John Wooden

Early life and playing career

John Robert Wooden was born on October 14, 1910, in Hall, Indiana, the son of Roxie (1887–1959) and Joshua Wooden (1882–1950), and moved with his family to a small farm in Centerton in 1918. He had three brothers: Maurice, Daniel, and William, and two sisters, one (unnamed) who died in infancy, and another, Harriet Cordelia, who died from diphtheria at the age of two.

When he was a boy, Wooden's role model was Fuzzy Vandivier of the Franklin Wonder Five, a team that dominated Indiana high school basketball from 1919 to 1922. After his family moved to the town of Martinsville when he was 14, Wooden led his high school team to a state tournament title in 1927. He was a three-time All-State selection.

After graduating from high school in 1928, he attended Purdue University and was coached by Ward "Piggy" Lambert. The 1932 Purdue team on which he played as a senior was retroactively recognized as the pre-NCAA tournament national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation and was retroactively listed as the top-ranked team by the Premo-Poretta Power Poll. John Wooden was named All-Big Ten and All-Midwestern (1930–32) while at Purdue, and he was the first player ever to be named a three-time consensus All-American. In 1932, he was awarded the Big Ten Medal of Honor, recognizing one student athlete from the graduating class of each Big Ten member school, for demonstrating joint athletic and academic excellence throughout their college career. He was also selected for membership in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Wooden is also an honorary member of Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity. Wooden was nicknamed "The Indiana Rubber Man" for his suicidal dives on the hardcourt. He graduated from Purdue in 1932 with a degree in English.

After college, Wooden spent several years playing professional basketball in the NBL with the Indianapolis Kautskys, Whiting Ciesar All-Americans, and Hammond Ciesar All-Americans, while he taught and coached in the high school ranks. During one 46-game stretch, he made 134 consecutive free throws, which is still a professional record to this day (the NBA record is 97 made by Micheal Williams in 1993). One notable instance made after hitting his 100th consecutive free throw had Kautskys owner Frank Kautsky pay $100 to Wooden directly during a game. He was named to the All-NBL First Team for the 1937–38 season.

Coaching career

High school

Wooden coached two years at Dayton High School in Dayton, Kentucky. His first year at Dayton, the 1932–33 season, marked the only time he had a losing record (6–11) as a coach. After Dayton, he returned to Indiana, where he taught English, coached basketball and served as the athletic director at South Bend Central High School until entering the Armed Forces. Wooden spent two years at Dayton and nine years at Central. His high school coaching record over 11 years was 218–42.

Indiana State University

After World War II, Wooden coached at Indiana State Teachers College, later renamed Indiana State University, in Terre Haute, Indiana, from 1946 to 1948, succeeding his high school coach, Glenn M. Curtis. In addition to his duties as basketball coach, Wooden also coached baseball (1948 season, 7–7 record) and served as athletic director, all while teaching and completing his master's degree in education. In 1947, Wooden's basketball team won the Indiana Intercollegiate Conference title and received an invitation to the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB) National Tournament in Kansas City. Wooden refused the invitation, citing the NAIB's policy banning black players. One of Wooden's players, Clarence Walker, was a black man from East Chicago, Indiana.

That same year, Wooden's alma mater Purdue University asked him to return to campus and serve as an assistant to then-head coach Mel Taube until Taube's contract expired, when Wooden would take over the program. Citing his loyalty to Taube, Wooden declined the offer, because this would have effectively made Taube a lame-duck coach.

In 1948, Wooden again led Indiana State to the conference title. The NAIB had reversed its policy banning black players that year, and Wooden coached his team to the NAIB National Tournament final, losing to Louisville. This was the only championship game a Wooden-coached team ever lost. That year, Walker became the first black player to play in any post-season intercollegiate basketball tournament.

UCLA

In the 1948–1949 season, Wooden was hired by the University of California, Los Angeles, to be the fourth basketball coach in the school's history. He succeeded Fred Cozens, Caddy Works, and Wilbur Johns; Johns became the school's athletic director. Wooden signed a three-year contract for $6,000 in the first year. Prior to being hired at UCLA, he had been pursued for the head coaching position at the University of Minnesota, and it was his and his wife's desire to remain in the Midwest, but inclement weather in Minnesota prevented Wooden from receiving the scheduled phone offer from the Golden Gophers. Thinking that they had lost interest, Wooden instead accepted the head coaching job with the Bruins. Officials from the University of Minnesota contacted Wooden immediately after he accepted the position at UCLA, but he declined their offer because he had already given his word to UCLA.

