PART ONE
BUILD ON A SOLID FOUNDATION
When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more. But the righteous has an everlasting foundation.
—Proverbs 10:25
Chapter One
If You Want to Be Like Coach: Be a Person of Character
It was his life that changed my life.
—Swen Nater, coached by Coach Wooden at UCLA
I have a problem. How do I even begin to sum up a giant of a man like John Wooden? That's the question that gnawed at me as I began working on this book.
How do I sort through thousands of wonderful stories about John Wooden and decide which ones don't make the final cut?
How do I even begin to tell you about the impact this incredible man has had on just about everyone who has had the privilege of knowing him?
Well . . . I could begin by telling you that John Wooden is one of only three people ever to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and a coach. (The other two are Lenny Wilkens and Bill Sharman.)
I could mention that he was a first-team All-American for three straight seasons at Purdue University in the early 1930s—the first college basketball player ever to receive such an honor.
I could start by telling you that he was the NCAA College Basketball Coach of the Year six times! But instead I think I'll start back in 1948.
That was the year a young coach by the name of Wooden had put together a pretty good basketball team at Indiana State University. That team included a young man by the name of Clarence Walker. Walker wasn't one of the starting five, but he came off the bench to help Indiana State win an invitation to the NAIA basketball tournament in Kansas City. Thirty-two teams were invited, and one of them would emerge as the small-college national champion.
But there was a problem.
Walker was black.
Remember that this was just the year after Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and was subjected to death threats and verbal abuse for breaking the 'color barrier' in Major League Baseball. Racism was rampant in Indiana and most of the rest of the nation.
Tournament officials called Wooden and told him that his team was invited, but Walker wasn't. 'We've never had a black person play on the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium floor,' they said—only they didn't say 'black person.'
Now that tournament was a big deal, especially to a young man just starting out in his coaching career. But John Wooden didn't even have to think about it.
'If I can't bring Clarence, we're not coming,' he said.
Fine. Indiana State was disinvited from the tournament. That's where the story might have ended, except for the fact that the national newswires got wind of the story. An article appeared in the New York Times, and it came to the attention of officials at Manhattan College, the consensus pick to win the tournament that year. (Manhattan still has a fine basketball program, as was shown by their first-round upset of Florida in the 2004 NCAA tournament.) Manhattan's coach called the NAIA offices and said, 'If Indiana State can't come with that young man, we're not coming either.'
Faced with the loss of their biggest draw, tournament officials backed down, and Clarence Walker became the first black to play basketball on the floor of Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium.
Stan Jacobs, who played on that Indiana State team with Walker, says he will never forget his coach's courage. He remembers that Walker wasn't one of the stars on that team. 'But Coach's decision wasn't based on how the outcome would affect him. His action was motivated by only one thing—his own personal character and his decision to do the right thing.'
John Wooden is a man of impeccable character. He has always followed his own advice to 'be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.' I love the way Wooden's former star center Bill Walton put it:
John Wooden represents the conquest of substance over hype, the triumph of achievement over erratic flailing, the conquest of discipline over gambling, and the triumph of executing an organized plan over hoping that you'll be lucky, hot or in the zone. John Wooden also represents the conquest of sacrifice, hard work and commitment to achievement over the pipe dream that someone will just give you something or that you can take a pill or turn a key to get what you want.
As Coach always said, 'The true athlete should have character, not be a character.' What is character? Coach says, 'It's how you react to things—sensibly, without getting carried away by yourself or your circumstances. A person of character is trustworthy and honest, and for a dollar, he or she will give you a dollar.' He also said, 'I believe ability can get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.'
* * *
You're not supposed to put a halo on anyone . . . but if I were to put a halo on anyone's head, it would be John Wooden.
—Former Angels pitcher Dean Chance
* * *
Lorenzo Romar, head coach at the University of Washington, smiles as he remembers something that happened when he was head coach at Pepperdine in the early 1990s. 'I took the whole staff to visit Coach Wooden at his condo,' Romar recalls. 'We spent four hours with him. He called me the next day and said, 'One of your coaches had seventy-five cents slip out of his pocket into my sofa. I want to get it back to him.''
Seventy-five cents? That wouldn't be a big deal to anybody—except a man of absolute character like John Wooden.
Dozens of others who've known Coach over the years can tell you similar stories: Those who played for him, those who coached against him, those who've known him as friend or teacher—most can give you one example after another of John Wooden's honorable character.
Tony Luftman, UCLA student manager in 1984–85, said, 'John Wooden is a genuine person in an era of self-promotion and hype. He remains a humble man who doesn't seek attention and doesn't promote himself. He proves that nice guys can finish first.' Luftman pauses for a moment and then adds, 'People should try to be like Coach. Some famous people aren't really worthy of emulation, but Coach is.'
Joe Wootten, basketball coach at Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington, Virginia, is the son of legendary prep coach Morgan Wootten. Because of his father's long involvement in the game of basketball, the younger Wootten has known John Wooden since he was a boy. When I asked him for his thoughts about Coach, he told me, 'His life refutes the argument that to be successful in life you have to look the other way and cut corners. He has achieved the ultimate level of success in his career, and he never compromised his values to get there.' He told me that whenever he's around Coach, he feels 'surrounded by goodness. He gives you a great sense of peace and calmness.'
As I write this, Coach Wooden is ninety-five years old. He's getting up there by anyone's standards. He tires out quickly and doesn't get around so well. Yet at a book signing a few weeks ago, he signed autographs for three hours straight. Afterward, he was exhausted, and his hand and shoulder were killing him. Someone asked why he hadn't just cut the session short. Coach looked surprised that anyone would even ask a question like that. The answer was simple: He didn't want to disappoint anyone. That's the kind of man he is.
AN INDIANA BOY
John Wooden was born in tiny Hall, Indiana, on October 14, 1910. If you know anything about Indiana, it won't surprise you to learn that John Wooden began playing basketball at a young age. Whenever someone mentions Indiana, the first things I think of are small-town gymnasiums packed to the rafters on Friday or Saturday nights in the winter—rocking with the noise of crowds that are larger than their hometown's entire populations. Perhaps basketball was invented in Massachusetts, but I'm positive that no state has had a more passionate love affair with the game than has Indiana.
Coach remembers that when he was about eight years old (in 1918, when basketball was still a relatively young game), his father made a hoop out of an old basket and nailed it to the wall at one end of the hay loft in the barn. He and his brothers used a basketball made out of rags stuffed into a pair of their mother's hose. From that time on, John Wooden's plans for the future involved basketball.
Despite the fact that Joshua Wooden made it possible for his boys to play basketball, and encouraged them in the sport, he never gave them any particular advice about the game itself. He didn't teach his sons how to make a set shot. He never talked to them about their dribbling or passing skills. He didn't spend any time with them showing them how to hit a layup or a swisher from the free-throw line.
John says of his father, 'He seldom attended games and was only slightly interested in results. His concern and guidance were deeper.'
Coach was eleven when he first began playing basketball for Centerton Elementary School, under the guidance of Coach Earl Warriner, who also served as principal of the school. The court they played on wasn't much by today's standards. It was outdoors, with a hard-packed dirt floor, and even though it was swept clear of branches, leaves and rocks before every game, there were still many occasions when the basketball took 'a bad hop' off some obstacle or another. Coach remembers that in the late fall, it would sometimes begin to snow during the middle of a game. Never mind. The game continued until the snow got too deep to dribble the ball.
Basketballs in the 1920s weren't easy to dribble anyway. For one thing, they were heavier leather balls that rarely held their round shape. A ball would often go flat during a game—and sometimes it would go flat two or three times. When that happened, the players would have to remove...
