetic about recruiting, something for which Wooden had little appetite.

By the mid-1960s, the Bruins were so confident in their system that Wooden

rarely bothered to scout opponents. He figured it was their job to stop the Bruins.

In the 1973 book "The Wizard of Westwood," longtime college coach Jerry

Tarkanian told Dwight Chapin and Jeff Prugh, the authors of the book who both covered UCLA basketball for The Times, that Wooden "does a

tremendous job of organizing and getting his teams ready to play. He makes very few adjustments during games. Other teams worry

about what he's going to do — his press, his fast break. You're extremely conscious of them. They're hardly conscious of you at all."

Wooden was respected for more than just victories. The UCLA coach was

equally revered for how his teams played the game — a style that reflected his personality.

Hard times

John Robert Wooden was born Oct. 14, 1910, in Hall, Ind., the third of six children. His father, Joshua Hugh Wooden, an uneducated farmer,

guided the family through tough economic times by stressing hard work, honesty and the value of education. All four of the Wooden boys

would be, at one time or another, teachers.

In a 1998 interview with The Times, Wooden recalled: "My father would always tell me: 'Don't look back, don't whine, don't complain.' "

When Joshua Wooden lost his farm in the Depression, he moved the family

to Martinsville, 30 miles south of Indianapolis, where he found work as a bath attendant at one of the small town's artesian wells.

At Martinsville High School, Johnny Wooden — as he was known in those

days — ran track, played baseball and became an all-state guard in

basketball, leading his team to the state title in 1927. Most of the Big Ten Conference schools recruited him, Purdue winning out because of its

academics and its renowned coach, Ward "Piggy" Lambert.

The Boilermakers played an aggressive, up-tempo style that suited Wooden, who became known as the "Indiana Rubber Man" for his tendency to bound

around the court and dive for loose balls, then bounce back into the action. He was a three-time All-American and led the Boilermakers to

their only national championship in 1932.

His senior year was noteworthy for two other reasons. Wooden won the conference Medal for Academic Achievement as an English major.

Years later, he would place the honor among his favorites on a list that

included induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Also in 1932, Wooden married his high school sweetheart, Nell Riley. He

called her "the only girl I ever went with."

Barnstorming After graduation, Wooden played semi-professional basketball, barnstorming

through the Midwest. He once made 134 consecutive free throws, earning a $100 bill from the team's owner, the first time he had ever seen currency so

large. But his principal occupation was as coach and English teacher at Dayton,

Ky., High School, where he followed an initial 6-11 season with a more respectable 15-3 finish. After two years, he moved to South Bend, Ind.,

Central High and nurtured a string of winning teams.

During World War II, Wooden enlisted in the Navy to serve as a physical

trainer for combat pilots. Upon his discharge in 1946, he took a job as athletic director and coach of the basketball and baseball teams at Indiana

State Teachers College (now Indiana State University) in Terre Haute.

Again, his teams had winning seasons, but the young coach might best be remembered for a game his squad did not play. In his first

season, Indiana State earned a spot in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Basketball tournament but was told that its lone

black player, a reserve guard, was not welcome. Wooden declined the invitation.

The next season, the Sycamores, with a 27-7 record, were invited again.

After discussions between Wooden and tournament officials, Clarence Walker

became the first African American to compete in the postseason tournament.

Those two seasons at Indiana State — and a 44-15 record — were enough to attract interest from larger schools. It was good luck and bad weather that

ultimately brought Wooden to the West Coast.

Both the University of Minnesota and UCLA sought to hire him, and he was partial to remaining in the Midwest. But Minnesota wanted him

to retain the previous coach as an assistant; Wooden was set on bringing his own man. As negotiations continued, Wooden set a deadline for Minnesota

to decide. When the deadline passed without the expected phone call from Minnesota, he accepted the UCLA offer. Hours later, Minnesota called to say

that a heavy snowstorm had knocked out phone service. Administrators

pleaded with him to back out of his agreement with UCLA.

Wooden insisted on keeping his word, even after he arrived on the Westwood campus and discovered why the program he was taking on had

had only three winning seasons in the previous 17 years.

In his 1976 memoir "They Call Me Coach," Wooden said of his players: "When I went up on the floor for the first time in the spring of 1948 and put

them through that first practice, I was very disappointed. I felt that my Indiana State team could have named the score against them. I was

shattered. Had I known how to abort the agreement in an honorable manner,

I would have done so and gone to Minnesota, or if that was impossible, stayed at Indiana State."

Attention to detail Wooden soldiered on, instituting an up-tempo game — and fervent

attention to detail — that he had learned under Lambert at Purdue. The style was foreign to the West Coast, where most teams favored a more

deliberate pace, and it helped the Bruins to the 22-7 record that ranked among Wooden's most satisfying achievements.

But the talent level of his players was only one of the challenges the coach faced in Westwood. Wooden later said that he had been led to believe the

university was about to erect a basketball arena on campus. In fact, Pauley Pavilion would not open for 17 more years.

Instead, the Bruins played in the men's gymnasium, dubbed the "B.O.

Barn," a cramped and stifling facility that seated about 2,500 with pull-out bleachers. To make matters worse, basketball shared the gym with other

sports, and Wooden would later recall trying to conduct drills while gymnasts

bounced on trampolines. After practice, the coach and his student managers swept and mopped the floor, an almost inconceivable

chore in this modern era of big-name, million-dollar coaches.

So it was no surprise when, before his third season, Wooden entertained an offer to coach his alma mater. Purdue was willing to pay significantly more

"than the $6,000 I got to come to UCLA," Wooden later said, and he agreed to the terms on one condition: UCLA would have to release him from the

final year of his contract.

Wooden did not expect much resistance from UCLA administrators,

but he was wrong.

"They pointed out that I was the one who had insisted on a three-year

contract and felt that I should honor it," he wrote in his memoir. "They made me feel like a heel for even considering leaving."

UCLA offered to increase his salary, but he declined, saying he would honor

the terms of the original contract. Money would never be the primary issue in his remaining in Westwood — his highest salary would be

$32,500 and, because of a technicality, the university did not even pay into a pension fund for him until his 13th year.

Substandard facilities

In time, Wooden also learned to live with the substandard facilities. In 1956, city fire officials declared the B.O. Barn unsafe for crowds of more than

1,000, which forced the Bruins to play elsewhere. Home games shifted from

the Venice High School gym to Long Beach City College, from the Pan Pacific Auditorium in the Fairfax district to the downtown Sports Arena, which the

Bruins shared with USC.

"I think the lack of a real home gym and positive thinking were the main reasons we didn't win a championship in those early years," former center

Willie Naulls told Chapin and Prugh in "The Wizard of Westwood."

Wooden took a more optimistic view, hoping that his teams were tougher for the hardship, better able to deal with the hostile arenas of such opponents

as Oregon and Washington State. This was the competitive side of the man, somehow at odds with his otherwise dignified persona.

His players knew that he could be fierce in the way he hit them with an

angry "Goodness gracious sakes alive" that carried more sting than a

string of expletives. During his early years at UCLA, he also became known for mercilessly riding officials from the bench.

"He never swore, but there was not a coach in the United States who could

use the English language any better than he could," an official told Chapin and Prugh. "He was always technically and grammatically correct when he

was chewing you out."

Opposing players received similarly harsh treatment, Wooden shouting at them through his ubiquitous rolled-up program, telling them they were in for

a rough night. It was a habit that he gradually toned down and would ultimately regret. In a Times article shortly after his retirement, he said:

"The only thing I may be ashamed of more than anything else is having

talked to opposing players. Not calling them names, but saying something

like 'Keep your hands off him' or 'Don't be a butcher.' "

Still, no amount of zeal or relentless preparation could transform the Bruins into a national champion, at least not in that first decade. The team parlayed

half a dozen conference and divisional titles into three trips to the NCAA tournament, losing in the first round each time.

The situation worsened in the late 1950s, UCLA seeming to lose ground each

season. A 14-12 record in 1960 was Wooden's second-worst ever.

It was at that point that he decided to give his program a thorough review. As he would later say:

"Failure is not fatal. Failure to change might be."

For much of his coaching career, Wooden had relied on his starting five,

believing that he could get them in good enough shape to play most, if not all, of each game. Now, realizing that his teams were wearing down near the

end of the season, he began rotating more reserves into the action.

