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RIP Coach John Wooden
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Coach John Wooden passed away yesterday, at the age of 99. Most every one reading this is probably too young to have remembered Coach ever coaching a game, or to realize that many of his accomplishments, 10 national championships in 12 years, a never to be duplicated 88 game winning streak, will never be matched.
Coach Wooden coached basketball when the Basketball Coach was not the highest paid employee of a University, or when a shoe company paid the coach more than the university. No, Coach Wooden was a teacher, but he taught more than a zone press. In today’s world of basketball, players are difficult, meddling parents at the High School level, at the collegiate level many of them have formal and informal agents and circles of friends who are ready to cash in on the players talents regardless of the readiness of the talent for the pay for play circuit. Coaching today may be as difficult of a profession as there is.
Yet Coach Wooden taught in a vastly different yet difficult environment. The issues he worked through much more difficult in my estimation than the “me” generation we live in today. Coach taught both basketball and the game of life in times of racial difficulty, when the leaders of our country were assassinated for no apparent reason, when water fountains were made for a white person but not a black person.
In this same generation, our country fought in a war in a country many of us did not know of or truly understand. For the first time in our countries history, the youth of America pushed back. Many of the older generation did not accept the Woodstock generation if you will, but Coach Wooden did. Or better yet, he was willing to understand.
Hair grew longer, men wore ponytails in America, many questioned authority. Yet, the hair cuts and side burns remained short in Westwood. In the heart of America’s unrest, the teachings of a grand old man remained undeterred and in there own way, the works of those 15 young men in those distinctive yellow warm-up jackets made people realize that the “right way” need not be protested, demonstrated against, or fought back against. History shows that many of the youth of that era only wanted the right thing, and the UCLA Bruins of Coach Wooden defined that.
So I think today with the passing of this grand old man, who has the tougher job? Coaches against the parental me generation or a coach against a changing society, struggling against injustice to its fellow man? I think the answer is obvious.
In 1984 I decided I wanted to be a basketball coach. I bought books, videos, attended clinics and studies the great ones, Tarkanian, Crum, Smith, and yes John Wooden. I wrote many a letter looking for wisdom and insight. I still have the envelope post marked December 8, 1984 from Encino California. In it was a Pyramid of Success. I wrote many a follow up letter in the years that followed, each always received a response and made me realize this man was made up of so much more than wins and losses.
Today, I realize I wrote to Coach Wooden to become a better basketball Coach. He wrote back to me to make me a better friend, husband and father…
Be quick, but don’t Hurry Coach. May eternal peace with your beloved Nell be yours.
