The Passing of One of the Great Leader Teachers of Our Times John Wooden Dies at 99
Here is how one newspaper began their report of John Wooden’s recent death. They weren’t even born when revered UCLA basketball coach John Wooden had his glory days and string of national championships. Yet hundreds of students still gathered on campus in his honor and mourned his death Friday night.
As word of Wooden’s passing spread, more than 500 students joined a somber, candlelit remembrance of the legendary coach across from the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, where he had died minutes before at the age of 99.
John Wooden has been a hero of mine for over forty years. He was a quintessential leader teacher…one of the very, very best. He was also a coach and mentor of enormous stature and accomplishment. John Wooden also cared deeply about all those for whom he had teaching, coaching and mentoring responsibility.
Yes, he was the coach who won more men’s college basketball games than anyone else in NCAA history. He had a remarkable and unheard-of .804 win-lost percentage over the course of his career. His ten national basketball championships, including seven in a row beginning in 1967, are more than any other men’s NCAA program. At one point, his UCLA Bruins won 88 consecutive games. He was the first person elected to the college Hall of Fame as both a player and as a coach. These accomplishments and many other records are his for all to appreciate and strive to equal, emulate or even surpass. But John Wooden was much, much, more.
John Wooden was a principle-center leader. He had rock solid, traditional values from which he simply did not waiver. Unlike many leaders, no one was ever confused about Coach Wooden’s leadership points of view and perspectives. He did not need to take polls to determine where he should stand on thorny issues. Coach Wooden modeled and taught his principles every day. They are left to us today through the many he has influenced and in tributes, books and videos.
Coach Wooden’s student athletes graduated at a much higher rate than scholar athletes at most other universities. He was a husband for over sixty years to his beloved wife Nell, and was a wonderful father, grand father and great grandfather. To the thousands of players he coached, he was also a teacher/mentor and a philosopher of life. For many, John Wooden was a father figure and for some, the only father figure they would ever have. At first, many of his players bucked his discipline, traditional values and his unflinching emphasis on fundamentals of the game and of life. Coach Wooden coached some of the greatest college players of all time….Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Walt Hazard, Andre McCarter, Gail Goodrich and many others. When you listen to his former players today, they came to respect, admire and even love their coach. He taught them lessons for a lifetime.
Ten’s of thousands who never played for John Wooden also learned from him. They have listened to this former English teacher who had a passion for poetry, give lectures, and they read his writings, books and watched his videos.
Many have read the books about Coach Wooden that were written by others including former players. His quotes are gems of wisdom. Here are several that I especially value:
- Do not let what you can not do interfere with what you can do
- If you do not have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?
- You can not live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
- Be quick but don’t hurry
In the years since Coach Wooden retired, he taught and wrote extensively about his “Pyramid of Success: Building Blocks for Success in Life”, one of the great models for personal and professional fulfillment. I highly recommend this book and related videos.
I started my teaching career when I graduated from college in the late 1960’s. For five years I also coached varsity baseball and basketball teams. I went to “school” on Coach Wooden trying to learn everything I could about how to defeat a full court zone press or how to run efficient practices. I was too inexperienced at that time to fully appreciate the even more important wisdom of the man. I have developed this appreciation in the years since.
John Wooden’s ripple effect on the many he has taught and touched has made the world a better place.
Coach John Wooden, rest in peace.
John Wooden at a ceremony on Oct. 14, the coach’s 96th birthday, to name the Reseda post office after the sports legend and long-time San Fernando Valley resident.