Through 1961 and '62, Wooden also began listening more to his prized assistant. Jerry Norman felt the small, quick UCLA teams could benefit from

running the zone press, which meant pressuring opponents the entire length of the floor instead of falling back and defending the basket.

At the same time, Norman brought new passion to recruiting. Whereas

Wooden had been content to pick from among local high school and junior college prospects, his assistant went after the best players nationwide.

One more thing occurred to nudge UCLA to the next level. In 1963, J.D. Morgan became athletic director and quickly assumed many of Wooden's

duties. With Morgan handling scholarship issues, scheduling and travel, the

coach could focus on what he did best.

The pieces were starting to fall into place for a championship run.

The UCLA team of 1963-64 had no one taller than 6 feet 5 in the starting lineup, but compensated for lack of size with veteran leadership and great

quickness. Experts who did not consider the team a serious contender soon changed their minds.

The so-called Bruin Blitz — Norman's zone press — smothered opponents and allowed guards Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich to score in bunches.

UCLA took over the No. 1 spot in the polls at midseason and stormed into the NCAA tournament undefeated. In the first half of the championship game

against Duke.

The Bruins went on a 16-0 run to pull away for a 98-83 victory.

The winning continued into the next season, although Hazzard was off to the

NBA. The team lost only twice during the regular season with forward Keith Erickson picking up the slack and Goodrich continuing his stellar play. The

senior guard had 42 points against a stronger, but slower, Michigan team in leading UCLA to a 91-80 victory in the NCAA title game.

Bruin star power

Those first two championships had been won with strategy and fundamentals, a high-post offense running like clockwork. After a

mediocre season in 1965-66, Wooden and his Bruins would resume their historic streak with something else: star power.

The winter of 1966 brought Lewis Alcindor — who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — to the starting lineup. Alcindor actually had enrolled

the previous year, recruited from Power Memorial High School in New York

City. But he had to wait a season because at that time NCAA rules did not allow freshmen to play on the varsity team.

Once the 7-foot-plus center became eligible, Wooden again showed a

willingness to adapt, shifting to a low-post offense that accentuated the big man's skills.

Alcindor dominated the game over the next three seasons, with the team

playing in brand-new Pauley Pavilion. Not even a controversial rule change — college basketball outlawed the dunk in a move thought to be aimed

directly at Alcindor — could faze him. In all, he led the Bruins to an 88-2 record and three straight titles.

Even with historic success, those years were not idyllic. Wooden, the

ultimate conformist, was coaching at a time of great social upheaval.

Though UCLA players would always be conservative in appearance —

continually warned about the length of their sideburns — they sometimes bristled at the coach's mandates. Alcindor spoke openly of his unhappiness

at Westwood and at one point nearly transferred. On the court, there was constant pressure to be perfect.

Wooden seemed almost relieved when Alcindor graduated,

if only because expectations eased.

"It will be fun coaching to win again, rather than coaching to try to keep from losing," he was quoted as saying in "The Wizard of Westwood."

--

The Bruins returned to the high-post, high-energy offense their coach had

always favored. Led by young guard Henry Bibby and forwards Curtis Rowe and Sidney Wicks, they pushed their championship streak to five in a row

with titles in 1969-70 and 1970-71. The stage was set for another dominant player.

From the moment that center Bill Walton stepped on the court at the start of

the 1971-72 season, the Bruins seemed untouchable. With the smooth-shooting Keith Wilkes at forward, the "Walton Gang" stormed through

consecutive 30-0 seasons, winning their sixth and seventh straight titles. --

It was during this era that the Bruins won 88 consecutive games, a streak that ended with a loss to Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., on Jan. 19, 1974.

On the court, Walton was a player after his coach's heart. Wooden would later say that although Abdul-Jabbar was his most dominant star, Walton

might have been the all-around best, a big man who could score, rebound

and pass the ball with equal aplomb.

Yet, away from the game, the redhead could be too free-spirited and outspoken for Wooden's tastes. In his senior year, teammates hinted at

tension in the locker room, and UCLA's championship run ended with a double-overtime loss to high-flying David Thompson and North Carolina

State in a 1974 NCAA semifinal game.

One more year The man known as the "Wizard of Westwood" — a nickname he despised —

reportedly considered retirement that winter but decided to stay one more year.

His finale would not be like the hallowed seasons of the past. There would be

no All-American guard in the backcourt and no dominant player along the

frontline, with forward David Meyers the only returning starter from the Walton era. The team had to rely heavily on sophomores Marques Johnson

and Richard Washington.

The Bruins suffered two upsets during the 1974-75 season — including a humiliating 22-point loss at Washington — and barely escaped close games

on numerous other occasions. Yet, as Meyers said, the team did not have to deal with the "personality conflicts" that had marked the previous season.

This squad reflected its coach's intense and focused personality.

In the NCAA tournament, UCLA stayed alive with two overtime victories. After a last-second win over Louisville in the semifinal, a triumphant Wooden

walked into the locker room and gave his team one more reason to play

hard in the final: "I'm bowing out."

On his final night as a coach, March 31, 1975, the Bruins played in a manner

befitting the first of Wooden's championship teams. They outran a stronger Kentucky squad and even out-hustled the Wildcats on the boards, winning

92-85.

"I've always said my first year in coaching was my most satisfying," Wooden reflected during the tournament. "My last year has been equally

satisfying. This is as fine a group of youngsters as I've ever had."

Assessing the Wooden era, Joseph Valerio of the New York Post wrote: "There has never been a dynasty in sports to compete with UCLA's.

The Yankee dynasty was built around center field, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. The Celtics around Bill Russell. UCLA's has been built

around John Wooden. The faces have changed at least every three

years, but 64-year-old John Wooden remains."

Wooden slipped quietly into retirement, enjoying more time with wife Nell and their family. In 1977, the Los Angeles Athletic Club established the

Wooden Award, recognizing the best college player of the year — a basketball version of football's Heisman Trophy.

Wooden ended his support for the award in 2005, however, after the club

objected to the former coach lending his name and support to the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup, an award sponsored by Athletes for a Better World

that honors a college or professional athlete for community service.

Busy final years His final years were kept busy by resurging interest in his life philosophy and

"Pyramid of Success" — the diagram that includes 15 blocks arranged in

rows, each containing a quality that Wooden believed would help people reach their potential.

"From the everyday basics to life's lessons on realizing our dreams,

Coach was always leading and teaching: the underlying themes, his principles, his foundation, his core as a human being, his pyramid,"

Walton wrote in a forward to the book "They Call Me Coach." --

Advocates of the teaching system Wooden developed, which was based on such traditional values as cooperation and responsibility, began using

it as a motivational tool in the corporate world.

Nissan, Southern California Edison and the U.S. Air Force were among

the companies and organizations that had employees attend a seminar

called the John R. Wooden Course.

With each year that passed since his retirement, it seemed less likely that any coach would match his record of success. The NCAA tournament

expanded significantly, meaning that teams had to win more games to reach the championship. Wooden's legacy seemed complete.

But the early 1980s brought a dark cloud: troubling allegations about past

associations with a prominent booster.

Sam Gilbert was a former UCLA student and wealthy contractor who opened his Los Angeles home to players beginning in the late 1960s and liked to

think of himself as their surrogate father.

In 1967, when Alcindor and guard Lucius Allen were dissatisfied with life in

Westwood and thinking seriously of transferring, Gilbert counseled them and

was instrumental in persuading Allen to stay.

In a 1981-82 Los Angeles Times investigative series, several UCLA players said that Gilbert had helped athletes in ways that violated NCAA rules. The

improper benefits allegedly ranged from buying players' game tickets at inflated prices to helping them buy cars and arrange for loans at steep

discounts. On occasion, Gilbert also reportedly helped arrange abortions for their girlfriends.

Former Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps called Gilbert the "Sugar Daddy" of

the UCLA program. After the Times series ran, the NCAA placed the team on probation.

None of the violations were tied to Wooden, but the retired coach

acknowledged harboring suspicions about Gilbert during the 1960s and '70s,

and former players spoke of Wooden's see-no-evil relationship with the booster.

Andy Hill, a former guard who later became a television producer and motivational speaker, told The Times that he believed that Wooden relied on

longtime trainer Elvin "Ducky" Drake to be something of a watchdog for the team, and that Drake had apparently missed what was going on with Gilbert.