Wooden had immediate success, fashioning the mark of the rarest of coaches, an "instant turnaround" for an undistinguished, faltering program. Part of this success was due to his unique offensive system, the same system that countless coaches use today. John Wooden stated, "I believe my system is perfectly suited to counter all the modern defenses I have seen, and that includes run-and-jump, 1–3–1 trapping, box-and-one, triangle-and-two, and switching man-to-man."

Prior to Wooden's arrival at UCLA, the basketball program had only had two conference championship seasons in the previous 18 years. In his first season, he took a Bruins team that had posted a 12–13 record the previous year and transformed it into a Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) Southern Division champion with a 22–7 record, the most wins in a season for UCLA since the school started playing basketball in 1919. He surpassed that number the next season with 24–7 and a second division title and overall conference title in 1950, and would add two more in his first four years. Up to that time, UCLA had collected a total of two division titles since the PCC began divisional play, and had not won a conference title of any sort since winning the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1927.

In spite of these achievements, Wooden reportedly did not initially enjoy his position, and his wife did not favor living in Los Angeles. When Mel Taube left Purdue in 1950, Wooden's inclination was to return to West Lafayette and finally accept the head coaching job there. He was ultimately dissuaded when UCLA officials reminded him that it was he who had insisted upon a three-year commitment during negotiations in 1948. Wooden felt that leaving UCLA prior to the expiration of his contract would be tantamount to breaking his word, even though Purdue offered more money, a car and housing.

Association with Sam Gilbert

During Wooden's time at UCLA, and after his retirement in 1975, he faced criticism for the program's relationship with local businessman and booster Sam Gilbert, known by many of Wooden's players as "Papa Sam." Gilbert, a multi-millionaire contractor, was known for forging close financial relationships with UCLA players, supplying them with cars, clothes, stereos, travel, and apartments, as well as allegedly arranging abortions for players' girlfriends. He represented several UCLA stars, including Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton, as an agent after they turned pro.

A 1981 Los Angeles Times investigation, interviewing 45 people affiliated with the basketball program, revealed the extent of Gilbert's involvement, describing him as "a one-man clearinghouse who has enabled players and their families to receive goods and services usually at big discounts and sometimes free." The Times investigation found that Gilbert's involvement in the program began in 1967, when UCLA stars Alcindor and Lucius Allen were considering transferring to Michigan State. They approached former UCLA star Willie Naulls, who introduced them to Gilbert. Gilbert met with the two players, and both remained at UCLA. Alcindor, later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, said later that he would have stayed regardless but called Gilbert "like my surrogate father." Allen credited Gilbert with dissuading him from transferring: "There were two people I listened to. Coach Wooden as long as we were between the lines. Outside the court — Sam Gilbert." Allen said Gilbert paid for multiple abortions for players' girlfriends, including one of his own. "Everybody knew what was going on," UCLA player David Greenwood said. "Nobody was so naive. It was common knowledge in the whole town."

UCLA assistant Jerry Norman, who coached under Wooden from 1957 to 1968, recalled that Gilbert began "to come around our program right when I was ready to leave. What normally happens is, alumni come to you and say, 'Coach, is there any way I can help?' Well, maybe. A lot of kids want summer jobs. But Gilbert started going behind the coaches. Alcindor calls me one day in the spring. I ask him, 'Where are you?' and he says, 'I'm in Mr. Gilbert's office.'" In his autobiography Giant Steps, Abdul-Jabbar called Gilbert "that odd combination, a cagey humanitarian with a lot of muscle. Guys would go to him when they were in trouble, and he would find a way to fix it...Sam steered clear of John Wooden, and Mr. Wooden gave him the same wide berth. Both helped the school greatly...once the money thing got worked out, I never gave another thought to leaving UCLA."

