Remembering a Legendary Coach

I’m not much of a name dropper, but a few summers ago I ran into NBA Hall of Famer Bill Walton at the Time Warner Center here in New York. Usually when you see celebrities in New York you kinda just ignore them; and when someone does say something to them, they tend to be polite but back away slowly…well, not Bill Walton. I have yet to meet a more chatty celebrity in my life, not even when I worked at Tower Records. He had a blast talking to me about basketball, probably because unlike the first guy that walked up to him, I didn’t refer to him as “Bill Russell.” We talked for a while about what it was like to play against Dr. J, and about how Hakeem Olajuwon was the toughest guy he ever guarded. Towards the end of our conversation, we talked about his days at UCLA and the subject naturally turned to his coach. That’s when he told this story…
Being a bit of a hippie, after Walton’s first year he decided to grow his hair and beard. His coach insisted that all his players have a neat appearance, be shaved and have their hair cut short. So one day before practice, Walton refused to cut his hair and told his coach he had no right to tell him how to look, to which the coach patiently replied “You are absolutely right Bill, I have no right to tell you how to look, but I do have a right to decide who plays on the team, and we are going to miss you.” Walton sped to a Westwood barbershop on his bicycle and managed rush back to practice for the last hour with the team. Besides grooming, his coach also never said a bad word, and wouldn’t permit any swearing in his presence. He distained lateness, and also strictly prohibited players criticizing other players on the team. Something that today seems impossible. But that’s how men make other men. That coach’s name was John Wooden, and today I woke up to the news that he had passed away at the age of 99. Not that it is particularly surprising that a 99 year old man die of natural causes, but it’s a loss for the world he leaves behind, because that world is now a lesser place.
Let’s get the numbers out of the way first, because that is the only thing people in a Twitterized world seem to recognize these days. He won 10…that’s right 10 NCAA Championships. 7 of those coming consecutively. The next three coaches combined won 11. He won a record 88 games in a row, along with 38 straight tournament wins. Needless to say, those are all-time records. Now, numbers never impressed me, and it wasn’t numbers that moved The Sporting News to name Wooden the “Greatest Coach of All Time.” That’s in any sport, in any era. It wasn’t even the winning that impressed me, it was the how, and the when that makes him the icon that he is. It was the winning of hearts and minds at a time where hearts and minds were in no mood to be won.
He was born in 1910 in Hall, Indiana, not exactly the most racially diverse place in the country, even today. He played guard for a state championship in high school, led Purdue to the national championship in 1932 and was a three-time All-American, two-time Big Ten player of the year and national player of the year. Wooden was the first person inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. He didn’t win his first NCAA Championship with UCLA until 16 years after his arrival. When asked about why it took so long he would just say he was learning.
When analyzing any achievement, it is necessary to always look at it from a historical perspective. It is the only way to give it the recognition it deserves. It wasn’t just winning national championships, but who did you win them with, and what was the atmosphere like? It is this historical perspective that serves only to increase the legend of Coach Wooden. I mentioned Wooden’s birthplace for a reason. Coaching at the school that later became Indiana State, he refused to take the team to the 1946 tournament because it did not allow African-American players. This was Indiana in 1946. That’s how a progressive mind works. Imagine what he must have gone through for the courage of that conviction. Then imagine winning in Los Angeles decades later finally with integrated players, but in the mid-60’s and 70’s; a time where colleges were ground zero for protests against Vietnam, racial inequality, and the shirt-and-tie establishment that Wooden seemed to represent. He got those kids to listen, understand, and respond during one of the most tumultous times in American history.
But my favorite Wooden story has to be how he survived his wife of 53 years, Nell who died in 1985. He wrote her a letter once a month and put it under her pillow. I guess the burden of her absence was just too great to bear, 25 years without her was enough. Wooden was indeed the first man to be elelcted into the Hall of Fame as both a player and coach, but if there is a Hall of Fame for human beings and setters of example, he goes in on the first ballot there as well. Rest easy coach, and thank you.

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”

"Don't give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you"

"Talent is God-given; be humble. Fame is man-given; be thankful. Conceit is self-given; be careful."

And my personal favorite...

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow"

- Coach John Wooden 1910-2010