"Among the things Coach Wooden was good at," Hill said, "was knowing

what he didn't want to know."

Another former player, Greg Lee, told The Times in 1982: "On the one hand,

he was glad about [Gilbert's] presence. But whatever was happening was

going to be out of sight, out of mind."

In the same article, Wooden put it this way: "There's as much crookedness as you want to find. There was something Abraham Lincoln said — he'd

rather trust and be disappointed than distrust and be miserable all the time.

"Maybe I trusted too much."

Then in 1985, Wooden suffered the devastating loss of his wife Nell, who

died after a long illness at age 73. They had been married 53 years and had enjoyed a remarkably close

relationship given the demands of big-time coaching. Nell Wooden attended UCLA games, even on the road,

And in a pregame ritual Wooden would seek her out in the stands and

exchange what became known as "the lucky look." He would wave his rolled-up program at her and wink and she would give him the OK sign.

After her death, Wooden became what he described as "bordering on" a

recluse for several years, staying in the Encino condominium they had shared, refusing to change anything about it. He stopped going to the NCAA

Tournament's Final Four, saying: "She was always with me. So the memories are too painful." Each month, he wrote her a letter, adding it to a

growing stack on her pillow.

Yet until this past season he remained a presence at Pauley Pavilion, sitting in the second row, watching over a program that would never be the same

after he stepped down. Seven coaches have come and gone in the 35 years since his retirement. Only once, under Jim Harrick in 1995, have the Bruins

won a national championship.

Around that time, Wooden told Prugh that "the players are better today,

but the team play is not."

Asked repeatedly to select his all-time squad, he invariably declined, but did pick a most valuable player. It was Abdul-Jabbar, whom he still called Lewis

Alcindor.

"I believe he caused his opponents more difficulties both on offense and defense than any player in the history of the game," he wrote in

his memoir. "And I would choose Bill Walton as the second most valuable player I ever had. Bill probably could do more things than Kareem, although

he was not the dominant force that Lewis was."

Age did little to slow Wooden. Although he never fully recovered from Nell's

death, he resumed his annual trip to the NCAA Final Four when the Bruins made their title run in 1995. His calendar was once again filled with personal

appearances.

UCLA wanted to honor him in 2003. Wooden agreed, on one condition. The floor of Pauley Pavilion was renamed the "Nell and John Wooden Court."

Keen observer

He remained a keen observer of the college basketball scene, especially UCLA. In March 2007, as UCLA advanced in the NCAA basketball tournament

only to lose to Florida in the championship game, Wooden told a Times writer that Coach Ben Howland's team played better defense than his teams

did.

One of Wooden's last major appearances was in June 2008, when he and Dodger announcer Vin Scully sat for a 90-minute question-and-answer

session with Times sports columnist T.J. Simers. A sold-out crowd at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles sat spellbound by the conversation

between two local legends, which was televised live.

That night Wooden shared his insight into his longevity: "Not being afraid of death and having peace within yourself. All of life is peaks and

valley. Don't let the peaks get too high and the valleys too low."

Wooden is survived by his son, Jim; daughter Nan; seven grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren. One of his great-grandchildren, Tyler Trapani, is a

non-scholarship player on the UCLA basketball team.

Funeral services will be private, but a public memorial is being planned at

UCLA. bill.dwyre@latimes.com

david.wharton@latimes.com Former Times staff writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this report.

_____________________________________________________________________

One of my heroes; Legendary Coach John Wooden died Friday, at

the age of 99. RIP My condolences go to his family, friends, Morgan Wootten, Bill Walton and Sven Nater. Coach thank you for

your support and inspiring me

Check out one of his videos on success Click on link below to see

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_wooden_on_the_difference_bet

ween_winning_and_success.html

By Harvey Blom, Online Marketing, Sports Marketing, adMost, Basketball, Entrepeneur, Social Media, Business Development

______________________________________________________

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is

what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

-- John Wooden _____________________________________________________________

TO MANY, HE ALWAYS WILL BE

PURDUE'S JOHN WOODEN By Jeff Rabjohns, Indianapolis Star

John Wooden had a way of amazing people in small, personal ways. That's

what the Purdue basketball community remembered about him Friday night.

Matt Painter was Purdue's coach-in-waiting, a former little-known role player

when he and the Boilermakers staff met with the legendary coach prior to

the annual Wooden Tradition basketball event in Indianapolis in 2004.

"I walked into that dinner and he knew me by face and name, and it just

blew me away," Painter said after Wooden, 99, died Friday night.

"I was just a coach from Southern Illinois and he knew I was going to be an

assistant and take over the next year and had already formed an opinion on

that. It shocked me that he even knew who I was. I couldn't believe it."

A year later, Painter was the head coach at Wooden's alma mater, the school

where the star from Martinsville High School became an All-American

basketball player.

Painter and Wooden shared the dais at the Wooden Tradition, one of the last

times Wooden attended the event. Painter remembers simply listening -- in

amazement. The Purdue coaching staff visited Wooden at his Los Angeles-

area apartment the next summer. They talked for about 10 hours over a

two-day visit.

"His insight was amazing," Painter said. "How many people can say they saw

Satchel Paige pitch or Babe Ruth bat? He shared his insights on the race

riots, all the people he was able to see play a sport, all the presidents in his

lifetime and his take on them all.

"It was something you'll remember for the rest of your life because for him

to share that with us was definitely a privilege."

While an amazing success as a coach -- his 10 national titles while coaching

UCLA earned him the title "The Wizard of Westwood" -- Wooden remained

a humble Hoosier. He had time for all coaches, even those he didn't know.

Gene Keady, for whom the court at Purdue's Mackey Arena is now named,

was an unknown high school coach when he attended a clinic in Estes Park,

Colo., with some of his players.

"I always took my athletes to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes event

there, and coach Wooden drew up this play for me that won me a lot of

games," Keady said by phone while vacationing in Puerto Rico.

"I used it in junior college. I used it at Western Kentucky. I used it at

Purdue."

Just as Wooden's wife Nell passed away before him, Keady lost his wife, Pat,

in 2009.

"We were at the Final Four and Pat couldn't believe he and Nell were eating

breakfast alone in a restaurant," Keady said. "My wife really liked him and

Nell. We know how much she meant to him. It was very similar the way we

felt about our women."

Often overshadowed by his nationally renowned coaching career, Wooden

was a deeply religious man who believed in living a full life. His pyramid of

success and other philosophies passed on in numerous books took his legacy

beyond sport.

Also overlooked is a stellar playing career. The first person enshrined in

the National Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach, Wooden

was a three-time All-American player, leading Purdue to a 17-1

record, Big Ten title and mythical national title as a senior in 1932.

In his final college game, he matched his own school record with 21

points as the Boilermakers beat Chicago 53-18. He averaged 12.2

points as a senior, an amazing number in that day.

He was named National Player of the Year. The first semester of his

senior year, he ranked 19th academically in a class of 4,657.

"It's amazing people don't talk about what a great player he was," Painter

said. "When you're able to live a full life and have the success he's had as a

coach, things get overshadowed. He had a great college career.

"There's no doubt his legacy will be his coaching career at UCLA, but at

Purdue, we're trying to do some things with our renovation to include the

history, the tradition, and he's going to be a big part of that. We want

people to remember how great of a player he was."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

A timeline of John Wooden's life

Oct. 14, 1910: Born John Robert Wooden to Joshua Hugh and Roxie Anna

Wooden. Some accounts have him being delivered in a tiny crossroads called

Hall, Ind., about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis, but there’s mounting

evidence it was in Martinsville, about 12 miles to the southeast. (―Obviously

I don’t remember,‖ Wooden noted recently.) He grows up on a 65-acre farm

in Centerton, about eight miles north of Martinsville, with no electricity or

running water (instead, what he called a ―three-holer‖ outhouse). He has

one older brother, Maurice, two younger brothers, Daniel and William, and

two sisters, both of whom die in 1913. Cordelia dies at age 3 of diphtheria;

his other sister dies in infancy unnamed.