Career playing statistics

NBL

Source

Head coaching record

Legacy

When Wooden arrived at UCLA for the 1948–1949 season, he inherited a little-known program that played in a cramped gym. He left it as a national powerhouse with 10 national championships— the most successful rebuilding project in college basketball history. John Wooden ended his UCLA coaching career with a 620–147 overall record and a winning percentage of .808. These figures do not include his two-year record at Indiana State prior to taking over the duties at UCLA.

In 2009, Wooden was named The Sporting News "Greatest Coach of All Time".

Honors

He received numerous national coaching honors throughout his career, earning seven USBWA Coach of the Year awards (1964, 1967, 1969–1973), six from UPI (1964, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973), five from the AP (1967, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973), five from the NABC (1964, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1972), and four from The Sporting News (1964, 1969, 1972, 1973). In 1970, he was named The Sporting News Sportsman of the Year. In 1972, he shared Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award with Billie Jean King. In 1960, he was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame for his achievements as a player and as a coach in 1973, becoming the first to be honored as both a player and a coach.

After his coaching career ended, UCLA continued to honor Wooden with the title of Head Men's Basketball Coach Emeritus. On November 17, 2006, Wooden was recognised for his impact on college basketball as a member of the founding class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was one of five people—along with Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Dean Smith and Dr. James Naismith—who were selected to represent the inaugural class. In 2009, he was inducted into the Missouri Valley Conference Athletics Hall of Fame in St. Louis. Coach Wooden was the ninth honouree in the Missouri Valley Conference's Lifetime Achievement category. Wooden said the honour he was most proud of was "Outstanding Basketball Coach of the U.S". by his denomination, the Christian Church.

Since 1977, the John R. Wooden Award has been the most coveted of the four college basketball player-of-the-year awards. This award has attained the status of being the equivalent of football's Heisman Trophy for college basketball, with the winner announced during a ceremony held at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. The MVP award for the McDonald's All-American Game in high-school basketball is named the "John R. Wooden Most Valuable Player Award". The Wooden Legacy is held in his honour.

In 1998 the Coach Wooden "Keys to Life" Award was created to be given to a former player or coach who exemplifies character, leadership and faith. This Award is presented at the Legends of the Hardwood Breakfast, which is held each year at the Final Four and is hosted by Athletes in Action.

On February 3, 1984, Wooden was inducted into the Indiana State University Athletic Hall of Fame.

Following Wooden

Three of Wooden's former players would take over the program and leave within a few years. Gene Bartow, Gary Cunningham, Larry Brown, and Larry Farmer were the four coaches who entered and left UCLA in the nine years following Wooden. One former UCLA head coach, former ESPN analyst and former St. John's head coach Steve Lavin (fired from UCLA in 2003), has said "The mythology and pathology of UCLA basketball isn't going to change" due to Wooden's legacy and believes that every basketball coach will eventually be fired or forced out from UCLA.

Bartow, Wooden's immediate successor at UCLA, went 28–5 in 1976, but was blown out twice that season by Bob Knight's eventual undefeated national-champion Indiana Hoosiers, the second time in the Final Four, and lost 76–75 in the 1977 West Region semifinals to Idaho State.

Bartow won 85.2% of his games (compared to Wooden's 80.8%) in two years, yet supposedly received death threats from unsatisfied UCLA fans.

Wooden himself often joked about being a victim of his own success, calling his successors on the phone and playfully identifying himself ominously as "we the alumni..." In his autobiography, Wooden recounts walking off the court in 1975 after his last game as a coach, having just won his tenth title, only to have a UCLA fan walk up and say, "Great win coach, this makes up for letting us down last year" (UCLA had lost in the semifinals in double overtime in 1974 to eventual national champion North Carolina State).

Bartow's successor, Wooden protege Gary Cunningham, posted an even better two-year record after Bartow, .862 (50–8) and No. 2 rankings each year, but could not proceed past two wins in the NCAAs, and left. Larry Brown came next, racking up more losses, 17, in two years than UCLA had experienced the previous four. With a near-magical end-of-season run typical of his career, he managed to coach UCLA into the title game in 1980, where the Bruins lost to Louisville, coached by Denny Crum. Coincidentally, Crum had played for Wooden at UCLA before working for him there as an assistant coach. Brown then left UCLA. Former UCLA players Larry Farmer and Walt Hazzard then took turns directing the UCLA program from 1981 to 1988. Hazzard's 1985 team won the National Invitation Tournament.

