John Wooden

Wooden was born in 1910 in Hall, Indiana,[8] to Roxie (1887–1959) and Joshua Wooden (1882–1950),[9] and moved with his family to a small farm in Centerton in 1918.[10] He had three brothers:[4] Maurice, Daniel, and William,[9] and two sisters, one (unnamed) who died in infancy,[9] and another, Harriet Cordelia, who died from diphtheria at the age of two.[9]

When he was a boy, Wooden's role model was Fuzzy Vandivier of the Franklin Wonder Five, a legendary team that dominated Indiana high school basketball from 1919 to 1922. After his family moved to the town of Martinsville when he was 14,[11] Wooden led his high school team to a state tournament title in 1927.[12] He was a three-time All-State selection.[3]

Wooden at Purdue

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 the Premo-Poretta Power Poll.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] He was also selected for membership in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.[16] Wooden is also an honorary member of Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity.[17] Wooden was nicknamed "The Indiana Rubber Man" for his suicidal dives on the hardcourt.[14] He graduated from Purdue in 1932 with a degree in English.[4]

After college, Wooden spent several years playing professional basketball with the Indianapolis Kautskys,[18][19] Whiting Ciesar All-Americans,[19] and Hammond Ciesar All-Americans[19] while he taught and coached in the high school ranks.[19] During one 46-game stretch, he made 134 consecutive free throws.[18] He was named to the NBL's First Team for the 1937–38 season.

During World War II in 1942, he joined the United States Navy. He served for nearly two years and left the service as a lieutenant.[4]

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—one of the most (if not the most) successful rebuilding projects 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".[51]

Wooden was recognized numerous times for his achievements. He was named NCAA College Basketball's Coach of the Year in 1964, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973. In 1967, he was the Henry Iba Award USBWA College Basketball Coach 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[52] and as a coach in 1973,[53] becoming the first to be honored as both a player and a coach.[4][7]

After his coaching career ended, UCLA continued to honor Wooden with the title of Head Men's Basketball Coach Emeritus.[54] On November 17, 2006, Wooden was recognized 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.[55] In 2009, he was inducted into the Missouri Valley Conference Athletics Hall of Fame in St. Louis. Coach Wooden was the ninth honoree in the Missouri Valley Conference's Lifetime Achievement category.[25] Wooden said the honor he was most proud of was "Outstanding Basketball Coach of the U.S." by his denomination, the Christian Church.[48]

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.[56] 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 honor.

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, John Wooden was inducted into the Indiana State University Athletic Hall of Fame.[57]

John Wooden Recreation Center on the campus of UCLA

In 2000, Wooden was honored with the "Lombardi Award of Excellence" from the Vince Lombardi Cancer Foundation. The award was created to honor Coach Lombardi's legacy, and is awarded annually to an individual who exemplifies the spirit of the Coach.

He has schools and athletic facilities named after him. The gym at his alma mater Martinsville High School bears his name,[48] and in 2005 a high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District was renamed to John R. Wooden High School.[58] In 2003, UCLA dedicated the basketball court in Pauley Pavilion in honor of John and Nell Wooden.[59] Named the "Nell & John Wooden Court," Wooden asked for the change from the original proposal of the "John & Nell Wooden Court," insisting that his wife's name should come first.[60] In 2008, Indiana State also bestowed this honor on Wooden by naming their home court in the Hulman Center the "Nellie and John Wooden Court."[61] The student recreation center at UCLA is also named in his honor.[62] Also in 2008, Wooden was honored with a commemorative bronze plaque in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Memorial Court of Honor because his UCLA basketball teams played six seasons in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.[63] On November 8, 2008, Indiana State officially named the floor at the Hulman Center The Nellie and John Wooden Court in honor of the legendary coach and his late wife, Nellie. The ceremony included taped comments from Coach Wooden and the participation of members of his 1946–47 and 1947–48 teams.[64] The Sycamores christened the newly named floor by defeating the Albion College (MI) Britons in an exhibition game.

On July 23, 2003, John Wooden received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. It was presented by George W. Bush after a three-year campaign by Andre McCarter, who was on Wooden's 1975 National Championship team. The Ukleja Center for Ethical Leadership at California State University, Long Beach established the John Wooden Ethics in Leadership Award in 2009, with Wooden being the inaugural recipient.[65] In 1986, John Wooden was honored as an Outstanding Alumnus of the School of Liberal Arts at Purdue University – the first year the award was given.

In 1976, Wooden received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[66][67]

On May 17, 2004, he was awarded the Ambassador Award of Excellence by the LA Sports & Entertainment Commission at the Riviera Country Club.[68]

On Wooden's 96th birthday in 2006, a post office in Reseda, California, near where Wooden's daughter lives, was renamed the Coach John Wooden Post Office.[69] This act was signed by President George W. Bush based on legislation introduced by Congressman Brad Sherman.[3]

In July 2010, Wooden's alma mater, Purdue University, named a street on campus after him.[70]

On October 14, 2010, the Undergraduate Student Association Council of UCLA held a "John Wooden Day Celebration" to honor Wooden's 100th birthday and to commemorate his contributions to the university.[71] A portion of the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame at Morgan Center is a recreation of Wooden's den office in honor of his memory on campus.[72]

Golf Digest lists John Wooden as one of four people to score both a double eagle and a hole in one in the same round of golf.[73] The feat was accomplished in 1947 at the South Bend Country Club in South Bend, Indiana.