Like many boys in the area, John falls in love with basketball quickly,

beginning by shooting balled-up rags at a tomato basket on the wall of the

barn hayloft. He first plays competitively for the Centerton Grade School

team at age 11. ―We didn't have uniforms, other than a homemade bib, and

we played on an outdoor court, but we played other schools,‖ he tells The

Star in 2006. ― ... There's a lot of truth to the old saying that in Indiana a

baby boy usually had a basketball for his first toy. I don't know if that's true

anymore, but it was then.‖

1924-25: The Woodens lose their farm when all their pigs die because of a

bad cholera inoculation, so Joshua (better known by his middle name, Hugh)

moves the family to Martinsville, where he works in the Home Lawn

Sanitarium, one of the mineral-rich area’s many health spas.

1926-28: For three straight seasons, Wooden — nicknamed “Pert” for

“impertinent” by coach Glenn Curtis -- is named all-state and leads

Martinsville High School to the state title game, with the Artesians winning in

1927. Wooden scores 10 of their 26 points in the finale that season and five

of 12 points when they lose to Muncie Central by one point in the 1928 final.

That game, the first state championship held in the new Butler Field house

— what Wooden later called ―a gleaming, modern basketball showcase‖ --

ends in stunning fashion, with Muncie Central’s Charlie Secrist hitting a high-

arching, underhanded shot from near midcourt in the final seconds for the

13-12 victory. Just before that, Wooden, an excellent free throw shooter,

had missed a free throw (meaning Secrist’s shot would have only tied the

score), and Wooden later calls the loss ―the most disappointing thing I ever

experienced as an athlete.‖

Fall 1928: Wooden enters Purdue intending to be a civil engineer, but he

gives up that pursuit because it requires work in the summers, and he spends that time working for the Indiana highway department to earn extra

money. He ends up an English major, and later recalls ranking 19th academically in his class of about 1,000.

1930-32: A 5-foot-10, 185-pound guard now nicknamed the ―India Rubber Man‖ for how quickly he’d bounce up off the court after being knocked down

(which happened often), Wooden is named All-America three straight years

(freshman were ineligible for varsity then). As a senior he’s named the College Basketball Player of the Year and leads the Boilermakers to the

NCAA championship, both as voted by the Helms Athletic Foundation. He finishes his college career as the Big Ten's all-time leading scorer.

1932: Wooden is awarded the Big Ten Medal of Honor for academic

and athletic excellence, for having the highest GPA among conference

athletes. He has often called it his proudest accomplishment.

1932: Wooden proposes to his high school sweetheart, Nellie Riley, whom

he met when he was 14. They marry, him 21, her 20, on Aug. 8 in a small

ceremony in Indianapolis’ Tabernacle Presbyterian Church at the corner of

34th and Central. It nearly doesn’t come to be; two days earlier all of

Wooden’s savings -- ―909 dollars and nickel, he later says -- was wiped out

when the Martinsville Trust Company failed. But a friend loaned them $200,

saving the day. On their wedding night the Woodens eat at the Bamboo Inn

on Monument Circle and then attend a concert by the Mills Brothers at the

Circle Theatre.

1932-33: Wooden starts his professional career as an English teacher,

athletic director and coach of basketball, baseball, football and track at

Dayton High School in Kentucky. His salary is $1,500 -- $1,200 for

teaching, $300 for athletic duties. He later says ―I may have been

overpaid‖ for the latter, describing himself as ―too critical, impatient, eager

to fill players full of information and quickly irritated when they couldn’t

absorb it. ... I was just a terrible coach.‖ His first season the Green Devils

finish 6-11, which would be Wooden’s only losing record in 40 seasons of

coaching. Learning from his mistakes, Wooden leads Dayton to a 15-3

record the next season, one of the school’s best ever to that point.

1934: Wooden accepts a position as English teacher, athletic director,

comptroller and basketball coach at South Bend Central High School, for

a salary of $2,400. Shortly before returning to Indiana, on March 21, he

and Nell have their first child, Nancy Ann. A boy, James Hugh, would follow

on July 7, 1936.

1934-43: Wooden coaches South Bend Central for nine seasons. Despite

poor facilities — the team practices at the YMCA because the school lacks a

gym — the Bears have a winning record each year, going 197-28 overall and

capturing several sectional championships. However, Wooden is never able

to coach the team to an Indiana state championship, which he often calls

one of his greatest laments. ―The closest we came was in 1941,‖ he tells The

Star in 2006. ―We had a talented team, and I was confident we'd get to the

final four, but we lost to Gary Froebel 37-36 on a last-second shot in the

Hammond Regional. It was the only time they led in the game, and it was as

disappointing a loss as I ever had as a coach. I often tell friends that I'd

trade two or three of my NCAA coaching championships for one Indiana high

school championship. That's how much it meant to me.‖

1934: Drawing on what he’d learned from his father and several coaches

and teachers, Wooden begins work on his inspirational Pyramid of

Success. He finishes it in 1948, just as he’s leaving the Indiana State

Teachers College for UCLA.

1933-39: Wooden plays professionally in the National Basketball League (a

forerunner to the NBA), mostly for a team called the Indianapolis Kautskys,

owned by Indianapolis grocer Frank Kautsky. Wooden plays about 30-40

games a year, at a salary of $50 a game, with great success; he leads the

NBL in scoring in 1933 and is voted first-team all-league in 1938. He once

receives a $100 bonus — the first $100 bill he had ever seen, he later

recalls — when he made his 100th straight free throw, and the streak

reportedly reaches 134.

1943-46: Wooden serves in the U.S. Navy as full lieutenant. (He had

enlisted shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, but wasn’t called to

active duty until 1943.) He is sent first to North Carolina for a physical

fitness program, and then to Iowa for preflight. In 1945, he receives

orders to report for duty aboard the USS Franklin in the South Pacific,

but just before boarding his appendix ruptures and his orders are

canceled. On March 19 of that year, the sailor who took his place,

Purdue fraternity brother Freddie Stalcup, and more than 700 others

die when the aircraft carrier is bombed by a Japanese plane. Wooden

goes on to have several assignments, but none overseas.

1946: After returning to South Bend at war’s end, Wooden briefly resumes

his old job, but he’s upset to find that many fellow high school coaches who

had also gone to war were denied theirs once they came back, and he

decides to leave the city. He is shown interest from Kokomo and Marion high

schools, but instead accepts a job at the Indiana State Teachers

College (now Indiana State) in Terre Haute. He serves as athletic

director and coach of the basketball and baseball teams for $3,500 a

year. As basketball coach he replaces Glenn Curtis, the man who

coached him in Martinsville.

March 1947: After losing his first college game, Wooden leads the

Sycamores to an 17-8 record, and they’re invited to play in the NAIB

(precursor of the NAIA) national playoffs. Wooden declines, however,

because of a rule that prohibits black players from competing (one of

Wooden’s subs, Clarence Walker of East Chicago, is black).

March 1948: The Sycamores finish 27-7 and again are invited to the NAIB

playoffs, and Wooden again declines. The rule had been changed, such that

black players can play in games; but it’s understood that they can’t

otherwise be seen publicly with the team. Wooden declines again, but

reconsiders upon the urging of the NAACP and with the approval of Walker

and his parents. The Sycamores reach the final before losing to Louisville,

92-70.

1948: With his 44-15 record over two seasons, Wooden is courted by

several big-time colleges, including Minnesota, Boston University and UCLA.

Wooden’s goal is to return to the Big Ten, so the Golden Gophers are his

first choice, and he’s ready to accept their offer when they agree to his

condition that he get to choose his own staff. But then comes a twist of fate

with historic consequences. When Minnesota officials try to call with the job

offer at the designated time, the phone lines are down because of bad

weather, and when UCLA calls an hour later Wooden accepts its job offer,

thinking Minnesota is no longer interested. When Minnesota officials finally

reach him later that night, it’s too late: Wooden had already agreed to go to

UCLA. After finishing his job as baseball coach in the spring, he and Nell and

the kids head west and settle in Culver, Calif., outside of Los Angeles.

1948: Wooden inherits a UCLA team that had finished 12-13 the previous

season and plays in gym (nicknamed the B.O. Barn for its stench) that seats

about 2,000 — some 3,000 fewer than Wooden’s high school gym in

Martinsville. Stunning critics, he leads the Bruins to records of 22-7 and 24-7

in his first two seasons, prompting a dream job offer from his alma mater,

Purdue. The Boilermakers offer a far bigger contract than Wooden has at

UCLA, but when he asks UCLA officials if he can get out of the third and final

year on his contract, they remind him that it had been Wooden who insisted

on the three-year deal. So he declines Purdue’s offer, hoping it would come

again after the following season. It doesn’t — Purdue hires Ray Eddy — and

Wooden is at UCLA to stay.