Personal life

Wooden met his future wife, Nellie "Nell" Riley, when he was a freshman in high school They married in Indianapolis when they were both 21 years old. They had a son, James Hugh Wooden, and a daughter, Nancy Anne Muehlhausen. Nellie died on March 21, 1985 from cancer at age 73.

He was a devout Christian, considering his beliefs more important to him than basketball. Wooden's faith strongly influenced his life. He read the Bible daily and attended the First Christian Church.

In a 2009 interview he described himself politically as a "liberal", who had voted for some Republican presidential candidates.

Final years and death

Wooden was in good physical health until the later years of his life. On April 3, 2006, he spent three days in a Los Angeles hospital, receiving treatment for diverticulitis. He was hospitalized again in 2007 for bleeding in the colon, with his daughter quoted as saying her father was "doing well" upon his subsequent release. Wooden was hospitalized on March 1, 2008, after a fall in his home. He broke his left wrist and his collarbone in the fall, but remained in good condition according to his daughter and was given around-the-clock supervision. In February 2009, he was hospitalized for four weeks with pneumonia.

On May 26, 2010, Wooden was admitted to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after suffering from dehydration. He remained hospitalized there and died of natural causes at age 99 on June 4, 2010. He was survived by his son, daughter, three grandsons, four granddaughters, and 13 great-grandchildren. Following a private ceremony, Wooden was interred with his wife Nellie in an outdoor community mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. A public memorial service was held two weeks later at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion.

Seven Point Creed

John Wooden's Seven Point Creed was given to him by his father Joshua upon his graduation from grammar school:

Be true to yourself.

Make each day your masterpiece.

Help others.

Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.

Make friendship a fine art.

Build a shelter against a rainy day.

Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Wooden also lectured and authored a book about the Pyramid of Success. The Pyramid of Success consists of philosophical building blocks for succeeding at basketball and at life. In his later years he was hired by corporations to deliver inspirational lectures and even appeared in commercials for Hartford Insurance and the NCAA. Following his death in June 2010—shortly after the basketball season— all UCLA sports teams wore either a patch or helmet sticker with the initials "JRW" inside a black pyramid for the remainder of the season, in honor of his philosophy. Furthermore, the men's basketball team continues to wear the patch as of 2019, though not in black. It is generally known that he received lecture fees that exceeded the salaries he was paid as a coach. Wooden proudly claimed that these late in life windfalls allowed him to set up education accounts for all of his grandchildren. At the top of the Pyramid of Success was "Competitive Greatness" which Wooden defined as "Perform at your best when your best is required. Your best is required each day."

Wooden was also the author of several other books about basketball and life.

One of his maxims was "Be quick, but don't hurry".

Publications

John Wooden and Steve Jamison (2010) The Wisdom of Wooden: My Century On and Off the Court, McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 978-0071751162

John Wooden and Don Yaeger (2009) A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring, Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 978-1-59691-701-9

John Wooden and Steve Jamison (2009) Coach Wooden's Leadership Game Plan for Success: 12 Lessons for Extraordinary Performance and Personal Excellence, McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 978-0-07-162614-9

John Wooden and Steve Jamison (2007) The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders and Leadership, McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 978-0-07-148435-0

John Wooden with Swen Nater (2006) John Wooden's UCLA Offense, Human Kinetics. ISBN 978-0-7360-6180-3

John Wooden and Steve Jamison (2005) Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization, McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 978-0-07-145339-4

John Wooden, Jay Carty (2005) Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success Playbook, Revell. ISBN 978-0800726263

John Wooden with Steve Jamison (2004) My Personal Best, McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 978-0-07-143792-9

John Wooden, Jay Carty (2003) Coach Wooden One-on-One, Regal. ISBN 978-0830732913

Andrew Hill with John Wooden (2001) Be Quick – But Don't Hurry: Finding Success in the Teachings of a Lifetime, Simon & Schuster ISBN 978-0743213882

John Wooden with Steve Jamison (1997) Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court, Contemporary Books. ISBN 978-0-8092-3041-9