Eng 106 - John Wooden - More Than a Coach

J.T. Pastor

English 106

November 6, 2012

More than a Coach

Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Adolph Rupp, Bobby Knight, all names that will go down as some of the greatest coaches in college basketball history. Missing from that list, though, is a man who has separated himself from the pack, a man whose coaching career will likely never be matched. John Wooden won ten national championships in twelve seasons at UCLA, and at one point his Bruins won 88 straight games. By the numbers, John Wooden is the greatest college basketball coach to ever grace our presence. What is most incredible about Wooden, however, is that his character and leadership will forever overshadow the championship banners he has earned. As a great a coach as he was, Wooden was an even better man. John Wooden manifested character through his humble nature, the manner in which he coached his athletes, and the way he continued his legacy of leadership as an author.

John Wooden was born on his parents' farm near Centerville, Indiana on October 14th, 1910. Life was difficult for the Woodens as their farm had no electricity or running water. In 1924, the Woodens, like many farm families, went bankrupt and lost their farm. From there, the family moved to Martinsville, Indiana, where basketball was the only thing to take pride in. Instantly, Wooden was a star on his high school team, leading his team to two state championships and one runner-up in his three years with the team (Academy of Achievement). His success in Martinsville quickly drew the attention of college teams all over the area, with Purdue University being the winner in capturing Wooden's talent.

John Robert Wooden was an outstanding student-athlete at Purdue University. He was a three-time All-American point guard during the 1930-1932 seasons, the 1932 player of the year, and the leader of the Boilermakers 1932 NCAA Championship team. Unlike many of today's star athletes, Wooden also excelled in the classroom and in society as a whole. His success in the year of 1932 off the basketball court included receiving the 1932 Big Ten Conference medal for outstanding merit and proficiency in scholarship and athletics, as seen in the archived photograph in the sources included with this paper (John Wooden receiving award). Wooden was also inscribed on Purdue's academic honor roll (Luther). John Wooden's college career was full of success.

That level of success primarily leads today's athletes to develop a narcissistic ego, but Wooden exhibited just the opposite. When asked what he felt was his greatest accomplishment at Purdue, Wooden answered: "First and foremost is my education, my degree in English, next was succeeding in paying for school on my own with summer job. My success as an athlete was great, but it did not define me" (Academy of Achievement). John Wooden's senior year, 1932, was one of the most successful of any student-athlete to date, and he disregarded any sort of achievement that today's society would praise.

John Wooden was eventually enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960 for his success as a basketball player, but it was his time spent coaching the UCLA Bruins that resulted in Wooden becoming one of the greatest sportsmen ever. In his final 12 seasons as the coach at UCLA, between the years of 1964-1975, Wooden won 10 national championships, including seven straight from 1967-1973. Of the coaches I stated in the opening sentence, Krzyzewski and Rupp each have four national titles, Knight with three, and Smith with two (Coaches with Multiple Titles). Wooden has six more titles than the closest competitors, six more titles than the coaches mentioned with him as the best college basketball coaches of all time. As his career as a college coach ended, Wooden was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach, becoming the first person to ever be inducted into the Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach (Luther).

These statistics show that John Wooden was incredibly successful and could deservingly call himself the greatest basketball coach of all time. That was not Wooden's way of life, though; he chose to be humble. To him, success did not possess tangibility. He defined success as "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" (The Official Site of Coach John Wooden). Coach Wooden never glorified himself; instead he gave the credit to all who have helped him along the way, while never losing sight of his true purpose for coaching, which was to build the character of his athletes. Wooden's former player and NBA hall of fame member Kareem Abdul-Jabbar put it perfectly when he said, "It's