1948-75: In the greatest college basketball coaching run in history, Wooden

posts an overall record of 620-147 (.808) in 27 years at UCLA,

leading the Bruins to 10 national titles. He earns $6,500 his first season,

$32,500 his last.

1950: Joshua Hugh Wooden, John’s father and chief inspiration, dies at age

68 after a three-week illness. He is buried next to his two daughters at the

Centerton Cemetery. Nine years later Wooden’s mother, Roxie Anna, dies,

and is also buried in the Centerton plot.

1960: Wooden, Emmett ―Branch‖ McCracken and Charles ―Stretch‖ Murphy

are the first Hoosier natives to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall

of Fame, all as players. Wooden has ties to both of the others: Murphy

played on the Marion high school team that defeated Wooden and

Martinsville in the 1926 state championship game, and he later played

alongside Wooden at Purdue; McCracken, a former Indiana University star

whose Big Ten scoring record Wooden broke (and who is best remembered

as IU’s longtime coach), was raised in Monrovia and often played baseball on

the Wooden farm. Wooden’s college coach, Ward ―Piggy‖ Lambert, is also

inducted that year.

March 1962: Wooden leads UCLA to its first Final Four with a team, as he

described in his book ―My Personal Best,‖ that Sports Illustrated had said

early in the season had ―no height, no center, no muscle, no poise, no

experience, no substitutes, and no chance.‖ The Bruins lose to defending

champion Cincinnati in the semifinals, 72-70. Wooden later said this team

came closer to reaching its full potential than any other he coached.

March 1964: UCLA wins the first of 10 NCAA titles in 12 years, defeating

Duke 98-83 in the championship game. (Notable: Despite some later

snickers that it was easy to win with the likes of Hall of Fame big men Lew

Alcindor and Bill Walton, Wooden’s tallest starter this year is 6-foot-5 Fred

Slaughter.) Also this year, Wooden is named national coach of the year for

the first of six times.

1965: UCLA’s success leads to the construction of Pauley Pavilion — and the

successful recruitment of arguably the greatest player in college basketball

history, Lew Alcindor, a 7-foot-2 cerebral Brooklynite whom Wooden likened

to his father in having ―the bearing and poise of an eagle.‖ In the first game

at the $5 million, state-of-the-art facility, a freshman vs. varsity scrimmage

in front of 12,000 fans, Alcindor leads the frosh to a 75-60 victory over the

squad that had won two straight NCAA titles

and was favored to win another. (It wouldn’t, finishing 18-8 and not

qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.)

1966: Wooden unleashes the full fury of Alcindor in the sophomore’s first

varsity game, wanting ―to put the fear of God in some people, ‖ and Alcindor

scores 56 points in a victory over USC. (Years later, Wooden says he felt ―a

little ashamed‖ over his pregame instruction.) Alcindor goes on to lead the

Bruins to a 30-0 record and national title that season, the first of a record

seven straight titles for UCLA.

Dec. 2, 1967: UCLA defeats Wooden’s alma mater, Purdue, and sophomore

star Rick Mount 73-71 in the first game at the new Mackey Arena in West

Lafayette.

Jan. 20, 1968: In what is billed as the “Game of the Century” (a

description Wooden deems ―silly‖), Houston and star center Elvin Hayes

defeat UCLA 71-69 in front of a national TV audience and some 52,000

people at the Astrodome — the largest crowd ever to attend a basketball

game to that point, college or pro. Alcindor, who had sat out the previous

two games with an eye problem that continued to hinder him, had a career-

low 15 points compared to the 39 of Hayes, who afterward intimated that

Alcindor was overrated. But ―Big Lew‖ and UCLA would get their revenge,

demolishing Houston in the national semifinal 101-69, with Alcindor

outscoring his rival 19-10 and outrebounding him 18-5. The Bruins then

pummel North Carolina, 78-55, for a second straight championship and

fourth overall for Wooden.

1969: The Alcindor era ends in style, with the center scoring 37 points and

pulling down 20 rebounds in a 92-72 win over Purdue in the national title

game, the Bruins’ record third straight championship. Final numbers for

Alcindor’s three years with the Bruins: 88-2 record, three titles, each

championship game won by at least 15 points. Writes Wooden later: ―My

pride in those years when Lewis was a member of the UCLA varsity and a

superstar centered on the fact that his teammates never lost their identity

and always played as a real team.‖

1970-71: A UCLA team Wooden tongue-in-cheek refers to as “The Team

Without” -- i.e. without Alcindor -- surprises pundits and wins two more

national titles, stretching the Bruins’ record streak to five straight.

Fall 1971: With fiery, 6-foot-11 sophomore Bill Walton dominating as

Alcindor once had, the Bruins begin a historic run that sees them post

consecutive 30-0 seasons and win the school’s sixth and seventh

consecutive national titles.

An 82-63 victory over Notre Dame in on Jan. 27, 1973, in Wooden’s former

home of South Bend, is UCLA’s 61st straight win, breaking San Francisco’s

record of 60. The Bruins would finish the season with the streak at 75,

culminated by a 87-66 title-game win over Memphis best remembered for

Walton’s singular dominance: 21-of-22 shooting, 44 points. (At one point

late in that game, another player asks Wooden if they can start spreading

the scoring around more. Wooden looks at him and finally says, ―Why?‖)

1973: Wooden is inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as

coach, becoming the first to enter as both player and coach. (Lenny Wilkens

and Bill Sharman would later join him in the double feat.) Also, Wooden is

named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year.

Jan. 19, 1974: UCLA’s record 88-game winning streak is snapped by Notre

Dame in stunning fashion, with the host Irish overcoming a 17-point deficit,

including an 11-point margin in the final three and a half minutes. ―Notre

Dame deserved to win and did,‖ Wooden says simply afterward. UCLA’s

consecutive championship streak ends at seven two months later in the

national semifinals, with the Bruins blowing a late lead and losing in double

overtime to eventual champion North Carolina State and star David

Thompson. Wooden later calls that the most disappointing loss of his

coaching career.

March 1975: After an emotional 75-74 overtime victory over Louisville in

the national semifinals — a game Wooden calls ―a beautifully played game

as any I’d seen‖ — Wooden is suddenly overcome with the certainty that it is

time to retire. He tells his team in the locker room afterward, ―You’ve given

me as much pleasure as any team I’ve ever coached, and never caused a

single problem on or off the court. I want to thank you for that. It means so

much to me, because you are the last team I will ever coach. I’m bowing

out.‖ Says player Marques Johnson later: ―The room went quiet. ... I felt like

I was sitting in on a little bit of sports history.‖ The Bruins go on to defeat

Kentucky 92-85 in the final, sending the coach out a 10-time national

champion.

1977: College basketball’s premier player-of-the-year award is named for

Wooden, with UCLA’s Johnson its first recipient.

March 21, 1985: Wooden’s wife of 52 years, Nell, dies after a long illness.

Since then, Wooden has written a letter to her on the 21st of each month.

Later in 1985, Wooden’s first great-grandchild, Cori, is born. He now has

seven grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

December 1995: Wooden receives the NCAA’s highest honor, the Theodore

Roosevelt Award.

2000: The first John R. Wooden Tradition, a four-team early season college

basketball showcase, is held at Conseco Fieldhouse.

2003: Saying Wooden is ―an example of what a good man should be,‖

President George W. Bush awards him the Presidential Medal of Freedom,

America's highest civilian honor.

2005: Wooden receives the Sachem, Indiana's highest honor.

January 2006: An emotional Wooden receives two standing ovations from a

crowd of about 2,000 at the Murat Theater in Indianapolis when presented

with the Gerald R. Ford Award during the NCAA convention. The award is

given for advocacy for intercollegiate sports throughout a career. "I did

choke up a bit," Wooden says later. "I think of things back home, and

something came up that made me think of Nellie."

Nov. 17, 2006: Wooden is honored as a member of the founding class

of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Mo.,

along with Dr. James Naismith, fellow Hoosier Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell

and Dean Smith.

2009: Wooden is named by a Sporting News panel of more than 100

coaches past and present as the greatest coach of all time, in any sport.