The flagship leadership development program of Wooden's fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, is named "The John and Nellie Wooden Institute for Men of Principle" after Coach Wooden and his wife, Nellie.[74] Coach Wooden's maxims and creed are central to the teaching of leadership development at the Institute.

On October 26, 2012, a bronze statue of Wooden by sculptor Blair Buswell was dedicated at the newly renovated Pauley Pavilion.[75][76]

Wooden's Legacy, a 2012 public artwork statue by Jeffrey Rouse, is exhibited in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Three of John 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.[77]

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 1976 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..."[78] 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).[79]

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, but very few people would know or remember this unobtrusive fact, especially since UCLA removed the banner of the NIT championship from Pauley Pavilion.[80]

UCLA went 20 years after Wooden's retirement before winning another national championship, finally hanging a banner again in 1995 under coach Jim Harrick, when Ed O'Bannon starred for the Bruins as they beat Arkansas 89–78 in the title game and denied Nolan Richardson back-to-back titles. In 2006, Ben Howland led the team back to the national championship game for the first time since the 1995 title game, but they were defeated 73–57 by the Florida Gators and their star player Joakim Noah.[30] Harrick was the only coach of John Wooden's nine successors who has guided the Bruins to an NCAA championship.

Wooden met his future wife, Nellie "Nell" Riley, when he was a freshman in high school[81] They were both 21 years of age when they married in a small ceremony in Indianapolis in August 1932 and afterward attended a Mills Brothers concert at the Circle Theatre to celebrate.[82] The couple had a son, James Hugh Wooden, and a daughter, Nancy Anne Muehlhausen.[3] Nellie died on March 21, 1985[3] from cancer at age 73.[83]

Wooden remained devoted to Nellie's memory until his own death 25 years after her passing. He kept to a monthly ritual—health permitting—on the 21st of every month, when he would visit her crypt in the mausoleum, then write a love letter to her. After completing each letter, he placed it in an envelope and added it to a stack of similar letters that accumulated over the years on the pillow she slept on during their life together.[84] Wooden stopped writing the letters because of failing eyesight in the last months of his life.[85]

In mourning Nellie's death, Wooden was comforted by his faith.[86] He was a devout Christian, considering his beliefs more important to him than basketball: "I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior."[87] Wooden's faith strongly influenced his life. He read the Bible daily and attended the First Christian Church.[86] He said that he hoped his faith was apparent to others: "If I were ever prosecuted for my religion, I truly hope there would be enough evidence to convict me."[88] In a 2009 interview, John Wooden described himself politically as a "liberal Democrat," who had voted for some Republican presidential candidates.

Wooden at a ceremony on his 96th birthday

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.[89] 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.[90] 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.[91] In February 2009, he was hospitalized for four weeks with pneumonia.[92]

On May 26, 2010, Wooden was admitted to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after suffering from dehydration.[93] He remained hospitalized there and died of natural causes at age 99 on June 4, 2010.[94][95][96] 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.

John Wooden's Seven Point Creed[97] was given to him by his father Joshua upon his graduation from grammar school:

1. Be true to yourself.
2. Make each day your masterpiece.
3. Help others.
4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
5. Make friendship a fine art.
6. Build a shelter against a rainy day.
7. Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Wooden also lectured and authored a book about the Pyramid of Success.[98] 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."[99]

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

Among Wooden's maxims:

• Failing to prepare is preparing to fail (from Benjamin Franklin)
• Flexibility is the key to stability
• Be quick, but don't hurry[100][101]
• Seek opportunities to show you care. The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference

• 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 with Jack Tobin (2003) They Call Me Coach, McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 978-0-07-142491-2
  • (1985) Hardcover Revised Edition. Word Books. ISBN 978-0849904387
• 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
• John Wooden (1966) Practical Modern Basketball. The Ronald Press Company.

• List of college men's basketball coaches with 600 wins
• List of NCAA Division I Men's Final Four appearances by coach

• Morrow, Barbara Olenyik. Hardwood Glory: A Life of John Wooden (Indiana Historical Society, 2014)
• Nader, Swen and Ronald Gallimore. You Haven't Taught Until They Have Learned: John Wooden's Teaching Principles and Practices (FiT Publishing, 2010) ISBN 978-1935412083
• Davis, Seth. Wooden: A Coach's Life (St. Martin's Griffin, 2014) ISBN 1250060850

• Official website
• John Wooden Biography and Interview with American Academy of Achievement