Sources: ―My Personal Best,‖ by John Wooden and Steve Jamison; "The John

Wooden Pyramid of Success," by Neville Johnson; Star research, led by

Cathy Knapp, Barbara Hoffman and Dawn Mitchell; the Denver Post; the Los

Angeles Daily News; the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; the Orange County

Register; the Associated Press; the Los Angeles Times; Newshouse News

Service; UCLA; Indiana State University; Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame;

Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame; Elmer Reynolds; and Nan Wooden.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

John Wooden 1910 - 2010

Martinsville proudly claims Wooden as its own Terry Hitchens, Indianapolis Star

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. -- Elmer Reynolds had hoped to visit his longtime friend

John Wooden last week in Los Angeles, but Wooden's family told him they

didn't think the legendary coach could handle visitors because of his

declining health.

Reynolds realized the depth of those words Friday night when he learned

Wooden had died in Los Angeles at the age of 99.

Reynolds remembered fondly his final times spent with the former

Martinsville High School and Purdue standout in November 2005 when

Wooden made his final trek to his former place of residence.

Sitting in a wheelchair at the Morgan County Veterans Memorial Park five

years ago, Wooden stared at the plaque honoring those who served on the

aircraft carrier USS Franklin in World War II and appreciated his good

fortune.

Wooden was supposed to be a gunner on the USS Franklin but because of

appendicitis surgery he was replaced shortly before he was to board the

ship.

"What I need my friends in Martinsville to know is that except by the grace

of God that John Wooden would have died in the Pacific on that day in

1945," Wooden told Reynolds in 2004. "I'll never be able to thank God

enough for the way those circumstances turned out."

Reynolds stayed close to Wooden's family through the final days of

Wooden's life. Reynolds said he learned the Wooden family will allow him to

take the legendary's coach's library from Los Angeles and turn it into a

museum in downtown Martinsville.

"What I learned the most from coach Wooden was how much he

appreciated the love of learning," Reynolds said. "Nothing was more

important to him than helping young people learn in all aspects of

their life."

Reynolds said what he admired most about Wooden in the final years

of his life was his humility.

"He just had a gentleness, a humility and a genuine care for

humanity that is difficult to describe," Reynolds said. "It was just so

obvious his care for young people that he hoped to leave behind in his words

or his actions."

Bette Nunn, a longtime Martinsville resident, said that Wooden was the real

deal.

"Everything you heard about coach Wooden was exactly the way he was,"

Nunn said. "There were so many people who knew him better than I did, but

unfortunately they died before he did. He was a lifetime great representative

of Martinsville."

Reynolds remembers something Wooden told him a few years ago.

"He said even though he had been away from Indiana for 80 years

that he always considered himself a Hoosier, and always felt that a

part of his soul would always remain in Martinsville."

______________________________________________________

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self

satisfaction in knowing you

did your best to become the

best that you are capable of

becoming."

John Wooden

______________________________________________________________________________

At God's footstool to confess,

A poor soul knelt and bowed his head. I failed, he cried. The Master said,

Thou didst thy best, that is success.

~~

John Wooden's Pyramid Stands Test of

Time

Wooden borrowed from others to construct his Pyramid of Success, which

has become his legacy almost as much as his coaching victories. By Robyn Norwood, LA Times

John Wooden was a young high school teacher and coach in the 1930s when he first wrote his personal definition of success, searching for a way

to assure his students — and their parents — they could be

successful without earning all A's.

"I wanted to give them something to aspire to beyond higher marks

in English classes or more statistics in sports," he told The Times in 2004.

Wooden tied success not to achievement, wealth or fame, but to how close a person came to their potential.

He spent another 14 years completing his Pyramid of Success, tinkering with

15 building blocks such as "Industriousness" "Enthusiasm," "Skill," and "Poise," before finishing the diagram in 1948, shortly before he left Indiana

State for UCLA.

More than half a century later, the 10 national championship banners won by

Wooden's UCLA basketball teams hang from the rafters at Pauley Pavilion — and his old-fashioned but still resonant Pyramid of Success adorns

everything from classroom walls at Mariners Elementary in Newport Beach to books, websites, mouse pads, even a wall in a Torrance collection agency.

Even well into his 90s, Wooden used to mail out some 1,500 copies of his

pyramid a year, many of them to high school coaches who wanted to distribute them to their teams.

Though others urged him to copyright the pyramid, Wooden said in recent years he never had, prompting a friend to tell him he didn't have a

marketing bone in his body.

"I hope not," Wooden said.

Completed during the Truman administration, the Pyramid of Success has

improbably stood the test of time.

Stephen R. Covey, the bestselling author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective

People" is an admirer of Wooden's who has called the pyramid and Wooden's other maxims "classic wisdom."

It resonates not only with nostalgic mid-career workers in motivational

seminars, but with 21st-century schoolchildren.

In January 2005, at 94, Wooden visited the Newport Beach elementary

school where teacher Pat McLaughlin, a UCLA graduate, created a character-education program based on Wooden's pyramid and his 2003 children's

book, "Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success."

"It was fun. He was a good man," Mariners Elementary student Brandy Joyce said later that year. "He said something funny I didn't understand — it was

only for the grown-ups."

After Wooden's visit, essays graced the walls of McLaughlin's Room 13.

"Self-control sounds like not yelling the answer when it's not your

turn," Cole Chapin wrote.

Nick Meier described himself as someone who "has Skill in building forts with

Legos, who has self-control when my brother breaks something," and Sydney Elliott-Brand considered herself someone who is "determined to pass

division" and "has self-control when my sister pulls my hair."

Elementary school students embrace the values of the pyramid easily.

But on the protest-roiled UCLA campus of the 1960s, it at first seemed hopelessly out of date to players such as future NBA great Lew Alcindor, now

known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

"He has said when he first heard it he thought it was corny," Wooden told The Times in 2004. "It was not until he was out of school that it was

meaningful."

Far from drilling his players on the blocks of his pyramid as diligently as he

did on the famous UCLA high-post offense, Wooden said he discussed it with the team as a group only once a year, at the beginning of each

season.

--

Those who played for him had the benefit of many, many hours with

Wooden and more often mention sayings such as "Be quick but don't hurry," and "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."

Bill Walton, who went on to become one of the best players in NBA history

and is now an ABC and ESPN analyst, used to write Wooden's maxims on his four sons' lunch bags. (One of them, Luke, grew up to play for the Lakers.)

Yet for those who never had much interaction with Wooden, the pyramid was the map to his philosophies.

At McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Wash., a group of Western Air

Defense Sector personnel spent three days in 2004 studying the pyramid.

"The pinnacle — Competitive Greatness — that is a tough but

attainable goal," Lt. Col. Eric Vogt said at the time. "I found myself thinking about how to be competitively great as much as possible. In

the military, it's got to be 100% perfect response every day. With our mission, there's no room for error."

Though it was as a teacher that Wooden began working on the pyramid, the

beginnings of the idea were sown earlier, by a high school teacher who asked his class to define success, by his father's emphasis on doing your

best without comparing yourself to others, and by a diagram of values used by his high school coach, Glenn Curtis, called the Ladder

of Achievement.

Instead of a ladder, Wooden chose a pyramid, with "Industriousness" and

"Enthusiasm" as its cornerstones.

Late in life, as he celebrated the arrival of more and more great-grandchildren, Wooden took particular satisfaction in the children's book,

"Inch and Miles," he wrote with his frequent collaborator, Steve Jamison.

In the children's pyramid, "Industriousness" became "Hard Work,"

"Initiative" became "Action," and "Competitive Greatness" became "Personal Best."

"My definition of success for a child is happiness in your heart, knowing you tried your best," Wooden said in 2004.

The book incorporated Wooden's love of rhyming couplets, with a short

poem on each block of the pyramid.

The wittiest might be the one on self-control, accompanied by an illustration

of a rather impulsive-looking trout.

If success is your great goal, You must practice Self-Control.

Use common sense in all you do. Controlling emotions is helpful too.

I knew a fish who took the bait. Good judgment gone, the hook he ate.

My friend was fried upon the grill.

With Self-Control, he'd be here still.

His long life nearing its end, in 2004 Wooden considered the likelihood that his Pyramid of Success would be studied by children and adults for decades

after his death.

"If it helps somebody, I hope I'll be looking down and thinking it's good," he

said.

_______________________________________________________________________

John Wooden Video on Leadership (Part 1, 2, and 3):

Part 1: http://bit.ly/389F8N

Part 2: http://bit.ly/bb6cv6

Part 3: http://bit.ly/b9XiTM

Click on above yellow links to see videos!

There is more video later several pages down

_____________________________________________________________________

Wooden’s Legacy That of an Innovator

LOS ANGELES – John Wooden coached his final game on March 31, 1975. It was a victory of course, UCLA 92-85 over Kentucky to give the Bruins their

10th NCAA championship in a dozen years.

Wooden’s coaching accomplishments are unfathomable by any reasonable standard, an impossible to duplicate championship run paced by four perfect

seasons.

Yet his most profound impact came in the ensuing 35 years, when the man

became a greater legend in retirement than as a coach. In his time away from the game, outside the daily spotlight he became an even more

profound and respected role model.

Wooden passed away Friday at age 99 and you needn’t be a UCLA fan in particular, or a college basketball fan in general, to mourn the loss.

This was an American legend, even more away from the sideline than on it.

He represented a simpler time in sports, when coaches comported themselves with calm and class. He never swore. During games he

rarely left his seat. He found his joy in preparation and practice. He still considered himself a teacher first, and it wasn’t just a marketing

line.

“If you‟ve done your job as a coach, you shouldn‟t have to jump up

and down and work for all that attention,” Wooden said in April. “If you‟re the teacher, the game is the test, and you never see teachers

running around the classroom during the test. They shouldn‟t have to.”

He was a simple man from the small, southern Indiana town of Martinsville.

He grew up in the country, often hitching a train for rides into town. A star

player at Purdue (he was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame as a player and as a coach), he found his greatest success as the oldest-school

kind of a coach.

His style and system were hopelessly out of date even in the 1950s and ’60s. He‟d first teach his players how to put on their socks before

they were allowed to practice. He believed in personal betterment, his Pyramid of Success and the idea that doing the right thing, every

day, was the only way.

Somehow he managed to connect with his players in the turbulent ’60s and

’70s, even in liberal Westwood, rather than some conservative, cornfield college town.

“He established a goal that is unreachable in college sports,” said Los

Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson at the NBA Finals on Thursday. “And he held it to such a standard that we all appreciate his teachings and

mentoring of his college students."

―I think it’s a day gone past for what we see now out of college players. But

at the time, it was inspirational and his coaching has been an inspiration to all us coaches.‖

You can quibble with the fine points of Wooden’s philosophies and coaching

style but not the general principles behind it.

Thirty-five years later he remained a teacher, penning a book just this year

on mentorship. He was kind and forever generous with his time. He did endless charity work. He focus remained on his faith and his

family; until recently he still visited his late wife‟s grave monthly and penned weekly letters to her.

He did the things no one does. He was a constant in the swirling tides

of change, a reminder of another way of living, a simpler way of conducting one‟s business. He coached to coach, not for big contracts

or endless fame.

His ability to live that life is what has endeared him to generations of

Americans.

No one younger than 40 can even remember when he was an actual coach, yet Wooden’s name, his values, his teachings still ring true.

Until his health began to fade in recent years, he would travel to the Final Four and find adoring crowds who would cheer him like a rock star. He spoke

just months ago about the pride he felt in watching Butler and its Indiana-born coach Brad Stevens streak to the Final Four with a style of play he

could appreciate.

All these years later, even as those remarkable 10 titles became faded, the

streak of success so remarkable it hardly seems real, that was John Wooden. He still was representing a way of life, still trying to teach everyone

by example.

Thirty-five years after winning his final game, John Wooden was bigger than

ever at the end of his oversized life as an American hero.

From John Wetzel, Yahoo sports ______________________________________________________

--

A smattering of Wooden’s favorite sayings follows. Some he thought up

himself, others he heard, memorized and made his own:

• “The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”

• “Ability is a poor man‟s wealth.”

• “A great leader cannot worry about being well-liked.”

• “Great leaders give credit to others but accept the blame

themselves.”

• “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”

• “Practice doesn‟t make perfect; only perfect practice makes

perfect.”

• “Be quick – but don‟t hurry.”

• “Don‟t give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on

you.”

They all ring true and are applicable in a multitude of career and life situations. They are unvarnished and uncompromising. Yet delivered by

Wooden, whether to a 9-year-old boy or Fortune 500 executive, they were

always accompanied by that kindly smile. Wooden wanted you, too, to walk the path of enlightenment he’d found. He’d guided you to it, and his smile

was his way of saying that he hoped you’d take the first bold step.

Coach Wooden, "Well Done!"

I was going to send the above material out, but when I saw this today, I had to add it to

The Coach Wooden Tribute Be sure and watch all the video -- it will bring

tears! CB _______________________________________________________________________________

“Focus on Effort, not Winning,” __________________________________________________________________________

John Wooden on how business executives can become better leaders

consisted of 10 brief terms told to a

reporter a few years ago: =>Listen.

=>Care. =>Recognize.

=>Prepare. =>Be industrious.

=>Have enthusiasm. =>Be patient.

=>Have confidence.

=>Don‟t fear failure. =>Win respect.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

John Wooden's Definition of Success

“Peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the

best of which you are capable.”

Wooden‟s management concepts, Andy Hill believed, created a structure where “talented, sometimes difficult,

creative people are empowered to work together and flourish.” Basketball, a game that requires a blend of individual creativity and clockwork teamwork, was a perfect Petri dish for Wooden‟s “startlingly futuristic”

ideas. _____________________________________________________________

Mild manner at UCLA preceded by fiery

disposition in Indiana By Phil Richards, Indianapolis Star

Thirty-five years after "The Coach" took his 10 NCAA championships and

faded into retirement, the iconic image endures: John Wooden seated on the UCLA bench, expression placid, grandfatherly, coat neatly pressed, tie primly

knotted, legs crossed, program rolled in hand.

Wooden, who died Friday night in Los Angeles at age 99, was the picture of

regal restraint back in the day, a man in quiet command of his domain, his

team, himself.

It wasn't always that way.

Back home in Indiana, where his coaching career first blossomed, Wooden's

competitive flame sometimes flared brightly.

Like during the morning game of the 1941 Hammond Semistate, when

Wooden's South Bend Central High School Bears fell behind Lafayette

Jefferson.

"We were playing in the (Hammond) Civic Center and when we went down

for the half, the janitor hadn't come down and unlocked the locker room

door," recalled Eddie Ehlers, Central's star of stars. "Coach Wooden broke

the door down. He kicked it in and let us have it."

The Bears rallied, and won. They had to.

"He felt like he was the boss and you had to do it his way or you were

gone," said Lenny Rzeszewski, a guard on that team who later played for

Wooden at Indiana State Teachers College, now Indiana State University.

"That was his philosophy."

South Bend Central didn't have a gymnasium, so the Bears practiced at 6:30

every morning at the downtown YMCA.

Rzeszewski recalled the morning Wooden caught his late older brother, Tom,

shooting "push shots" when he was supposed to be practicing free throws.

"He said, 'You go downstairs and start running,' " Lenny remembered. "And

when he got to the stairs, coach kicked him in the butt."

Wooden began his coaching career at Dayton (Ky.) High School in 1932. He

stayed busy. He was athletic director and head basketball, football, baseball

and track coach. He was supervisor of the physical education department

and English teacher. He earned $1,800 a year.

Ben Stull, 92, remembers. He was a reserve forward on Wooden's two

Dayton teams.

"We all learned to shoot 'bunnies' with our left hand,'' Stull recalled.

"We had never done that before. He taught us a lot. He taught us to

be disciplined in everything you do.''

The fundamentals of basketball and the fundamentals of life:

Wooden taught both from the start, sometimes simultaneously.

After two years at Dayton, he moved on to South Bend Central, where his

days were just as long. He was athletic director, basketball, baseball and

tennis coach. He taught English and was the school comptroller. He worked

part time as an editor for a local publisher.

And he won. Wooden went 218-42 in 11 seasons as a high school coach, the

two at Dayton and 1934-43 at Central, whose last high school class

graduated in 1970.

Wooden lost 15 games in one 10-year stretch at UCLA from 1964-73. He lost

11 at Dayton in 1932-33, but it was the only losing season (6-11) of his

career. He also was whistled for a technical foul that year, one of two he

recalled from a coaching career that spanned 1932-75, with four years spent

in the service during World War II.

So his outbursts were rare, if memorable, exceptions to his usual restraint, a

control that eventually became bulletproof. Wooden regarded his team as his

family and treated his players as if they were his children. His

admonishments were frequent and homey. His players called them

"Woodenisms."

"Failure to prepare is like preparing for failure," he would tell them.

Or, "Don't let what you can't do interfere with what you can." Or,

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."

"He was an educator, a teacher. He expected your best," said Jimmy

Powers, who played for Wooden at Central and Indiana State. "He would

say, 'Goodness gracious sakes alive, Jimmy,' and make whatever his

criticism was. He would not raise his voice but when he nailed you, you

knew you were nailed.

"It would be difficult to put into words the profound effect he had on

me, on everybody."

Stull, Wooden's sixth man at Dayton, feels the same connection nearly 80

years later. He still received a birthday card from Wooden.

"Every year,'' Stull said. ''And I send him a card on his birthday.''

South Bend Central traveled to away games by car. Ehlers always tried to

squeeze into Wooden's back seat. He hung on his coach's words, but what

he really liked was watching Wooden's interaction with his beloved wife,

Nellie, his high school sweetheart.

The Woodens had been married nearly 53 years when Nell died in 1985.

Ehlers and his wife, Joyce, have been married for more than 60 years.

Wooden was learning, too. He began developing his "Pyramid of Success"

life philosophy during his South Bend years. He also began employing the pressing, fast-breaking style with which his UCLA team so devastated

opponents.

Wooden was a Hoosier, a Martinsville native who starred for the 1927 state

high school championship team and burned to take the Bears to the same

heights.

They reached the threshold in 1941. After their comeback victory over

Lafayette Jefferson in the morning, Central lost the Hammond Semistate 37-

36 to Gary Froebel on a last-second shot. It was the only time the Bears

trailed.

Wooden called it the most disappointing loss of his coaching career.

He often said he would have traded two or three of his NCAA titles

for one Indiana high school championship.

Ehlers remembers that disappointment. He was an athlete of such

surpassing skills that, after returning from the war to finish at Purdue, he

was drafted by the Boston Celtics, the New York Yankees and the Chicago

Bears. What he remembers most fondly were the little things at Central, the

annual Christmas gift from Wooden, the meal money incentive.

"We used to get 25 cents if we lost, 35 cents if we won. So if we won, we

could get dessert," Ehlers said. "Our senior year we went 29-3, so we ate

pretty good that year."

It all might seem a bit corny today, but Wooden's modest decency and

stubborn adherence to principal fostered a fierce loyalty. His players

would have run through the proverbial door for him.

On at least one occasion, there was no need.

________________________________________________________________

Back Home, Wooden is Still The Coach By Kevin O'Neal, Indianapolis Star

MARTINSVILLE, Ind.

It was a fitting tribute Saturday in John Wooden's hometown -- a

basketball tournament played in a gymnasium named in his honor, with

coaches trying to reinforce the lessons that Wooden taught for decades.

"It's important that we know, and that the kids on this floor know,

who Wooden was, and learn from him," said Matt Seifers, assistant

basketball coach at Bloomington South High School.

Seifers had just finished a chalk talk with his team during halftime of the

Martinsville Summer Showdown, a 32-team tournament for incoming high

school freshmen. The tournament, planned long before Friday's death of the

iconic coach at age 99, featured teams from Columbus to Valparaiso.

Wooden spent his youth in Morgan County -- in Centerton, where he was

raised, and Martinsville, where he attended high school during the years

when basketball was the undisputed king of sports in Indiana.

"It's kind of ironic that we're playing in his town a day after his

passing, and we're at his school and his gym," said Greg Sandlin, a

volunteer coach at Whiteland High School who was carrying two basketballs

into the Martinsville gym.

Inside the gym, cooled only by a few electric fans on a hot day that forced

the referees to wear short pants, Wooden's presence was everywhere.

His name and painted signature are on the gym floor; his picture is

on a dedication plaque; and pictures of his 1927 high school team

are in a trophy case.

"Until here in the later years, it wasn't unusual to look up during

practice and there he was, taking in everything," said Tim Wolf,

Martinsville High School's basketball coach for the past 23 years. "More

than a coach, he was a great teacher, and he's always been great to

us here."

--

The weekend tournament touches basketball history that predates the

current Martinsville High School gym, considered the "new gym" to longtime

residents.

Much of the heart of Wooden's meaning to Martinsville could be found a mile

to the west, in the 1923 gym where he played, now part of West Middle

School.

As teams from Ben Davis and Valparaiso prepared for a tournament game,

they walked past a large portrait of Wooden as a young man and another of

Wooden in his playing days, intently staring through the camera while

controlling a basketball with a right-handed dribble.

The people in Martinsville who date to Wooden's days remember him

as someone who never outgrew his small-town roots.

"It's a loss for the whole country," said Louise Tutterow, 77, a cancer survivor who was at the American Cancer Society Relay for Life at the

Morgan County Fairgrounds on Saturday. "He was an example of how we should live our lives."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Larry Bird: „This is a loss for all

basketball fans‟ By Mike Wells, Indianapolis Star

John Wooden, basketball, Indiana. One doesn’t go without the others.‖

Those were Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird’s words in regards to

Wooden, the legendary coach and Indiana native, who passed away Friday.

He was 99.

The Pacers issued a statement from Bird about Wooden on Saturday.

“His contributions to the game, both for the State of Indiana and on

a national level, are unmatched,” Bird said in the statement. ―We at

Pacers Sports & Entertainment have been, and are, quite proud to have a

game or games every year in Conseco Fieldhouse that carry his name along

with the word Tradition, a great tribute to a great man.

--

“This is a loss for all basketball fans, but in particular for those of

us who grew up in Indiana with the legacy Mr. Wooden left us. Our

sincere condolences go to the Wooden family.‖

_____________________________________________________________________________________

This is a must watch!!!!

Watch our special video, "John Wooden, the Indiana story."

Click on the above link to see some fantastic video on coach Wooden _____________________________________________________________

IU coach Crean 'blown away' by John

Wooden's willingness to teach By Terry Hutchens, Indianapolis Star

Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean had only one opportunity to spend time

with John Wooden . It lasted but a few hours on an April night seven years ago, but Crean treasures it as one of his fondest basketball memories.

Crean was at the Los Angeles Athletic Club in 2003 for the annual Wooden Awards, honoring the top player and coach in the country. Dwyane Wade ,

who played for Crean at Marquette, was one of the finalists, and Wooden, who died Friday at the age of 99, was in attendance.

Wooden spent individual time and posed for pictures with the players, then

did the same with the assembled coaches. The other four coaches were Roy Williams, Thad Matta, Kelvin Sampson and Rick Barnes .

Most were asking Wooden to expound on his general philosophies as a

basketball teacher. But Crean wanted to talk specific basketball strategy, and Wooden was more than eager to oblige.

"I asked him about back screens at the (free throw line extended) in the

UCLA series and he was describing them for me,'' Crean recalled.

"And he seemed to be enjoying it because he really hadn't been asked a lot

of basketball questions.

"When it was time to leave for the awards, we go down an escalator

and we get downstairs. All of a sudden, he hands his cane to one of

the people in his family because he wanted to demonstrate to me, in

front of all of these people, what the rear screen looked like. He

actually walked a couple of us through it in the hallway and I was

just blown away. Coach Wooden never missed an opportunity to

teach.''

Crean said he had read a lot about Wooden before that day but walked away

that night with a new appreciation for the legendary coach.

"It just proved again to me that the great ones never, ever stop

teaching people that want to learn,'' Crean said. "It was just one day in

time, but it was a very important day for me.''

Something else Crean took from that evening was the way Wooden

interacted with everyone with whom he came in contact.

"It was a scripted event in that he was only going to be there for a

certain amount of time, but he made everyone who was there feel

really good,'' Crean said. "He knew something about each guy and did

his best to go out of his way to make everyone feel special.''

Crean still looks back on that evening knowing he was in the presence of one

of the greatest coaches in the game's history.

"You would be hard-pressed to find any leader or person who has

tried to instill wisdom in somebody that hasn't used something that John Wooden has done or said,'' Crean said. "The things that people

like John Wooden or Vince Lombardi were all about is that the more things change in life, the more they stay the same. I think anyone

who is successful in life comes to realize that somewhere along the way.'' _____________________________________________________________________________________